Author: Andi Marquette

Andi Marquette once wanted to be a seafaring pirate. But she realized that could be a problem, growing up in the Rocky Mountain West and Southwest. So she became an editor, anthropologist, and historian instead. But that, too, didn't satisfy her weird cravings for stories and strange realms. Now, she's a writer ensconced in Colorado and when she wants to go pirate-ing, she just makes something up.

Print ain’t dead yet

That’s the news from the BEA — BookExpo America, a giant-ass convention/conference with tons of publishing and book vendors, filled with book freaks, books, and all things books and publishing.

Publishers Weekly notes:

Despite the way e-books dominated the publishing conversation over the past year, it was obvious from the moment one set foot on the volume-packed BEA show floor that the printed book is still very much at the center of the publishing industry.
source

Check out that article, because it notes that the philosophy of booksellers and book publishers isn’t necessarily that electronic media will replace print, but rather that the two can complement each other.

Case in point. I purchased a Kindle for myself a few months back and what I decided is that it’s not quite like reading a book. It’s a different medium, and that doesn’t make it bad or good. It just makes it different. I appreciate the ease of taking my Kindle on a plane, and having it in my backpack when I’m out and about. I love the ease of downloading titles, and I really enjoy being able to “sample” a title before I buy it. I also like that I can buy things like The Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers, Toqueville’s Democracy in America, and Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl for around a dollar.

I also like that I can try writers out for a couple bucks or less, though I would also like an option to “rent” ebooks, too. Hell, I rent movies on Netflix. Why not do the same for ebooks?

Anyway, I like the ease of having a bunch of classics right at my fingertips. But it’s not the same as taking a book to a coffee house, opening it, and reading it. And I still use my local library quite a bit, because I like that my tax dollars pay for books and I can go and check ’em out, read ’em, and take ’em back because I’m in an anti-clutter phase at the moment and I like that anybody can have access to books that way.

So no, I don’t think ebooks will replace print books. Not any time soon. But I do think they can complement each other, and I think that’s a great and wonderful thing for publishers, readers, and authors.

Happy reading, happy writing!

by Categories: Books, Ebooks, Publishing biznessTags: , , , ,

Oldies but Goodies

Hey, peeps–

Handy Sunday reading tip for you here: read books that are older than you. WAY older. Why? Because books are guideposts to history. Like art, they’re reflections of the historical contexts in which they were written. Authors are products of their historical contexts, as well, and of their cultural and geographical environments. Writers capture their surroundings, whether they write fiction or nonfiction, and through older books, you can get a snapshot of cultural and sociopolitical moments that play into larger trends and patterns.

So, given our current situation, with rampant corporate corruption and greed and how profit-driven mentalities can affect and hurt every one of us, have a look at Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.

This is the 1906 cover:

source

Upton Sinclair was a muckracking journalist, and spent time undercover in 1904 in Chicago’s meatpacking plants. The results of his investigation were first published in serial form in Appeal to Reason, a Socialist newspaper. [before you get all bent out of shape, check this definition of Socialism.] What he saw in the plants will turn many stomachs still — the unsanitary and horrible conditions in which American meat is butchered and packed. But Sinclair also revealed the horrific conditions in which the workers at these plants toiled, and the circumstances of their lives and the industries in which they worked that kept them virtually enslaved.

As a result of this book, sweeping changes were made to the meatpacking industry to safeguard the health and safety of consumers and workers (Food and Drug Act, anyone?). However, Sinclair also wanted to draw attention to American poverty, the treatment of immigrants, and how the lack of social programs hurt not only workers, but a wider array of Americans. This book demonstrates how corporate (and government) corruption and wage slavery damage the so-called American dream and the economic foundations of this country. Sinclair shined a light on the dark side of capitalism, and it’s not pretty. Unchecked corporate capitalism, he warns, benefits no one but the corporate and government elite. There is no “trickle-down.” There is only the haves, who keep getting more, and the have-nots, who keep getting screwed.

