Four Long Years

As of today, I've been blogging for four years...

I've spent more time blogging than I spent
...in college (undergrad).
...as an only child.
...working full-time.
...writing my novel's first draft.
...realizing my novel's first draft was crap.
...rewriting my novel.
...dating any one guy.

Okay, so I don't blog regularly enough. I know. But all that other stuff--college, family, my boy, work, writing--is giving me more to write about. So I just need to buckle down and get it done. Let's see how this next year goes =)

In honor of the fourth year, here are some of my favorite posts:

2004-2005: A Year of Poetry, Prose, and College

• "Tail-gate ponderings" - the poem that started so much in my life
• "Gardens" - a great, longer poem in parts.
• "Caffeinated Poetry" - Haha. Oh how I love reading this one aloud...
• "Hard as Coal" - I still get chills when I read it
• Natural Disaster, Unnatural Solution - creative non-non-fiction. In otherwords, it's fake journalism
• "Monsters" - another poem that started something big. And the comments are still there!
• Obituary - a sad, sad day, but a very funny obituary. Yes, it's possible.
• "Chthonic" - I miss England
• "Drowning Man" and "First Rain"- Gato's favorites, can't skip them!

2005-2006: Finding myself...for the 1000th time

• "Meditation" - I still need to be here more...
• The Alien and the Casey - funny short story
• "Sense/Memory" - can you tell it was a mistake? ha...
• A Definition - one of my fav OED entries
• "No Good Deed" - Ha. Now you can really tell it was a mistake
• New Day - not much of a poem, but it's a life landmark.
• The Working Girl series - a good start that went nowhere, but I was in NYC and I had everything so wonderfully undercontrol!

2006-2007: Growing Up and Graduating

• 70 - growing pains of a collegiate
• Review of The Fountain - I loved that movie...bad critics for shooting it down!
• Desiree: The Evidence series - part of my thesis for undergrad. Fun to write, and a little meta-history for my novel
• Part 1: Conversations - something I really really want to continue...Mike helped me start it. It's so close to being sizzlingly good!!!
• The Epiphany - a happy moment blogged

2007 - 2008: Grad School, Publishing, and the Present

• The Publishing World Series - 10 posts on current events in my biz. See them all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
• New, News, and Nonsense - yesterday's post, but it felt so good to write and I feel like it's very representative of where I am now
  

New, News, and Nonsense

Ahh, how the months have flown. I won't bore you with personal updates, however.

I attended a Mediabistro.com's All-Media Party a few nights ago and had a smashing time. I'd almost forgotten how much I like to go out and meet people, and in an environment specifically created for networking within (literally) all media-related professions in Boston, I felt at home and comfortable in my own shoes.

The whole thing got me thinking about developing my professional contacts more and really using the resources I have. First of all, I'm on quite a few social networking sites, but I have very few professional contacts on them outside of my colleagues. I've been doing better on LinkedIn than anywhere else, but Facebook, del.icio.us, and even StumbleUpon are great ways to connect and share information. I leave MySpace out simply because I feel like its interface and its members are not focused on actual networking in a profesisonal sense, and from the reactions of friends and coworkers, other people feel the same way.

Another great resource I have is the city in which I work. No more am I professionally land-locked by the tourism-driven, materially-obsessed Floridian culture. I'm in the middle of a publishing center populated by highly educated, techonologically-forward professionals. Conferences come here, positions at companies are highly competitive, and there are networking events like the one I went to often enough that I'd have quite the social life if I went to all of them (compared to the social life I have now, at least). So I've started doing my homework and have started to gather a list of conferences and local networking events on del.icio.us and have posted a permanent widget on Blue-Stockings so you, too, can become a Bostonian social (networking) butterfly.

And finally, there is my phone. My beautiful, commuter-friendly Samsung i760. As an assistant, I'm not allowed to have company business cards. As an assistant, I'm not paid quite enough to spend tons of money (or time) making my own on sites like Zazzle or VistaPrint. But, an assistant or not, you can't network without some form of easily-to-distribute information about yourself. Enter smart phone (or iPhone or BlackBerry, if you prefer). If you want to be snazzy and tres-technical, you can sign up for a service like DropCard to send your info to your new contact. But with a smart phone/iPhone/BlackBerry, you can just shoot a quick e-mail in person. Either way, paper-free is a great way to go.

As for news, I feel I can't go without giving you a few tidbits of publishing to-do. First of all, the Huffington Post's Lissa Warren just wrote an interesting critique of book blogs and the future of the book review. In light of our previous conversation on the subject, I thought it would be an interesting addition. I have to agree that the format of the blog as-is is an insufficient forum for the high-quality reviews that we've come to love in print. The solution: good reviewers need to start using their clout and highly intelligent prose to win over the blog field so people like yours truly aren't filling the review world with "what their father and their girlfriend -- or their father's girlfriend -- thought of the book" and a "slew" of personal pronouns that Warren feels degrades the quality of the review itself. Newsweek recently posted an Anna Quindlen article questioning John McCain's ability to connect with a technologically advanced nation after he "described himself earlier this year as a computer illiterate who had never gone online." If the Kennedy-Nixon debates in 1960 were won with Kennedy's suave television presence, then can Obama trounce a luddite candidate using the web? One can only hope...

And finally, a bit of fun nonsense for you book lovers. I had no idea that Goodreads has a "First Reads" section where they list book giveaways. I think I've signed up for every single one (shameless, I know). So if I win any, you might find a few reviews posted on the blog. (Personal pronouns and my father's opinions will be avoided if at all possible, I promise!)

