| Quick notes |
[Dec. 16th, 2009|01:23 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
1. A number of Deverry books have come in eBook formats, not that I was told by the publishers about any of them. I -finally- got my fall royalties, and in among the statements Bantam remarked that it had sold 50 e-copies of THE FIRE DRAGON in the Sony format. Whoop-dee-do. Apparently there are Kindle versions of a few other titles, too.
2. Trader Joe's, a US chain of grocery stores, has come out with an oatmeal-raisin cooked called "Druid Circles". I assume that this was a favorite snack among ancient Britain's giants. |
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| Happy birthday! |
[Dec. 15th, 2009|12:51 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  celebratory | ] |
to Kowari!
And I hope it's not already passed on her side of the dateline! |
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| Some decent news re: Google |
[Dec. 14th, 2009|12:58 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  schadenfreude | ] |
The deadlines for authors to file claims, ie to "opt in" to the Google Library mess has been extended to 2011. The deadline to opt out has also been extended, but only to the end of January, 2010.
Since the forms for this filing are ridiculously complex, and the burden of filling them in falls on authors, the deadline extension is very welcome.
This is part of the "amendment" process as various large corporations and foreign governments have filed objections to the wretched takeover of authors' and publishers' rights by the predatory (and hypocritical) digital dingbats.
I still have hopes that the whole thing will fall completely apart. If nothing else, Google should be forced to seek permission from authors work-by-work, not expect authors to help them steal their books. Google complains that to do so would mean hiring hundreds of people -- good, say I! Just what the economy of Silicon Valley needs: new jobs! |
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| Holiday! |
[Dec. 12th, 2009|11:45 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | celebratory | ] |
Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate it!
Maybe it started life as a minor holiday, but the idea of Magical Light at the dead of winter is a lovely one anyway. |
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| An outrageous happening! |
[Dec. 11th, 2009|12:23 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | angry | ] |
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/11/dr-peter-watts-canad.html
Protest! Donate!
Bush and Cheney are gone, but their spirits apparently linger among the arrogant and 0ver-empowered few among those who have sworn to keep the peace. American border cops have beaten, arrested, and made spurious charges against SF writer Peter Watts.
This reminds me of a recent case in the Bay Area where cops charged a man with assault after they ran the supposed assaulter's head through a plate glass window. |
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| Happy Birthday! |
[Dec. 10th, 2009|09:45 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | Hurray! | ] |
To Galeni, on the 11th! |
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| Rats |
[Dec. 10th, 2009|02:27 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  cold | ] |
It's still cold, though not quite as cold, and I have a sinus infection. First I try the salt water spray cure. Anything to avoid going to the doctor's office and getting a new set of germs . . .
Flavia the Red Menace has been basically living on the bath mat in front of the heater vent in the bathroom. It's the warmest place in the house, and perfect for cats, since the vent is right at floor level. It's too small for both us, unfortunately. :-) |
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| A new fix for Mystery Lovers! |
[Dec. 10th, 2009|02:21 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | impressed | ] |
Book View Café Launches Radford’s Cozy Mystery
The original Book View Café (BVC) publication, "Lacing Up For Murder" by Irene Radford, is a cozy mystery centered around the Whistling River Lodge, a small resort hotel on Mt. Hood in Oregon. The cast of characters is as strange and interesting as the hotel itself with the story revolving around a gathering of lacemakers who become involved in a murder where silk thread is used as a garrote.
The serialized novel is due to launch on Thursday Dec 17, 2009 and will run for 36 weeks. A downloadable version will made be available from the BVC ebookstore ($4.99). Ms. Radford be blogging on Thursdays for most of that time in support of the launch.
Visit Irene Radford’s bookshelf at BVC at: http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Phyllis-Irene-Radford/ |
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| Do you get bored waiting for stuff? |
[Dec. 9th, 2009|08:23 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
Waiting for BART, standing in line at the store, sitting in a coffee shop with only 5 minutes before you have to leave, at the doctor's office -- there are a lot of wasted minutes in the world. Some Bay Area geeks have come up with a very cool idea for using those minutes: microvolunteering!
Check this out: beextra.org, home of "The Extraordinaries." There are organizations around the world that need a lot of fiddly stuff done by computer and not enough volunteers to do it. These 3 chaps have figured out a way to link those who are stuck waiting for something with jobs for non-profits that only take a few minutes at a time to do.