So read it and see if you notice any similarities between what’s going on now and what went on just over a hundred years ago. I think you’ll be surprised.

Happy reading, happy writing, happy thinking!

by Categories: Books, Cool stuff to read, Inspiration, Things that might make you thinkTags: , , , 4 Comments

Chill Gear for the Zombie Apocalypse

Hi, folks–

Hope this weekend is treating you oh, so groovy. I thought even those of us dealing with the ZA might need a little break. So in case you’re needing a respite from the hard work of avoiding zombies and survivors once all hell breaks out, I found this delightful wine that might be able to help you unwind, as you’re hunkered for the evening in your darkened, cramped, stuffy attic (remember, no lights at night).


source

Is it good? Probably not. But ask yourself this. You’ve been running, dodging, hiding, living on the edge of hell for a few months. You haven’t had a decent shower in months, or a meal that didn’t come out of a can or an MRE package. You probably have bruises, scratches, scrapes, and some creepy itch from running around in the woods. Are you REALLY going to care what this wine tastes like?

I thought not. So get yourself a bottle for the ZA and take a few minutes of chill.

Happy surviving!

by Categories: Zombie Apocalypse Survival Tips, ZombiesTags: , , ,

Thursday giggles and iconic pizza

Hi, kids! Sorry about that; been a bit under the weather. Caught this awesomely hilarious bit Jon Stewart did about the Donald taking Sarah Palin out for pizza in New York.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, New Yorkers are proprietary about their pizza. And well they should be. There’s a wonderful pizza heritage in New York, and I do think that there is, in fact, something about NYC water that makes the dough as good as it is. A native New Yorker told me that, too.

So it’s no wonder that a New Yorker will want to take you to a New York pizzeria to try the “real deal,” like Lombardi’s, America’s first one. Originally opened in 1897 as a grocery store, it became a pizza joint in 1905 when New York issued mercantile licenses. Though pizza didn’t become really popular in the U.S. until after WWII, Lombardi’s kept on selling until 1984, when it closed but reopened it 10 years later, and the traditions continued.

So here you go. Jon Stewart on New York pizza:

source: The Daily Show

by Categories: Funny stuff, Random WTF stuff, The AwesomeTags: , , , , 1 Comment

Memorial Day

Hi, folks–

If you’re hanging out at home (maybe it got a little hot to do much on this Monday off), I recommend this book by Sebastian Junger:

War

source

The book accompanies a documentary called Restrepo, but if you’re not familiar with Junger’s writing, read this book. He is a master with phrasing, narrative, and sparse, gritty language that puts you right into the heart of whatever he’s describing. Here, Junger spent months shadowing an American infantry platoon in Afghanistan. Here’s a quote from a New York Times book review:

The best way to describe Junger’s book is to say what it is not. “War” does not attempt to explain the strategy behind the American war in Afghanistan, or the politics of Afghanistan, or even the people of the Korangal Valley. As the action unfolds, Junger makes no attempt to connect it to anything else happening inside the country.

Instead, he uses the platoon (the second of Battle Company, part of the 173rd Airborne Brigade) as a kind of laboratory to examine the human condition as it evolved under the extraordinary circumstances in which these soldiers fought and lived.
source, New York Times Review of Books, review by Dexter Filkins

Here’s a trailer from the documentary Restrepo, which won the 2010 Grand Jury Prize for documentaries at Sundance. My point? There is a reason we commemorate Memorial Day, regardless of your beliefs about war.

The language in this trailer is NSFW.


link

by Categories: Books, Movies, Things that might make you think, TragedyTags: , , , 1 Comment

Zombie Apocalypse lore

Okay, so maybe it’s not quite “lore” in the classic sense of the word, but it IS a quirky tale of “life” during the ZA, as captured in haiku by someone who is turning into a zombie and then becomes a zombie.

This clever documentation of the ZA is Zombie Haiku, by Ryan Mecum, published in 2008 by How Books.


source

Zombie Apocalypse via haiku. Who knew how much fun this could be? For those who don’t know what a haiku is, it’s a form of poetry that is three lines, each line with a designated number of syllables. In this case, 5-7-5. That is, 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5 in the third.

