#ALA12 #ARCgate #BunheadGate

OK all of the drama on twitter is ruining my day. So I have to jump in as the voice of reason because I want all of you to shut up so that I can get my sports news and find some, one-liner witticisms and jokes to enjoy. So here we go:

1.       You are not a book blogger or a librarian how are we ruining your twitter?

I work in a library as a computer technician. My wife is a librarian and a blogger. My world overlaps with you people. Frankly, I enjoy many of your thoughts throughout the year but whenever there is this drama after library conferences I want to unfollow all of you. But as some of you are friends and others of you are interesting I don’t want to have to make that choice.

2.       Why should I give a flying ducky about what you have to say?

Good question. There really is no good reason to care about what I say other than I have experienced a few ALA conferences and I don’t really have a dog in the fight, so I can offer an outsider’s perspective.

3.       So who is right, bloggers or librarians?

The short answer? Neither of you. First to bloggers, I am not going to rehash the tongue-lashing that you have already gotten from librarians, but I am going to observe that in my conference experiences I have witnessed a large number of bloggers doing terrible things. I know the good bloggers out there are decrying the injustice of being grouped together with the bad ones, however, in my experience there are more bad bloggers than good ones.

But quite frankly I don’t really care about you, if you are a blogger I do not expect you to act as a professional because you aren’t one (at least not in this context of librarian vs blogger). Expecting you to act as a professional at an event that you only have to pay $25 to attend and at which there are no real professional consequences for bad behavior is like inviting a group of people into a bank vault unsupervised and saying don’t take the money. Some will obey the social conventions, most will take some of the free money, and many will pack their clothes so full of money that they will look like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man. You may matter to publishers and to ALA, but you simply do not matter to me.

However, I would say that using any ARC that you receive at a library conference as a giveaway on your blog is unethical unless you have the written consent of the publisher. If a publisher sends you a book because they like your blog do whatever you want with it, but if you get an ARC at a library conference I would encourage you to read it and then donate it to your local library, or if your library does not want it, any other worthy charity that needs books.

Now to the Librarians, God knows I love you all, and as my marriage can attest I think that everyone should have an intimate relationship with a librarian somewhere in their lives. This does not mean that I believe you are entitled to the ARCs any more than the bloggers are. Sure, having them is a wonderful advantage and is an excellent tool for readers advisory and materials ordering, but the only reason that you have them is because you are relatively low cost mass marketing, plus you make up a significant segment of the profits that publisher’s make when you buy materials for your library. A business exists to make money, lest we forget, and so publishers are not at these conferences because they think librarians are wonderful people who help people of all ages become exposed to information. They are there to make money. The ARCs are a part of that strategy, but if ARCs continue to be a problem you may find that publishers will stop providing them. Also, I know that you feel that as librarians you deserve the books, it is your conference after all, but I am sure the publishers want to get as much mileage out of each ARC as possible. It is in the publisher’s best interest to put a hot book into the hands of a blogger with 5000 readers a day vs a librarian who might order 10 copies for their library and then give that ARC to 2-3 teens to read.

As I see it the problem with bloggers versus librarians is not an issue with the bloggers or the publishers. The issue is between the librarians and your own professional organization.  Just as the publishers see you and your organization as walking dollar signs, so your organization sees the bloggers. Every blogger who pays to get into the conference is probably $20 worth of profit to ALA. That money most likely goes into helping offset the costs associated with the conference as well as getting better or at least more well-known presenters for future conferences. Also higher attendance numbers will in turn entice more ARC offerings from publishers. In a way, the bloggers may end up being a necessary evil. They may be taking your ARCs but they are also providing you better conference opportunities as well. If you don’t want bloggers at your conference, or you want them to pay higher costs or only be limited to one day, fine. Take it up with your professional organization, not your blog or the twitterverse. However, be prepared that your membership fees or conference fees may go up or the quality of available offerings may go down because of that decision. (P.S. I don’t want to hear about the risings costs or decreased opportunities on twitter either, you are making this bed so you sleep in it)

Oh and librarians with a blog I think this statement applies to you as well: I would say that using any ARC that you receive at a library conference as a giveaway on your blog is unethical unless you have the written consent of the publisher. If a publisher sends you a book because they like your blog do whatever you want with it, but if you get an ARC at a library conference I would encourage you to read it and then donate it to your library, give it to a patron who would enjoy it, or donate it to some other worthy charity that needs books.

