Blog Archives

General Update and News

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I know the next week or so may be rather slow, so I want to publish a little update.

First of all, I am moving!  Adams Morgan is a great neighborhood, but unfortunately great neighborhoods are not always blessed with great property managers, rational parking arrangements, or reasonable housing prices.

So, I’m off to the Waterfront, literally a couple blocks from where the sailboats dock, the Cantina Marina, the historic Maine Avenue Fish Market, Zanzibar, the Arena Stage, Hogate’s, and the Thomas Law House built in the 1780s.

It’s also very close (a 15 minute walk) to the National Mall.  I can have lunch at NMAI‘s Mitsitam Café whenever I want!  And, if you haven’t eaten there, go.  Seriously.  Venison loaf, chili short ribs, maple brined turkey, quinoa verde, bison chili, cherry dusted scallops, lobster whipped potatoes, roasted salmon, and drinks from juice to beer and wine.  It’s absolutely the best food on the Mall.

I’m taking the move gradually during the overlap period.  So far, I have moved 21 bankers boxes filled with books; I’m about halfway done with that part.  The big stuff (mostly, as you might guess, shelves) will be moved on Monday, after which will be a week of organizing the new place and cleaning the old.

Also, as you can see, I’m trying out a new WordPress theme: Andreas09.  I’m not too fond of the sans-serif font, but I like the clean hyperlinks and the more expansive layout.  If I can figure out how to do Typekits, the fonts will be shifted to something more serify and old-fashioned.

Finally, I have been thinking of expanding outward from my Story Behind The Story posts.  I have three writing advice blogs in the draft stage, tentatively (and humbly) titled “Advice From A Dude Who Hasn’t Even Been Published.”  And, of course, I will get back into the fiction-writing habit as soon as the move is accomplished.

But, never fear: the Amalgam Poems and Archaic Definitions are front-loaded and ready to go!

Archaic Definition of the Week – Rummage

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RUMMAGE _Arrimage‘ is French for the ship’s cargo. Damaged and unwanted goods were sold at an arrimage sale, hence the derivation of today’s rummage sale.  ‘Rummaging‘  — searching through a jumble — comes from this nautical source.
_

The Pirate Dictionary by Terry Breverton.

Category: ADOTW, Uncategorized

The Amalgam Poems

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amalgamThe clergy of the shrine of St. Ambrose,
which stands a landmark of Amalgam’s heights,
all swear the Saint appears in winter snows;
of course, this is essential to their rites.

Continue reading

Category: Amalgam

Publishing Links – Zombies, Salinger, Bill Murray, and the Fonz

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Hey, guys and gals, welcome to May!  And, for those so inclined, a belated Happy Bealtaine.

This has been a busy week at the publishers’ and editors’ blogs I check regularly, so I’m going to try to clean up the format a bit to make the links easier to scan.  Feedback always welcome; I’m here to help you!

First, however,  we say goodbye to Alice Pope‘s Children’s Writers and Illustrator’s Market blog.  But, never fear:  Alice will be writing the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators blog at scbwi.org.  Best of luck, Alice!

Continue reading

Category: Blogroll

Lit Agents – Sharks, Goddesses, Beasts, and Bloggers

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Say Hello to Friday, which is from the Old English Frígedæg, meaning the Day of Fríge, Germanic goddess of keeping beer cold in magical cabinets.

So, let’s get right to business, which also happens to be a pleasure: passing along some interesting postings from my favorite literary agent blogs.

I cannot even begin to describe what Janet Reid has written here, a combination of humor, rivalry, crime-fighting women, and sharks.  Click it, read it, it’s well worth the five minutes.

At the Dystel & Goderich blog,  Jessica tackles the issue of writing manuals, while  Miriam points us to a sobering piece at  The Daily Beast on the effects blogging has on “regular” writing.

Jessica at BookEnds advises us to treat each query as our first, lets us in on some of her query stats, and  tells us why queries get rejected.

Kristin Nelson at Pub Rants assures us that writers are a hot commodity these days!

At her Rants & Ramblings blog, Rachelle Gardner asks why people want to be published, whether your agent has to love your book, and what are the limitations of market research in publishing.  She also reminds us that writing is a lifestyle, not a hobby, and invites guess blogger Christa Allan to discuss  how to use a  journal to defeat writer’s block.

Category: Blogroll

Archaic Definition of the Week – Tony

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publishingtony __ Swank. Stylish. Posh. Elegant. [Am. XIX. < High-toned, an expression much in use in XIX Am. society to label a cultivated elegance that combined morality, good breeding, and an opulence made possible only by daddy’s dirty money.]

A Second Browser’s Dictionary and Native’s Guide to the Unknown American Language by John Ciardi (1983).

Category: ADOTW

Writer Links – Sucktitude, Happiness, and Building Worlds

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Here we are at the end of another week.  I had fully intended to finish an Observer short story called “The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die” this week, but I got distracted by residential concerns.  I’ll blog an update when one is warranted.

On the residential concerns.  When the story is ready, I’ll just publish it.

In the meantime, here are some interesting blog posts by writers I like.  Take a look at them all! Continue reading

Category: Blogroll

The Amalgam Poems

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amalgamThe cornerstones of Talgam’s many schools
all claimed to be worked by Amalgam’s tools,
and yet we have no masons in our town
so all of Talgam’s schools were beaten down.

Continue reading

Category: Amalgam

Publishing Links Bonus – Film Trailers for Books?

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I always seem to find something interesting right after posting a string of links

Mike Harvkey over at True/Slant asks a very interesting question:  can film trailers for books — like that created for the upcoming Pride and Prejudice and Zombies : Dawn of the Dreadfuls — boost the sagging publishing industry?

This is particularly interesting to me because I have been thinking of creating a “trailer” for The Ligan of the Disomus for years.  Also being a musician, I had written a few pieces for the story.  Had I ever forced myself to scribble out the storyboard-style sketches I envisioned for the trailer, I would be linking to it right now instead of just talking about it.

What do you think:

Would a film trailer help sell you on reading a book? 

Or, is it premature, jumping the gun on the book-to-film transition? 

Or, even worse, is this yet another way that the film medium is swallowing up the written word?

Publishing Links – Bookstores, Reviews, Adventures, and Misadventures

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Just in time for Tuesday (yeah, I’m not sure what that means either) here are some publishing professionals to link up!

Author magazine encourages us to  embrace simplicity in our lives and our writing, while Moon Rat at Editorial Ass regales us with tales of adventure in book reviewing. 

Alan Rinzler at The Book Deal lets us in on the dynamics of bookstore visibility, and explains how writers build courage.

 Publishr’s Brett Sandusky is interviewed at BookSquare on the future of publishing, while Eric at Pimp My Novel discusses the “middle way” of indie publishing

And wrapping it up for this week, the Moby Lives blog  flings a harpoon or two at “clownish historians” — specifically Stephen Ambrose and  Orlando Figes.