Rush Limbaugh blamed Obama for the Tampa hurricane.
“The National Hurricane Center is Obama,” he said. “The National Weather Service is part of the Commerce Department. It is Obama.”
You do what you want, but I’ll def vote for THE GUY WHO CAN CONTROL THE FUCKING WEATHER.
What first caught my attention about Matthew Iden’s books was his cover designs.
It turns out Matt designs his own book covers. In his blog, he’s recently started sharing his insights — well worth reading for any indie author!
Here’s one excerpt:
Judging a book by its cover
. . . You are, in essence, using your cover as a proxy for the total value of your book: the plot, the characters, the outcome, the entertainment value, the resonance with the reader. You are asking your potential readers to make the rather amazing decision of whether they will plunk down cash, spend hours, days, or weeks reading your words, and tell everyone they know about your book based on a glance at your book’s cover. . . .
If the messaging vis-à-vis your cover is garbled, confusing, contradictory, or misleading, you’re in trouble. Avoid that situation by putting an unambiguous primary image in front of your reader’s noses.
Dialog (no “ue” needed–this is the 21st century) spotted on #Facebook:
Original post: what’s with this Timeline shit?
Reply: grrrrr, the bain of my existence.
A group of San Francisco alumnae of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts recently organized a marvelous summit called “Passion and Possibility in Life and Work.” As a 1970 grad, I appeared to be the oldest woman in the room, maybe by a couple of decades. Yet my experience mirrors that of the many 21st-century alumnae: A job can be a useful way to establish your cred, skills, and contacts, but it’s unlikely to pave your career path.
Remember those concrete-mixing trucks whose drums bore the motto “Find a need and fill it”? Like our college’s 1837 founder, Mary Lyon, we don’t look for vacancies in the existing economic machine so much as for needs to fill. The 21st century is the Age of the Entrepreneur. For one woman this might mean forcing open enough doors to wield her expertise in a government position, then an NGO, then academia and/or independent consulting. For another, it’s linking friends in different organizations who can collaborate not only to place water-collection systems in underdeveloped countries, but to set up instructional programs for the users, and find incentives for financial backers. For another, it’s funneling her experience with a media corporation into freelance work and then her own start-up.
The great thing about the new economy is that you can be an “emerging artist” at any age. Whether we’re in the starting blocks or the home stretch of our vocations, the path looks less like a track than a mosaic. Each of us chooses her own direction. In publishing, where I spent my apprentice years chafing against conventions that often violated common sense, now the workers own the means of production (or at least a hefty share). This is liberating: every independently published book can be written at the length its subject demands, launched when it’s ready, and marketed in ways that suit it and its author. It’s also daunting: although a true meritocracy is now theoretically possible, the feet on which it stands are Monetization and Discoverability. Are the cleverest marketers also the best content-creators?
From this vantage point, all that’s certain is that the landscape will keep changing. Stay tuned!
“Edward Gorey On Stage is a thoroughly enjoyable publication chronicling Edward Gorey’s theatrical career…In an informative conversational style, Ms. Verburg recounts Mr. Gorey’s interest in theater, beginning in his youth and continuing throughout his life…[particularly] Cape Cod in the 1980’s and ’90s. Ms. Verburg was a hands-on participant (or co-conspirator) in most of these endeavors, and she has many stories to delight the Gorey enthusiast.”
