jpedwards

p_n_elrod @ 3:27pm: Getting organized!
.

I've finally accepted that I'm unable to work just *anywhere* like other writers with laptops. I envy those who can work undaunted by distracting circumstances. It is a wonderful thing to be able to do that, but I've lost the knack. Only rarely does it ever return.

I *have* done coffee bar writing. When I had a roomie the other decade I HAD to get out of the house to write. That doesn't work any more. There are too many books in the store waiting to be browsed through, the chairs aren't comfy, the music over the speakers is rarely to my taste, sometimes the joint has a freaking TV running, and there's usually half a dozen morons on their damned cell phones talking forcefully to some poor sod on the other end. (I've mentioned annoyance with oblivious cell-talkers before, sorry to repeat.) No iPod in the world can block that out.

Then there are the *other* writers in the coffee shop.

I'm too easily distracted by them. They see me struggling to scrape words out of my brain and in kinship strike up a conversation. It's just too bad for me that I love to talk shop, then bang goes two hours of time along with what little concentration I ever had. It's great for making friends, but hell on my output!

Also, *MY* muse is a lazy, snarky bitch always eager to chuck things the instant a shiny object swings into view. It's just too easy not to work, so it doesn't unless I kick it in the butt enough times to get a usable idea. To do that, I need special areas where I can focus sans distractions.

So this weekend I re-arranged my home surroundings for maximum writing efficiency. Being a writer means you are running a small business, after all. Other people with home businesses do the same thing for their home offices.

Writers tend to be waaaaay messier, though.

One thing I require is blank wall space. Lots of it.

When doing the actual writing I tape up a hard copy of pages I've finished to keep track of things. I make notes to put in new info, revise this, cut that, move this someplace else. Other writers keep that in their heads, but I don't trust my memory to juggle ALL the stuff at once. Having it out in one big space helps a lot!

For me, the actual writing is easy compared to the story-storming development phase.

Once I get my outline and know where I'm going, I can write fairly fast. Some writers can just blast off flat and see where the story takes them. I have done that for short stories but need a road map for longer works. It keeps me out of blind alleys and speeds up the writing.

For outlining I need dry erase boards, index cards, sticky notes, and a big blank wall.

I've now got a three by six stretch of dining room wall covered with dry erase boards that are rapidly filling up with notes and a story arc for the new book. A cleared wall in what I call the "writing room" will hold the chapters to come as I write them.

To get there I had to do some major furniture moving. No details, but I didn't throw my back out (yay!) and hey, presto--the room looks bigger! I thought I'd have to sacrifice storage when I moved out a big ol' cabinet, but it still holds the same supplies. I just have to go to the garage for them, no hardship.

My neater and re-organized space looks great, and I can sweep my work area clear in two minutes and use it for a dining table when necessary.

Yay! There are no more barriers between my muse and finishing up this new proposal!

So, Muse, front and center, start spitting out ideas, please!

Muse. I'm waiting.

Waiting.

Still waiting.

Don't make me come and get you.

OUT here, dammit. I did all this work for you!

I DON'T care that that there is a Stargate marathon running. We've seen them all, so don't even think of luring me into it.

I'm counting to three and you damned-well better get your lazy arse out here or I'm gonna kick it into Lake Benbrook.

What'd you say? You'd LIKE to go swimming?

You bitch.

That's it.

I've HAD it with you. I'm getting a club. A big one.

I'm gonna beat you bloody until you--

Ah. Finally decided to work today? Good. Now sit over there and be brilliant, dammit.

No. You only get chocolate AFTER you are brilliant.

If you are REALLY brilliant you can watch TV tonight. I'm not totally heartless.

Yes, I still have that club.

You can have a beating now or chocolate later.

Your choice.

andpuff @ 11:34am: An agent for good...
Absolutely bang on post about the author/agent relationship from seanan_mcguire.

Of authors and agents -take two.

