Bookbrewer and Feedbrewer are Fine, Unaffected Amidst the Liquidation of Borders Books & Music

One more diversion from our travel theme. Just wanted to spread the word after fielding many questions, since this bit of news isn't found anywhere except for the Feedbrewer Blog & Bookbrewer's Twitter site: Bookbrewer and Feedbrewer, who manage and run "Borders Get Published," are not part of Borders and are not going out of business. Similar to how Kobo Books is separate from Borders. That means that my book, "Sri Lankan Drumming: the Thammattama" and the other titles published by them, WILL still be available with uninterrupted service.

The official word from Bookbrewer on this:


"The recent news of Borders' planned liquidation has understandably created some questions for authors who have used our co-branded Borders Get Published Powered by BookBrewer service over the past 8 months.

We want to take the opportunity to reassure you that your books and customer data are safe and will not be affected by Borders' liquidation.

Borders Get Published is run by FeedBrewer, Inc., which has a marketing partnership with Borders. FeedBrewer operates the service at borders.bookbrewer.com, maintains the servers and customer data, distributes authors' eBooks to all major retailers (including Borders.com, but also Kobo, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple and Google), receives royalty payments from retailers and pays 95% of received royalties out to authors.

Author agreements are with FeedBrewer, and we have all necessary legal rights to continue to serve customers of the service even after Borders has liquidated, whether or not the Borders.com Web site continues to operate under new owners in the future.

We also run BookBrewer.com, a completely separate service which will also not be affected by Borders' liquidation. Likewise, our integrated print on demand service which is operated in conjunction with Consolidated Graphics will continue operating without disruption.

FeedBrewer will honor all commitments to and agreements with its current and future customers, including:

Operating publishing services. Authors can continue to use the service to edit and publish eBooks and Print on Demand titles.
Distributing eBooks to retailers, collecting royalties and paying those out to authors on a quarterly basis.
Fulfilling Print on Demand orders with our print partner, Consolidated Graphics. We plan to continue to operate the Borders Get Published service at its current location for the time being.
There will naturally be some changes in the future as Borders' liquidation process proceeds and its company winds down, but we will strive to ensure that any such changes for Borders Get Published customers are as seamless as possible. We also look forward to helping authors with even more self-publishing, marketing and distribution services in the future.

Finally, we want to assure authors who published eBooks to Borders.com through Kobo that their books will still be available through the Kobobooks.com Web site and the Kobo Reader.

We want to thank you for your patronage over these past months, and we look forward to continuing to work with you for many years to come.

Dan Pacheco
Founder & CEO, FeedBrewer, Inc."

My new eBook, "Sri Lankan Drumming: The Thammattama"  is now available in Paperback too!

It's available at Amazon.com for $18, at http://www.amazon.com/Sri-Lankan-Drumming-Michael-Balonek/dp/B0058TYEYQ/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

Or direct from the publisher for $15 at http://borders.bookbrewer.com/content/sri-lankan-drumming-thammattama-0

My new eBook!!

I hope you don't mind a small divergence from the current series. I just had to announce to you all that I have now published an eBook (and small paperback) on drumming technique for a drum from Sri Lanka, the Thammattama!! This book uses Western Notation to introduce a whole new audience to this ancient and fabulous practice. It also gives a short intro about these drums, and about substitutions to make if you want to play but don't have a Sri Lankan Thammattama Drum available. The book is available at:


http://borders.bookbrewer.com/content/sri-lankan-drumming-thammattama-0 ClickHere


Thanks for accepting this divergence. I digress, and will now return you to your regularly scheduled blog series.

Traveling Overseas With Kids: Mental Preparation is VITAL

Preparing the kids for the Trip (Mentally)

Today’s installation in this series on “Traveling Overseas With Kids” is on mentally preparing the kids for it. This is actually one of the most important parts, much more important than finding the right locations, even! If they’re ready and excited about it, a trip anywhere can be massively exciting! On the flip side, being unprepared can make a trip to anywhere outside of their little world scary, or embarrassing for you all!

LEARN AS MUCH AS YOU CAN ABOUT THE LOCAL CULTURE. This goes for traveling alone OR with kids. Some things that we do “naturally” in America would be shocking to someone in Italy. Some things that people do “naturally” in Italy would be shocking to someone from America. Some things that sub-cultures in MN do are shocking to me in NY, and vice versa. Learn about these things you so that you do not offend someone when you are their guest, or so that you are prepared if you see them do something which otherwise would surprise you.

Find Children’s Books on the Country You Will Be Visiting. It may be hard, but they do exist. In Little Ol’ Potsdam, NY, for example, you can even get a kids’ book about the small island nation of Sri Lanka at the Public Library! The web will make searches easier if your library doesn’t have one, though. These books can do a LOT to prepare them and get them excited for the trip – full of pictures and facts about the place you’ll be going. Definitely a must!

Help them learn a little of the language before going – even just “hello” and “goodbye” and "My name is..." if they're really young. Helping them to understand the concept of another language is important – that way they know that people aren’t just speaking gobblygook. It has the opportunity to open up many doors for them (and for you all as well – many people, charmed by a 3-year old’s introduction in their native tongue, may give extra treats/admission/discounts/etc). While you’re at it, you could learn a little yourself! Honestly, in many countries, if you try to speak the local language, even if you do it poorly, the people with whom you interact will be much more willing to help you out (and may suddenly speak better English than had you not attempted their language!).

Eat Out At International Restaurants Before Leaving Home! Head knowledge only goes so far. Going out to eat brings in so many more senses – smells, tastes, probably sounds, etc! You could try having everyone get different dishes, and then share a little of each one, or you could go with something close to familiar with a hint of International Flair to start with.

**The wonderful staff at Taste of India in Potsdam (who now run the equally fantastic “India Palace” in Watertown, NY!!) helped us prepare for Sri Lanka before our first trip…they knew that Sri Lankan food was spicier than North Indian, so every time we went they made our dishes progressively hotter to prepare us for the trip. By the time we got there, we could eat with them in the Tsunami Camps without going for the water, even! Now this was pre-kids, but you get the idea…little changes each time, progressing to something that first would have been quite outside of your comfort zone!

Seek Out and Frequent International Markets Nearby Your Home. Most cities, big or small, have some kind of international markets…we know of a Somali Market in Minneapolis, a Korean Market in Philadelphia, loads of places in NYC, etc. Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, etc. all have a variety of International Grocery Stores as well. Chances are you are at least within a couple hours’ drive from something international. These can be a great place for your kids to hear some of the language in person, to smell some of the spices, etc. You can also find out when you’re there about any concerts/events happening nearby! Most people will be pleased to give suggestions on where to meet people from the place you’ll be going to.

Listen to Music from That Country. Bonus points if you also watch the videos on YouTube (provided they're appropriate)! Music is SUCH an important part of every culture, and you’ll almost definitely be surrounded by the local tunes when you get there. A little bit of leg work before you go can help you to be toe-tapping instead of head-scratching when you get to your destination and are immersed in their music.

Talk about (realistic!) expectations for the trip. Places you might go, things you might see, etc. Get their feedback as to what they’d want to see or do while they’re there. Yes, even if they’re 3 or 4. They’ve been seeing pictures, hearing stories, etc. They’ll be filled with curiosity about this new place.  

*TWO IMPORTANT NOTES: (1) make sure to take this into account when planning your day-to-day activities when you get there…these are the most important parts for your little guy or gal, and not seeing their most expected part could be crushing. Also, (2) when talking these ideas out beforehand, brainstorm as many as you can together, but be realistic & honest about which ones might happen and which might not. Make sure they know if it’s only a slight chance of something, so that they are not devastated if they don't get to ride that elephant/etc. We only found out after our 8-hour layover in Amsterdam how important it would have been to our 3 year old to go to “TunFun” – whereas we only were thinking of it as one of many options!

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Again, preparing the kids for the trip mentally is vital to have a good time when traveling with them overseas. Otherwise, when you are there, there will be WAY too many embarrassing and disastrous moments that completely could have been avoided. Also, it changes the trip from “something different” to something really educational as well as really fun!

Traveling Overseas With Kids: Airplane??!?

The next frequently heard question I get:

"Kids on a Plane??? On a LONG plane ride, even??"

Definitely possible, and, contrary to popular belief, it CAN be done without being a pain to those around you! In fact, there are some perks, too - you generally will board first if you have a “small child” with you, and “small” is generally open to your own interpretation.

