Capstone Connect

One of the very coolest parts of my job is that I get to come up with ideas for products that inspire learning in kids. Innovation is a cornerstone of the Capstone ideal, and it has been since Day 1. This isn't surprising for a company that was started by siblings whose business experience included stone quarrying and banking, but most certainly not children's book publishing. Twenty five years later, I'd say it worked out pretty well for them. I've been here for 11 of those years, and I've seen the innovation process evolve from formal group brainstorming sessions, to scavenger hunts around town, to self-directed individual brainstorming. I've seen ideas take off and then flop (my own ideas included). And I've seen the seeds planted for some of our most successful products. I remember clearly the genesis of the You Choose brand at a group brainstorming session. I remember watching the Graphic Library brand being built from the ground up, including the birth of our favorite super scientist, Max Axiom.

After so many years, it can be difficult to find inspiration for new ideas. "The struggle is real," as they say. But, ironically, thinking about innovations of the past actually motivates me to search for the next big thing in children's learning. And having a company behind you that encourages this type of creativity is so empowering. It allows me to take that time to fall down the rabbit hole of the internet when I see something on MSN that sparks my interest. This is where great ideas can come from. And this doesn't just apply to editors. Anyone at Capstone is allowed, and in fact encouraged, to submit new product ideas. Our leaders recognize that our people are our greatest assets. That's where the ideas come from. That's where the inspiration is generated. And all of us here are so passionate about children learning. We want to pass our inspiration on to those young, eager minds, and hopefully spark their own creativity and curiosity. Maybe some of our ideas will inspire even bigger ideas a generation or two down the road.

-Mandy Robbins, Senior Editor
Capstone Publishing

Happy New Year, book lovers!

As I write this on New Year's Eve Day, I'm feeling a bit sentimental as I reflect on the past year and look forward to the year ahead. There were many highlights for Capstone in 2015 — too many to list here. But I thought I'd share a sampling of a few of our proudest moments . . .

We celebrated the five-year anniversary of Katie Woo!

Author and illustrator Nancy Carlson was selected for the first Capstone Fellowship in children's literature. She spent a month at the Anderson Center in Red Wing working on new projects.

Book-O-Beards won the 2015 Tillywig Toy & Media Laugh Out Loud Award.

Gwenda Bond's Lois Lane: Fallout made Kirkus Review's 2015 Best Teen Science Fiction and Fantasy List.

PebbleGo Next won the 2015 Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence.

Snowboard Hero was a Spring 2015 Junior Library Guild selection.

Two Capstone titles were selected for the Children’s Choices 2015 reading list, a cooperative project of the International Literacy Association (formerly International Reading Association) and the Children’s Book Council — Because I Stubbed My Toe by Shawn Byous and The Dark Lady from the Sherlock, Lupin, and Me series.

Batman Science was not only included on the prestigious 2015 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers reading list, but was also on the Top Ten Quick Picks list, one of only three nonfiction titles to receive this honor!

The Terror of the Bigfoot Beast, one of our You Choose: Scooby-Doo! eBooks won a 2015 Digital Book Award!

Our very own Michael Dahl surprised his biggest fan in England!

Additionally, we participated in many fun volunteer events, including handing out free books to St. Paul Public School students with the summer food truck lunch program and helping kindergarteners at a Minneapolis elementary school write and illustrate their own books! We launched the Capstone Cookie Club, and began having FUN meetings (which include candy, board games, and intense coloring sessions!) to help us brainstorm book ideas. We had countless good Thursday Lunches, craft and bookstore outings, and — of course — did lots and lots of hard, rewarding work.

We're looking forward to sharing more books with you in 2016. In the meantime, we wish you lots of good reads!

— Eliza Leahy, Associate Editor

A common Capstone theme right now is creativity. It’s our whole world in product development! So, it only makes sense. However, I’ve noticed some striking similarities in the research and testimonials about creativity that have been shared among employees. And I love sharing ideas—but I also love knowing how and why things work the way they do.