My agent works his butt off for everyone he represents. He works constantly to expand our markets and he worries about not only the big things but the little details that, without him, would slip through the cracks. I've been with him for all but my first three books -- and he still deals with the detritus of those, that's how good he is -- and I wouldn't have the career I have without him.

Thank you, Joshua.

slwhitman @ 7:14pm: Why I can't recommend you to an agent
Sometimes I get emails from people who are just starting out in the publishing process. I understand the frustration that comes when from seeing that practically every publisher requires agented submissions. If you aren't sure where to start, it can be daunting to try to find information on publishing through Google (Writer Beware covered this a while back, and they've got some good points---there are a lot of self-publishing and disreputable agents that show up at the top of such searches).

But the solution is not to approach a publishing house or a specific editor to ask (or even sometimes demand), "If you won't read my manuscript, then recommend me to an agent so I can get you to read my manuscript!" I can't even do this for relatives/friends/relatives of friends without knowing their writing really well (and even if I know their writing well and think it's good enough to be published---a rarity---I would generally be more likely to recommend someone's writing to a fellow editor, rather than an agent).

I don't feel qualified in helping writers find agents, and in fact feel that it's a conflict of interest to make such recommendations. Agents recommend writers to editors. An agent is a writer's advocate in contractual negotiations. The publisher shouldn't interfere with that relationship. (For a different kind of hypothetical example, even if I were to feel that a writer's agent might not be doing a very good job, it's not my place to suggest that the writer find a new agent; the very nature of my position as a representative of a publisher makes my opinion biased, even if writers would say the same thing about the agent.)

Also, it's important to remember that most editors/companies who have limited their submissions to agented-only have a good reason for the requirement: usually they need a way to limit the quantity of their submissions while ensuring the quality. This means that they're pretty busy people, and it's kind of absurd to expect them to give personal attention to every single request for information. It just can't be done, and allow them to do the work that makes the company money as well. While it may only take "a few minutes" of their time, multiply that by a thousand or ten thousand, and the noise crowds out the work getting done.

We understand, though, that getting published is a frustrating, sometimes opaque process for those who haven't discovered the rich resources of the internet---or who have googled "publishing" and been hit by completely unreputable results. Finding information on getting published on the internet can be really hard if you don't have a single place to start. This is why editors and agents who blog do what we do---to provide a source of general information and conversation about the industry that can usually answer most questions, especially the basics of the submission process.

If you do find a single place to start---for example, if someone you know says, "Check out the website of this editor I know!"---it can be tempting to hope that this connection will subvert the frustrating hunt for information. However, if you hunt a little deeper (well, really, if you made it to my website, you should have come to my blog first, rather than to the page that shows my email), you'll find that the blog---and even more, the whole blogosphere/Twitterverse---provides a wealth of information that can set you on your path without having to rely on an email from an overworked editor for a reference she feels that ethically, she can't give.

So let's discuss some of the first places you should be looking, if you've gotten this far, for information on how to get published in the children's and young adult market, which should spiderweb out to a number of different resources through links and references in blog posts and Twitter feeds.

First place to start for children's and YA writers: the SCBWI main page. That page should lead you to links for your local SCBWI, which should lead you to information on local meetings, writing groups, conferences, and other events--including conferences at which agents and editors are in attendance. Join a writing group, join the local listserv, and start absorbing all the riches of reliable information your fellow writers have to share.

The next place to go is just as important as the first: Harold Underdown's The Purple Crayon. This is such a complete resource that I often just recommend these two sites (SCBWI and this one) for people just starting out looking for information on getting published in children's and YA books. Harold wrote The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books, has been an editor for years (several years at Macmillan, Orchard, and Charlesbridge, and now a freelancer), and has been maintaining the Purple Crayon for many years, at which you can find information on topics from the basics through the entire publishing process and on to figuring out agents.