So a lovely zombie haiku from the cover of this book is:

Biting into heads
is much harder than it looks.
the skull is feisty.
source: cover of Zombie Haiku

The premise of this collection is clever, as well. It starts with a few lines of description of a survivor of the ZA. He originally started the poetry journal as a way to “capture the beauty of the world” through haiku. But then along comes the ZA and he writes hastily: “To whoever might find this, my name is Chris Lynch, and I’m pretty sure I’m dying. In face, if you are reading this, then I’m probably already dead. Not that anyone will be around to read this…from what I’ve seen, I’d guess this is the end of everything.” So as you start reading the haikus he’s written, it starts out all happy happy joy joy and then you notice he’s documenting the ZA, though he’s not aware that this is the case. He haikus about something in the news that says people are acting weird, but he turns if off. Then,

As I start my car,
my neighbor just keeps staring
and doesn’t wave back.
(p. 7)

He doesn’t realize, even with all the car wrecks and traffic and “drunk guy stumbling into traffic” what’s up. He gets to work, nobody’s there and one of his coworkers is “eating spaghetti in her car without utensils” and she smashes her head through the glass and tries to grab him, with glass sticking out of her neck. Anyway, our hero ends up not so lucky, and in the hands of a zombie mob. You see his metamorphosis through his clever haikus:

My skin is drying,
my veins are much ore pronounced
and I’m turning gray.
(p. 30)

one thing on my mind,
only one thing on my mind.
I’m going to eat you.
(p. 32)

Somehow, this zombie haikus being a zombie, and the illustrations and “dirt” and “blood smears” on the pages only add to the macabre, dark, hilarious fun in this book. The author’s handwriting morphs, too, and you end up seeing the world through the eyes of a zombie, whose haikus are short and sharp, like the staccato bursts of gunfire and the single-minded focus of an eating machine, which is what zombies are.

A seriously fun, clever, and wonderfully twisted book. See the ZA through a zombie’s eyes!

Happy reading, happy surviving!

by Categories: Books, Cool stuff to read, Funny stuff, Inspiration, The Awesome, ZombiesTags: , , ,

Freaky Friday!

Hey, folks–

Before I get into this, head on over to Women and Words and discuss the Lambda winners. Congrats to all!

Okay.

So I’m doing a “staycation” for Memorial Day, and I thought I’d let those of you who are doing the same know that if you’ve got cable, the SyFy channel is running monster movies, most of which are so horrendously bad that you have to watch the heinosity unfold, like some kind of slow-motion train wreck. Must…look…away…but I can’t! How about this fabulous 2010 gem, MEGA PIRANHA!!!!

Giant mutant piranha eat their way from the Amazon toward Florida. OMG, is that Greg Brady? As the news guy? Holy crap. Anyway, here’s one of the more twistedly hilarious scenes from the movie, where our hero has to fend a bunch of these flying giant piranhas off:


link

And yesterday’s gem was the 2007 Ice Spiders, where mutant spiders invade the Colorado Rockies and end up hanging out on ski lifts jumping onto skiers. BIG spiders. Wild colors. Seriously. I am not making that up. And they make crazy noises, too, like chirps:


link

Anyway, Happy Memorial Day and while you’re having fun and hanging out with friends and relatives, maybe take some time to remember what the holiday is really about, and think about those who have died in service to the nation.

by Categories: Funny stuff, MoviesTags: , ,

I still have an attention span–hey! A new iPad!

Caught this Publishers Weekly post thanks to fellow author Lori Lake, via Sisters in Crime. It’s a lament about our dwindling attention spans. Click here.

Bill Henderson, one of the co-authors of the book Book Love, which celebrates the printed book, notes that our techie-oriented society is literally changing the structure of our brains:

The e-experts said that in the future all information and literature would be available on the device of the moment (sure to be replaced by the device of the next moment). You may never have to leave the comfort of home or bed. The latest bestseller—indeed, millions of out-of-print books (you didn’t know you needed that many)—could be had at the click of a button. This was billed as an improvement.