So, for this post, I deviate from my usual book review and tea recommendations to explore creativity—scientifically. I know, I know—this might be a little heavy after all those Christmas cookies and holiday parties, but just think of it all as fuel and fodder for making things! And after reading this, you’ll understand why you—or anyone—can.

Let’s jump right in. Cognitive neuroscience demonstrates that “new” ideas are generated by combining old ideas into new, unique elements. Easy enough so far, right? It means that the way creativity works in the brain must already use elements that exist in some way. So actually, it takes a lot of pressure off of creators—artists, authors, inventors, problem-solvers—really, everyone!—when they try to come up with “new” things. All new things are really unique combinations of old things.

Of course, I don’t mean to condone plagiarizing or simply copying other ideas, slapping a few new labels on them, and calling them good! The key is making unique combinations, and carefully selecting existing elements to shape into something that the world could find novel value in.

For example, most of us would consider J. R. R. Tolkien a very creative author. However, cognitive science reveals that Tolkien could not write The Lord of the Rings without combining prior influences in new ways—which Tolkien himself reveals in his own recommended construction for good works of fantasy (his essay “On Fairy-Stories”). He has many sources in medieval literature and openly lets himself be influenced by them. However, he adds new details to his complex combinations of these sources to build a very unique world for his stories.

How does this kind of creativity happen in the brain? Famous cognitivist Colin Martindale explains this through the terms primary and secondary process thinking. Martindale states, “Primary process thought is found in normal states such as dreaming and reverie” (138). So think of those times you lose yourself in mostly subconscious thought. In these more unconscious states, “strange powers of the mind may be unlocked” (41). In other words, have you been so focused on a problem, maybe trying to remember a name or what you entered a certain room for, only to move on to something else and then suddenly have the solution occur to you? Yeah, this is what brain science is getting at.

However, these subconscious thoughts must be brought into consciousness for creativity to occur. “Secondary process cognition,” then, “is the abstract, logical, reality-oriented thought of waking consciousness,” in which the judgment and selection of ideas takes place (138). In other words, those thoughts have to be made available to you, so you can actually do something with them!

Let’s look at that process in a little more detail. According to Martindale’s analysis of Helmholtz and Wallas’s four stages of the creative process, “preparation, incubation, illumination or inspiration, and verification or elaboration,” one must move between these two cognition processes with their different levels of brain activation to achieve the final stage of creativity (137-138). Preparation simply means learning or thinking about things that might help to solve some problem. But solving a complex problem is usually not that easy. Those things you learned or thought about have to stew for a while. This is where you sleep on it, or do some other task for while—the incubation period. Then the part that seems like magic, when the solution finally just comes to you, is the illumination or inspiration stage. Great! Now you need to apply logic to your solution to hone it down into something great—verification or elaboration. (138).

The reason this works is because during the preparation stage when you’re trying to come up with some new book idea, the nodes in your brain working on it are working so hard that no other elements can come in. You’re actually too conscious of your problem—or the idea you’re trying to work out. But this is still a necessary stage. What’s really happening in your brain is that these activated nodes are storing away all those pieces you think might be related to the problem.

Then, when you finally lay off the problem—and your hard-working brain nodes—creativity can happen. Those nodes may no longer be fully lit up, but they are still glowing while you do other things. Martindale notes, “Of course, the creative solution lies in ideas thought to be irrelevant . . . . As the creator goes about his or her business, many nodes will be activated. If one of these happens to be related to the nodes coding the problem, the latter became fully activated and leap into attention. This is inspiration, the discovery of the creative analogy” (“Creativity” 256).

This is the really awesome part. You’ve become conscious of all that work your subconscious was doing behind the scenes. You have a working solution—or idea, or whatever it is. But now it’s time to verify it. This is where the editor side comes in. Is the solution practical? Could something make it not work? Once again, you focus conscious attention on your solution and original problem to search for any “flaws” (“Creativity” 256).