A new essential resource I've started adding to the list is Agent Query. The site seems to be down at the moment, but I got through at a back door---but the database, which is its most useful feature, doesn't seem to be working. Keep checking back on it, because it is a great resource for writers starting out on the agent-querying process, with information on writing a query, how to avoid scammers, and a full search of agent listings by genre and several other considerations.

Also note that plenty of blogging authors discuss how to find an agent (and when the appropriate time is in your writing life to find an agent). Google the authors who your work would fit in with most, and start listening to what they say about their writing process, about how they got started in their career, about how they found an agent---you'll find a lot of good information there, and links to resources that will be much more useful than a quick Google search. Mentors are definitely out there.

Keep an eye out on Preditors and Editors, as well.

If you're looking for an agent, you should be reading the blogs and Twitter feeds of at least a few of the many agents out there offering advice. Here is a list, in no particular order:

• Miss Snark's archives (she isn't blogging anymore, but the archives are well worth a look)


• Nathan Bransford's blog


• Colleen Lindsay's The Swivet


• Upstart Crow Literary's blog


• Kristin Nelson's blog


• Janet Reid's blog


• Jennifer Laughran's blog


• Elana Roth's twitter feed


• Rachelle Gardner's blog


• Deidre Knight's twitter feed

There are SO many more that I'm definitely forgetting, but it's getting late (I started to write this last night and fell asleep in the next paragraph, actually), and you should be able to follow the conversations on these blogs and feeds to get a sense of who else is out there to follow. Between all of them, writers new to the publishing end of things can get a great education, and all for free.

Who am I missing on the agent list? Please include links to Twitter feeds for agents who don't have blogs. (I'm linking blogs for people who have them, Twitter feeds for those that don't have blogs. Those who have blogs might also have a Twitter feed, but truth is, it's 1 am and I'm hieing myself to bed, and I'll worry about that tomorrow.) I'll add the links to the list tomorrow as time permits (which I have, but it's still incomplete). Also remember that Twitter has become a really great source of information on publishing from a number of publishing folks who don't have as much time to blog, but who can participate in more scattered conversations throughout the day. For a full list of all the publishing people on Twitter, check out ... I can't find the link of the page that has them all listed. Hopefully someone will know what I'm talking about and give me the link, because I have to run out the door right now and run some errands.

Originally published at Stacy Whitman\\\\\\\'s Grimoire.

arcaedia @ 3:29pm: letters from the query wars
# of queries read this week: 272
# of partials/manuscripts requested: 0
genre of partials/manuscripts requested: n/a


A lot of people have good luck rituals. Lucky ties, shirts, jewelery, etc. Throwing salt over their shoulder. Not stepping on cracks. And so on. Many people believe that Friday the 13th is unlucky. For me, however, this day seems auspicious: it's the first time my query folder has been under 200 since early April (pre London Book Fair). On the other hand, I can remember a time that I used to be surprised that it got over 100.

On this day, Friday the 13th, I bring you some query letter superstitions:

* What time of year a query is sent makes a difference.
* A random sampling of people liking the book guarantees it will sell widely.
* Spell-checking and proof-reading are done by copy-editors and therefore the manuscript doesn't need that beforehand.
* Arguing with a rejection will change the agent's mind.
* Sending the same exact query 3 weeks later will get a different reply.
* In the same vein, repeat queries over the course of many months will wear an agent down until they agree to representation.
* Agents never remember who they meet and what they've requested, so it's okay to lie about that. This is particularly successful if referencing a conference the agent has never attended.
* You can't get published without an agent; you can't get an agent without being published.

Some agent superstitions about queries:
* It is bad luck to read queries on vacation, on birthdays, and during the holiday season.
* Burying a query at the cross-roads means it won't come back to haunt you.
* Don't feed them after midnight or get them wet.
* They breed while you sleep. (Oh, wait. That one's true.)