Lots of people are making lots of money telling us this is for our own good. Tweeting away, we never stop to think. In fact, we may be losing the ability to think.

In The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (Norton, 2010), Nicholas Carr notes that after years of digital addiction, his friends can’t read in depth anymore. Their very brains are changing, physically. They are becoming “chronic scatterbrains… even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb… .Because our brains can no longer think beyond a tweet, we can’t write well. And we can’t read well either. The idea of reading—let alone writing—War and Peace, Bleak House, or Absalom, Absalom! is fading into an impossible dream.

source

He also notes that you’re probably not saving many trees with your ebook reader. Why not? Well, click the link and find out. It’s not saving resources. In fact, it’s adding lots of toxicity to the environment.

Just some food for thought.

Happy actual paper book reading!

by Categories: Books, Things that might make you thinkTags: , , , , 3 Comments

Are you self-published? Want to be?

The blog Buzz, Balls, & Hype has been doing a series on self-publishing titled “Tough Love: Things No One is Brave Enough to Tell Self-Published Authors.”

Here’s Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Quote, from Part 1:
Self or traditionally published, you need to produce the very best book that you can. That means being committed enough to rewrite your book three, four or twenty-five times. Even pros who have been at it for years and have dozens of books under their belts don’t have their first drafts published. So far it’s the same for self-published or traditionally published authors. But then the traditionally pubbed author turns his or her book over to professional editors.
If Lee Child, Sara Gruen, Laura Lippman and Jennifer Weiner all get edited, can self-published authors afford not to do the same thing?
Yes, an editor costs money. And yes, an editor might require you to do more rewrites. Yes, you might be tired of writing the book and not even want to work on it anymore.
But if your goal is to sell books, get readers, and build word of mouth – you absolutely need professional help.
source

There’s great advice and great nuts n’ bolts in this series. Check it out.

Happy writing, happy reading!

by Categories: Cool blogs, Publishing biznessTags:

Something that doesn’t sit well with me

Hi, folks–

Took a little hiatus there. Hope everyone’s well. A writer colleague of mine sent me the link to this article, and it kind of irritated me. No, not the fact that my colleague sent me the article. THAT didn’t irritate me The topic of the article did.

It’s from The Telegraph in the UK and it’s titled “E-books drive older women to digital piracy.”

And I started gnashing my teeth before I even read it. Why? Because book and music piracy is totally not cool. It’s just not. It’s not only unethical, but it’s theft. Plain and simple. Here’s my take on it.

And here’s a quote from the article:

One in eight women over 35 who own such devices admit to having downloaded an unlicensed e-book.
That compares to just one in 20 women over 35 who admit to having engaged in digital music piracy.
News that a group formerly unwilling to infringe copyright are changing their behaviour as e-books take off will worry publishing executives, who fear they could suffer similar a similar fate to the record labels that have struggled to replace lost physical sales.
The picture across the entire e-reader and tablet markets is even more troubling for the publishing industry. Some 29 per cent of e-reader owners of both genders and all ages admit piracy. For tablets the figure rises to 36 per cent.
source

That’s pretty unsettling. And disappointing, especially if you’re a writer. As an individual, I choose not to rip people off, and I choose to pay artists and writers for the work they produce, as well as support the industries that publish them. Now, I also support libraries and ebook libraries. Here’s why. That’s a whole other issue. The point is, I’m bummed that technology has, in a weird way, created new pirates. Or perhaps that people have allowed themselves to be lured into it. I’m all for ebooks and ebook readers. But it does make me sad that people use the power of technology for not-so-nice things. Double-edged sword, technology.

Anyway, hope you’re getting through your post-Rapture depression. 8)

by Categories: Book piracy, Books, Stuff that totally and completely sucks, Things that might make you think, Things you shouldn't doTags: