SnowBlog
31 Dec 2007: F5! F5! or: What I Did On My Holidays.
Phew, and phew again. This Christmas I have mainly been up to my elbows in code, sprucing up the website all ready for 2008. And here it is! Press f5 if you can't see any difference.
Continue reading "F5! F5! or: What I Did On My Holidays." »
posted on December 31, 2007 01:57 PM | link | Comments (6) | Leave a comment
30 Dec 2007: Doctor Who Xmas Special 2007
Em and I should have more going on in our lives, but the Christmas Doctor Who seems to be a big deal. We swapped notes after watching it and were just about able to award it an 'OK'. There were lots of reasons to like it and probably slightly more reasons to feel disappointed. Unlike last year, we weren't asked to root for someone whose every utterance and gesture grated. But rather like other years, almost all the elements of the story seem to be... well, like other years. [contains spoilers]
Continue reading "Doctor Who Xmas Special 2007" »
posted on December 30, 2007 01:15 PM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
30 Dec 2007: Ahhh, air travel
Anyone who's flown somewhere in the last year or two, and has taken off their shoes to do it, will probably enjoy this New York Times blog post by a commercial airline pilot. My favourite part: unpicking the logic of confiscating liquids from travellers. Why is it done? Because they could contain explosives. So what do they do with the potential explosives they confiscate? Dump 'em in a big old bin right next to the queue of people because we all know there are no explosives in there.
Continue reading "Ahhh, air travel" »
posted on December 30, 2007 10:38 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
28 Dec 2007: My new year resolutions
I love new year resolutions. I know it's an artificial point in time, no different from any other time of the year, but like most people I like the idea of seasons, cycles, renewal and whatnot. I usually have at least ten, but I'm happy if I achieve just one of them. So here is my list, so far: no doubt it will grow over the next few days as I think about it more.
- Lose ten pounds (of course. No NYR list is complete without this old chestnut)
- Only use keyboard shortcuts, not the mouse, in InDesign, Photoshop and Word. And Excel. And everything.
- Become ambidextrous
- Sell more books
- Drink more water
- Never drink instant coffee
- Get better at saying 'no thanks' to things I don't want to do
- Don't work on Sundays (not for religious reasons, just to have a day off)
- Keep inbox at zero (easy, actually, now I use RememberTheMilk. Everything goes on a list. Those lists are quite long, of course.)
- Make the company more profitable. (Good one, that)
- Do more housework
- Go for a walk every day
Actually, in writing that list, I'm pretty happy with how everything is at the moment. There are no huge 'must do this because am bad person' ones. Yey.
What are yours?
posted on December 28, 2007 10:00 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
26 Dec 2007: Unruly consumers
I've touched on this before, but in my mind* there's a definite link between Le Parkour, modern crafts and the impulse that makes someone take the back off their Xbox and fiddle with it until they can use it to check their e-mail as well as play video games. Parkour, by the way, is that thing you've seen on TV, but may or may not know the name of, where scruffy athletic types bounce like ninja rabbits 'cross-country' through a city. Have a look here if you want your mind well and truly boggled.
The common element I see in all those things is a refusal to behave like a good consumer. With Parkour, you're given a city with paths and pavements and 'Keep Off The Grass' signs all laid out for you, and you decide instead you'll zip across rooftops, bop over walls and traverse urban precipices in much the same manner as flying squirrels.
Continue reading "Unruly consumers" »
posted on December 26, 2007 04:24 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
24 Dec 2007: Happy Christmas
And so this is Christmas, and what have we done? I am too enthusiastic about the future to do a retrospective on 2007, to be honest, so if you want to remember what we've done then browse the archives on the sidebar!
2008 is full of promise: some outstanding books that have already had some excellent feedback, a fantastically exciting Cycling range in development, our new alliance with Susie and team, the launch of SnowAngels, a gorgeous new website in the new year that I've been working on for the last few days and the chance of making our star shine even brighter. So much opportunity!
