Ebook Ebdeavors: Writing Books, Author Interviews

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Lindsay Buroker

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.lindsayburoker.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: E-publishing basics, social media marketing, search engine optimization, and blogging to sell your books.

MY REVIEW: Lindsay Buroker is the author of Flash Gold, The Emperor's Edge, and Encrypted. So she knows whereof she speaks in this blog about writing, and helping other authors to publicize their work.

This blog is of interest not only to prospective authors but also to their prospective readers as well. Check it out!

Sample post:

Tips For Interviewing Authors
One of the perks of running a blog is that it gives you a place to post author interviews.

Whether you’re a book blogger or you’re a writer yourself, if you’ve spent time building up your site (i.e. getting folks to find it and follow it), you might have the perfect place for authors to “visit.” And an interview is a great excuse to interrogate question your favorite writers. You can ask them about their books, themselves, their plans to take over the world with words, and other fun stuff.

But how do you approach an author? How many blog readers do you need to entice someone to take the time to answer questions? What should you ask if you do get an author to agree to an interview?

I can’t speak for all authors, but I’ll attempt to answer some of these questions.

How do you approach an author for an interview?

In this day and age, most authors have websites, and many will have blogs where they post regularly. If you surf around the site, you’ll probably find an email address or a contact form.

It can be harder with authors who got their start in the pre-internet age. Some of those guys jumped right on board and learned about promoting on the web, but others may never have gotten that involved with the internet and social media. You can always try getting in touch with these folks through their publisher. You might check Facebook and Twitter, too, since authors who aren’t sure about the ins and outs of buying a domain name and building a website might settle for a Facebook page.

Will popular authors agree to interviews on blogs?

One of the truths of being an author is that emails asking questions or requesting help increase as an author becomes well known. I’m a small fry, and even I’ve experienced this more of late. I can only imagine how it is for a bestselling author.

These folks may not have the time to do interviews, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. You never know. You might catch them on a slow day, or something about the theme of your questions (more on that further down) might pique their interest.

An alternative way to snag the popular guys is to find out what their conference/convention schedule is for the year (many SF/F authors in particular are active with conventions) and see if they have a few minutes to answer questions at a local event (make sure to take a recording device — you can transcribe the answer for your blog later or you can simply post the audio file). I’ve seen podcasters in my genre have a lot of luck getting bestselling authors to sit down and answer questions.

Remember, the more popular your blog, the more enticing it’s going to be for an author to appear there, so keep working on building it up and increasing traffic.

How popular does your blog need to be, anyway?

This is going to depend on the person. Some new authors just want to be interviewed and will agree to appear anywhere, but you’ll probably want to wait until you’ve built up a readership and are getting regular blog comments before approaching people.

If you have a fairly popular blog, use that as a selling point when you ask for an interview. Don’t be afraid to say, “I have 5,000 mystery readers who stop by each month and a newsletter with 500 subscribers” or whatever the case may be. If you install something like Google Analytics, you can share exact numbers and even some demographic information about your visitors.

If you don’t have many readers yet, don’t mention that. Some authors don’t really know how to figure that stuff out, so you might get lucky!

What interview questions should you ask authors?

There aren’t any rules here, but you may want to avoid some of the common questions that writers get asked all the time. Authors get a lot of “tell us about yourself” and “what first made you decide to become a writer?” There’s nothing wrong with these questions, but they aren’t always that interesting for the author to answer, and readers who aren’t familiar with the author probably won’t care.

Think of questions that might reward current readers and entice new ones. For example, I recently had a lot of fun answering questions that weren’t about me at all. They were about one of my core characters. The interview was about my assassin, Sicarius, and is up at a reader’s blog. I think the questions are fun for readers of my series, but they might also intrigue someone who hasn’t read the books (authors are always hoping to find new readers!).

Interviews with a theme can be a nice draw as well. If you share the interview on Twitter and Facebook, you need it to grab folks with nothing more than the title. What sounds more interesting to you? Interview with Jane Doe? or Jane Doe Offers Tips on Writing Psychopaths, Serial Killers, and Assassins?

If you have a writing blog instead of a book blog, it may make more sense to pick a theme that will appeal to other authors (i.e. an interview about writing or publishing or book promotion) as opposed to something that talks about the author’s books. Any extra visibility is good visibility for an author, and you’ll probably find that folks are willing to answer questions on a variety of topics related to their work.

Is there any sort of interviewer etiquette you need to keep in mind?

My first tip would be to respect the author’s time. It can take an hour or two to answer questions, especially if they’re thoughtful ones.

When I’m doing interviews, I usually only send five or six questions myself. I’d recommend you send no more than ten and make sure some of those ten are on the type where the response can be on the shorter side. Authors like to write, yes, but they’re busy working on the next book too!

Next, make sure to customize your questions for that author. I’ve had folks send me thirty generic questions and ask me to pick ten that I wanted to answer. Granted, that was early on and for a book blog tour where the blogger hadn’t read my stuff, but I definitely had an “Uhmmm, okay….” response.

If an author agrees to an interview for your site, he or she is probably doing it for book promotion purposes. It’ll be very much appreciated if you include links to the author’s website as well as their most recent book. That way readers can easily click through for more information or to download ebook sample chapters without having to head over to Google.

Many bloggers will schedule the interviews to post on a certain day. It’s good if you can let the author know the day in advance, but do yourself a favor and remind him or her when the post goes online (you’ll need to wait until it’s actually up to send the link anyway). That way, the author can help you with promotion. Social-media-savvy writers will post links on Twitter and Facebook so their fans can check out the interview.

That’s it for my suggestions on interviewing authors. If you have any comments or tips to add, please let us know below!

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--Tips for interviewing authors
-- Tips for Interviewing Authors
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--Story Updates and Why My Ebooks Aren’t in the Amazon Prime Lending Library
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Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
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Check out my kindle BOOKS!:
Whose Body, by Dorothy Sayers (the Annotated Edition)
The Coldest Equations (science fiction)
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
The Lady and the Tiger...Moth

Living, Breathing, Writing (writing blog)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Living, Breathing, Writing, by Chelle Cordero

WEB ADDRESS: Couldn't find it, but this is the author's personal blog: http://chellecordero.blogspot.com/
BLOG DESCRIPTION: All about writing and being a writer

MY REVIEW: This is an excellet blog for the aspiring writer, and I highly recommend it. The author teaches you the craft of writing, and what to do when you've been published.