I think this is pretty clever. You download their software to your cell phone, and you're up and running. You can also do it from a laptop or other computer, of course. |
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| I should be . . . |
[Dec. 9th, 2009|02:02 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | cranky | ] |
I should be:
writing
filling out the beastly Google form
doing some uploads for the BookviewCafe ebook of POLAR CITY BLUES
laundry
learning the double beastly BookviewCafe software
considering what groceries we need
I am doing none of it. It's cold here, this house is poorly insulated, and I'm already tired for the day.
Also, I heard from my British Agent. As I suspected, HarperCollinsUK does not want to buy LICENSE TO ENSORCEL. In a way I'm glad to be rid of them, in another way I wanted the money. :-) However, there are other British publishers. The Agent is determined to sell the project to one of them, so we shall see. |
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| Logical fallacies |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|02:24 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | cynical | ] |
So, the bankers in the UK have picked up the American bankers cry about those obscene bonuses they pay their top executives. "We must have them to attract the best people."
First, those "best" people caused a global meltdown of the banking system. In short, they failed at their jobs.
Second, if no bank was allowed to offer obscene bonuses, then the playing field would be level, and no bank would need to offer them.
Third, considering the above 2 thoughts, these people can't even lie sucessfully, and lying well seems be a requirement for employment in the financial world.
Ergo, they are not the "best" people. |
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| Happy Birthday! |
[Dec. 6th, 2009|09:58 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | celebratory | ] |
To Mad Robins! |
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| Winter is here |
[Dec. 6th, 2009|03:59 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  stressed | ] |
Man, it's cold! And we just had a flurry of small hailstones.
49s not playing so well at the moment, though there's time for them to maybe come back. I may give up on Football Day for the nonce, though. Gotta start dinner.
A task I really must bite the bullet and finish: getting my list of publications ready to send to Google for their Rip-off Digital Library scheme. Gods, I'd love to see the courts smack them down! What really galls me is the way they've weaseled a settlement that makes the authors the ones who have to send them a list of publications we want to be paid for, a list in their chosen format, no less! Which is of course complicated and irritating.
I hope their stock tanks and their executives all get scabies! |
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| Waiting . . . |
[Dec. 4th, 2009|01:14 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | depressed | ] |
. . . for the ovenrepair guy. I hope he can fix it today! Stay tuned!
ETA: $250!!! Ai yi yi! Those figures the nice lady in India gave us over the phone turned out to be meaningless.
Appliances hate us. They know they're our slaves. They suck money in revenge. |
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| Facebook: the second day :-) |
[Dec. 3rd, 2009|01:21 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
Now that I know that the Wall is all you get, it's okay. I have figured out what I need to.
I need to figure out how to turn off all the games, is all. And JDGLass, which one are you so I can friend you? Or friend me . . . |
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| Facebook |
[Dec. 2nd, 2009|05:58 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
Okay, I have succumbed and signed up for Facebook. LJ will still be my primary online site, however. I'm going to use FB for book promotion stuff and the like, and I'm usign my real name, "Katharine Kerr". Also I just found out that my niece is on Facebook so I suppose I will be doing some family stuff there, too. :-) |
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| Shameless Promotion |
[Dec. 1st, 2009|03:11 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  bouncy | ] |
For self and others . . . at bookviewcafe.com . . .
You can now get Judith Tarr's THE WIND IN CAIRO as an eBook! This is one of my favorites of Judy's works. If you've not read it, you can now download it!
Starting Friday, my own POLAR CITY BLUES will be uploaded to the site, one chapter per week, for free. Soon it too will be an eBook! after being out of print for years.
And don't forget that on the site, for free, you can read stories and novel chapters by many -- well, 25 -- other authors, including Mad Robins, Vonda McIntyre, and Ursula Le Guin! |
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| Current reading |
[Dec. 1st, 2009|02:45 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  thoughtful | ] |
I'm currently reading a very interesting and worthwhile book, THE QUEST FOR THE HISTORICAL ISRAEL, which is the printing as a monograph of a series of lectures given a few years ago by Israel Finkelstein and Amahai Mazar, moderated by Brian Schmidt. Finkelstein and Mazar are prominent Israeli academics in the field, Schmidt is an America ditto.
The case of early Israel's history is one of those ghastly knots of religion, politics, academic jockeying, and the like. This book attempts to untie at least some of it. Since people are actually dying over the controversy, it's well worth examining in some detail, which the participants in this book do.
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