So have a very lovely festive break, and see you in the New Year where Rob, Anna and I will look forward to bringing you the finest in independent publishing for another year. Thanks for your support in 2007 and here's to the new one!
posted on December 24, 2007 05:53 PM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
23 Dec 2007: Photos
So click on the photo to the left. Nothing too notable about it, you might think. An unspectacular sunset. Except I took that photo this morning before dawn. That's the moon. Really. (Sorry it's blurred. It was a long exposure and I've lost the bit that clips my camera to its tripod. Grrrr.)
posted on December 23, 2007 08:25 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
22 Dec 2007: As the kids would say
Didn't I use the phrase being 'tagged' for a 'meme' a while back, to general and confused harrumphing? (Or at least silent indifference.) Well, Heather, from the distant land of Minnesota, just tagged me for a book review meme. To anyone not 'hip' to the 'lingo' I'm talking about 'tagging' as in "you're it!" and meme as in "dude, read some Dawkins, why don't you!'. And if that still doesn't make it clear, memes in this sense are little activities, usually self-administered quizzes, that you pass on like chain-letters (only less annoying).
Continue reading "As the kids would say" »
posted on December 22, 2007 08:53 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
22 Dec 2007: A company called DVDi are rubbish (updated)
So, first a fun (or possibly boring) story. And then a prize! (oooh!). Remember I was saying how much I enjoyed the strangely compelling TV series Industrial Revelations? Well, I ordered it and waited and waited and couldn't get updates on when it was coming so after two months I e-mailed to cancel my order. I then ordered it elsewhere, got it a week later, and began recommending it to people. Then I got an e-mail from the first company telling me they'd shipped my order. So I wrote to them to remind them about the cancelling and to ask them not to bill me. I haven't heard back and the order arrived yesterday. Now I've thought about sending it back and trying to get a refund out of DVDi, but if they don't respond to e-mails and they won't let you cancel an order, I reckon that isn't going to be much fun. So this is my solution: firstly, to let my little corner of the world know that they are useless and everyone should stay away from them. And secondly to offer my spare DVD as a prize in the following quiz.
Continue reading "A company called DVDi are rubbish (updated)" »
posted on December 22, 2007 08:35 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
20 Dec 2007: Mothernight Proofs
As a very special seasonal treat I am going to make fifty copies of Mothernight available to five lucky groups. That's right - the first five groups - that's book groups, libraries, schools, organisations, Guides, the staffroom, the smoking room, whatever - to email me will get ten copies of Mothernight to read, review and enjoy. And hopefully discuss with their friends who can buy it when it comes out in March!
I will post them out for free, but to one address only. If your group happens to have a few more than ten members, then still email in and I'll accommodate you if I can.
posted on December 20, 2007 02:47 PM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
19 Dec 2007: Too Much Information
Ahhhh. That's better. The truck came. I now have just over a year's supply of heating fuel, which means the rooms are warm and hot water comes out of the taps. I have soaked and scrubbed and feel like a new person. A cleaner one.
posted on December 19, 2007 04:04 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
19 Dec 2007: Wheee! Susan Hill's Novel of the Year
How utterly wonderful - Susan Hill has selected Sarah Bower's The Needle in the Blood as her Best Novel of the Year! Best Novel! Of the whole year! That's mighty super.
Of the whole year! I'm going to go and have a run around the garden.
posted on December 19, 2007 03:17 PM | link | Comments (6) | Leave a comment
19 Dec 2007: I am the tip lady
Another tip! I can thoroughly recommend this site: www.rememberthemilk.com. I feel more organised today than for ages. Perhaps it's what comes of having a sort-out; perhaps it's because Rob sent me this excellent video of a chap who runs a website called 43folders.com and I'm all excited about being organised. But whatever the reason, I'm happy.