Stroller for the airport

-We generally don’t use a stroller with Micaiah, we almost always have had him in a sling, an ergo, etc. For the airport: bring a stroller! It WILL help during layovers and extra time in the airport; you’ll be more fatigued than normal and it’ll be really nice NOT to be wearing him/her at that point (even if you almost always do anyways). It’ll make hurrying through the airport to a connecting flight easier, too, and you might be able to hook your laptop case or some other surprisingly heavier-as-you-carry-it-for-hours bag onto the back of it!

-One thing that doesn’t tend to be public knowledge until you show up with a kid and a stroller: you don’t have to check it at baggage claim, but you don’t have to take it on the plane itself either! When you’re checking your bags, they will give you a tag (and this does NOT count towards checked luggage). When you go through the gates to board, right before you step on to the plane, you can leave it there with the crew and they will put it with the baggage at the very end, bringing it out to that same spot in the tunnel to the new airport when you land!

Takeoff and Landing:

-If your kid is still nursing (breastfeeding), perfect! Latch ‘em on for takeoff and landing. No joke – this will completely prevent the ear-popping-painful-loudness that most people associate with babies on a plane. Only one flight attendant on one flight noticed how we kept him happy, and she was thrilled since she always followed that advice too.

-If your kid is older and no longer nursing, bring lollypops – at least 2 for each takeoff and 2 for each landing. (I say 2 because inevitably there’ll be times when you think you’re about to take off, then you “taxi” [drive around the runway] for another half hour). This’ll be exciting for the kid whether or not he gets lollypops on normal occasions. For our oldest, he was SO excited for takeoff, since that meant he got to break into the bag of (organic, infused w/a little fruit juice) lollypops that we got for the occasion! We started rolling, & he KNEW that that means it’s time to have one! It was finished about 20 minutes before we got into the air…thankfully we had extras!

During the Flight:

-Many flights now have the interactive screen on the seats, and THAT is fantastic for keeping them occupied (we generally extremely limit TV, but you’ve got to make exceptions at times). Though the flight was now 7 months ago, Micaiah (age 3) still remembers the name of the show that he watched on the KLM flight in October! [It was "Miffy" the rabbit]. DO NOT RELY ON THIS, though, as the sole or even primary source of entertainment! If you do, chances are your kid’s screen will be broken & the plane will be full (we’ve had one of the 3 of us without a working screen on more flights than we’ve had them all working, and spread across a number of airlines, some of them the premier airlines!).

-If you have/can get one, a portable DVD player can REALLY be handy, along with a few favorite DVDs...there were a few times on the last flight that all we had to do was pop in the WordWorld DVD, hit play, & we could get a 2-hour nap, while our uber-excited son got to watch more episodes of his favorite cartoon than ever!!

-Bring an extra bag (for Kai it was a new mini-Thomas backpack, new & special for the trip), filled with kid amusements. You know your kid – many like books, some don’t; some love to color, some don’t. Fill the bag with some of his/her favorite things to play with/look at. ALSO: have new, exciting versions of them in the bag to break out for the first time on the flight! Kai LOVES books, so he had one new activity book for each flight that we took. Feel free to be creative & try new things that they haven’t tried but might if they’re bored – for Kai it was one of those sets of cardboard shapes/pictures that you thread shoelaces through (“sewing” them). He loved it!

A few suggestions/ideas for things to bring (because we unsuccessfully looked online for a list like this):

• Colorforms
• Sewing Cards
• Activity Books (crossword puzzles, writing activities, matching, etc, as appropriate for your kid)
• DVDs
• Play-Doh
• Color Wonder Markers (won't get all over/leave stray marks)
• Crayons & coloring books
• DVD's
• Action Figures if he/she's so inclined (Kai's never really been into them)
• Picture Books about the place you're going ("Learn about ____!") or have just been ("Wow, we were there!")
• iPad or other brand Tablet (games, videos, music, audio books, etc, all stored in one handy device!)
• Nook, Kindle, or other eBook reader filled with books for the flight and beyond (for the kid AND you!)
  