There's only a couple of drawbacks. There's only one post a week - but now that all blogs are only 99 cents, it's well worth it to subscribe.

Also, the font is huge. Not quite sure what settings the author has her blog on, but if you've got vision problems it won't matter with this blog!

I'd share a sample post but I was unable to find this particular blog on the web (although the author has her own personal blog there, linked above), so not quite sure where the feed comes from.

Nevertheless, people who want to learn the craft of writing would do well to subscribe to this blog.

RECENT POSTS:
--It's all a matter of semantics
--Passive?
--Just the basics
--VBT to go
--All clear ahead
--Blurbing

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Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

The Writer's Workshop (writing)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: The Writer's Workshop, by Shelly Bryant

WEB ADDRESS: http://blog.poetrycoachonline.com/wordpress/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: The Writer's Workshop is the place to find insights from experienced writer, poet, and teacher Shelly Bryant.

Tips on the writing and publishing process are mixed in with market updates, and occasional pieces of creative writing. For writers looking to improve their craft and to find markets to publish their final work, The Writer's Workshop has much to offer.

This blog is maintained by Shelly Bryant as an extension of her of Poetry and Writing Coach service. Here, you will find updates on courses and services offered, news about new literary magazines, calls for submissions, discussions about poetry and writing, updates about upcoming activities (courses, readings, launches, etc.), insights from other writers and artists with whom Shelly has worked or is currently working, and maybe some creative writing, from time to time.

MY REVIEW: I'm giving this blog a provisional "Yes." It's a new blog, only a couple of weeks old (although an adjunct to an established website) and a few of the entries have been very brief, and without a lot of info. But the blog is still finding its feet and, based on the author's other blogs, will be chock-full of information for the aspiring poet and prose writer.

The blog is updated every 2 to 3 days.

RECENT POSTS:
--Subscribe on Your Kindle
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--Sloth Jockey
--The Sense of a Writer


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Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

The Quivering Pen (arts and entertainment, writing, Iraq War)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: The Quivering Pen, by David Abrams

WEB ADDRESS: http://davidabramsbooks.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Primarily concerning my work-in-progress ("Fobbit," a serio-comic novel about the Iraq War), but also touching on short stories, reviews and other news from the literary landscape. "Fobbit" in a nutshell: It's as if "The Hurt Locker" and "The Office" got married and had a kid they named "Catch-22."

MY REVIEW: I liked this blog, but there's no denying it's got an unfortunate title. Indeed, another blog has the same name - but it's a romance writer's blog!

Those who look past the title (it's a quote from Emile Zola) to the actual content of the blog will also enjoy it. The author shares excerpts from his novel (and the sample post below is one of those) as well as book reviews, info on freebies at Amazon, and so on.

Highly recommended.

Sample post

The Darkest Hour is Just Before the Dawn of Democracy

When I look back at my year in Baghdad, specifically through the portal of my journal, I'm struck by how different a person I was just five years ago. That David Abrams was wound tight as a clock-spring, swollen with naivete, and hypersensitive to every little thing going on around him. Sometimes, though, he wrote some pretty good shit.

I've taken a lot of what happened in 2005 and transmogrified it into the fiction of Fobbit. But here are a couple of entries which come to you direct from the journal, unedited except for preserving some individuals' identities. The "Referendum," for those of you who aren't CNN junkies, refers to the effort to ratify the Iraqi constitution. It was one of many historic days I saw that year when thousands of citizens went to the polls, braving terrorist threats and trying to put aside years of Hussein-era brainwashing. You can read more about the referendum at this Wikipedia page.


October 13, 2005: I was standing in line today waiting to get my flu shot and I struck up a conversation with a master sergeant who works in the Civil Affairs section. He was telling me about a sergeant first class in his unit who had just been killed two weeks ago. “Just a week before it happened, he was hit with an IED and injured his hand. Walked away with nothing but a minor hand injury. And just imagine all that he and his wife went through with that, all the trauma associated with getting hurt over here far away from your loved ones and there’s nothing either one of you can do about it. Then, just a week later, he’s dead. It sucked, man. think of his wife getting both of those messages delivered to her in the space of less than two weeks. It just really sucks, man.”


* * *

Lieutenant Colonel W______ came up to me, a bundle of red-inked press releases in his hand. He was shaking his head. He’d just come from the chief of staff’s office. I could tell because he had that “I’ve just been kicked and I’m still numb and tingling with pain” look about him.

“The chief’s latest twist is that he doesn’t want us to put times in our press releases.”

I rolled my eyes, clapped a hand to my forehead.

“I know, I know, but I can kind of understand how it’s a security issue. He feels like we’re giving too much away to the enemy by specifically identifying when events occur. It’s a TTP issue.”

Pretty soon, there’s not going to be much left of our press releases for him to chop away at. I foresee the sanitation of PRs due to Tactics, Techniques and Procedures dumbing us down to the barest element: “A military unit an IED somewhere in Baghdad did something sometime during the month of October.” And that’s it, that’s the whole press release. Anything more would compromise our security and put our soldiers in jeopardy.

This follows on the heels of the Iraqi government’s paranoid prohibition of allowing any Iraqi Army or Iraqi Police to talk to the media until after the Referendum. A complete news blackout for the next week. This is going to make it tough for us since Corps PAO is pushing us to “put an Iraqi face” on all releases, whenever possible (which, in turn, reverses the previous command of not writing about the IAs or IPs because that was now the job of the Ministry of Interior or the Ministry of Defense [which, of course, is a reversal of the way it was when I first arrived in Baghdad and I was told to play up Iraqi Security Forces successes at every turn]). So, no more credibility-lending quotes from Iraqi military or police in our PRs. And, whatever you do, don’t allow Iraqi Soldiers to talk to anyone in the media.

“Try telling that to Gen. Jalil (one of the IA Division commanders) who’s setting up a media center right now,” snarled Maj. P_______.


* * *

The task force commander has decreed that “Every time a platoon-sized element or larger rolls out the gate, it’s to be a named operation."

Pretty soon, we’ll have “Operation Go To the Bathroom” or “Operation I Just Need to Gas Up the Humvee.”


