There's an interesting collection of comments after this post over at Editorial Anonymous (she of the fabulous blue dinosaur slush pile picture.)
My favorite is this after a litany of things that aren't so great about the publishing industry: You have to know this going in. And you still have to want to do it.
Publishing isn't perfect. It's a small, insular, power imbalanced industry. I still love it. And my fiercest hope is to work only with people who love it too.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Dickens!
The NYPL newsletter turned up this enticing news this morning: “Out of the Blacking Factory: Charles Dickens at the New York Public Library” on Thursday, November 14th. Since I will be slithering off to CrimeBake then, I was glad to see it will be offered again on 12/10/2008 and 1/16/2009.
It takes me about a year to read a Charles Dickens novel what with starting and stopping to read all this other stuff I've got, but it's always worth the investment of time. Guess I better go get Dombey & Son since it's one I haven't read!
It takes me about a year to read a Charles Dickens novel what with starting and stopping to read all this other stuff I've got, but it's always worth the investment of time. Guess I better go get Dombey & Son since it's one I haven't read!
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
The asssssistant learns a new skill
I'm cutting back on my conference attendance next year so my Herpet-American assssssistant is learning how to teach various workshops and seminars so she can take my place.
You'll notice she's packed her self into a bag for easy transport. Hermes of course.
Michael Crichton dies
News just off the CNN wire that Michael Crichton has died.
I still remember reading The Andromeda Strain and of course Jurassic Park.
A sad day indeed.
I still remember reading The Andromeda Strain and of course Jurassic Park.
A sad day indeed.
Congratulations Moonrat!
Congratulations on your second year anniversary!It's nice to have you as a colleague here in the blogosphere, and in publishing.
Maybe next time though, we should make sure Robert is here to join us?
Where you should be on 11/16
I guess I better haul my sorry ass home from CrimeBake a little more quickly since one of my favorite guys is in town!
Dan Tomasulo, reads at the Stain Bar in Brooklyn on 11/16 at 7pm. I love to attend Dan's readings. He's pretty funny for a psychologist, and pretty insightful for a funny guy. And of course I really love his book. I bet you would too!
Dan Tomasulo, reads at the Stain Bar in Brooklyn on 11/16 at 7pm. I love to attend Dan's readings. He's pretty funny for a psychologist, and pretty insightful for a funny guy. And of course I really love his book. I bet you would too!
The Election of 2008
44 years ago Irving Wallace wrote a novel about the first black president. The only way he could think of to make a black man president required an almost unbelievable series of flukes, none of which involved the man actually winning the post on his own. The Man wasn't a terrible book, but tonight it becomes a relic of a former time.
It is probably a sign of my overwhelming insularity, even in NYC, that I'd never really stopped to think about race as a factor in the election.
In fact it wasn't until one of the reporters for CBS News, a black man, spoke about calling his mother when it looked like Senator Obama would win, that I truly realized how momentous this election would be. As he repeated the story to Katie Couric I realized he was fighting to maintain his composure. That he and his mother were both deeply moved by this election. Not because of party. Not because of the economy; not even because of the war in Iraq. Simply, finally, because a black man can be president. And is.
We all love our country, even when it was headed down a path most of us thought was dangerous and wrong. We changed our own course, our own path. And we did it with a man who, 44 years ago, would have been not much more than a novelty in an election.
That's pretty cool.
It is probably a sign of my overwhelming insularity, even in NYC, that I'd never really stopped to think about race as a factor in the election.
In fact it wasn't until one of the reporters for CBS News, a black man, spoke about calling his mother when it looked like Senator Obama would win, that I truly realized how momentous this election would be. As he repeated the story to Katie Couric I realized he was fighting to maintain his composure. That he and his mother were both deeply moved by this election. Not because of party. Not because of the economy; not even because of the war in Iraq. Simply, finally, because a black man can be president. And is.
We all love our country, even when it was headed down a path most of us thought was dangerous and wrong. We changed our own course, our own path. And we did it with a man who, 44 years ago, would have been not much more than a novelty in an election.