-Bring LOTS of extra snacks if you have room in your carry-ons. General rule is that if it’s sealed and not produce or a drink, you can take it on. (Sometimes drinks are ok depending on where in the airport they were purchased). Airlines are generally good at keeping you hydrated (you can always get more drinks, even if it’s not the “official” drink time), but snacks probably won’t come fast enough for the little ones, especially if they’re finicky eaters at all and find the airplane faire….wanting for something more.

-Bring extra clothes, even if your kid’s been potty trained for quite a while! It’s an exciting time, & they may forget to try until it’s too late, or there may be lines for all bathrooms at that crucial moment when she realizes “I HAVE TO GO!!” It’s also good in case of drink spillage – those little trays can be surprisingly hard to navigate if you’re little (or if a little one is on your lap).

-Parents: communicate well to each other in flight. Don’t clock out, and make sure to listen to your spouse. One of you may genuinely feel sick or be taking the brunt of everything while the other has a wonderful, relaxing, restful flight. That, my friends, is not fair. I say this as the one who did the clocking out, even as my wife was nauseous – I thought she was just trying to get me to take more than “my fair share” of holding the baby/taking him to the potty, when it turned out that she had at that point thrown up about 4 times already, and I had mostly slept through it! I felt SO BAD once I realized (and there were about 2 of 21 hours left)!!

-Please find another way to ask your kid to speak quietly than to go “SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Often, parents shushing their kids are louder than the noise that the kid was making!! For some people (myself included), it’s hard to hear yourself when you talk on a plane, so of course they’ll have a tendency to speak loud. Quiet reminders that “It’s okay, you can use a quiet voice…I can hear you,” can work much better, and are more pleasant than inundating the plane with the repeating sounds of loud hissing.

-Have fun! Make it a fun trip – a learning experience! You may have traveled on many planes before, but this is something SO new and SO neat and SO cool, even to a kid who has been on multiple airplanes already! You can point out different parts of the plane (“Look! We each have our own little light!” "Look, there's the wing!" "Look! You have your own little table!" “Look – there’s the potty! Look at how different this one looks!”). Every day with a kid can be a learning experience - how much more so something like an airplane trip!!

Traveling Overseas With Young Kids: Part 1 (Safe??)

Traveling Internationally With (VERY) Young Kids: An Overview

Is it possible? Is it feasible? Is it safe? What can I expect? How can I prepare for this? How can I prepare THEM for this? How can you possibly get through an airplane trip with little kids??

These are questions that I have heard a lot. People have been surprised to find that we have traveled to India and Sri Lanka with an infant (5 months old when we got to India, 9 months old when we got to Sri Lanka) and that we plan to again.

First off, it is VERY do-able. You will be one among many who do (though the percentage of Americans that do is relatively low).

Were I to post this all at once, the theme of traveling internationally with young kids, there would be much too much information in a single blog post, and some of the important points would be skimmed over. Therefore I will break this up into multiple segments on facets of traveling with kids overseas, answering the questions above.

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For today's installment: the big question I hear the most on this topic:

Safety:

“Is it safe to travel there with such a small (young) baby?”

Short answer: YES!

Longer answer: It’s actually safer for a smaller baby who is breastfeeding than it is for a teenager who might make a mistake and drink tap water! You don’t have to worry about the baby darting out in front of traffic, or getting lost on the way back to the hotel, either!

Older kids: it should be about as safe for them as it is for you, which all depends on where you're going. Avoiding places that the US Embassy recommends avoiding obviously makes sense – don’t be dumb and visit war-torn villages at night because I said international travel is safe. At the same time, there’s no reason to avoid Amsterdam or India or the Maldives or Sri Lanka or Kenya while you have young kids because “parts” of it may be unsafe. There are parts of Upstate NY that aren’t safe for kids to be; there are places in upstate NY that I as an adult wouldn’t feel safe; that doesn’t mean that America is to be avoided – only that specific section of that specific city in that state. A five minute drive from South Goodman St. in Rochester (one of “the bad sections of town”) and you’re at the Zoo! A 15 minute drive and you’re at Highland Park, one of the nicest spots in the city!

Summing up the safety section: most Americans tend to freak out about safety for their kids in terms of not going overseas when they’re at the ages when it would be the best for them to go and learn about different cultures, different people, different foods!