Remember the Milk runs on the Get Things Done principles, which is apparantly a bestselling book (that I've never heard of - and I browse the 'productivity' and 'get organised' sections of bookstores quite often. Hmm) and once you google it there seems to be a whole industry running off the back of it, with people writing web 2.0 apps to help you apply the principles. Remember the Milk is free, which is nice of them, and super cool, not just a fancy to do list. For instance, watch this short video on Quick Add. You can update it from Twitter, your phone or by sending an email to it.... I've just deleted the last paragraph I wrote because it's me going on and on, so if one of your new year's resolutions is to get organsied, just go and have a look for yourself!
posted on December 19, 2007 11:24 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
19 Dec 2007: My tip of the day
When you're creating cover designs, and you're at the early stage when you have lots of different options, name the photoshop layers with the image library reference. That way you don't need to spend an hour searching through all the possible image libraries for the image several months down the line and can't remember for the life of you where you found it.
posted on December 19, 2007 10:50 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
19 Dec 2007: The weak link in all of this...
Because I live surrounded by fields, the gas that runs my central heating comes, not from miles of pipes connecting to the North Sea, but from a tank in the garden. What's quite clever is that a telemetry device measures the levels of gas in the tank, then it looks for a mobile phone network and logs on to whichever one has the strongest signal. From there it makes a connection to the computers of its masters and updates them on whether I need a tanker to visit and top me up or not. I was told, when the telemetry unit was installed, that all I had to do was pay the occasional bill - everything else was automatic. But apparently there's a flaw in this system. Yesterday my hot water went cold.
Continue reading "The weak link in all of this..." »
posted on December 19, 2007 07:58 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
19 Dec 2007: e-book chipper
If I want to know a piece of information, my first thought is google. But if that doesn't work, the process goes like this:
1) google
2) ask people who might know
3) google some more
4) have a proper think about it
5) google-slog through lots of unpromising links panning for gold
I'm at 2) at the moment on a question. Is there a website or a piece of software into which you drop an electronic copy of a book and out of which (brrchzzzang!) comes flying a dozen or more of the most common e-book formats? I'm sure such a thing exists, but I haven't yet found it. Any thoughts, o stoppers-by?
posted on December 19, 2007 07:23 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
18 Dec 2007: A prediction
I reckon that Clinton Cards will announce a profit warning in January.
This year, I have received a handful of Xmas cards but an inbox full of ecards. Everyone, quite rightly, cites the environmental wastefulness of sending cards through the post and says that they are donating to charity. And quite right too. Can't be good for the Christmas card market, though.
I wonder if the same thing will happen to books? Rob posted ages ago about the possibility that the conspicuous consumption of endangered wood pulp might not be de rigeur when sea levels are around our ankles. It's become acceptable, preferable even, to send an ecard. How long before printed books go the same way?
posted on December 18, 2007 04:32 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
18 Dec 2007: Lint Quiz
A Christmas Conundrum from Steve Aylett for you here: Spot the Obscure LINT Reference. Can you find the Jeff Lint reference in this panel from Alan Moore's LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: THE BLACK DOSSIER?
A mid-1950s Allan Quartermain finishes his chips and browses a magazine and pulp stall ...
/// Don't click on the comments if you want to keep guessing! //
posted on December 18, 2007 01:21 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
17 Dec 2007: Exciting news!
News! News! I'm delighted to announce that Snowbooks, small publisher extraordinaire, and Allison and Busby, the small publisher of big books, are teaming up in a clever, collaborative way. Susie Dunlop, who runs A&B, and her team will from now on be doing all Snowbooks sales. The Bookseller have written a lovely article about it here (and they used my SnowGlobe which I'm particularly delighted about - thanks Tom!).