What query superstitions can you think of? Or, do you do anything that smacks of ritual when you send a query out? What is it and what is it supposed to augment/prevent?

pubrants @ 7:34am: When The No-Compete Clause Comes Into Play

http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2009/11/when-no-compete-clause-comes-into-play.html

STATUS: TGIF! Have a great weekend. I plan to.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? CAN’T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD by Kylie Minogue

Currently, Publishers consider non-multimedia electronic rights as part of the “standard” package of the grant of rights when buying a work from an author.

For years, I often held electronic rights (back when publishers weren’t paying attention to it) but now, publishers will walk away from deals unless eRights are granted. Very few authors, especially the new or the debut, are willing to walk away from an offer over a right that makes up such a small percentage of current overall sales—at least in today’s world. Who knows about 10 years from now.

But here’s another interesting tidbit. Let’s say you are successful in keeping electronic as a reserved right. Publishers are getting stricter in the language they are using in the no-compete clause of the contract and that language may make it impossible for you to exercise that reserved right.

I’ve talked about the no-compete clause here in my Agenting 101 series.

But just to jog your memory, here is a sample of language from a no-compete clause in a publishing contract (and since I lifted it from my previous entry, this language is easily several years old).

“During the term of this Agreement, the Author shall not, without written permission of the Publisher, publish or permit to be published any material based upon or incorporating material from the Work or which would compete with its sale or impair the rights granted hereunder.”

So what am I trying to say here? I’m telling you that even if you are able to reserve your electronic rights so as to as to set up your own deal with Kindle or Scribd (or whoever), your publisher could make an argument that sales of your reserved electronic right is materially damaging the sales of their licensed rights.

Ah, I see the light bulbs going off as you get what I’m saying here.

We’ve particularly seen this over the last two years when reserving comic book/graphic novels rights only to fight on the no-compete clause to make it even a possibility for the author to exercise those rights.

Unless you are embroiled in publishing contracts on a daily basis, very few authors make the connection of how these two very different clauses (grant of rights and the no-compete clause) clearly impact each other. Once again, I hope I’ve shed just a little light on it.

And on that lovely note, have a great weekend!

sdn @ 8:49pm: dental update.
i went to the implant dentist today. the implants have integrated well with the bone, and so in a few weeks he will take off the tops, put on the fittings, and then i go straight down to my regular guy who will take an impression and make me temporary teeth.

soon i will have bottom molars again

i can't wait to stop eating what is, basically, pre-chewed food.

theljstaff, posting in news @ 1:53pm: LiveJournal Major Notes: Notes, Tweaks, Bug Kills, LJ_Cares!

Notes augmented

We've enhanced and de-bugged Notes. If you haven't tried it yet, now's the time! You can create a private note when you ban multiple users. You can also delete multiple notes at once. Lastly, paid users have the option to add a note (visible only to you) whenever you add or remove a friend (guaranteed to avoid embarrassing social mishaps). If you don't currently have a paid account, you can upgrade now! It only takes a few minutes and costs less than a bad shopping mall haircut (plus, it's way more fashionable)!

Product tweaks and bug kill

1. In another effort to zap spam, comments containing links from domains LiveJournal deems untrustworthy are now automatically screened
2. If you sign up to get notifications of the Writer's Block question of the day, you'll now see the daily question in the email notification, so you'll have a little extra time to ponder before you post. You can subscribe to Writers Block notifications here
3. The issue causing random comments to vanish has been fixed!
4. If you visit a LiveJournal page and get prompted to log in, you'll be returned to the same page after you sign in (Thanks, Dreamwidth)!
5. If you don't edit the timestamp for an entry at all, the entry timestamp will indicate the time the entry was posted instead of the time the Update Journal page was loaded
6. Comments with paddings/backgrounds render correctly within the comment box (and will no longer wrap outside the box and break frames/margins)

New FCK fixes rich text editor!