As it is, you’ll be just as safe there as you would traveling around the other half of your own country (i.e. us Yankees visiting Alabama or someone from Louisiana visiting Maine). You might not be familiar with the local ways, customs, and mannerisms, but your kids will be just as safe as if you were traveling in Florida with them…people in India have kids, too, that they want to be safe.

International Flights with Allergies: Gluten Free

I have had a number of questions asked of me lately on Gluten Free travel, so I thought that would be an appropriate way to begin this blog. As an Ethnomusicologist/EthnoDoxologist/Music Educator, I tend to travel overseas quite a bit. Also, I have celiac, which means that my body cannot digest the protein in Wheat, Barley, and Rye (American Oats are usually contaminated with wheat too) - necessitating a Gluten Free diet. While this doesn't pose an immense immediate threat as would a peanut allergy (requiring an epi-pen, etc), eating contaminated food would leave me ill for the next two weeks or so. So it's not something that I want to just “hope” works out.

There is almost no information online about gluten free international air travel, so I have had to figure this out as I go. Some of the experiences have been bad, but most have been good – though it did take a good deal of diligence on my part.

A few preliminary tips: these suggestions/narratives/etc. are based entirely on my experiences on particular airlines at particular periods of time – policies change, recipes change, and attitudes change. My advice is to take these suggestions with a grain of salt if need be, being encouraged that there are indeed some Gluten Free options out there. That being said, in your carry-on, I ABSOLUTELY recommend you take GF Larabars, Trail Mix, Cookies/Crackers, etc. Anything that is sealed, not produce, and not liquid, can be taken on with you, so it’s always best to stock up just in case. People sometimes fast for a day, so if worse comes to worse you could make it from NY to Japan on a few snack bars & a lot of juice. This blog post, of course, is geared to help you have a better dining experience than that, but definitely bring backups just in case. [Also good to know: there may be GF meals; there most likely will NOT be GF snacks as most airplanes do not carry peanuts anymore – so Larabars, Trail Mix, and the like are good to take anyways].

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Beginning with the good: the need/desire for gluten free meals has been increasingly made public in the past few years, so many airlines do offer gluten free meals upon request! The quality is different from company to company – basically, the Asian airlines have tended to be fantastic, the European airlines decent, and the American airlines….well, they’re trying (some of them).

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Ensuring you’ll have a GF option, make sure to follow EACH of these steps [unfortunately, as asinine as checking and re-checking may seem, leaving any one of them out could very well mean no meal for you]:

1) First, check with the airline (whether via phone, website, email, etc) to see if Gluten Free meals are even available. You may need to literally spell it for them (G-L-U-T-E-N), but USUALLY most do have them for international flights **Note: flying from the US to the Caribbean is NOT considered by airlines as International but Domestic from North America, so they may not have GF meals available…see below regarding my trip to Haiti.

2) When booking the ticket, specify Gluten Free meal (whether booking through an agent, via phone, or via internet).

3) Regardless of receiving a confirmation of it in writing/verbally upon booking the ticket, call the airline no less than 48 hours in advance to make sure they have “Special Meal Request – Gluten Free” written in their system (sometimes they catch a mistake that kept it from showing up in the system, and 48 hours is the “official” cut off time for ensuring a special meal request).

4) When you’re checking in at the airport, ask the Ticket Agent if your special meal request is listed (if not, they’re poised to catch it quickly enough to have one sent to the gate).

5) When you get to the gate, check with that ticket agent as well. This is the last person who can check on this for you before you board, and I have had them find mistakes/mis-routed meals!

6) When you get on to the airplane, after sitting down but before takeoff [at a time when the flight attendants are not overly busy], it helps to head back to one of them, introduce yourself and your seat number, and that you have a gluten free meal coming for you…that you just wanted to touch base so that they could put a face to the meal, thanking them for having it available, etc. It helps ensure that it’s delivered to you…usually they’ll bring these out a few minutes before everyone else’s, and sometimes they do mistakenly get given to the wrong person. Obviously you don’t to say that to the flight attendant, but mistakes happen. We’ve found that introducing ourselves like this helps to ensure it does get to the right person.