How is knowing all this brain science on creativity useful? Martindale asserts in “Creativity and Connectionism” that “[c]reative ideas often involve taking ideas from one discipline and applying them to another” (252). This process follows with Martindale’s definition of a creative idea as “one that is both original and appropriate for the situation in which it occurs . . . always consist[ing] of novel combinations of preexisting mental elements” (“Biological Bases” 137). Therefore, Martindale believes “[i]t would seem that to maximize creativity, one’s best bet is to have knowledge about a wide variety of things,” and cites studies demonstrating that “creative people have a very wide range of interests” (“Creativity” 252). This broad knowledge, Martindale proposes, makes it easier to have a moment of inspiration (the third stage of the creative process under primary process thinking) (256).

If you’re like me and actually have a hard time juggling all your hobbies and eclectic interests, at least you can rest assured (and productively!) in knowing that you have a good foundation for creative ideas to occur. And all those holiday parties and Christmas cookies? They’re just creative incubation time! Get away from the problems—after you’ve thought nice and thoroughly about them for a while first—and see what happens! So, to be “more creative,” try learning about something related to your problem. Learn about something different! Then work on something else—or better yet, sleep! Engage in other interests. Once your crazy powerful brain makes some amazing, magical connections, then you can go back into judge mode and use all the logic you want. You can forget that magic ever even happened and ruthlessly hack your solution apart and build it back up, reshape it, elaborate on it, to make it into something great.

Have a creative new year!

Connections being made in my brain tell me that the following books and sections on creativity and cognitive science would pair really well with Twinings herbal Winter Spice Tea…:

Martindale, Colin. “Biological Bases of Creativity.” Handbook of Creativity. Ed. Robert J. Sternberg. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999. 137-152. Print.

---. “Creativity and Connectionism.” The Creative Cognition Approach. Ed. Steven M. Smith, Thomas Ward, and Ronald A. Finke. Cambridge: MIT P, 1995. 249-68. Print.

I also highly recommend

Hogan, Patrick Colm. Cognitive Science, Literature, and the Arts: A Guide for Humanists. London: Routledge, 2003. Print.

Others to consider:

Brophy, Kevin. Patterns of Creativity: Investigations into the Sources and Methods of Creativity. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009. Print.

Segal, Erwin M. “A Cognitive-Phenomenological Theory of Fictional Narrative.” Deixis in Narrative: A Cognitive Science Perspective. Ed. Judith F. Duchan, Gail A. Bruder, and Lynne E. Hewitt. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1995. 61-78. Print.

Turner, Mark. “Double-Scope Stories.” Narrative Theory and the Cognitive Sciences. Ed. David Herman. Stanford: CSLI, 2003. Print.

-Gina Kammer, Editorial

Perhaps as a person who works in the publishing industry I'm biased, but I'd like to think if there were a perfect gift that existed in this world, it would be a book. Of course, the type of book — the genre, the tone, the subject matter — should vary depending on who is receiving said gift.

Each year, it's become a tradition for me to get each of my family members a book. The best part of gifting books is picking them out. Reading the jacket and cover copy. Admiring the covers and spines and bindings. Browsing the chapter starts. Reading the bookstore's staff recommendations. And then melding all this information together to pick out a book that is just right for each future book-reader. It is one of my favorite activities of the holiday season. It feels much more personal than simply stopping by Target on my way home from work to get everyone I know a set of glass Tupperware.

For my dad, I usually end up with some book of historical or political fiction. For my mom, I often get a novel set in some interesting location outside of the US or a memoir. For my brother, the book might have to do with geography or politics or technology. And for my sister, I find narrative nonfiction on medicine and health, or poetry.

Picking out these books always makes me feel like I'm curating a kind of library for my loved ones. What kind of books do you find for the loved ones in your life?

— Eliza Leahy, Associate Editor

If Ernest Hemingway were alive today and felt like writing a Western in the middle grade fiction genre, he might have written The El Dorado Map. Unfortunately, Hemingway’s long passed. Silver lining: New Englander Michael O’Hearn did write The El Dorado Map and seems to’ve channeled Papa Hemingway.