1. We've updated our RTE (Rich Text Editor) to FCKeditor version 2.6.5
2. When switching from the RTE to HTML editor, links for syndicated feeds are no longer broken
3. RTE now functions properly in Safari 4.0
4. An extra line/space will not be auto-inserted whenever you switch from RTE to HTML editor
5. The insert image link now works correctly in all browsers

LiveJournal Cares

We’re pleased to introduce you to lj_cares, a new LiveJournal community dedicated to raising awareness and funds for U.S. charitable organizations that improve the health and well-being of people around the world. Each month, we’ll spotlight a nonprofit that is making a significant global impact through medical research, public outreach, and/or humanitarian social programs. Charities will be selected in accordance with the U.S. calendar of national health observances based on a high rating (of over 60%) on Charity Navigator and global scope of impact.

In this, our inaugural month of November, we will celebrate national adoption month by offering a charitable virtual gift (priced at $2.99) to support Love Without Boundaries, an organization that saves the lives of orphans with life-threatening diseases and places them in loving homes around the world. LiveJournal will donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of charitable vgifts (we'll cover the cost of credit card transaction fees). To learn more about Love Without Boundaries, please visit lj_cares and read about how they helped save Baby Kang and the Rainbow Twins from fatal illnesses, who are now thriving in nurturing families. You can purchase your Love Without Boundaries gifts in the Virtual Gift shop.

Papered in postcards

A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to send in postcards to surround us with LiveJournal community. Thanks for coming through! We've received postcards all the way from Germany, Finland, and Canada and from all over the US, including Texas, Florida, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Indiana, Hawaii, and Oklahoma just to name just a handful. We're thrilled with our improved decor.

Please keep the love coming for one more week by writing to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be drawing the names of ten random contributors next Thursday to win paid account credits!

Photos of the week

We have more dazzling images posted by talented LiveJournal photographers from around the world. We're hoping to span the entire globe, so please continue posting and tagging. Of course, you can also sit back and enjoy the view at lj_photophile.

You can see a sample of this week's gorgeous photos and check out spotlight communities and awesome user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

We thank you, once again, for joining us. See you next week!

alg @ 3:07pm: For someone on hiatus, I am sure posting a lot. This internet addiction is ridiculous!

I have a new profile picture -- it is drawn by Lauren Cottrell from Sweet Fat Life, which is an awesome web comic. I highly recommend commissioning Lauren for some original artwork -- she was wonderful to work with, responsive to what I wanted, super nice, and totally affordable. Oh, did I mention that her art is fantastic? I guess you can see that for yourself.

If you want to commission something from her, you can see her details here.

I uploaded the original high-res image to my Flickr account if you want to take a look at that. It's totally what I plan to use whenever anyone asks for a high-res photo of me for anything.

While I am here... I have been using Delicious privately for many years (it is an excellent organizational tool for fan fiction reading and fan vid viewing!), and I've finally made a public one. I am not going to be linking to fan works there, and everything is safe for work viewing.

http://delicious.com/annagenoese

arthurslade @ 9:55pm: Hunchback Virtual Tour 2nd stop--Winnipeg!
The Hunchback Assignments Half Hour Virtual Visit Tour (AKA as HAHH!) steamed it's way to Beaverlodge School in Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Ah, home to the mighty Bluebombers, wheat fields, and incredibly intelligent students.

I read. I pontificated. I burbled. I extrapolated.


Of course, I discussed The Hunchback Assignments. And threw all the Victorian factoids I could at them. The class listened intently. See here's proof:
And we ended it all by singing "God Save The Queen." Err, well maybe I just hummed a few bars quietly to myself. Once again another free signed book and bookmarks were received by the class. Three cheers!



Art

P.S. There are still a few spots left on the HAHH! Worldwide tour. Just read about the contest and enter!
P.P.S Next--Canajoharie Library, Canajoharie, NY, United States.

pubrants @ 7:10am: Bring Back Term of License?

http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2009/11/bring-back-term-of-license.html

STATUS: Getting the blog done early so I can concentrate on a ton of reading today.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? NINE IN THE AFTERNOON by Panic! At The Disco

I’ve only been in publishing for close to going on 10 years. In light of some agents who have done this job since the early 70s, I’m a baby indeed.