Continue reading "Exciting news!" »
posted on December 17, 2007 09:31 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
17 Dec 2007: Barriers
Can you imagine writing a novel if you had to do all your edits and corrections by crossing something through and writing it out again with a pen? Can you imagine (or remember) producing photo-ready artwork for illustrated books and then physically cutting and pasting with actual cuts and actual paste in order to get your book ready to print? They used to be the only ways and now that's all vanished. It must have been an awful, colossal pain and it certainly had the effect of making sure that the contents of books stayed where you put them. It took a lot of effort to propagate words and pictures. But now that layouts are done with clicks, and editing is so easy that you can think about the words not what your hands are doing, it's easy to blur the distinction between books, magazines, online articles and other people's websites. For part of every book's life, all of its words and pictures and layout are just ones-and-zeroes. In theory, they could go anywhere next. There's no such thing as book text as compared with online text. It's all electronic, at least while it's being prepared. So I was wondering if anyone out there does unusual things with their book files. Do any of you use DocBook or DITA? Do you do clever things in FrameMaker instead of InDesign/Quark? I'm sure Salt do. Does anyone else?
posted on December 17, 2007 07:45 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
14 Dec 2007: Water Displacement where you need it, when you need it
No, I'll grant you, you can't use it on a book. Or an author (at least not safely). But the idea that WD-40 now comes with its own built-in straw thingie, that you can't lose, is - I think you'll agree - the dawn of a new era. Now the WD-40 will go where you want it - and not just the first time - but repeatedly, even after you would normally have lost the stupid straw held on with its stupid elastic band. This feels huge. All I can say is, what brave new world is this that has such penetrating lubricants in it.
posted on December 14, 2007 03:32 PM | link | Comments (6) | Leave a comment
14 Dec 2007: Outstanding offer for you, fair readers
A pre-Christmas bookclub offer for you. Buy three copies of The Red Men for a fiver! That's right - one Earth pound and sixty-sixpence each. UK only, I'm afraid. P&P is free. (Well, free to you, not free to me.) I'm doing this deal to encourage you to select The Red Men for your next bookclub read - and then to comment on it on the Spread the Word website. If I could make it a condition of sale that you were to post a comment about it there, I would - but since that is neither completely fair nor enforceable, I'll just have to appeal to your sense of kindness.
£1.66! Bargainlicious. Roll up. Offer open until January 1st 2008.
posted on December 14, 2007 01:48 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
14 Dec 2007: Susan Hill and Needle
Wow - Susan Hill has chosen Needle in the Blood for her shortlist of her books of the year - and whichever books win will receive £100, for the author to give to a charity. What a lovely festive idea - and how thrilling to be selected, as Susan reads so many books. It's quite an honour. Go and have a look at her blog.
posted on December 14, 2007 12:50 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
14 Dec 2007: Photoshopping with care
Whenever I see this picture in the Guardian it bothers me (see left). I don't know if Simon Jenkins has an artificial eye, but even if he does, I don't see why a publicity photo should emphasise it. And if he doesn't, then... well, need I explain. And neither do I know if he is a goa'uld, but now I have my suspicions.
Continue reading "Photoshopping with care" »
posted on December 14, 2007 12:19 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
14 Dec 2007: No email today
Oh dear, the perils of working from two different places. Today, for reasons that I hope Rob will enlighten me on in a bit, our server is being a bit tricksy. It lives in my spare bedroom in't countryside, and today I'm in London so I can't hit it with a spanner. It's picking up email fine from snowbooks.com, so the web connection must be working, but I can't get access to the remote email programme that runs on it. Weird.
Anyway, that means that if you send me an email today, I won't get it until 9pm tonight. So apologies in advance for appearing stony.
posted on December 14, 2007 08:51 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
13 Dec 2007: Bargains from Independent Publishers
Go Amazon! They are running a Best of the Independents promotion which has just launched. Go and spend the last of your Christmas money there now.
posted on December 13, 2007 05:35 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
13 Dec 2007: Needle
You might not see this deep in the archives of DGR Scribbles, so I'll point it out here: a lovely set of heartfelt comments about how superb Needle in the Blood is.
posted on December 13, 2007 04:34 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
13 Dec 2007: Lily Allen and the Orange Prize of Doom
Lily Allen, popstrel, is one of the judges for the Orange Prize. Everyone's up in arms. I think it's bloody brilliant*.
