Date: Fri 14-Aug-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Ziffer-guidebook-Fulcrum

Full Text:

New Book Offers A Comprehensive Look At Connecticut

(with cut in Photoshop & book cover)

BY SHANNON HICKS

Think you know Connecticut? Chances are, even if you are an octogenarian

native of The Constitution State, you may not know our state as well as

first-time author Amy Ziffer. The Sherman resident has just had her first

book, The Connecticut Guide , published by Fulcrum Books and it is a winner.

Connecticut may be one of the smallest states in the union, but its four

distinct seasons and physical beauty also make it home to a wide variety of

people and attractions. Amy Ziffer has lived in Connecticut much of her life,

and knows all about this. Now she has compiled one of the best travel guides

around, and has had it published by a company that began receiving kudos a few

years ago with similarly-styled travel guides to other states in the country.

When Amy Ziffer went on a trip to the western part of the United States with

her family a few years ago, one of the resources they used on their trip was a

book called The Colorado Guide . It was, Ms Ziffer said recently, the best

guide book she had ever used. "We used it religiously," she said.

After contacting Fulcrum Publishing, who publishes The Colorado Guide (which

went into its fourth edition in May 1997) and learning the company had not yet

begun work on a guide for Connecticut, Ms Ziffer received permission to write

The Connecticut Guide . That was August 1995.

"I found out the publisher had a Rhode Island guide already in the works," Ms

Ziffer said recently, "so this project just dovetailed from there." Fulcrum

has also published guidebooks, following a similar style, for Alaska, Arizona,

New Mexico, Rhode Island and Utah.

Amy's first step was to send a letter to every town clerk in the state. She

planned "elaborate itineraries," usually traveling four to five days each

week, depending on the area she would be covering that week, and the area's

population and density.

"You could spend five days in New Haven and still not see everything," she

pointed out. Conversely, some of Connecticut's 169 towns are so small, it was

fairly easy to collect information and put it into the book with visits

lasting just a day or two.

Because of the format of the book not every one of Connecticut's towns could

be discussed separately in The Connecticut Guide . A Chapter/Town

Cross-Reference in the beginning of the book (pgs vi-vii) helps readers find

the chapter in which their town is discussed, whether on its own or as part of

a group of surrounding towns.

The book's introduction is a fascinating read. State residents or visitors

should find the facts about Connecticut interesting and fun to discover. The

third smallest state in the nation, Connecticut would fit into Alaska (the

largest state in the nation) well over 100 times.

Ms Ziffer's research includes information on the state's landscape and how it

was formed. Sections cover the Indians and Europeans separately, and then

"Early Indian-European Interaction." The opening for the book covers the

state's history right up to the 1990s, albeit briefly. This is a travel guide,

after all, not a history book.

"Visitor Information," also in the Introduction, covers everything from

general information (11 regional tourism offices around the state can provide

travelers with information on specific parts of the state) and "Tips for

Visitors" (drinking and smoking minimum ages for purchase, taxes, telephone

area codes) to "Discounted and Special State Park/Forest Access" and "Weather

and How To Dress For It."

Still in the Introduction, sections also cover antiquing, birding, boating,

fishing, golf, hiking, children and family events, snowmobiling, and wineries,

among other opportunities, in Connecticut. Ms Ziffer has included telephone

numbers in most instances, and the suggestion to always call ahead to

double-check hours and fees to avoid disappointment.

Beyond the Introduction, the book is divided into seven sections. Each section

is then divided into destinations by chapter. The chapter names are either a

single town (Danbury) or an area (Far Northeast). Going one more step, the

author presents an index that notes how each chapter is sub-divided: History,

Major Attractions, Other Attractions, Getting There, Festivals and Events,

Outdoor Activities, Seeing and Doing, Where to Stay, Where to Eat, and

Services. Each division is followed by a page number.

By 1997, the book was being written and facts were being checked and

double-checked. Everything, Ms Ziffer pointed out, was verified by phone

before the book went to the printer.

She does encourage people to call ahead before visiting any sites that may be

open seasonally, or restaurants, which changes menus, hours and prices faster

than New England's weather patterns.

"The rate at which they change is mind-blowing," she said. "We were sending

changes to the printer right up until the book was actually being printed.

There's no way you can put something in book form, in a travel guide, that

isn't going to be changed, but it was as accurate as I could make it." Because

of the rapidity in which so many things can change, Ms Ziffer's newest

suggestion to the editors at Fulcrum Books is to set up a Web page for its

travel guides.

"I think it needs its own Web site. I would be able to update it as the

information comes in," she pointed out. Until Fulcrum decides to go with the

Web site solution, which does not seem to be soon, Ms Ziffer is already

collecting information -- changes and additions -- for the next edition of The

Connecticut Guide . Fulcrum's guides to Alaska, New Mexico and Utah are all in

their second editions.

A magazine editor at Taunton Press for ten years, Ms Ziffer was already very

familiar with gathering and checking information for accuracy when she became

involved with her Fulcrum Books project. She found her former editing

techniques and her new writing project to be fairly similar work, but on a

much bigger scale.

"You have to know how to find information, what you're looking for," she said.

Ms Ziffer was not only responsible for the text in The Connecticut Guide , but

she also took the majority of the photographs that are included. There is a

small number of photo credits; the rest were done by the author.

"One of the things I was really pleased with was doing my own photography,"

she said. "That was a special goal to me."

Ms Ziffer has organized her book so cleanly, anyone looking for almost any

information on the state would be smart to keep a copy of the guide on or near

his desk for reference.

Much of what Ms Ziffer has written is common sense. It comes from someone who

has lived in, and loved, Connecticut for years. Amy Ziffer was born in

Norwalk, and lived there as a child. She moved back to Connecticut in the very

early 1990s from southern California, first living in Newtown and then Bethel.

Four years ago she moved to Sherman, where she continues to live. She and Krag

Lehmann, who took the author's photo for The Connecticut Guide , were married

just over a month ago.

The couple lives in a lovely home in Sherman. By following a path from their

backyard, visitors come out of the woods and find themselves suddenly up on a

ridge that overlooks the northern part of Candlewood Lake and parts of Sherman

and New Fairfield. It is a grand view.

At the edge of the woods sits is a small table with two chairs attached to it.

A chain on the back of the bench is not there to deter thieves. It is,

explained Ms Ziffer, to keep the bench from slowly sliding its way to the

edge, and toppling off the ridge. The rock the ridge has eroded from is a bit

slanted.

While Ms Ziffer says she wrote most of The Connecticut Guide from a studio in

her home, it wouldn't be hard to find inspiration from this beautiful outdoor

view above her backyard. From the ridge, all that is seen is residential or

forest land, and it is probably one of the most spectacular views available in

this small state of ours.

With The Connecticut Guide , Amy Ziffer has written one of the most

comprehensive guides about Connecticut available. Most of the state's

residents, even if lifelong residents of "that space between Boston and New

York," will be pleasantly surprised to read what she has uncovered... and even

more excited to go out and find the places and people as beautiful as the ones

the author discovered.