So what do you think? Am I right? Am I wrong? Am I being unfair to bloggers? Librarians? Publishers? Let me know in the comments and on twitter.

Most Hated Chracters

I feel a little bad about this post. I realize that I am going to be attacking people's work and so I feel some guilt. However, bad or disliked characters are going to pop up from time to time and if you create one of these monstrosities you just have to grin and bare it. You guys just might have to remind me of this if someone names one of my characters on a list like this. But without further ado here are my most hated characters (TV, Books, Video Games, and Movies are included):

10 Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games Trilogy, Books and in March a movie)

So much whining, and she can never remain conscious during any climatic moment

9 Delores Umbridge (Harry Potter series, Books and Movies)

Flat, annoying, and one sided. Not nearly the quality of Rowling's other characters

8 Wesley Crusher (Star Trek The Next Generation, TV)

Know it all Mary Sue.

7 Doctor Octopus (Spiderman 2, Movie)

I knew he was a good guy the whole time which made it hard to cheer against him.

6 John Mandrake (Bartimaeus Trilogy, Books)

Could have been one of the best characters in YA lit, but I felt like he was underdeveloped compared to Bartimaeus.

5 Navi (The Legend of Zelda, Video Games)

Annoying voice and popped up all the time with useless information

4 Bella Swan and Edward Cullen (Twilight, Books and Movies)

Shallow, angsty, and oblivious.

3 Jar Jar Binks (Star Wars, Movies)

Not sure why he even exists. Maybe George Lucas owed someone a favor?

2 Jon and Kate Goslin (TV)

I know these are real people, but if you don't realize that people are portrayed as characters in a reality show then I pity you.

1 Holden Caulfield (Catcher in the Rye, Book)

Reading Catcher in the Rye made me want to claw my eyes out. I found Holden and his slow decent into insanity to be as uninspiring as anything that I have ever read.

Favorite Characters

Who are your favorite characters of all time?

 

Mine include are not limited too:

Snape

Dumbledore

Zeddicus Zul'Zorander

Pug

Jimmy the Hand

Tyrion Lannister

Kvothe

Bartimaeus

Raistlin

 

 

I would love to  hear some of yours

#NaNoWriMo Day 1 #amwriting

Day 1 was a smashing success with over 2000 words. I am at a strange spot in the story where it is revolving around three characters at once. Sort of a Harry, Hermione, and Ron sort of thing. Except the Hermione of my story keeps getting lost in the shuffle. She has to be there, and her presence is important, but her minute to minute activities are getting lost in the story of the two guys.

It is appropriate for the scene, but not much like her character who is very boisterous. Do you think this is a problem? Have you noticed things like the before when there are multiple characters all traveling together in what you are reading or writing?

I only ask because they are about to take a journey together. Now I can write the story of the journey and throw in some mini adventure involving the magical horse they have with them, or I can skip the deals and get them to thier destination when the Hermione character is really going to take off.

What do you think?

Warming up for #NaNoWriMo 2011 #amwriting

I am back to blogging this month!

Since NaNoWriMo is just around the corner I am starting to get myself ready for the event. I am going to be continuing my work on last year's project so if everything goes well I will have 76000 words done by the end of November. You can look forward to daily updates as I blog to clear my head before writing.

So for the people who are doing NaNoWriMo this year: Are you doing a new project or are you working on something old?

I have not read nor edited anything from last year's project, but I am going to have to go back and reread it to get the thread of where I was in the story and to remember some of the nuance. Should I do any editing or should I just cringe my way through and edit when it is over? I would love your thoughts!

Adult Fantasy: The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

About the Book: What happens to legendary heroes when they grow tired of saving everyone? How do you motivate a hero? How does someone go from being an ordinary, albeit talented child to being the greatest hero in a generation? The Wise Man's Fear is Day Two of the back story of the legendary hero Kvothe.