October 14, 2005: We’ve been out of paper towels in the men’s room for the past three days. Rumor has it there’s a nationwide paper shortage because they need all the paper for the ballots in the Referendum tomorrow. I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s a nice little urban legend that helps us get over our irritation at not being able to dry our hands.

The chow hall has also run out of ranch dressing and ketchup due to the fact that Iraq has been sealed up—no air traffic, no border crossing, no nothing until after Referendum Day.


October 15, 2005: Referendum Day dawned with something Baghdad hadn’t heard in more than a year: the sound of silence. No fireballs, no plumes of smoke, no rat-a-tat-tat-tat of machine guns rattling through neighborhoods. Just the thump of our heartbeats in our ears. This was the day, this was the moment, this was the hour of decision.

I started off the day on the wrong foot. I came back from taking a shower to realize that I’d locked myself out of the room. Damn. I had to traipse all the way over to the KBR Billeting Office in my shorts and T-shirt to get the spare key.

Before going in to work an hour early, I made sure I had a big breakfast at the chow hall because who knew when I’d have the next chance to eat. Eggs, sausage, hash browns, a pear, a pastry. It all filled my belly and got my blood pumping.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour was there on the overhead TVs in the chow hall telling us that Baghdad had just woken up from an overnight power outage when, she said, insurgents sabotaged a power plant on the eve of the Referendum. I knew for a fact that it wasn’t true because our Command Information Center had called me the night before to say that one of the electrical plants had experienced a technical malfunction but that it wasn’t AIF-related. The Anti-Iraqi Forces had other bombs to plot and plant, apparently. Still, I let Christiane and the rest of the news media believe what they wanted. It made for much more dramatic TV to say that a power station had been blown up by infidels, rather than a bad fuse just blew, coincidentally on the night before the nation’s biggest day of the year.

I get to work around 6:55. Two minutes later, they make an announcement over the speakers: “Marne X-Ray, this is Marne Zulu.”

“Marne Zulu, this is Marne X-Ray. Go ahead, over.”

“Uh, roger. Just wanted to let you know that the President is voting now.”

I look up at the live television coverage and, sure enough, there are the President and the Prime Minister walking into a bare, non-descript room somewhere in the Green Zone. They get their ballots from a girl in a head scarf, then they walk over to two podiums which have been set up on a stage at the front of the room. They vote—a simple checkmark for “Yes” or for “No”—then carefully dip their forefinger into a bottle of ink which will stain them for the next 72 hours as proof that they voted (a low-tech way to prevent ballot-box stuffing). They hold up their fingers for the camera and smile.

CNN tells me, “The Ministry of Interior says that security is much heavier now than it was in January.”

I sit down at my computer and…it begins. Within an hour, I start to get the first photos from our brigade journalists. I immediately throw them onto the press release template, format it, proofread and copyedit the text, then send it to the printer and rush it in to LTC W______, who then rushes it in to Colonel G______, who then rushes it back to us and then I send it out to my media e-mail list. From conception to release, most of them take less than an hour. Meanwhile, I continue to get more and more releases and photos from our brigades. Soon, I have to have one of the junior-ranking soldiers from the Media Operations Center come over to be my runner. My butt doesn’t even leave the chair—except maybe twice for a quick jog down the hall to take a choked-short whiz before sprinting back to the keyboard. The whole thing works like clockwork and within 12 hours, I have processed 21 releases and sent 45 photos out to the world (a lieutenant later tells me he saw several of our photos appear on CNN throughout the day). At times, I’ve got three different releases open and my brain is doing its typical split-screen function as I try to keep everything neatly compartmentalized and organized in my head. I barely look up from my screen the whole day, except to bark at my runner, “Grab that off the printer and run it in to LTC W______. Now!” I have no time for courtesy. I am a friggin' press release machine. My arms are levers, my heart is a pulley.

That evening, after the polls have finally closed and the releases have dwindled to a trickle in my inbox, Captain L_____ looks at me and says, “Go sit down and eat dinner before you have an aneurysm.”

I don’t leave the office until nearly 11 p.m. But I walk back to my hooch bursting with excitement and pride over the job I’ve done today. For the first time in the 10 months I've been over here, everything went exactly as planned. It was perfect from start to finish. I can still hardly believe it.*


*I had good reason for my disbelief. As anyone** who has paid attention to the news from Iraq since that day knows, the country is still struggling to stabilize its government. The eel is still greased and elusive.

**Which is about 30% of Americans.

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_______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
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Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
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Rush Limbaugh Report

My Bedroom Blog With Amy V (writing)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: My Bedroom Blog With Amy V, by Amy Venezia

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.amyvenezia.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: My bedroom Blog with Amy V, think outloud style of writing is compelling and entertaining while it stirs it up & gets people thinking- which in turn, gets them asking- which means someone out there is gonna break free out of their box because of it. My Bedroom Blog with Amy V talks about things that people are afraid to discuss- a permission slip to say what ya need to say- think what you have been wanting to think... GETTING REAL on the subjects of relationships, sex, love, dating, life and the differences between men and women. WARNING: this blog is not for the person who wants to follow instead of lead, fit in instead of being different, cower instead of standing up, stay comfortable instead of risking it all.

MY REVIEW: The author's blog actually has nothing to do with her description. She has two blogs, the bedroom blog that has not been updated since February, and a blog that uses her name as its title, and which is where the feed for the Kindle subscription comes from. And that one is dedicated to writing. Apparently, she is going to write something, a poem or other material, every day for 365 days.

It's actually pretty interesting, I think aspiring writers should check it out.

Sample post

Day 9 of my 365 day challenge to write…A kaleidoscope…a human masterpiece.

I got an email from a reader yesterday asking me what kind of woman I am striving to be.

That if motherhood, or being a wife, or climbing the corporate ladder are not priorities… then what I am striving to be?

Good question.

The first thing that came to me is… I hope to be more than one woman.

I would like to believe I am more than one woman.

Not flat or predictable, but three dimensional.

I am sensitive enough that I can feel every woman in me…when I sit still and just be…

The wise one.

The level headed one.

The sexy siren one

The seductress.

The romancer.

The mother.

The sister.

The lover.

The seeker.

The dreamer.

