In Which We Take The Other Side

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It is rare that we come to the defense of Wal-Mart, but there you have it. Setting aside the fact that it’s a rare child who reaches the age of 13 without hearing swearing, it is impossible to know the contents of each and every album and book in a store (and we know that Wal-Mart gives it a valiant effort). If parents don’t want their kids hearing objectionable stuff, they need to do the right parenting thing and vet the stuff before unleashing it on innocent minds. It is not up to government nor the retailers to do the […]

Square Pegs

Road Trip

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The sign beckoned as I was going to where else? Sonic (I start every morning with a diet cherry coke). Gas is finally down. A buck fifty-five. This means one thing: Road Trip!! Gena Showalter and I can finally make to Tulsa for that stock signing excursion. I’d never heard of this phrase until recently. No table, no sign, no awkward accosting of potential customers. A writer just goes into the store, picks up the book, signs it, and then replaces it on the shelf. I am fascinated by this idea. Primarily because all my life, I’ve been something of

Jill's First Blog

Just What Is Sweet?

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I’ve been told to get another author head shot because the picture is a lie. My whole life, I’ve lamented on having curly hair, dimples and forced to shop for clothes that have the letter “P” after the number. To be honest, long-legged with straight (ultra-straight) blonde hair always seemed to be the ideal. To top it off, I’ve been answering (since nearly birth) to a 4-letter, one syllable perky name – Jill. Now while I’m still not convinced Jill is the name of a grown-up, the year printed on my birth certificate and my mom crying that her “baby”

Jill's First Blog

!@#$ Authors, Contributing to Social Decay

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Before we begin, let us answer the question posted in the sub-head: yes, publishers are really that desperate. Using that as our starting point makes the rest of this little post so much easier. For those who haven’t been paying attention for the past thirty or so years, Christmas has become a gigantic buy-a-thon. Oh, sure, you can have your family traditions and quiet expressions of faith, but it’s all about consumption. For some, this may be news: Although some of these Christmas tales are worthwhile reads (I always enjoy Fannie Flagg and it was eerie to read one of

Square Pegs

Life on Other Planets

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It is rare* that we venture outside the Center of the Universe. When we do put on the grown-up shoes, we expect a good time. Last night, we did something so rare, it was nearly unprecedented: We Went Out On The Town. The Elegant Variation hosted a gathering of local writers and bloggers (live ones we can remember noted below, dormant ones, too) and other people whose names you’d know if we were the type to drop names (alas, we’re the type to drop drinks). Now the husband thinks we shouldn’t do things like meeting strange men we encounter on

Square Pegs

Mourning A Moment We Thought Had Already Passed

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It’s hard to work up emotion when you think the body’s been buried forever, but we’ll give it our best shot. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Well, so much for crying on cue. As it turns out, there was one agency out there still collecting a piddly 10% commission on sales, but no more. Who knew? The Wylie Agency is succumbing to the industry standard 0f 15%*, effective the beginning of the new year. An agent simply can’t survive on less these days. It’s the cell phones, we’re convinced. And the Internet. And probably the price of coffee. * – Math not

Agents

We Have Met Our Dream Man, and His Name Isn’t David

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Okay, we have to admit we weren’t aware of the breadth and depth of our geekiness until a certain individual looked askance at our adoration of RSS feeds. Now we’re not suggesting anything, but some people seemed a bit unaware that RSS is poised to rule the world. Plus it’s like the best acronym ever. Regular readers of Publisher’s Lunch know they’ve added RSS pretty much anywhere it can be added. Probably this is a guy thing, but as it’s something we appreciate, that’s okay. All week long, MJ Rose has been RSSing letters to the Book Biz Santa (probably

Books/Mags/Blogs

Things I Didn’t Know I Needed To Worry About

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It’s clear I am totally unprepared for this booksigning. After reading some of the comments from my previous blogs, having something to pass out to passersby came into play. Daniel Olivas suggested a bowl of candy and keeping copies of reviews handy. Susan Gable suggested passing out a bookmark. Booksquare reminded me to use the sparkly gel pen I’d used to sign her book. Yes…hopelessly unprepared. My mother thought only my appearance needed to be considered – I didn’t even realize I needed to worry about pens, candy, bookmarks and such! The things I can obsess about go much, MUCH

Jill's First Blog

BYOB

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Nothing like irritating a whole bunch of people by not finishing a story. Many apologies. The husband’s new iPod came yesterday and the computer was hijacked. I long for the day when we have two. Booksigning Nightmares Part 2 (or is it 3?) Nervously I call the bookstore manager and explain how there may be quite a few people showing. I say this in a very small voice because really, I have no idea. Lots of calls were made, lots of e-mails sent, but who really knows? There’s a long pause. Then the manager explains the situation with quite a

Jill's First Blog

In Which We Discover We’ve Exceeded Our Maximum Number of Allowed Exclamation Points, and Possibly Colons

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We have a dirty secret: sometimes, with close friends, we use shorthand and acronyms and such. We don’t (always) write clear and concise email to certain people. However (and pardon us while we preen), we do work hard to make our professional communication clear and concise. Despite the fact that our effort is often unappreciated. Woe is us. We’ve disagreed in the past with William Safire (he did not offer us the courtesy of a rebuttal) on the elasticity of the English language. Language should grow and change, but that does not excuse ignorance. Think of grammar like a huge

Square Pegs
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