My Thoughts: Again relayed mostly through a series of flashbacks, this story continues to be fun fast paced and exciting. Rothfuss reclaimed his wonderful writing style and again the voice clearly changes when he is writing in the past versus writing in the present. Kvothe is flushed out much more as a character, but his story takes a darker and more dangerous turn. Adult relationships flourish in all of their complexity. While there were a couple breaks in voice as the book went on, for the most part Rothfuss quickly brought the story back to where I expected it to be. My biggest problems are that the middle of the book is a sexual romp in a fairy realm and the story seems to be progressing too slowly. I can handle sex in a book, but it seemed like 200 pages of the book was devoted to sex, it just kind of dragged on and on. The other problem with progressing too slowly is this. In the present, Kvothe is around 30 years old. By the end of the second book, he is not even twenty in his flashbacks. That means in the next book he has to cover 10 years worth of back story and I am not sure how he is going to do it.

Since this series is called The KingKiller Chronicle, I am hoping that the series will be longer than a trilogy. I have not heard how many books this series is scheduled for, but I image it will take at least 2 more.

Overall this book was very good and had a much better ending. Rothfuss has won me back and I well be impatiently awaiting the next book. I give it a 7 out of 10.

An "Appropriate" Ending *SPOILER ALERT*

I don't care if the ending is happy or tragic. All I care about is an appropriate ending. I can't stand when everything changes at the end of the book. I don't like when the solution comes out of the blue without any foreshadowing, or when we find out the whole conflict really was no danger after all.

An inappropriate ending ruins books for me.

I have known where my ending was going to end up since the beginning, but I am wondering how to execute that ending.

**SPOILER ALERT**

It comes down to this question: How bothered would you be as a reader if the book ended on a very public murder, but you as the reader never knew which of the characters was killed?

Adult Fantasy: The Way of Kings By Brandon Sanderson

About the Book: Roshar is a world dominated by weather. Powerful, enchanted Highstorms sweep across the land with such fierceness and regularity that the plants have evolved to retract into the ground to avoid them. The energy of the storms provide powerful magic to Roshar's citizens and captured Stormlight can be used for everything from adding value to money to making legendarily powerful weapons and armor.

Kaladin is a brilliant soldier betrayed by his commander and sold into slavery for knowing too much. Shallan is a minor noble and talented artist who can capture a scene with a glance and duplicate it hours later, who's family no longer has enough money to survive, has a daring plan to steal a powerful magical item to try to save her family. Following the assassination of the king, and six years of war with the people who sent the assassin, Kaladin and Shallan must each risk everything just to stay alive.

My Thoughts: This book is massive, over 400k words and over 1000 pages. It is the first book of a ten book series, but it is amazingly written and the story is masterfully crafted. The characters are vibrant and leap off the page even if the background is more sparse than one typically finds in fantasy. The setting reminds me of the seafloor just without the water.

Part Lighting Thief, part Ben-Hur there is a lot of action and adventure. While not quite the page turner that Goodkind's Sword of Truth was for me, this book is definitely one of my favorites and I will be eagerly awaiting each new addition to this series. I have not spotted any major flaws other than perhaps its length, and a desire to see a few of the background characters flushed out a bit more particularly, Wit and Szeth. (of course assuming that the rest of the books will be just as large, Mr. Sanderson will have plenty of time to flush out these characters). I have had the ARC of the book for about a year and just never made the time to get to it, but now that I have I am drooling over the next one. I give it an 9 out of 10. Oh, and the audiobook is awesome too!

Swag!

I got Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss today! Even though I only gave Name of the Wind a 5 I am hopeful that his second book will be as good as I hoped his first book would have been.

A Tribute to Dave Duerson

My blog has been a real downer lately. I don't post as often as I should and most of my posts lately have been about recent deaths.

I believe that the greatest stories are the ones around us. The stories that we live everyday. What triumph lives in the mind of man that cannot be found in real life, perhaps even in the lives of our friends or neighbors in real life? What horrific dreams of evil born in literature could not already be found the darkest souls of the depraved?

My tribute today will not be complete, it will be a fractured tale that comes from childhood memories that long ago obscured, like looking at the past through a frosted window.

Dave Duerson was a professional football player, but when I first met him that was only slightly important to me. Sure, I was excited to get to meet a professional football player, but I was young and I had yet to fall in love with football. My grandparents took me to a party that some wealthy friends had every year. At these parties I met many professional athletes, but since I was so young and the party rather formal, I was bored. I know at some point I ended up at an arcade playing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was not very good, but as I played I received some help.

That help came from professional football player Dave Duerson. He came over with a bucket of quarters and played the game with me until we beat one of the bosses. We eventually ran out of quarters and he went back to the party, but for a little while he took time to bring joy to a bored little boy. I don't remember if I ever met him again. I know that the next year when the time for the party came around I had to stay home sick with the flu and Mr. Duerson asked about me and sent me a get well card along with an autographed photo.

Mr. Duerson had a fan for life and I began to pay more attention to pro football. I remember being sad that he retired, and he settled into obscurity off my radar.

He had not really settled into obscurity, he started a successful business and in his free time was busy working with former NFL players who were having trouble with brain injuries sustained while playing football.

That was until he began to show the same symptoms that the other former NFL player struggled with. He began to have trouble speaking and writing. His business floundered and his marriage fell apart. He was arrested for domestic abuse, but his exwife maintains that the incident was due to her husbands brain injury and that he was not responsible for what happened.

Two weeks ago Dave Duerson took his own life. He was 50 years old. A suicide ending the life of a former NFL player is not unusual, but the method that Mr. Duerson chose to end his was. Despite his problems with brain injury, Mr. Duerson shot himself in the chest. This way of committing suicide is particularly unusual because of the chance of suffering before death is so much greater and where the psychology of suicide by firearm normally leads. The following quote probably says it best: “Think of the old cliché about the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master. This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in the head. They shoot the terrible master.”

So why did Dave Duerson take the harder death and spare the terrible master? Because he wanted to donate his brain to science so that they can continue to work towards finding out more about the injuries that made him take his life. His suicide note and his last text messages to his family both said to make sure that his brain was donated.

This is a tragic story of a desperate broken man. This man showed me a kindness as a child and I have never forgotten it. I grieve for his family and friends. I remember a life well lived until brain injury began to remove what made him who he was. I hope that his donation will save the lives of others.

Back when I made my post about Brian Jacques I realized that he was the second person that I had recently posted about and since superstition says that deaths come in threes I was wondering who I would next be writing about. I am hoping that this means that other people that I was worried about dying will be able to hold on. (I am looking at you George R. R. Martin). I am sorry things have been so somber. Look for my review of Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings soon, and I will be back to writing about writing soon.

A Tribute to Brian Jacques

For the second time in 3 months, I write with a heavy heart. A couple weeks ago one of the authors who had a huge impact on me passed away.

When I was in fourth grade I was given a copy of Redwall by my parents. Within minutes I was lost in the rich world of brave mice, noble badgers, and diabolical vermin. It was in the series that I learned the value of librarians.

I have always been a fast reader and so I quickly made my way through the Redwall stories in my school library. My school librarian then began offering suggestions of other series that I could read, but also letting me know whenever a new Redwall book was coming out. But the school resources were limited and so I went to the public library. The librarians at the public library took up my cause and helped me fill in the gaps of the Redwall stories by getting books through interlibrary loan. Soon I had read every Redwall book published.

Through the help of librarians, and because of the vibrant stories that Brian Jacques wrote; I developed a deeper love of reading.

Eventually, I grew out of my love for the adventures in Redwall (although this was after literally wearing out several copies), but I never lost my respect for the author who influences my writing to this day.

I was sad to hear of his passing, and I was sad by how few people I saw lamenting his passing. But, I wanted to pay tribute in my way, and I hope that someday my writing will impact someone the way that the writing of Brian Jacques has impacted me.

Guest Post on GreenBeanTeenQueen

I just did a guest review of The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima for GreenBeanTeenQueen. Feel free to check it out by clicking here

Adult Fantasy: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

About the Book: What happens to legendary heroes when they grow tired of saving everyone, no matter what the cost to themselves. How do you motivate a hero. How does someone go from being an ordinary, albeit talented child to being the greatest hero in a generation. Kvothe already has most of those answers, but the answer he needs the most is the one that he cannot seem to find within himself. Maybe a chronicler who is asking about the past, a plague of demon attacks, and a worried magical friend will help him discover the passion he needs to reclaim who he used to be.