The innocent.

The giver.

The taker.

A kaleidoscope of attributes.

That is what I hope for.

That I may never settle or fall asleep in the box.

That I may never allow some person to spoon feed me a belief.

That I never stay too long in one attribute as to stop the flow of creativity that comes with embracing it all.

Allowing it all.

Being it all.

Does that make sense?

I look at being human as a masterpiece painting.

Masterpiece paintings were never flat or one dimensional; they were vibrant, exquisite detail, layer upon layer… They told a story. There was mystery; with each person who had the privilege to lay their eyes on a masterpiece, came their own unique interpretation. Because, that masterpiece was created in such brilliant flow that no one interpretation could ever be considered absolute.

That is what I strive to be…my own unique masterpiece.

How about you?

RECENT POSTS:
--Day 12 of my 365 day challenge to write…Sink or swim.
--Day 11 of my 365 day challenge to write…Aristotle had it right…
--Day 10 of my 365 day challenge to write…Play in left field.
--Day 9 of my 365 day challenge to write…A kaleidoscope…a human masterpiece.
--Day 8 of my 365 day challenge to write…Childlike or naive?

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Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Any Shiny Thing (lifestyle and culture)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Any Shiny Thing, by Lynne Morgan Spreen

WEB ADDRESS: http://anyshinything.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Having a mid-life crisis? Halfway through your life and wishing you'd done everything differently? Lynne Morgan Spreen examines this and every other issue on the minds and in the hearts of Boomer Women.

MY REVIEW: I really enjoyed this blog,and I think it will resonate with a lot of women. Girls and women in their 20s and 30s might learn a thing or two about what it's like to look back on your life at age 50 and think of things you'd wished you'd done...or hadn't done. There's an old cliche - you should learn from your mistakes, but it's so much better to learn from other people's mistakes. And experiences.

It's life experience that's on offer here. New ways of thinking of things, pointers in new directions, expanding of consciousnesses.

I highly recommend it.

Sample post:

Memoir Writers, You Need to Open a Vein

I don’t write memoir (unless you consider how much of Dakota Blues is autobiographical) but for those of my friends who do, here’s an excellent post by Jane Friedman reminding you to keep it real, or in the words of Mary Karr, who wrote Liar’s Club:

I think memoirists are writing about how you continue to love people who have broken your fucking heart, how you maneuver in the world and show the inside, the complicated psychological insides of human relationships.

Now, I don’t happen to agree that such writing is limited to memoir; my stories are all about the above. But I do think that memoirists have to be prepared to shed their fear of exposure and give us the truth, no matter how embarrassing or ugly. Good luck!

RECENT POSTS:
--Am I Really Middle-Aged at 56?
--Are Your Friends Bad For You (Part 2)
--Memoir Writers, You Need to Open a Vein
--Are Your Friends Bad For You? (Part 1)
_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

The History of the (Whole) World (history, writing)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: The History of the (Whole) World, by Susan Wise Bauer

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.susanwisebauer.com/blog/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: My progress in writing, revising, sending to my editor, re-revising, fact-checking, galley-reading, and promoting a four-volume history of the world...along with reflections on life as a writer/parent/amateur farmer.

MY REVIEW: There are two types of author's blogs - both of which I find interesting to read. There's the aspiring authors - the ones who haven't been published yet and who take you on their journey to be published. And there are those that have been published - a lot - and tell you what it's like from that perspective.

Susan Wise Bauer has been published, a lot, and is doing all the things that professional authors do to promote their work - going on lecture tours, etc., while continuing to write yet more books.

When young, I used to devour fiction and ignore non-fiction. Now that I'm old, I regret the years wasted in that regard...oh, the fiction was enjoyable, but the knowledge contained in non-fiction books... that's what's necessary in the world today.

Highly recommended.

Sample post

From my point of view, Mr. Freud, it makes a BIG difference.
July 30th, 2010 by Susan
In preparation for those Vancouver lectures I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m working my way through a raft of books on technology and society. Which means you’re going to hear about them in this blog. A lot.

I went back this past week to reread Neil Postman’s 1992 Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology; it’s one of the core reflections on this topic, and even if you disagree with Postman you can’t ignore him. (I’ve got to go back and reread Jacques Ellul as well.)

I first read this book years ago. Maybe fifteen years. Starting into it again, I was brought up short by this section, which I don’t remember from my first reading.

…Technophiles….gaze on technology as a lover does on his beloved, seeing it as without blemish and entertaining no apprehension for the future. They are therefore dangerous and are to be appraoched cautiously. On the other hand, some…such as I (or so I am accused), are inclined to speak only of burdens…and are silent about the opportunities that new technologies make possible. The Technophiles must speak for themselves, and do so all over the place. My defense is that a dissenting voice is sometimes needed to moderate the din made by the enthusiastic multitude…For it is inescapable that every culture must negotiate with technology, whether it does so intelligently or not. A bargain is struck in which technology giveth and technology taketh away. The wise know this well, and are rarely impressed by dramatic technological changes, and never overjoyed. Here, for examples, is Freud on the matter, from his doleful Civilization and Its Discontents:

One would like to ask: is there, then, no positive gain in pleasure, no unequivocal increase in my feeling of happiness, if I can, as often as I please, hear the voice of a child of mine who is living hundreds of miles away or if I can learn in the shortest possible time after a friend has reached his destination that he has come through the long and difficult voyage unharmed?? Does it mean nothing that medicine has succeeded in enormously reducing infant mortality and the danger of infection for women in childbirth, and, indeed, in considerably lengthening the average life of a civilized man?

Freud knew full well that technical and scientific advances are not to be taken lightly, which is why he begins this passage by acknowledging them.

So far so good. But let us continue:

But [Freud] ends [the passage] by reminding us of what they have undone:

If there had been no railway to conquer distances, my child would never have left his native town and I should need no telephone to hear his voice; if travelling across the ocean by ship had not been introduced, my friend would not have embarked on his sea-voyage and I should not need a cable to relieve my anxiety about him. What is the use of reducing infantile mortality when it is precisely that reduction which imposes the greatest restraint on us in the begetting of children, so that, taken all round, we nevertheless rear no more children than in the days before the reign of hygiene, while at the same time we have created difficult conditions for our sexual life in marriage?