But I have heard that back in the day, Publishers utilized a term of license rather than a term of copyright with an Out Of Print clause.

In fact, all foreign contracts use a term of license (5 years is common), with the exception of UK and ANZ (which stands for Australia/New Zealand) which often use an OOP instead.

What is a term of license? Simply put, a term of license is a clause in the publishing contract that states that the contract will expire 5 or 7 years from the date of the agreement and all rights revert back to the author.

In other words, no matter how well the book is doing, all rights revert on that date unless the publisher and author would like to renegotiate the terms and create a new contract with a new term of license.

Interesting, no?

In this rapidly changing digital age, a return to a term of license might be an attractive alternative. Whatever terms that are negotiated today will have to come up for renegotiating upon term expiration.

Some pros?
--There is a set reversion date no matter what.
--If the book does well, there is the possibility of renegotiation for better terms for the next agreement.

Some Cons?
--Most books, in general, go out of print in about 2 or 3 years via the OOP clause and rights revert. With a term of license, the out of print work could be tied up for 2 to 5 years longer than if there had been a sales threshold that triggered the reversion earlier.
--The next negotiation might be for lesser rates than what you locked in with your initial or previous contract.

Food for thought. Also, I don’t see publishers jumping on the “return to term of license” train anytime soon.

anteka @ 7:07pm: PWT 05.02
It's PWT time, bitches!! Warning for blood and bleeped swearing. Oh, and the word "dick". Maybe PG-13 this week?

Plastic!Winchester Theater 05.02

anteka @ 6:45pm: Plastic!Winchester Theater - 05.02 (Part 5 of 5)
( Plastic!Winchester Theater - 05.02 (Part 5 of 5) )

dwell, posting in lj_maintenance @ 2:00pm: Network Maintenance: Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 04:00-06:00 UTC/GMT
EDIT@08:16 UTC/GMT. Wow. That was ugly. I expected it to go for 30 minutes and have maybe 1 minute of broken connectivity. Instead it lasted over 4 hours and we had 10 minutes of downtime directly related to the load balancer upgrades and then another 5-10 minutes of downtime when our primary Pingback database server crashed and the secondary couldn't take over; which could have been indirectly caused by the network upgrade missing a self-VIP.

Anyways, we're up, we're working, the load balancers are barely breaking a sweat right now and I need some food and a shot of whiskey. I don't even *like* whiskey!!

Thanks mhwest and dnewhall for helping out!

---

On Saturday the 14th at 4AM UTC/GMT we will be upgrading the operating system of our network load balancers to a newer version, one that will allow us to use both CPUs! Nifty, because multiprocessing is nice.

Since we have 2 load balancers, the plan is to upgrade 1 at a time, and there really should be very little impact to our website. Hopefully you won't notice a thing and I'll get to go back to the hotel and watch some wonderful late night infomercials.

We've got a lot of exciting projects coming up for 2010 and we're hoping that we'll be able to deliver them all to you, that you will find it useful/cool/lovely and then you will use the site even more. Behind-the-scenes work like this will give us the capacity to handle the anticipated traffic, so expect a few more maintenance windows especially in the beginning of next year as we've got some neat ideas to improve performance around here! We had the recent 30-45 minute outage yesterday due to one of our logging databases filling up disk space -- not so great design coupled with my human error in handling the initial problem -- and it looks like we're going to finally have some resources to eliminate stuff like that. I can't wait!

As usual, I will be updating status.livejournal.org before and after, just in case you are not able to reach our main website during the work.

pubrants @ 1:25pm: Sales Thresholds in OOP Clauses

http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2009/11/sales-thresholds-in-oop-clauses.html

STATUS: Contracts and more contracts.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? VIVA LA VIDA by Coldplay

I know I’ve blogged about this before and the info is available under the tag Publishing Contracts but what the heck, it bears repeating. I can add the link under the Agenting 101 headings now for easy access.