My Thoughts: Relayed mostly through a series of flashbacks, this story is fun fast paced and exciting. Rothfuss has a wonderful writing style and the voice clearly changes when he is writing in the past versus writing in the present. Kvothe is a vivid interesting character, who you cannot help but want to know more about. I had this book highly recommended to me and after reading a bit about it I was excited to read it. I was really enjoying it so much so that I actually turned off playoff football. (granted the game was out of hand and so I did not feel bad about turning it off, but still I turned off football!) My enjoyment of the book was not to last however, as the ending was perhaps the most disappointing end that I have read recently (well, excluding Mockingjay). It was like Mr. Rothfuss lost his voice with 70 pages left to go in the story. One moment he was writing a riveting story with a past and a present voice, then suddenly it switched into a slow boring monotone. Furthermore, the ending was soft and the climax seemed sudden and disjointed. It seemed like this book was cut from a larger book and definitely could not stand on its own but had to because the full book would be too long. Kvothe is a strong enough character that I want to keep reading the series to find out more about his past, but so much of the book is dedicated to Kvothe's past that I am not sure that unless the series goes for 6 books or so that there will be enough pages to tell the rest of the story of the present and the future. The other major flaw of the book is that we are told that Kvothe is a legendary warrior and hero and we are told that there are legendary stories about him. However, since the reader has yet to hear these stories and since references to the stories are frequently made in the story, I felt frustrated that I could not use these stories as reference points the way that many of the characters could. The flaws are not enough to stop me from reading on, unless Mr. Rothfuss cannot find his voice again. I give this book 5 out of 10, which is disappointing because if the story had continued as strongly to the end and it was in the beginning and the middle it would have been an 8 or a 9.

NaNoWriMo and SEX?

I suppose this is one of those big YA questions. Should sex be in YA, how much, and how much should be "on screen."

I think that writing about sex is part of writing for young adults. So I have no problem dealing with sex in my writing. But I have come to a part of the story that I am not sure how to get to the sex that I know is coming.

My main character is currently traveling with a beautiful but distant/mean girl that he studied with at school. He thinks she is beautiful but has not worked out whether he likes her or not.

The girl feels that the main character is interesting due to his potential, but really sees him as inferior to her because she is street smart and he is book smart. She thinks he is cute, but cannot get over how naive he is. So there is room for this to grow into something, but in her mind he is more casual friend material. However, if he started up some trouble it would be a different story.

Now comes the interesting part. While traveling they have met a handsome farm boy who is charming and witty, but also has shown an ability to protect himself when danger is around. The girl is completely smitten with him, and has been reduced to giggles on more than once occasion.

So here is the question. The girl would totally have sex with farm boy, like right now, if the opportunity arose. But, if this happens, main character will be turned off of her for good. However, if I throw the brakes on the sex for now and let the relationship develop more it could turn into an interesting series of love points to explore in the story.

So that is my dilemma, any advice?

Family Distractions

My return to NaNoWriMo today was less than successful as I was interrupted by family members calling, wanting to talk, or just wanting to cuddle (this would be my dogs/wife).

First, my wife wanted to cuddle on the couch, but I told her I needed to write so she let me go.

Next, my brother texted me and wanted me to get on skype to talk. While we were talking my other brother got on and so it conversation went way longer than anticipated.

Then, my father-in-law called and spent 25 minutes talking to me about sports.

Then the internet went out. (which I use the internet a lot when I write so not having it is like missing a hand.)

So now I am frustrated, my creative energies have been totally thrown off, and I just want to go to bed.

How do you deal with family distractions? Would this series of events put you off your writing, or am I just being silly?

Well, I suppose some good can come from this, I can tell my wife I am ready to cuddle now. :)

Midwinter Institute Gushing part 2 #alamw11

This is the part where I get to tell you about my honorary Master's degree. but not yet.