At this point I had a series of related reactions which I scribbled in the margin of the book. They went something like this:

Hold the phone. Freud just said: If one technology reduces infant mortality at the same time that another technology lowers the birth rate, the technologies cancel each other out because we end up with the same number of children at the end of the day.

In other words, Freud dismisses nine months of pregnancy, labor, and delivery as unimportant. And even more appalling: he does not give any weight at all to the emotional anguish of giving birth to a child, loving it, and watching it die.

I cannot imagine a woman writing this. (“If you end up with four children at the end, having a dozen babies and watching eight die is the same as having four pregnancies.”)

Even more startling to me is Postman’s quoting it as a perfect example of understanding both the benefits and drawbacks of technology. Did he not hear Freud’s voice, pointing out that it’s better to have an unfettered sex life and lots of children, even if some of them die, than to “create difficulties” around sex and lower the birth rate? (Okay, to be fair to Freud, he did say “in marriage.” But still.)

Would a woman, writing about technology and American civilization, quote Freud in this way? Surely not.

And now that I look at the twelve highly-recommended books about technology and American society sitting on my to-read shelf, another question occurs to me. Why are they all by men?

(By the way: recommendations for titles on this topic, written by women, would be much appreciated.)

RECENT POSTS:
--The social networking map
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--And in non-publishing-related news…
--From my point of view, Mr. Freud, it makes a BIG difference.

(A bit of the author's bio:

Susan’s most recent book for Norton, The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade (2010) is the second in a four-volume series providing a narrative world history; the first volume, The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome, was published in 2007. Her previous books include the academic title The Art of the Public Grovel: Sexual Sin and Confession in America (2008), published by Princeton University Press, and The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had , a guide to reading the classic works of fiction, poetry, history, autobiography, and drama (Norton, 2003).

Norton also published The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (with co-author Jessie Wise); originally published in 1999, this bestselling guide to education in the classical tradition was revised and updated in 2004 and again in 2009. Susan has written a four-volume world history series for children, The Story of the World, published by Peace Hill Press (Volume 1, Ancient Times; Volume 2, The Middle Ages; Volume 3, Early Modern Times; and Volume 4, The Modern Age). She is currently at work on The Complete Writer, a K-12 writing program for home educators and private schools. Susan is also a contributing editor of Books & Culture and is preparing a lecture series for The Teaching Company.

_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Sizzling Hot Romance from romance author Kristie Leigh Maguire

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Sizzling Hot Romance from romance author Kristie Leigh Maguire

WEB ADDRESS: http://sizzlinghotromance.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Sharing the world of romance authors and their books with you. It's a karma thing.

MY REVIEW: If you're in to this author, or the romance genre in general, I think you'll enjoy this blog. Maguire has published Second Chances, Desert Heat, No Lady and Her Tramp, Cabin Fever, and Emails From the Edge.

Latest post

Sizzling Hot July Sale!
The ebook versions of Desert Heat, Cabin Fever, No Lady and Her Tramp, and Second Chances are discounted 50% off the list price at Smashwords.com. Get your copy for only $1.50 each. The coupon code can be found on the book page at Smashwords. Use the code when you check out.

Kristie Leigh Maguire Smashwords.com Page

Desert Heat - sensual romance
From the scorching sun of the Mojave Desert to the brilliant neon lights of Las Vegas, the sexy steel magnolia Marcie Treyhorne blazes a trail of passion through the desert sands. Her heart is torn in half as her desire for her new boss grows into a raging inferno while her love for her longtime husband remains as steadfast as the ancient desert mountains that surround Mojave Junction, California.

Cabin Fever - sensual romance
The beautiful and sexy Marcie Treyhorne is a steel magnolia who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to go after it. Marcie's story began in DESERT HEAT. Her saga continues in CABIN FEVER. Marcie leaves the blistering heat of the desert but the searing passion she carries to the northern Nevada mountains will melt the deepest of winter snows.

No Lady and Her Tramp - adult romantic comedy
A quirky hysterically hilarious read that is down and dirty! No Lady and Her Tramp is one woman’s accounting of the trials, tribulations, and antics of her life in President Park, a run down trailer park in Grapevine, Kentucky. The steamy, very descriptive sex puts Harold Robbins’ books to shame. The one thing Mr. Robbins’ books did not have is the humor that illuminates in this work of art.

Second Chances - sweet contemporary western romance
Set in rural Wyoming, Second Chances is a sweet contemporary western romance that will warm your heart. Mike Farley stomped on Jane Porter's heart with his cowboy boots. When he realized he had made the biggest mistake of his life, could he ever get it back the way it should be? Ma Liz Farley and Pa Jim Porter decided they had to do anything they could to make it right.

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--Featured Author of the Month
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--Tuscan Holiday - FREE Kindle Download

_______________________
Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Author Blog: Glynis Smy (arts & entertainment)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Author Blog: Glynis Smy

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.glynissmy.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Short story writer and Poet, embarks on her first novel. Follow her journal of her day to day findings, tips and links for writers.

MY REVIEW: I always enjoy reading the blogs of authors and aspiring authors. Glynis is a bit of both. She's had short stories published, but not yet a novel. It's fun to see how the minds of authors work, how they go about their craft, how they decompress from writing, etc. If you're a writer or aspiring writer, I think you'll enjoy this.

She posts two or three times a week, on average. Occasionally there's a video (a book promo. That's a relatively new thing, companies making "trailers" for their author's books, or authors doing it themselves, and putting them on YouTube.)

RECENT POSTS:
--Another Amazing Book Promo Video
--Well Now I Have...
--Not Today
--Panic Ye Not

_______________________
Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Fantasy Author's Handbook (art & entertainment, writing)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Fantasy Author's Handbook, by Philip Athans

WEB ADDRESS: http://fantasyhandbook.wordpress.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: As an editor and author of fantasy novels I have, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest jobs in the world. And this book and blog are my way of letting you in on some of the things I’ve learned along the way.

MY REVIEW: This blog is a must read for all authors, not just authors of fantasy, and for anyone who likes fantasy. The author is in the business, so he knows whereof he speaks. Indeed, he's the author of The Guide to Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction,so he's got street cred upon street cred.