That's pretty cool.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Election Day!
I'm a sucker for Election Day.
I just love it.
It's about the only thing I love that is inefficient, mired in last century technology, staffed by senior citizens and that I have to wait in line for but love it I do.
When I lived in Oregon we voted by mail. Several of my clients live in Oregon now, and for them, election day is kind of passe. Returns tonight will be fun, but the day itself is almost like any other.
I liked voting by mail. It was efficient and easy.
I really like voting the old fashioned way here in New York.
I like standing in line with young moms pushing strollers stocked with toddlers; immigrant hipsters texting and tweeting while we wait; seniors with canes who've carefully navigated the stairs and the slippery gym floor to be here. We are bound by a zip code and a polling place, not much else. I'm not a Democrat in a precinct that will vote Democratic 9:1. I don't speak Spanish in a precinct that mostly does. I may text and tweet, but the only hipster part of me is what I sit on.
And yet, here we all are. We all get to vote. Due in no small part to people like John McCain, veterans of the Armed Forces who served when called. Due in no small part to people like Barack Obama who organized communities to register to vote. Due in no small part to men and women who believed, against all obvious evidence, that people have the inalienable right to govern themselves. Even if we choose poorly. Even if we choose blindly. Even if we don't choose, we choose.
I love to vote.
I hope you do too.
I just love it.
It's about the only thing I love that is inefficient, mired in last century technology, staffed by senior citizens and that I have to wait in line for but love it I do.
When I lived in Oregon we voted by mail. Several of my clients live in Oregon now, and for them, election day is kind of passe. Returns tonight will be fun, but the day itself is almost like any other.
I liked voting by mail. It was efficient and easy.
I really like voting the old fashioned way here in New York.
I like standing in line with young moms pushing strollers stocked with toddlers; immigrant hipsters texting and tweeting while we wait; seniors with canes who've carefully navigated the stairs and the slippery gym floor to be here. We are bound by a zip code and a polling place, not much else. I'm not a Democrat in a precinct that will vote Democratic 9:1. I don't speak Spanish in a precinct that mostly does. I may text and tweet, but the only hipster part of me is what I sit on.
And yet, here we all are. We all get to vote. Due in no small part to people like John McCain, veterans of the Armed Forces who served when called. Due in no small part to people like Barack Obama who organized communities to register to vote. Due in no small part to men and women who believed, against all obvious evidence, that people have the inalienable right to govern themselves. Even if we choose poorly. Even if we choose blindly. Even if we don't choose, we choose.
I love to vote.
I hope you do too.
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Why I did not do so well in art class
I have zero sense of space and proportion.
I knew it then.
I relearned it now.
My score was so awful I'm not even saying what it was.
Feel free to share the shame!
I knew it then.
I relearned it now.
My score was so awful I'm not even saying what it was.
Feel free to share the shame!
So, how DO you find one person at the marathon?
Well, if the one person you're looking for is the boss, you get there early and you tie a couple balloons to your bike handlebars so you're easy to spot.
Then, when you don't see her running by, you get a tad nervous, and take a picture of someone ELSE just to prove you were actually at the race not lolling around at home drinking coffee and thinking "wow, it's windy out there".
The first picture makes it look like the runners are dressed like balloons!
The weird red line in the second picture is the ribbon for the balloons.
You haven't lived till you've biked a mile or so with three helium balloons attacking your head. Around MTA busses, two of them!, that thought playing ping pong with a bike between them was kind of funny.
But the real way you spot Stephany Evans, marathon runner? You see the determined set of her jaw and a look of fierce concentration as she boils past amidst a sea of runners. It's a look I've seen before when she's negotiating for her clients or going through a contract and I spotted it right away even in a sea of hundreds of people.
Go Steph!!!!
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Ignore the Octopus at your peril!
We weren't surprised to see THIS at all! Not one little bit!
(lifted shamelessly from Sarah Weinman's blog of course)
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