OOP stands for Out of Print. Every publishing contract should have either a term of license for set period of years (7 being common) or the contract should have an out of print clause based on a sales threshold.

Sales threshold being the key term here if it’s not a set license period.

Sales threshold means that in order for a book to be in print, it has to sell a certain amount of copies, standard language is around 150 copies, in any accounting period. Most accounting periods are for 6-month periods in the publishing world.

This applies to ALL formats of the work—that would include eBooks.

In other words (and to repeat), the mere presence or the ability to do an eBook or a POD version will not keep a work in print UNLESS the publisher is selling 150 copies or more of any eBook or short run POD version in the 6-month period.

So even in the world of digital versions, the publisher still has to sell at least 300 copies a year to keep the work in print. If they don’t, rights revert to the author.

Remember the whole big snafu that S&S tried to pull last summer but eliminating those crucial last 4 lines of the S&S OOP clause that detailed the sales threshold? Yep, that’s why agents were in an uproar and refused to have clients sign those contracts.

Without that sales threshold, in this digital world, a work would never go out of print. However, with that sales threshold, publishers still have to sell 300+ copies to retain the rights.

shunn @ 3:26pm: Give me a long enough lever...
We're used to thinking of the movement of an object as homogeneous and instantaneous. In other words, for example, when I give a push to the fat end of my pool cue, the felted end moves at the same time to strike the cue ball.

But I have a question—and I'm asking this because I'm curious about the answer, not because I know the answer. Let's say I had a pool cue that was 186,282 miles long. In other words, light would take a full second to travel from one end of it to the other. So, if I were to give my end of this pool cue a push, would the far end move simultaneously? Or would the motion take something more than a second to propagate along the length of the cue (causing it to ripple, as it were)? Physicists, I'm talkin' to you.

p_n_elrod @ 10:38am: Romantic Vets
.

Wish I could take credit for this, but I got the link through the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog.

In honor of Veteran's Day, they spotlighted this website dedicated to women who served in the military, then got into writing!

http://www.romvets.com/

Please do check out the "Before and After" link at the top of the page to read about fascinating women who not only served their country but worked on the pen being mightier than the sword angle!

It's focus is on romance writers, so left out is one of my favs, Elizabeth Moon, who served as a Marine in Vietnam in the 60s. For some great military s/f reading, check out her books!

http://www.elizabethmoon.com/

andpuff @ 10:52am: Lest ye break faith...
When I got my poppy from the veteran standing outside the grocery store, it occurred to me that he couldn't possibly be a WWII vet. He was the age I always remember poppy sellers being -- but I'm a lot older now so I'm guessing Korea. My father fought in Korea.

According to Wikipedia, of the 65,038,810 people who were members of the armed forces of one of the combat nations, there are three verified World War I veterans still living -- two are 108, one is 109 -- as well as a 106 year old from England they haven't been able to verify. Four all together.

World War II veterans are all over eighty and, while there are still millions left, I don't doubt there's fewer every day.

Korea. Viet Nam. Bosnia. Afghanistan. The problem is, there will always be new veterans. New men and women to stand outside grocery stores in Legion jackets and caps in early November.

New men and women to remember.

Since 2002, 133 Canadian soldiers have been killed serving in Afghanistan. The CBC maintains a list, here. And the overpasses are still filled from Trenton to Toronto, every time one of them comes home.


This link is to the video for John McDermott's Bringing Buddy Home.

anteka @ 8:39am: Drive By Post
1) New PWT tonight. I have to fix one plot hole my beta pointed out and BOOM. Done.