Most of his posts seems to be interviews with other authors, and they are always fun. But he also gives excellent adavice on how to write for the fantasy genre, and when you get advice from someone who knows what he's talking about, you should take it.

Highly recommended.

Sample post

THE FANTASY AUTHOR’S EXERCISES I: ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ah, another ongoing series of blog posts, sort of like the recommended books and interviews, but this series was inspired by an edit. Cut out of the final edition of The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction was a short appendix that began with this paragraph:

We’ve learned a lot over the last few hundred pages or so, and I know you’ve been paying close attention all along. But just when you thought you were done, now comes the hard part—actually doing something with the wisdom you’ve gathered here. In order to get the creative juices flowing, here are some exercises designed to help you put some new ideas and skills into practice. Don’t wait until after you’ve finished your novel to start on these—go ahead and write a log line, a cover letter, and so on for a book you think you might want to write, or something you’re making up off the top of your head, then do it again when you have something specific to talk about. You might be interested to see how different they are.

Well, that aside, and leaving off that the book has only just started to ship and you have only the gathered wisdom of this blog, let’s start with the exercises anyway. Consider this a homework assignment:

Write two versions of your own bio: a long one and a short one.

The long one might appear in the dust jacket of a hardcover novel where you have some elbow room. The shorter one might appear in your publisher’s catalog and web site, or with the other authors’ in an anthology or magazine.

Not every single book includes an author bio (yes, you guessed it, short for biography), but I suspect that most of them do, and they cover a wide range from chatty and funny and personal, to oblique and unwelcoming and evasive. I’ve even made up fictional bios for pen names like T.H. Lain and G.W. Tirpa. But you should have a real bio for yourself, and you should have them on hand. You never know when you’re going to be asked for one, and you’ll never be asked for one because something bad is about to happen. It usually means you’re about to be published, or almost better yet, marketed. If your publisher wants to tell people about you, that’s a good thing. For God’s sake (at least for your career’s sake) help them help you.

But how to start? What do people want to know about you?

Better question: What do you want people to know about you?

Rifle through your bookcases at home, go to a bookstore or library, and look at published author bios. What about an author might make you want to read his or her books? Does that author get very personal, or is he keeping relatively mum, just listing a few previous publishing credits and maybe an award or two? Are they serious or funny? One sentence or more? I read the book Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing it by Peggy Klaus and found its advice extremely helpful. Definitely a book worth checking out.

How much you want to tell people about yourself is up to you. Your editor, or a marketing or PR person from your publisher, may have some specific advice—a way they like to do it. Pay attention to that, but if you’re uncomfortable revealing to the wide world things like the names of your kids, exactly where you live, etc., you can set reasonable limits for yourself and expect your publisher to respect that.

Think about the message you want to send about yourself, but also about the book. If you’ve written a serious tragedy set in a richly detailed world that is your Middle Earth then attach a silly, tongue-in-cheek bio to the end of it, you’ll be throwing your readers for a loop. Likewise, readers may find it confusing when you write a broadly-conceived space opera then tell them you won the Nobel Prize for Physics. Not that I wouldn’t brag about that constantly, but think about the disconnect that could cause in a reader’s mind.

It’s not a bad idea to broaden out this assignment from just one long bio and one short bio to add a funny bio, too—something you can use in a less formal atmosphere.

Anyway, once you have these set and saved you’ll be surprised how often they’ll pop up, and how useful it’ll be when you’re ready to start your blog or website. The very first post on this blog is my bio.

Here’s a fun bio I whipped up that eventually found its way into the anthology Realms of the Dead:

Philip Athans is a model for self-control, fixity of purpose, and cheerfulness under ill-health or other misfortunes. His character is an admirable combination of dignity and charm, and all the duties of his station are performed quietly and without fuss. He gives everyone the conviction that he speaks as he believes, and acts as he judges right. Bewilderment or timidity are unknown to him; he is never hasty, never dilatory; nothing finds him at a loss. He indulges neither in despondency nor forced gaiety, nor has anger or jealousy any power over him. Kindliness, sympathy, and sincerity all contribute to give the impression of a rectitude that is innate rather than inculcated. Nobody is ever made by him to feel inferior, yet none could presume to challenge his pre-eminence. He is also the possessor of an agreeable sense of humor.

That’s actually paraphrased from the 1964 Maxwell Staniforth translation of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations (I, 15).

Oh, I’m such a smarty-pants.

This is how R.A. Salvatore described himself in Realms of War:

Writer R.A. Salvatore is so old now that he’s forgotten most of his life. He hates writing bios for that reason.

Maybe okay for anthologies, but you’ll notice that both of us take bios a bit more seriously when they’re attached to novels. And honestly, looking back at it, we should have taken the anthologies a bit more seriously, too.

I have a feeling the nature of the author bio will continue to change as we plummet the rest of the way into the Digital Age. In 1968 Andy Warhol wrote: “In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.” In the Digital Age, everyone will be famous all the time.

Twitter, Facebook, blogs, You Tube . . . all this stuff gets people “out there,” in ways that even the forward-thinking Warhol couldn’t quite have imagined. You probably already have all this biographical material out there, even if you’ve never been published before. But there will continue to be a use, and therefore a demand, for the traditional About the Author. Here’s your chance to think it through, and have it written, even if it just sits on your Facebook page for now.

—Philip Athans

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--THE FANTASY AUTHOR’S HANDBOOK INTERVIEWS V: CHANTELLE SHAW
--THE FANTASY AUTHOR’S HANDBOOK INTERVIEWS IV: TERRY BROOKS
--THE FANTASY AUTHOR’S EXERCISES I: ABOUT THE AUTHOR
--SONY READER: THE (PROBABLY) FINAL WORD
--THE FANTASY AUTHOR’S HANDBOOK INTERVIEWS III: PAUL S. KEMP

_______________________
Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Kindle Author (publishing, writing)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: N/A

WEB ADDRESS: http://kindle-author.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: A few months ago I published my first novel on Kindle.

It has been such an amazing experience that I decided to continue publishing novels and shorties on Kindle, and to blog about all things Kindle, from the author's perspective.

MY REVIEW: Now that digital publishing is extremely easy - anyone can publish anything and have it available for sale in days rather than months or years - I expect there to be many blogs seeking to give advertising and credence to Kindle authors. This is among the first, and its very good. Professional all the way. The author writes well, he interviews interesting authors, and he presents excellent information.