First to the swag. The book that GreenBeanTeenQueen got was called Glow, but I am not sure of the author. I received a free audiobook copy of the latest Wheel of Time book called Towers of Midnight. On the last day of the conference most display items are for sale or are even given away free so I made the most of that time too. I got the whole set of the Ranger's apprentice books, I got a hard cover edition of The Ring of Solomon the final book in the Bartimaeus series, I got the hard cover graphic novels of The Amulet of Samarkand and the Lightning Thief. So I was pretty happy. Wife got a lot more we wound up shipping or packing over 200 lbs of books for her teens at the library.

As for the rest of the trip, it was fun but rather uneventful until we went to a meetup with some of GreenBeanTeenQueen's blogger/librarian friends. We had dinner a couple times and walked around San Diego, until they decided that they were going to start their own library called The International Library of Awesome or ILOA for short. I was feeling a little left out since I was the only one who was not technically a librarian due to the fact that I do not have a Master's in Library Science. They solved that problem for me by granting me an Honorary Master's of Information and Library Science.

They also came up with an idea that will be a new segment on the blog. Once a month you will get to watch a video blog entitled P&G. This stands for Puke and Glitter, I will coordinate with another ILOA member to read the same YA book and give it a review on a one to five scale of buckets of puke if I did not like it, and buckets of glitter if I did like it. The book choices will generally be books that we expect will elicit a puke response from me and a glitter response from my co-host that month. However, you never know when I might give out some glitter (it will be manly glitter though, like blue glitter or camo colored or something.) So watch for that.

I guess that is it. Starting tomorrow I am going to try to finish the second half of NaNoWriMo. So I will post back with updates and you will see how I progress...

Midwinter Institute Gushing part 1 #alamw11

WARNING! Major gushing to follow.

Sorry it has been so long, but I hope to make up for it this week with my updates from the American Library Association's Midwinter Institute from sunny San Diego California.

GreenBeanTeenQueen and I arrived Wednesday night and made our way to our fabulous hotel - The Gaslamp Hilton and our room has a wonderful view of the convention center and the bay behind. We have been treated to beautiful sunsets and gorgeous mid 60s weather.

Thursday we woke up and made our way to the San Diego Zoo which was even better than advertised. I grew up going to the Brookfield Zoo which is considered the third best zoo in the United States, but I can fully understand why San Diego is number one. The landscape was beautiful, and I saw animals there that I did not know even existed. It was so much fun, I highly recommend it.

Then we went to the San Diego Maritime Museum and got to go on several ships. First we went on a 1874 merchant ship, then we went on a replica of a pre-civil war era warship, we went on a retired soviet submarine from 1974, then a retired American submarine from 1968. We also went on a steam liner from circa 1870. It was incredible to see all the craftsmanship and we got some great pictures that I will post later.

We closed our evening walking around the beautiful gaslamp district.

Yesterday we woke up and did all of our registration for ALA. Then we went to lunch at the wonderful Yard House. It was amazing, a lot of bar food, but it was bar food the way that a culinary school would do it. So good! Wifey got 3 cheese grilled cheese with tomato bisque soup and I got Parmesan crusted chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and 3 mushroom sauce.

After lunch wifey had a committee meeting so I wandered over to Petco Park where the San Diego Padres play. They have a beautiful stadium and you can walk all the way up to the outfield fence to take pictures of the field.

After wifey's committee meeting, we got to go to the opening of the exhibits. It was awesome, we ran into some friends, and then when the doors opened rushed to get all of the freebees. Within 11 minutes I was heading back to the hotel with bags bulging. After 3 additional hotel runs we went to the Yalsa Not so Silent Silent Auction. It was fun but a bit to rich for us so we left early for our YA Librarian/Blogger meetup. When we got there we found that a publisher had come and comped us drinks up to $500. We had a couple authors and many blogging librarians, it was an absolute blast. The publisher who came had worked for Tor and for Random House before moving to Baen, so I was his shadow for a lot of the night learning all that I could about those publishers. He also recommended a epic fantasy series by Steven Erikson which I am very excited to read. Eventually as the meetup slowed down we went back to the room, ordered room service, and went to bed.

Today has been amazing. We got up and went over to the convention center, and we got tweeted that Macmillan wanted to meet with us. We went over to the booth and found that that the amazing library marketing team had seen my tweets. I had tweeted about how upset I was that neither Tor nor Wizards of the Coast had come to midwinter institute. I had also tweeted how I was carry bags for GreenBeanTeenQueen and that I could use encouragement should anyone see me weighed down with books. Turns out that they had a surprise for each of us. For wifey, they had an ARC of a book that will not be published for more than a year to do a special review on. For me, they had a free audiobook from Tor! I can't give titles until after the conference so come back and I will tell all.