Continue reading "Lily Allen and the Orange Prize of Doom" »
posted on December 13, 2007 01:59 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
13 Dec 2007: This has never happened to me before.
overly generous?
I went to Pret. I bought a wrap and a lemon cheesecake thing. I et the wrap. And now I am too full for the cheesecake.
*Too full for cheesecake*. A new experience.
posted on December 13, 2007 12:50 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
13 Dec 2007: Enjoyable
Having finished off a bit of creative writing I've been working on lately I settled down to do some programming today. Maybe it's the fact that I only write code in little fun chunks and only when I feel like it, but I always find it disappointing how enjoyable it is. Some part of me wishes I liked opera and such-like and hated computers, but really (shhh!) it's the other way round.
Continue reading "Enjoyable" »
posted on December 13, 2007 11:29 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
12 Dec 2007: Mike McBride interview
Here's a very fine interview with our own Mike McBride, horror writer extraordinaire. Enjoy!
posted on December 12, 2007 10:44 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
12 Dec 2007: Square
This morning I have made a square. It only takes up four of your Earth kilobytes. And yet it's not without its interest.
posted on December 12, 2007 07:13 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
11 Dec 2007: Automated criticism
I know I was rubbish at art in school. And I can't draw or paint. But whenever I save a picture I've been working on in Photoshop on my MacBook the default destination is the trash. If I don't notice and then look for my file on the desktop, I'm out of luck. It's been pre-binned for me. What ever happened to encouraging and nurturing talent? Is there a setting they only teach you about in art school that turns off the 'amateur filter'?
posted on December 11, 2007 05:03 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
11 Dec 2007: The Red Men: good news and giveaway
What do we have here? Ah! *Another* book on the Spread the Word shortlist! Hooray!
For various reasons, I'm delighted to say that The Red Men has been selected to be part of the shortlist. It is a superb book, and deserves accolades and prizes. If you'd like to read a copy, to celebrate this late entrant and because I'm feeling relatively festive I have five to go to good homes.
Also, it is red and gold - perfect Christmas colours.
posted on December 11, 2007 04:39 PM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
11 Dec 2007: Only for girls
Girls know that sometimes the world seems a touch brighter after a nice big cry - especially if there's nothing actually wrong. So if you fancy a nice bawl, and you don't completely hate pets, watch this video.
Snif.
[Also, sorry that it's totally not publishing related.]
posted on December 11, 2007 02:19 PM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
11 Dec 2007: Wanted: one helper monkey.
I've got a hundred million BORING things to do and three or four TOTALLY EXCITING things to do and I want to do the TOTALLY EXCITING things and can't because of all the BORING things.
Bah.
When will someone invent the helper monkey?
posted on December 11, 2007 12:25 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
11 Dec 2007: Great Stocking Filler of Exceptional Value
Homewrecker?
Words used in this super clip by Dominik Diamond off Talk 107 - "wonderful", "Leila Johnston, this bird, who's very fit actually, like Nigella Lawson. Except thin", "unnecessary", "twisted", "psychotic", "perfect lavvy book", "serious issues", "great stocking filler of exceptional value". Huzzah!
posted on December 11, 2007 08:57 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
10 Dec 2007: Don't drink and drive
But do go to MotorBar to read a lovely review of Cooking with Booze.
posted on December 10, 2007 10:11 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
10 Dec 2007: dynamite + fuse + fire = change
Publishers don't just publish, so even if the world comes up with some way to get words directly from the writer's nib into some perfectly-paper-like electrophoretic e-book reader, the role of the publisher won't have gone away. But if the world also comes up with a way to figure out which raw manuscripts are wheat and which are chaff - and it bypasses the current quality filters of the agent -> publisher -> retailer supply chain - then the world might be on to something.