As an aside, and not related to the above author in any way, too many "self-published" authors do publish books that are not fit to print. As a reviewer for The Thunder Child Science fiction webzine) I have reviewed my fair share of poorly written, self-published novels. Of course such authors should be commended for even completing a book - such a thing is a feat in itself! - but many of them seem to leave out critical things - proofreading and editing by an impartial third party, at the very least.

So it's when reading interviews by people such as the author of this blog, David Wisehart, that you get to meet the other authors, and see just how professional they are, before you try any of their books. So this blog performs a great service in that regard.

RECENT POSTS:
--Interview: Helen Smith
--JA Konrath Tells How to Make Money on Ebooks
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--A Conversation with Stacey Cochran
--Kindle Author Karen McQuestion's Amazing Year on A...
--Why Zoe Winters Sells So Well
--Kindle Hopes to Improve its Performance in the Cla...
--James Patterson Sells 1 Million eBooks
--How to Get 70% Royalties for Your Amazon Kindle eB...
--Free Sample — Crimson Lake (A Leonardo da Vinci My...
--Making Sales vs. Gaining Fans
--Free Sample — Devil's Lair
--Authors Get 70% Royalty with Kindle

_______________________
Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Fiction Matters (Writing tips)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Fiction Matters

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.fictionmatters.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Fiction Matters is a leading source of the publishing news, writing tips, and fiction tools that writers care about.

MY REVIEW: Well, the blog hasn't been updated since March 26, 2010. Prior to that day, it had been updated on a pretty regular basis, so I'm not sure what's goig on.

The blog transfers well to the Kindle, and there's lots of good info there, so I hope the authors will get their girdles in gear and get back to regular posting.

I'll keep an eye on it and alert you should it become live, or you can subscribe to it for two weeks and see what happens...

A sample post

What is Metadata?
26 March 2010 Tags:books, ebook, future, genre, metadata, publishing
by P. Bradley Robb

Metadata is a word commonly used in conjunction with eBooks, both as something that typically needs improvement and something that can really improve the eBook experience. But what exactly is it?

By definition, metadata is data that describes other data – an explanation that begs for examples. Thankfully, if you’re familiar with books, you’re already familiar with some of the more popular types of metadata, like genre, author’s name, and publishing date. The piece of metadata “fantasy” provides a fairly good description about the book, or data, in question. As does the author’s name, or publisher.

Common pieces of metadata attached to a book include:

BISAC Code (how genre is classified in a trade environment)
Contributors
Description
ISBN
Language
Publication Date
Publisher
Title
These pieces of metadata are rather broad, but they give a good general understanding of what a book is. When used in an electronic database, readers can collate and sort books based on these pieces of information – finding all the books by a particular author, or in a particular genre, or published in a given period.

But one of the most promising elements of future publishing is creating a more robust metadata environment – a phrase seemingly tailored to put people to sleep. More metadata? How much more do we need? Well, with metadata, the more you have, the more you can do. Imagine, if you will, a system where more specific elements of a book are included in the metadata – character names, ages, locations, events, dates – and can be referenced at will.

Such a system would allow readers to find books featuring protagonists in the seventh grade. Or where a character is an oil prospector. Or a book set in a specific time and location. With a robust metadata system, a reader could easily compare and contrast a modern book regarding the Spanish-American War with one written at the time.

The eBook, especially in a connected scenario, allows for even greater use of metadata, moving beyond merely comparing books and instead serving as a hub for disparate information from around the web. A New York City diner used as a location in a novel could be used to find other books where the diner appears. But, that same metadata could be connected to Google Maps for directions to the diner, pull images from Flickr, check the social sites for mentions, and IMDB for films in which the dinner appeared. The metadata for the diner could even be used to grab the menu, if the diner is the diner has a website.

Granted, the connected eBook is still a ways in the future. Technically possible today, specific metadata is hindered by one very nagging detail – the assigning of metadata is a time-consuming activity. The metadata for print books has been standardized and is generally considered essential for the supply chain. Metadata for eBooks, even the broad items like author’s name, can be sorely overlooked. And metadata is only useful when it’s correct. Convincing publishers to move beyond the basic metadata items and embrace an even more robust (and expensive) system of metadata seems like a long shot.

However, that kind of metadata could be an incredible value add. Imagine taking a tour of Paris and Spain using a connected version, electronic version of Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises.” Sounds like a good time to me.

RECENT ARTICLES:
-Down and Digital – An eBook Primer
-What is Metadata?
-Revenge of the Egalitarian Internet
-When to Show, When to Tell – The Golden Rule of Storytelling
-When Is Telling Better Than Showing – A Personal Example

___________________
Ms. Cairo writes two blogs of her own:
Winged Victory: Women in Aviation
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters

Among the Broken, Bible Prophecy Update, Control Your Cash

1. Among the Broken MAYBE
2. Bible Prophecy Update YES
3. Control Your Cash YES!


Among the Broken. I am a published literary fiction writer and an MFA grad. This blog is an exploration of the way I develop stories, an offering of completed original stories, and a discussion of other authors' work. Sometimes it is what I am thinking about on any given day and how I think these thoughts might influence or inspire the stories I create. Arts and entertainment.

This blog hasn’t been updated since Feb 3 (and I am writing this on Feb 15.) I’m going to take a chance and give this blog a yes, however, instead of putting it in the Inactive section of my Don’t Bother page. The author posts every couple of days, and according to her last post is on a retreat right now, and may well be buried in snow, thanks to the rash of snowstorms we’ve had recently.

This is an excellent blog for aspiring writers, and for those individuals who want to get an insight into the writer and his – or in this case her! – craft.

Here are the last five entries (The photos of course are low resolution grey scale but still fun:

-Where I need to go, soon (a description of her family’s retreat)
-Lions and tigers and bears and alligators (Just a photo – beware of the alligator is the ond near the bike path!
-Dorothy and Toto (sort of) another photo of author Meg Sefton and her dog
-Shoe and line (a short short story based on seeing a shoe on a highway)
-Alicia Shandra Holmes at the Kerouac House (a heads up on this author’s appearance at the Kerouac House.

