Since 1995, Frank Gregorsky's TEXT clients have included: The Joint Economic Committee of Congress, CELT Corp., iQuantic Corp., Instruction & Design Concepts, The Walter Group, the Bionomics Institute, the Congressional Institute, Discovery Institute in Seattle, the Progress & Freedom Foundation, and President Nixon's press secretary Ronald L. Ziegler. His American Enterprise Institute analysis of oil prices and car sizes during the 1970s has regained its pertinence. In July 2009, he joined the Business Advisory Board of the Lexington Institute. During 2010-11, Frank is assembling a manuscript on the congressional Republican Party since 1975.

INTERVIEWS  AUDIODISCS  MANUSCRIPTS


ExactingEditor.com is the work of Frank Gregorsky. It's a resource for imaginative -- and rigorous -- producers of non-fiction text. Some 80% of the text here showcases authors and the "how" of their work. The unifying premise is that producing a trustworthy and timeless book goes way beyond the self-centered forum and blog modes that took over the web. Be the map, not the territory. The Exacting Editor's Q&As are grouped in the categories of Business, History, and Ecology.

NON-FICTION AUTHOR PROFILES

Nonfiction writers tell the Exacting Editor about research, redesign, packaging, truth, self-discovery, setbacks and self-promotion.
How and why this series              Scan the whole roster

As Federal personnel director from 1981 to '85, Donald J. Devine earned his Washington Post designation as "Reagan's Terrible Swift Sword of the Civil Service." Today he directs the Federalist Leadership Center and holds a professorship at Bellevue University. His early career was as a professor of political science at the U. of Maryland and he has authored seven books. "A vigorous and able man who wants to prove government can be managed," said the Wall Street Journal; and it's that very cauldron -- where presidential policy change, group and administrative interests, and "neutral bureaucracy" notions bring matters to a boil -- that makes this Winter 2009 discussion bubble:

www.ExactingEditor.com/DonDevine.html

Novels receive the PR hype, but nonfiction books build their drama with diligent research and new truth. In fact, the "life course" of a book is its own drama -- from the founding idea, to the push for sponsorship (which can take various forms), to the sift and sort of themes and personalities, to the budgeting and marketing, to repackaging under pressure. This Q&A with Kathie Durbin conveys that palpably pulpy process superbly: Learn how one generates a book about 40 years of business and politics in and around the planet's largest temperate rain forest. You need to be a methodical reporter while making sure the plot remains lively -- and the best interviews require boats and planes!

www.ExactingEditor.com/KathieDurbin.html

Lauren Kessler, author of 11 books, has a striking new website. Our Q&A starts with her Dancing with Rose, conveying humanity inside an Alzheimer's facility, and moves on to Clever Girl, Kessler's riveting biography of Elizabeth Bentley. (Bentley became a spy for the USSR in the 1930s and a decade later began giving the FBI knowledge that greatly hampered Soviet espionage just as the Cold War took shape.) Kessler also makes a superb case, in her "Power of Fact" audio file, for avoiding "embroidery and embellishment" in the crafting of nonfiction. Instead, stick with "deep research" and mine those details:

www.ExactingEditor.com/LaurenKessler.html

Born in Tennessee, Maury Klein "came to the University of Rhode Island [in 1964] to begin a teaching career that, to my astonishment, continued there for 44 years." Our January Q&A centers on his Days of Defiance (1998), The Power Makers (2008), and the in-progress "A Call to Arms: America Mobilizes for World War Two" (Bloomsbury USA). Klein became a historian because it occurred to him "that in a history class one could teach anything that interested him [and] one of the most recurrent themes in my work is the most basic question of all: what is an American?"

http://www.exactingeditor.com/MauryKlein.pdf

Techno Logical: What are we coming to?

<< Professor Clifford Nass and his colleagues began the [research] project assuming that multitaskers possessed an enviable gift. When he discovered that "multitaskers were lousy at everything" it came as "a complete and total shock" to the professor. >>

Harry Eyres, "Life in the Slow Lane," 10/17/2009 

<< People have asked me if I know of any conceivable practical use for Twitter... I love metaphors, so here's my metaphor for Twitter as it's going to be in its second stage: a teletype machine. >>

www.ChrisBlanc.org/blog/information-technology/2009/10/18/twitter/

Julianne Lutz Newton is president of the Burroughs Institute at Woodchuck Lodge in Roxbury, New York. Her 2006 book Aldo Leopold's Odyssey offers conservative minds a pragmatically balanced way to protect species and advance what Leopold (1887-1948) called “land health.” He was a pioneering ecologist, restless thinker, and lifelong hunter. Author Newton's articles have appeared in Conservation Biology, The Illinois Steward, Journal of Civil Society, and American Midland Naturalist. Newton brings Leopold to life, and explains how she put together Odyssey, her first book:

www.ExactingEditor.com/JLNewton-Leopold.html

"The family is an emotional unit," said the legendary Murray Bowen as he took general systems theory into intimate clinical settings. Since 1976, beginning as a Bowen colleague, Connecticut-based Andrea Schara has delved into what that means for individuals and organizations. Her 2009 book builds on family systems theory to redefine leadership as a form of self-actualization. ExactingEditor.com offers a no-charge audio CD on her research, the book's goals, and the duties of being a writer. And this URL calls up a fairly short document about the Schara manuscript and its three intended audiences:

www.ExactingEditor.com/AndreaScharaCD.html

If you value well-written histories that tackle the tough issues yet maintain a reasonable (though not placid) tone, you know how rare such books are. In September 2006, I spent three hours with an author who calmly walks that tightrope: University of New Mexico professor Ferenc M. Szasz. Two of his six books -- The Day the Sun Rose Twice, and Larger than Life: New Mexico in the 20th Century -- figure prominently in our Q&A. Learn how passion to dig out a complete story can jive nicely with empathy for the people who lived out that story:

www.ExactingEditor.com/SzaszNewMexico.html

These profiles are not paid PR, they are friendly exchanges. They were created to (a) build “conversational case studies” for other non-fiction innovators, and (b) add to the toolkit that I bring to literary collaborations.

I worked with Frank during 1996-99 at Discovery Institute. We co-produced books, analytical papers, media events and a website on generations. Frank proved to be a great listener -- invaluable for a chronicler, because it allows him to detect new links and connect ideas. In my view, his gift is in interpreting patterns that otherwise go unnoticed, and then turning them into beneficial assets.

  -- Rob Crowther, www.Discovery.org

Frank Gregorsky has brought his trenchant writing and broad knowledge to many subjects. I relied on his research extensively for a book on foreign policy and know that many Washington insiders consider him a treasure trove of information on politics and policy. If you want to write with punch and impact, Gregorsky is the go-to guy. Or, if your manuscript needs the services of a skilled surgeon to leave the critical list, Frank will nurture it to health.

  -- Mona Charen, syndicated columnist and author of Useful Idiots

cropped.jpg (10114 bytes) As executive-director of the Bionomics Institute, I worked with Frank from mid-1994 right through to our farewell Board meeting in March of 2000. His public-policy experience led us to ask him to speak at our conferences, but it was his keen ability to observe and chronicle our evolving movement that kept us inviting him back to attend strategy sessions. You can rely on Frank to make a complex situation -- whether economic, political, or family -- both concise and complete.

  -- Steve Gibson, chief operating officer 2006-09, National Institute for Trial Advocacy

The Best of 2005-09 -- www.ExactingEditor.com/GreatestHits.html

(703) 281-1674        FrankGregorsky@aol.com