7) When you are eating, still be on the lookout for non-GF items. The Main portion of the meal – the chicken/fish/meat/etc definitely WILL be fine if the meal is listed as GF. Occasionally the rest of the tray - crackers, cookies, etc., will be added in by the staff as they add them to each meal. Usually not, but occasionally. The best way to be sure if the dessert/roll/etc is in fact Gluten Free: look at a non-GF lunch nearby. Usually anything that’s substituted out will look quite different.

8) Bring backups, just in case (occasionally [British/US airlines] Rice Crispies have been given to me as “the Gluten Free breakfast” while everyone else has eggs – my wife in these cases gives me her extra fruit).

9) And most important: Be incredibly polite, thankful, generous, soft-spoken, etc, in ALL of this – getting a GF meal is a service that is relatively new; most of the people you’ll be talking to have dealt with their fair share of cranky, upset, complaining people before you even woke up, and people who ask for special requests don’t tend to be the most easy to please people; break the mold! A little grace, courtesy, and friendliness really can make their day (and in turn ensure that you have the best possible flight).

A few airline-specific stories, both good and bad:

• ~My first GF overseas experience was flying to Sri Lanka via England using Sri Lankan airways. This meant British Airways from NY-London, and Sri Lankan Air from London-Sri Lanka. This was when I had my first surprise: a bagged roll, labeled gluten free, with “de-glutened wheat starch.” This took me aback – enough so that I pocketed the roll until I could access internet. As it turns out, it IS fully gluten free, utilizing a process that we don’t use in the US. So these ARE safe to eat if you get them.

• -Many South Asian airline meals ARE gluten free anyways if you leave out the Indian bread (nan), so they’re REALLY easy to adapt. Couple that with the fact that many in Asia need special diets due to religious restrictions, and you’ll find that you’re one among many on the flight requesting a special meal (Halal for Muslim, Kosher for Jew, Vegetarian for Hindu, which could include or not include Eggs and Dairy – you’ll find meal options like “Vegetarian, Lacto-Vegetarian, Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian,” etc).

• The best meals by far have been on Japan Airways (going over the Pacific), KLM (through Amsterdam), and, surprisingly enough – the Indian Airlines (surprising for travelers who know that traveling Air India and Indian Airways is generally to be avoided b/c of crowdedness, lack of modern plane/seats, infamous delays, etc). Their meals, though, are good! Most of the American companies DO have a gluten free meal option – usually a piece of chilled salmon as one meal, and a suspiciously familiar piece of hot salmon in marinara sauce for the other meal.

• There have been times I’ve been given somebody else’s meal and somebody else given mine – thankfully we’ve noticed & figured it out before either of us ate the other’s! KLM has a cool little thing that they do: If you have a special meal, they come around & put a different colored cloth/paper behind your head on the seat, so that if you’re asleep they will remember that you’re something different for them to remember about – and yet it’s not something that I would have noticed had I not needed a special meal.

• The biggest trouble that I’ve had: Delta, flying to Haiti/Dominican Republic after the earthquake last year. Delta recently [read: in the past couple’a years] has done away with Gluten Free meals for Domestic flights. They define domestic as “within North America,” which includes Haiti. This was one of the few times I’ve used a travel agent; he assured me that he specified Gluten Free. I called the airline a few days beforehand, and they said that they definitely have note of my Gluten Free meal request. Having had luck the previous few times, and having “Gluten Free Meal Request” printed on my invoice, I was lax & didn’t do my check-in follow up. Got onto the plane to find out that no, they don’t do Gluten Free meals on this flight as it’s considered domestic (first person to have said that to me). Thankfully, as I was going to Haiti post-earthquake, I had MANY Larabars/etc with me for quick, easy, & safe meals, so I wound up eating those on the flight there & back (sadly, admittedly, seething at Delta the whole time).

One final thing to be aware of: on almost every flight, the flight attendants offer the same snacks to everyone, regardless of allergy, etc. Just be aware of this (and cognizant of the fact that they obviously can’t remember every detail about every person who flies on their plane; I am just one of the 150 in their section…again, graciously declining will go a lot further than explaining the Gluten Free diet at this point [unless they ask of course].

I hope this may be an encouragement to you, one that helps make your flying experience a better one. Some people avoid travel altogether having allergies & not knowing what they can or can’t take with them or expect to eat, so I hope this helps to ease your fears as well as provide some tips to make sure you can eat without being “glutenated.”