2) I have been working far too hard these past few days. I've only glanced at my FList and barely have time to even poke my head online. *dramatic sigh* We did nail down the hotel for winchestmidwest in March 2010 and posted that info over at the comm yesterday. My sister has the flu and thinks that's an excuse for not updating our website. WHAT. A. WHINER.

3) I like Michael Bublé. I think that's something everyone should know.

Our work QotD today is: The world is a mirror. Smile and the world will smile back. Someone has been reading too many fortune cookies. Good advice, none the less!

anteka @ 10:15pm: Plastic!Winchester Theater - 05.02 (Part 4 of 5)
( Plastic!Winchester Theater - 05.02 (Part 4 of 5) )

anteka @ 10:15pm: Plastic!Winchester Theater - 05.02 (Part 3 of 5)
( Plastic!Winchester Theater - 05.02 (Part 3 of 5) )

anteka @ 10:15pm: Plastic!Winchester Theater - 05.02 (Part 2 of 5)
( Plastic!Winchester Theater - 05.02 (Part 2 of 5) )

anteka @ 10:13pm: Plastic!Winchester Theater - 05.02 (Part 1 of 5)
( Plastic!Winchester Theater - 05.02 (Part 1 of 5) )

pubrants @ 3:43pm: Publicists Help Those Who Help Themselves

http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2009/11/publicists-help-those-who-help.html

STATUS: I’ve actually been spending my time negotiating some new deals for current clients. Hey, that’s always good.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? WHAT WOULD YOU SAY by Dave Matthews Band

An often quoted adage (that’s not actually in the Bible) with one little word change to make it apply to what I want to talk about today.

If you are a published author, one of the smartest things you can do when it comes to marketing and promotion is to be a squeaky wheel without the annoying squeak.

In other words, how can you politely keep yourself on the publicist’s radar without coming across as disappointed, demanding, or annoying?

One thing Lindsay and I have been working on with our clients is our weekly or bi-monthly reports of what the author is doing to promote their recent release.

It’s a great way to constantly be having a dialogue with the in-house publicist. All the publicists we’ve worked with have been really appreciative. It allows them to talk about the author in the next meeting, maybe even spotlight something cool the author has done, and it often helps the publicist make requests on the author’s behalf.

So take a moment to think about the last time you sent your in-house person a lovely report on all the amazing blog appearances, local signings, conference events, etc. you’ve been doing?

Never too late if you have some nice summaries to share—even if your book isn’t a new release.

This is just part of the reason that together, Mari and I were able to revive interest in her Blood Coven series and get that fourth book under contract. We constantly kept Berkley in the loop on all the things Mari was doing for those books.

arthurslade @ 1:06pm: The Official Hunchback Assignments Book Trailer


I'm extremely pleased with this. It was done by My Next Demo. I highly recommend the company!




Art

andpuff @ 9:12am: Facebook, part two
After my last post, telynor posted a link to the lj post on the Facebook wall. Yay! Proactive interaction! This seems to be the best way for me to talk directly to these fen without actually getting a Facebook account. Which I'd rather not do.

So, if those of you with Facebook accounts and the time would post links to this, I'd really appreciate it.

TIA

-----



Dear Spanish Fans:

First, I appreciate fansites. Thank you for your interest. But, could you please set it up so that it's clearly a fansite. As it is now, people think it's actually me and that makes me look bad when they expect interaction and I don't respond.

Second, if you are linking to free online downloads of my books, please stop. This isn't like lending your copy of a book to a friend, it's a copyright violation.

Thank you.
Tanya Huff

(translation provided by jonquil)

A Mis Fans Hispánicos Queridos:

Primero, me gustan fansites. Gracias para sus interéses. Podrían ustédes márquenlos "fansite", por favor? Otra vez, la gente piensa que yo esté ignorándoles cuando no respondo.

Además, favor de no ligar a los transferencias en linea de mis libros; esta no es prestar un libro a un amigo, es violación de los derechos de autor.


Gracias.
Tanya Huff