This is the type of blog, with the updating every two or three days, that cries out to be subscribed to via Kindle. Saves the time of checking out the blog each day, and of course RSS feeds only give you truncated text and no photos! Kindle’s the way to go.

Bible Prophecy Update. A Daily Update of the Prophetic Events Concerning the Rapture of the Church, the Tribulation Period, The Return of Jesus Christ and Much More. A Daily Bible Study. A Daily Devotional. Topical studies such as Evolution, Intelligent Design, Archeological Discoveries, Controversial Subjects, Jesus verses Religion, Persecution, The Church, Religious Cults, Heaven, Prayer Requests, Marriage, Divorce, Family Issues and Many others exciting and informative subjects being added every month.. $1.99. Lifestyle and Culture, Religion and Spirituality sub category.

I’m not religious, and so my knowledge of the Bible is rather haphazard – I read a lot of Isaac Asimov’s non-fiction essays and he discusses the bible quite a bit (an atheist also, he nevertheless was fascinated with Bible history). I also don’t put much stock in “Bible Prophecy”, either. For those who do, however, this is probably a very interesting blog. There are daily devotions, some which seem to be transcriptions from verbal sermons, and also some news articles on the ongoing tragedy in the Middle East (Jews, Muslims and Christians have been fighting and killing each other in this, the most holy land, since religion started. It's either an irony or an obscenity...perhaps both.)

Recommended for those who are interested in this type of thing.

Control Your Cash. Control Your Cash is part manifesto and part owner’s manual. It helps the reader move from clueless, passive bystander to active, responsible consumer and investor.
Now, this is a blog that everyone should subscribe to. It may not save your life but it will certainly make you happier as it will assist you in handling your money better!

Managing your money these days is more important than ever. We’re being bombarded by advertisements telling us to welch on our debts (to the credit card companies, to mortgage companies, etc) and in some cities and towns, people are being actively recruited to get into welfare (in the case of food stamps)…none of the “working class” (as the British call what we Americans call the poor) are being encouraged to work their butts off to achieve middle class-ness, but instead to depend on the government to see them through.

Well…enough about me and my opinions of our financial debacle, let’s get to this blog.

The author would seem to be a Republican (there’s a review of the election of Scott Brown – although he was elected as an Independent, not a Republican). She has sound, common sense, "stand on your own two feet" ideas, tips and so on, in how to achieve financial security.

I absolutely, positively recommend this blog to everybody!

Here are the last five entries:

--Let’s see how he does with Other People’s Money – Scott Brown’s election and how his Democrat opponents made fun of the fact that he drove a truck
---Yip yip yip mum mum – College students are going for degrees that aren’t going to earn them any money, like journalism and liberal arts, instead of hard degrees (like technology and engineering) that will
--Almost certainly not how Carl Icahn got started – The story of Tessa Savicki, a welfare mom who has 9 kids, apparently, and baby daddies galore – and was “working on her GED” at the time of this story. When she gave birth to her latest kid, her tubes were tied without her knowledge, and now she and her lawyer [how can she afford a lawyer? Easy, he’s working pro bono and will take 75% of the money he screws out of the hospital] are saying that the doctors’ actions show how they hate the poor. The author of this blog point out that there’s a difference between being poor and being a deadbeat.
--Sacre bleu – the story of Haiti, and how a cruise ship docked there after the Earthquake. [Haiti has 80% unemployment, If the cruise ships stop coming, the other 20% become unemployed.]
--Think your lek can kick my colon? Get riyal – the dollar against other currencies
--Needless expenses, expelled – An exploration of why a membership at Costco makes good sense.

I love this blog, and I highly recommend it.

Anupam Blog 3, Broken Secrets, Mysterious Issues

1. Anupam blog 3 NO
2. Broken Secrets YES
3. Mysterious Issues MAYBE

The author of Anupam Blog 3 is named Anupam, but he doesn’t give a description of what his blog is about. I decided to subscribe to it anyway, because I was curious. However, it hasn’t been updated since January 6, 2010, which is why I’m saying no and putting it in the inactive section of my index page.

It’s too bad, it looks like it could have been interesting. Anupam lives in Bangalore (I think), and talks about culture and life in India. It’s a little difficult to follow, as his English is not as precise as one would wish, but at the same time overly detailed. But if it had been updated regularly, I would have recommended this as an excellent look into the life and culture of the Indian continent.

Broken Secrets is a much more fun version of “Improve Your Knowledge Daily.” Instead of a single fact, easy to read and as easy to forget, these “secrets” are couched in a friendly manner, and just more fun to read.

Here’s how its described:

This blog is updated every weekday with little known facts and helpful secrets that you probably don't know, but should find useful and entertaining. The topic of every post is a treat for your curiosity and the next time a conversation hits a lull, it's your ace in the hole for bringing it back to life.

As a subscriber to Broken Secrets, you'll read about time saving tricks that baristas use when making coffee; how to keep takeout food warm; why airlines dim the lights before landing; how mechanics keep their hands clean; why you shouldn't drink hot water from the faucet; how to defog your bathroom mirror in 30 seconds; why restaurant food stays warm on your plate; how to open a bottle of wine without any tools... and many more!!

The last five entries:
--The History of Valentine’s Day
--Rescue A Disc From Your Drive With A Paper Clip
--The Massive Underground Vault Near the North Pole
--The Meaning of the Numbers inside the Recycling Symbol
--Shop at Off-Peak Hours for Time Savings

I’m not quite sure what’s going on with Mysterious Issues . I was able to find the URL of this blog on the web, and its been updated practically every day, with the latest update being on Feb 11, 2010. http://mystery.weborglodge.com. Yet when I subscribed to it a couple of days ago, the last entry I received was November 11, 2009. (The same thing is happening with *my* blog, The Friends of Mr. Cairo. I’ve updated it several times, yet I receive no entries to my Kindle. Today I canceled the subscription, and then resubscribed, and after an hour or so I got a new update. We'll see if I get an update tomorrow...)

Rather disturbing. How can some blogs download regularly, but not others?

In any event, here’s the description: Writing tips and sharing experiences of writing my first mystery. If you're an aspiring writer, you'll enjoy it.

Give it a try via Kindle. If it doesn’t work, complain to Kindle, and check it out on the web! (And do the same for Mr. Cairo, too!)