Sometimes I think authors (myself included) can be pretty dense when it comes to marketing, at least in our efforts on social networking websites. It seems like whenever I get a friend request on myspace it's from another writer. When I get a comment, it's from a writer talking up his or her latest release. On Goodreads, when I get a book recommendation, more often than not, it was sent by the book's author.



I've never bought any of their books. I've never even gone to the library… Continue

Sometimes I think authors (myself included) can be pretty dense when it comes to marketing, at least in our efforts on social networking websites. It seems like whenever I get a friend request on myspace it's from another writer. When I get a comment, it's from a writer talking up his or her latest release. On Goodreads, when I get a book recommendation, more often than not, it was sent by the book's author.



I've never bought any of their books. I've never even gone to the library… Continue

Last Wednesday night, my sister Amy and I were among the many die hard Bruce Springsteen fans who came out for his Orando concert after he'd cancelled the originally scheduled one for Saturday, April 19th.



For us, going to the concert started out as a fun thing to do, and somehow became a quest--a way to reconnect with our lost youth since we went to see The Boss back in the 1980s when we were a whole lot younger than we are now. It was a way to honor Amy's late husband Ron, also a… Continue

Have you ever bought anything simply because someone sent you a postcard?



Hardly a day goes buy that I don’t get some kind of promotional postcard in the mail, offering me everything from pizza to carpet cleaning to the services of a competent, experienced realtor. These cards go directly to the recycling bin, destined for the Mixed Paper section of the local recycling station.



But they must work, otherwise people wouldn’t send them to me.



Postcards are a… Continue

Anyone been following the Margaret Seltzer story? The woman who grew up in in Sherman Oaks CA, graduated from a private high school, and managed to pass herself off an LA gang member? Her publisher is shocked, shocked to discover she made it all up. Apparently all they know about gang life in Los Angeles is what they've read in the New York Times and seen in HBO documentaries.



Of course, authors of memoirs have always been allowed to play fast and loose with the truth. Mostly… Continue

A bit of background here. I belong to an online community called www.goodreads.com which is a place where readers discuss books. We have some lively conversations, especially in the group called "Books I Loathed."



One of the books that came up was a children's book by Shel Silverstein called The Giving Tree. Depending on your point of view, it's a poignant parable of unconditional love, or the toxic relationship between a narcissistic male and a pathetic self-destructive… Continue

Not exactly.



But I am in the position of being able to exploit a current news story to sell a book that was written five years ago. (Yes, the wheels of publication do run slowly.)



Yesterday, an eco-terrorist group called the Earth Liberation Front (using the adorable acronym ELF) set fire to three multi-million dollar mansions in a Seattle suburb. Fortunately, the houses were unoccupied and no one was hurt or killed. Of course, ELF prides itself on never harming a living… Continue

The Academy Awards show is a lot like Christmas. The anticipation always excedes the actual event and you never get what you really want. Just ask Peter O'Toole. Or Kevin Connolly, who just lost his 20th nomination for Achievement in Sound Mixing. Of course no one in the Academy is going to vote for "Transformers," a re-make of a 1980s kids' television show that was, in reality, a blatant attempt to sell toys.



Everyone loves to trash the Academy Awards show. Yesterday morning on NPR… Continue

To which I answer, I'm 51 years old. I don't have to do push-ups any more and you can't make me.

And that brings me to my topic for today--physical education in the public schools. With the emphasis on meeting the "No Child Left Behind" standards, many schools have eliminated gym class and recess and have only recently noticed that the kids really did need that time to exercise. There's an epidemic of obesity in children, brought on by oversized portions, a steady diet of junk food…

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