Continue reading "dynamite + fuse + fire = change" »
posted on December 10, 2007 09:27 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
09 Dec 2007: Picked up
Leila pointed out that part of one of Rob's posts got picked up and included in the letters' blogs page of the Guardian. Hello, person from the Guardian! Thanks for that!
If you've come here from the Guardian letters page, to avoid you having to scroll through posts about My Friends the Birds, Demands for Votes and suchlike, here is the post.
posted on December 9, 2007 07:53 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
09 Dec 2007: Visitors
Here is a counter of everyone who's visited, starting from 1.30 today. I think I'm excluded, after a long battle with some cookies. Clickety click.
posted on December 9, 2007 01:16 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
09 Dec 2007: A rose for all seasons
I'm not saying the climate is broken, or anything, but that rose is blooming in my garden right now. OK, it's a little tatty-looking in places, but it's the freakin' 9th of freakin' December. (I know it looks like I did a really hamfisted job of bumping the saturation up through the roof, but I swear I didn't touch the colours. That's how it came out of my D40 (with all the settings on default). I even thought of photoshopping the saturation down so this real rose would look more believable. The weirdness probably comes from the fact that the camera decided it needed the flash to fire even though it's daylight out there. But then again, it is winter.)
posted on December 9, 2007 10:17 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
08 Dec 2007: www.worldbookday.com/spreadtheword
You lovely people. Thanks for voting! It means the world because it would be just what we need to get a book into the final ten. Now I am going to try a new tactic: Search Engine Optimisation! So: if you have come here after searching for: world book day, worldbookday, spread the word, spreadtheword, spread the book (you never know), world book day books, what shall i read next, book group, book group spread the word, books, book recommendations, reading group, book group selection, richard and judy book group (ha, sorry to cheat a bit, but our books are way better than those), independent publisher books, book choice then WELCOME and please vote for us on the world book day Spread the Word site.
If anyone has genuinely come here for the first time after looking for Spread the Word on the web, then you should know that Snowbooks is a lovely little publisher based in London. We need all the help we can get, so please take a punt on our books, which really are better than everyone else's, and consider them for your reading group, and then, for a million extra karma points, vote for us. Thanks!
posted on December 8, 2007 02:54 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
07 Dec 2007: Writer's strike
Right. I am not going to write any more blog posts until all 10,000 of you unique visitors (if that is your real name) vote and leave a comment about one or all of Needle in the Blood, Lint and Adept on the Spread the Word website.
[Folds arms, taps finger on upper arm].
This is one of the biggest chances we've had for ages. Think of our authors! Do it for them. Think of all the hours of entertainment Rob and I provide for you via the SnowBlog! Do it for us. Think of ... how good you will feel by doing something that will help us survive. You like indie publishers, don't you? You don't really want the world to be dominated by Mr Hachette's Livres, do you? I thought not. VOTE NOW!
I'd be awfully grateful. x
Vote for NEEDLE IN THE BLOOD here
posted on December 7, 2007 01:54 PM | link | Comments (7) | Leave a comment
06 Dec 2007: Worry your Irish friends too
Hooray - Dublin Inspired is promoting Leila's book! They have it in the literature section, which tickled me. I mean, I love Leila's book but the plot does founder from time to time. As for the character development...
posted on December 6, 2007 09:45 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
05 Dec 2007: Cooking w booze in G3
A lovely, enthusiastic review of CWB graces the pages of G3 magazine. Thanks!
posted on December 5, 2007 08:08 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
05 Dec 2007: Loooooooook look look look
That darlingest DoveGreyReader has done a wonderful thing and written lovely things about Needle in her spot on the Picador blog. Oooh DGR, I do love you to bits. Best historical novel of 2007! Wheeeee.
