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Phew
Hooray. Spent the afternoon with Ro in hospital today having a post-op hearing test. I'm sooo relieved to report that he has tip-top hearing. They know that because he successfully looked in the direction of a speaker when it hummed. I could have saved us all a trip. Hopefully we haven't picked up any superbugs whilst we were there [washes hands for 15th time].
Happy bank holiday wedding weekend, all. I might have something interesting to show you by Tuesday. Or I might not. See how it goes.
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Spring Heeled Jack wins Philip K Dick Award
OMG! Mark Hodder's Spring Heeled Jack has just won the Philip K Dick Award! There's nothing on their website yet but here's a photo of the (extremely lovely) US publisher Lou Anders accepting the award.
I am so excited! [does winning-prizes dance]
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Big Apple/Brother
Apparently iPhones keep an accurate log of everywhere you've been and exactly when you were there. The information's not even very well hidden, and that log ends up on whichever computer you sync your phone with, as well as on the phone itself. Understandably a few privacy advocates have raised their eyebrows over this. One of the people who thought the world should know about this decided - rather brilliantly - to spread the word by writing an application that'll fetch that info and plot it on a map. Click a button and watch an animation of everywhere you've been since you bought your phone. I just downloaded the Mac-only application from here and thirty seconds later was looking at the picture below. That's all the places I've been in the UK in the last couple of years. Amazing. And also troubling. (Hey Jenn, proof that I travel up to visit you fairly often!)
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Assorted non-bookness
Some unrelated bits and bobs:
* Multitaskers struggle to... ?
When someone says to me, "Keep talking; I *am* listening," while they do something else I've never been too impressed with the results. Anecdotally and over-generalistically, I get the impression that many under-20s never do just *one* thing: if they're watching TV, they're also on FaceBook or playing a game. Wasn't like that in my day, harrumph (though I'm a low-level multi-tasker myself). Obviously if you multi-task you're unlikely to do any one of your activities as well as a single-tasker, but you're also constantly challenging your brain to cope with multiple inputs, so I was interested to read this discussion of a study which tried to work out what new mental skills multi-taskers had acquired. The answer amused me. (link)
* Bugs
I read a lot more non-fiction than fiction. I may not be making my soul more beautiful with this choice, but I certainly learn a lot more stuff about the world. I'm still at the very early stages of reading a book about MRSA at the moment (=Superbug). It's terrifying so far and is likely to turn me into a Howard Hughes-style recluse. Well-written, interesting and full of very unwelcome information. Do your best to avoid it.
* Farewell
And finally something that makes me sad: Lis Sladen, the lady who played Sarah-Jane Smith on Doctor Who - both when I was little and in the last few years - has died from cancer. I was so surprised because she always looked so fantastic that I thought she must be fit as a flea. I can't remember ever seeing a woman in her sixties look so great in a pair of jeans and a leather jacket and I loved the character she played. I think you can often tell when an actor is really a great person and no one seems to have had a bad word to say about Lis Sladen. (I would have spelled her name 'Liz' but I'm seeing it as 'Lis' in newspaper stories.) (news story)
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Tide
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The publishing tide is shifting fast: E-book sales in February topped all other formats, including paperbacks and hardcovers, according to an industry report released this week.
E-book sales totaled $90.3 million in February, up 202% compared to the same month a year earlier, according to a study from the Association of American Publishers. That put e-books at No. 1 "among all categories of trade publishing" that month -- the first time e-books have beaten out traditional publishing formats..."
Link to rest of article
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Flowers
I do this so rarely, but I couldn't resist hijacking the snowblog today with this photo. Is my son the most loveliest, sweetest boy in the world, or is he not? With his little pink toes and turn-up-utility-pocket combo? And excellent hair that no-one shall persuade me needs a trim.
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Phew
Aren't colds weird. Finally, I am coughing and sneezing this morning and it's such a relief. The last few days I have appeared perfectly well, but have felt dreadful. Example: there's a personal cheque for £1500 sitting on my piano, which is the returned deposit for my old rented house. I have felt so under the weather that I simply could not be bothered to go to the piano, get the cheque, put it in an envelope and post it to my bank. So if you've had any sort of email from me this week, or have evidence that I've done any work at all, you should count yourself very lucky. (And imaginary, since I know I've done bugger all. Sorry about that.)
However, phew, today all the germs, picked up no doubt from the aircraft hanger full of infection and disease that is LBF, have got themselves busy manifesting themselves in coughs and splutters rather than messing with my head, so I am back on form. All the things that need doing will get done today. Hooray! I am competent once more!
[sneeze]
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Refusing to be saved
I read an interesting observation about self-publishing by Bruce Sterling the other day on his fun (but scrappy) blog. He was picking up on something that Roxanne Gay said on HTML Giant. We all know that publishers act as gatekeepers and quality filters in the world of books. Having read a few DIYed novels, Roxanna says: "...there’s a reason most of those self-published books were not picked up by publishers great or small. There was no misunderstood genius in these novels. These books fell through the proverbial cracks for a reason."
But Sterling's response was this: "So gatekeepers are good because they separate the wheat from the chaff, etc. etc. There is a major point missing from this argument: readers don’t care. Bad, “unpublishable” books are finding an audience. I cannot claim to have read many of the books on the Kindle self-published bestseller list, but without a doubt there are many books that some people would find totally inept, but are finding an audience with many honest 5-star reviews."
Interesting idea, no? We're protecting readers from dross, and sometimes they don't want us to. I'd say it was tricky to argue that we should do it anyway without ending up sounding patronising.
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LBF
So it's LBF tomorrow. My Just-In-Time catalogue creating and printing came good - my catalogues arrived at 6pm yesterday. Phew, shouldn't leave it so late. My pass is printed, my bag is packed, my extra comfy shoes are on standby. Forgive me, then, if I'm a bit unresponsive on the ol' email this week. See you there if you're going - we're on the IPG stand as ever.
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My Birthday Treat
At last, Fags Mags and Bags - Radio 4's premier comedy programme - returns for Season 4. Tune in your wirelesses to the Light Programme at 11:30am on Monday, April 4th. It will be both amazing and great.
(And while I'm talking about lovely things on the radio, at some point I'll want to listen to Martin Sheen on Desert Island Discs this Sunday (11:15am). Can't wait to hear stories about The West Wing and the trail they've been running about the Democrat Party asking him to run for the Senate.)