This totally made my day and gave me a whole new respect for Macmillan. I am so grateful for the gift and I promptly tweeted Macmillan's praises.

Now, I am off to lunch, and wifey is in committee today so I think I will take in some NFL playoff football. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Least Favorite Christmas Songs?

It is Christmas week! For many of us we will finally be getting relief from the incessant Christmas music that had been blaring through every story and every other radio station since Halloween. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas music but I have two problems: 1. I love Christmas music but there are songs that I cannot stand, and 2. I pledge to fight Christmas Creep, I do not turn on Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving.

So now after nearly two months of Christmas music I have to ask, what are your least favorite Christmas songs?

This is one of my favorite questions because so many people (including myself) get so upset about it. Lets face it there are some really terrible songs out there! I know that one persons terrible is another person's favorite, but I love that you can bring up this question and turn a room of friends into a bunch of bickering children as each tries to defend their favorites.

While I could list several I will restrain myself to my top three:

3. Christmas Shoes

I think this is the dumbest song, but while I dislike it I don't hate it enough to give it anymore space on this blog.

2. Do They Know its Christmas in Africa

I know that I am attacking a humanitarian aid project and the beloved music icons who came together to form BandAid, but while the intention was good the execution of the song was awful. Sure it is catchy but have you listened to the lyrics? Its like reading the Heart of Darkness, it is arrogant and self indulgent, and shows how little we still understand about these people. And as the song says, "Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you."

As bad as that is, it still does not make me turn off the radio or leave the room like my least favorite song.

1. Last Christmas

Ugh just writing those words makes me sick to my stomach. Again this as a very catching and beautiful song musically, but the lyrics kill it for me. Lets take a look at the narrative in the song:

Last Christmas the singer gave their heart to someone who broke it. Sad yes but things happen in relationships. It does sound like the singer got used instead of the breakup being part of the normal course of a healthy relationship that just is not right, but we don't know that for sure. I mean we only see it from one perspective.

But then we get to the line, "This year to save me from tears I will give it to someone special." Ok, I know that most people want to be with someone special at Christmas, but doesn't it seem that by putting some kind of artificial deadline on finding a relationship the singer is setting his or herself up for failure again? Love and relationships take time so it seems unlikely that the singer is going to find the love that they so desperately seek when they are working on a deadline.

Then the song takes another turn, the singer runs into the person that broke their heart last year and starts entertaining the idea of trying it again this Christmas with the same person. Its assumable this person is good looking, a good kisser and good in bed, all laudable traits, but is that really the only basis of human relationships?

Oh it gets better, as the singer laments how they were hurt, we find out that the singer is IN A RELATIONSHIP. The singer is willing to throw away what is described in future lines as exactly what the singer was looking for. The singer says that they would do to their current partner exactly the same thing that was done to them the year before.

I hate this song. What Christmas songs bother you?

Getting published definately takes luck, but what makes luck?

I am a upbeat, optimistic, and fairly observant person most of the time. I consider myself to be relatively lucky and so I am hopeful that if I am ever disciplined enough to finish my stories, that I will someday get published.

So what about people who are not lucky?

Well there has been some research done on the subject and while some things (like winning the lottery and being in the right place at the right time) cannot really be controlled, there are things that you can do to make yourself more lucky.

First, I found this article on yahoo:

A lucky find huh?

Then, I was in the right place at the right time to have a coworker show me this video:


So do you consider yourself a lucky person? If so keep an eye out for a money tree.

Faces in Weird Places

I see faces in the strangest places. Perhaps it is because I am creative. Perhaps it is because I am ADD and my attention span is...about as long as...what was I talking about? Faces right!

Here are two that I have seen recently:

The first one was pretty easy to see. The second is a bit harder, but inspired me so much that I use it as a visual for one type of creature in my fantasy writing.

Did you see it? Here is a closer look.

These are just two examples. Do you ever see faces around anywhere? I would love to hear about your stories