(Are you reading, Orange prize judges? BEST HISTORICAL NOVEL!)
posted on December 5, 2007 08:03 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
05 Dec 2007: 69 Magazine
Hooray, Leila is top of the pops in these very swanky North and Midlands magazines. Check out the review on their totally cool online reader. - scroll to page 95. The review will be in the printed editions of 69 North and 69 Midlands, so if you live there look out for it.
Thanks again to PR company extraordinaire Cerub for their super work.
posted on December 5, 2007 10:40 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
04 Dec 2007: Not 'shopped
This is the actual colour of the actual sky this evening. Purple!
posted on December 4, 2007 05:26 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
04 Dec 2007: News from the copyright wars
For lovers of the schadenfreude frisson (and similar franco-germanically-entitled phenomena) there's a fun development in the Motion Picture Association of America's attempts to clamp down on copyright violation. It seems they're pushing hard to have some monitoring software installed on university networks to check that students aren't stepping on their copyrights. Unfortunately for them, they built their monitoring application using bits of open source software. And the licence for most open source software says that if you use the community's code, you have to make the results freely available to all. But the MPAA don't like that sort of copyright, they only like their own, so they refused to make their code available. At which point they became the recipients of one of their own favourite weapons, a DMCA notice. Pwned, as the net-kids say. I have to say that until copyright enforcement becomes at least as much about encouraging creativity as it is about protecting profits I can't get very excited about it.
posted on December 4, 2007 01:41 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
04 Dec 2007: Some wildlife I have managed not to kill
Thanks for your kindness on the whole sad rabbit business. I do feel better now.
Due to some clever positioning of a bag of nuts, here is my local friendly great tit having its breakfast. It's on the window ledge of my office, and makes for very pleasant company.
posted on December 4, 2007 10:45 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
04 Dec 2007: That Sam Jordison is extremely attractive
And charming, and well-presented. And I've heard he's very clever, too.
He recommends, in glowing terms, The Red Men on the Guardian blog today. Twice (check the comments).
Like I say, a very attractive man.
posted on December 4, 2007 10:33 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
04 Dec 2007: Plotting in Libraries
Excellent news: Sue and Jane's Plotting for Beginners has been selected for the London Libraries Limited Edition promo. More details as they come. Go to Sue's website now to see her looking glam.
posted on December 4, 2007 08:27 AM | link | Comments (4) | Leave a comment
04 Dec 2007: Damn
I just killed a rabbit on the road. I feel utterly dreadful. Someone say something to make me feel better.
posted on December 4, 2007 07:38 AM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
03 Dec 2007: Careers counselling (updated)
Em sent me a link to an article in The Times about sci-fi, its importance and its unpopularity. One of the points it makes is that if anyone manages to write really good sci-fi it instantly gets promoted out of the genre, so that Orwell's 1984 becomes political satire or simply classic literature. Anyway, while reading the article I had a very unpleasant realisation about my own future.
Continue reading "Careers counselling (updated)" »
posted on December 3, 2007 06:19 PM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
03 Dec 2007: Oh, by the way
I dyed my hair. No, it is not Chestnut, as the box promised. It is Darkest Brown. Darkest, Darkest Brown With Weird Red Bits. And did it achieve Perfect Coverage Of Grey? No, it did not - I still have my weird Cruella de Ville white streak.
All that hope of a Chestnutty future, and all the gasping for breath trying not to inhale toxic fumes, and for what? Sigh.
posted on December 3, 2007 12:32 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
03 Dec 2007: Whoa! Big mention in Boston Globe
Hey, look at this. The Red Men is mentioned as one of only two books-of-the-year by the prestigious Boston Globe in their Brainiac blog. Neato.
posted on December 3, 2007 10:11 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
03 Dec 2007: For sale
Sorry to be a blog hog this morning. It's like I have nothing better to do. But I just read this in the Bookseller, in a story about the Guiness Book of Records being up for sale:
"Hit, owned by private-equity firm Apax Partners, is also looking for a buyer for Sooty the puppet."