Published by Capstone Press in September 2015, The El Dorado Map tells the story of the boy Cody, a young would-be outlaw who’s got a snaky father villainous as any Clint Eastwood movie desperado. A hitch in the father-son duo’s synchronicity is that Cody, even at his young age, is bigger mentally than his physically superior dad. Cody is attuned to the wake of repercussions left by theft and violence. When the two become separated early in the plot, the idea that there’s more than just physical distance between him and his father crystallizes in Cody’s mind.

O’Hearn’s writing style is truly reminiscent of the tough, terse prose that made Hemingway’s name well known. But to call it simply tough and terse wouldn’t do his style justice because it can be tender and flowing as well. For an adventure book, the balance of action and thought is pleasingly rendered and weighted. O’Hearn’s Cody is thoughtful and empathetic but also ready for action—and discerningly loyal. He’s a boy who could be your most trustworthy friend.

I recently put some questions to O’Hearn, and what follows is a condensed version of question and answer.

Capstone Connect: El Dorado has great mythical meaning. What drew you to El Dorado, and how did you make El Dorado your own?

Michael O’Hearn, author of The El Dorado Map

Michael O’Hearn: For Cody, El Dorado is a place where he can escape. The legendary gold represents the freedom we all imagine comes with great wealth. But wealth often carries a price, so El Dorado also presents Cody with choices about what’s most important to him. And El Dorado, being a place of great wealth, is like a magnet for Cody’s outlaw father and other greedy and dangerous men. El Dorado creates lots of internal and external conflict for Cody. Plus, the mythology of El Dorado gave me the perfect setting to create a Western that was also a fantasy story.

C.C.: Your website (www.michaelohearn.com) mentions that you play the drums. If your novel The El Dorado Map had a sound track, what five songs would undoubtedly make the playlist?

M.O’H.: 1. Bon Jovi’s “Dead or Alive” has to be at the top of the list. It just carries the feel of the Old West so well.

2. Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” is a song about love. Part of Cody’s journey of understanding is about love, both who loves him and what and who he loves. Plus, he’s reborn through fire.
3. The Eagles’ “Desperado” lyrically doesn’t quite mesh. But it feels like Cody’s journey to me, a little sad at times, a little desperate.
4. Ronnie James Dio’s “Stand Up and Shout” is a song about thinking and acting for yourself in the face of the forces that bear down on you.
5. Metallica’s “Unforgiven” is heavy metal, but it’s a Western at heart. I’d like to think The El Dorado Map charts a similar path.

C.C.: The artistic genre of Wild West fare is buckingly, grittily, and adventurously American. What are some things that especially spark your interest about the literary genre of the Western?

M.O’H.: Middle Grade fantasies traditionally have a European backdrop—knights, castles, wizards, and all things fairy tale. I wanted to write a fantasy that was American at its heart. Our mythology is the Wild West. It gave me a perfect backdrop to touch on themes that are at the center for America: work, race, greed, violence, fatherhood.

I love the characters and conflict built into the Wild West setting, outlaws and sheriffs pitted against one another, the mysticism and mystery of the native tribes, and the average folks who built an extraordinary and far-reaching society in the face of violent and challenging forces.

I grew up on Western movies . . . John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. I know times have changed, but I don’t want to see that mythology die out.

C.C.: You’ve written a number of other titles for Capstone. What’s something you enjoy about working with Capstone?

M.O’H.: For one, Capstone gave me a chance to start my career as a published author. What's fun, though, is that they offer such a variety of titles to so many age groups. I've written about both monster trucks and monster battles. I’ve written about Indian legends and dinosaurs (not in the same book, of course). What could be more fun than that?

C.C. What else is in the hopper for you, creatively? Any new stories you’re working on?

M.O’H.: I've started writing a young adult novel about a kid who discovers his dad is a "superhero" and sets out to follow in his footsteps. Mayhem and destruction ensue. I’m about five chapters in, so quite a bit more to go. Can’t say much more right now other than I’m pretty excited about what I’ve written so far.

-Nate LeBoutillier, Capstone Editor