Made me snort into my coffee.
posted on December 3, 2007 09:00 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
03 Dec 2007: Well you would, wouldn't you?
Forgive the fuzziness* (well it was pre-coffee, after all) but I thought I'd share this packaging. How can you deny yourself Super Premium Limited Edition One Time Only Get It Whilst It's Hot? I love the blatant hyperbole - and it got me to buy. It's not bad, but I have to say I was expecting better given the marketing.
Reminds me of something I was reading the other day about modern consumerism, and the idea that you can upgrade anything. Water, coffee, loo-roll - these things used to be commodities but marketeers have created a 'supertier' offering. I have a hunch that's an area of books that isn't currently exploited - except maybe by the Folio Society - but would make sense. Someone pass me the gold leaf.
*(Rob: now sharpened)
posted on December 3, 2007 08:49 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
03 Dec 2007: Painful
Just going through some notes I made at a marketing seminar a couple of weeks ago. One note, circled a couple of times in biro, reads: "They like pain @ lit fests." At least, that's what I thought it said until I realised my awful handwriting had turned 'rs' into 'n'. Pairs. They like *pairs* of authors. Not pain. Keep telling yourself that.
posted on December 3, 2007 08:31 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
03 Dec 2007: Review round up
Loads of reviews
I mean penguins
They're coming in thick and fast - you might say like a flurry, or blizzard, or snowstorm (oh, you already got it) - so here is a round up of reviews.
Leila's How to Worry Friends is proving popular - it's in Time Out (there's a nice picture of it as part of a stack in the printed edition. It does stand out beautifully - I was in Borders the other day and it positively glowed on the Secret Santa promotional table).
How to worry is also reviewed here (note the comedy typo) and there's a super interview with The Author Herself on Dollymix.
And then also on FGTG there's a gift feature of Cooking w' Booze.
Tis the season to be most jolly, no?
posted on December 3, 2007 07:38 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
02 Dec 2007: A good weekend's work
Well, I say work. I did try to have some time away from a computer last weekend, but it made me nervous and fidgety. So, like the coffee, this weekend I've been back at my laptop, and loving it.
Continue reading "A good weekend's work" »
posted on December 2, 2007 08:05 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
02 Dec 2007: Indefinable magic
I really can't tell you how much I've enjoyed a TV series called Industrial Revelations by Mark Williams. Even if you can't place the name, you'd know him as soon as you saw him. He's one of the luminaries from The Fast Show and Mr Weasley from the Harry Potter movies (if you've heard of them).
As you can guess from the title, it's about the industrial revolution. The first season is all about heavy industry: coal, steam, canals, trains. The second is about peripheral bits and pieces like cloth-making and printing and mining. It's not flashy, it's not even particularly innovative, but there's something about Mark Williams's enthusiasm that's completely absorbing.
Continue reading "Indefinable magic" »
posted on December 2, 2007 10:14 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
01 Dec 2007: Tap tap tap. Ka-ching!
Early word-processor
I've just been doing a bit of writing. Nothing too unusual in that. My day-job of posting little graphics on the Snowblog doesn't fill the entire day, and the rest of the time I either look out of the window or write stories. No, not 'like a child would'. Honestly, show some respect!
What's been a little weird about this most recent writing project is that it's been so structured... and not by me. It needed to be a certain size, it had to be finished in a fraction of the time I'd normally spend on something like this and for various reasons it ideally needed to fit in the gap left by some things I'd already written. Oh, and when I sat done to zip through this thing I didn't even have a story in mind (as far as I could tell). That in itself is weird, because why would you sit down to write unless you had a story to tell?
Continue reading "Tap tap tap. Ka-ching!" »
posted on December 1, 2007 07:04 AM | link | Comments (4) | Leave a comment