New Project: Internet Ready Fiction and BookWeb

So just over a year ago this week I started a web site with Mike called Internet Ready Fiction, intending to do great things and make bold conquests with short fiction online. After a rocky start (proven by the Archives...), we're back in the game with new content and a great book group forming. We'll be posting our discussion about the literature we read on the blog. Wish us luck and never fear: Blue-Stockings will always be my baby!

The Publishing World Post # 10: "Drama, Drama, Drama."

I’ll never again assume that the publishing industry can’t keep up with Hollywood’s sex, scandals, and gossip. If it working in the field wasn’t enough to convince me that no office will be free of its fair share of sordid tales, the Judith Regan scandal certainly is. The New York Observer published a large feature on Regan’s history—with News Corp, inside the publishing industry, and in life in general—and by doing so offered a better perspective on her decisions and the current lawsuit. Not that my opinion of her has changed for the better. The article unabashedly revealed more intimate details of her love affair with Bernard Kerik, implied a sexually-charged—love-hate-power triangle between Regan, Rupert Murcoch and Jane Friedman, and offered defenders and critics of both sides of the story. In the end, I still believe that this drama is not the possible “smoking gun” that the article briefly speculates on and is certainly “ther next sensational, headline-grabbing project.” Another one of my least favorite people, Ann Coulter, just succeeded in pulling her records from Palm Beach County’s information logs in order to keep her critics from stalking her. The New York Daily News appropriately put that clip in its Gossip column. For some reason, I feel compelled to feel no sympathy for a woman who “called 9/11 widows ‘witches.’” The saying, “if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen,” certainly applies. On a better note, professional reader and translator Esther Allen republished an article in the Guardian last week (it also recently appeared on American PEN’s Web site) about the powerful place of the reader’s report in publishing: “The lowly minion who authors it can do something no after-the-fact reviewer, however powerful and unkind, can accomplish: stop the book from being published in the first place.” Her experiences offer insight into a few of her decisions and their effects on specific books. The article, though not groundbreaking, is certainly a great resource for students of the trade who have not seen the same effects first hand. I very much enjoyed Allen’s personal account and her willingness to offer logic behind her decisions and her ability to pull back and admit that she could truly have been wrong. That admission is something all Americans—and maybe all people in general—seem to have a hard time doing, and from what I’ve heard about today’s fiction market, the blind curves in the road lead to trouble often enough that such honesty is a valuable key to staying afloat.

Happy Post #101!!!!

100th Post!!!!!

Happy 100, everyone! Now I feel like an experienced blogger...as if 3 years behind me hadn't been enough...=D

The Publishing World Post #9: "The Good, The Bad, and the Poorly Chosen News"

The news I found this week seemed, more than ever, to resound with big names in the business. Last week, Ken Follett made headlines because his recently released World Wtihout End is on several best seller lists and because his upcoming trilogy The Century made was a hit in the rights market, including an American deal for $50 million. This week Oprah has immortalized Pillars of the Earth—one of my favorite books for a few reasons—and sealed his presence beyond the demand of mass market and pop fiction thrillers. I intend to supplement my Follet collection with not only the special edition of World, but a first edition of Pillars and the new Oprah book club paperback. Not that Follett needs the royalties. Doubleday signed Joe Torre for a co-authored book about his career (a memoir or an autobiography? Not much word yet) for an undisclosed amount of money. One can only assume that the “major acquisition” will be a profitable one. Following up with my article from last week, RDR Books offered to postpone publication of The Harry Potter Lexicon in light of the lawsuit brought by Rowling and Warner Bros. Since the preliminary injunction is set for Febuary 6^th, 2008, it’s likely that further stories won’t be released unless information about the evidence for or against Rowling’s case is leaked to the press. And seeing as though it’s JK Rowling we’re talking about, it’s highly likely that someone will sniff out a press-worthy rumor at the least. Also press worthy is a note that the hype about Harry Potter 8 is thus far disconnected from any official Rowling writing. If someone is writing James Pottera and the Hall of Elder’s Crossing, it’s not her. The speculation about Warner Bros’ involvement in the mysterious Australian Web site is still circulating in the broader web community. The New York Post ran a scandalous review of The Unsinkable Heather Mills that made enough waves to attract the notice of PW’s “Morning Report” yesterday. Apparently Post writer Cindy Adams found the biography’s manuscript amusing since she brushes over bits and pieces of Mills’s life with callus distain and brags about her personal involvement in publishing details about Mills’s and Paul McCartney’s 1999 wedding (The book does not tell how it was me, in a front-page N.Y. Post headline, who exclusively broke the news they were to be married in Ireland’s Castle Leslie—I even gave the menu and the setup—but I shall overlook that…”). I feel a bit sorry for Mills who seems to be the victim of her own interviews and self-assured vanity, but Adams’s article gave me a very bad taste in my mouth. I’ve heard of bad reviews, but this one barely bothers talking about the quality of the writing: she focuses on laying bare the sordid lows and materialistic highs of Mills’s life instead. Compared to the literary blog which some have said is merely inappropriate to carry the weight of the future of the book review, this article is proof that there are bigger forces to be dealt with. Newspapers—in print or online—shouldn’t be a venue for this kind of personal vendetta. And as for vendettas in the publishing world at large, none is more shocking than Judith Regan’s accusations against HarperCollins and News Corporation. Three major sources led me to the “facts” of Regan’s case: a PW article, a New York Times article, and a New-York-Times–published, 75-page .pdf file of Regan’s complaint. According to the PW article, the complaint “centers around Regan’s relationship with Bernard Kerik, former New York City police commissioner and close confidant of Rudolph Giuliani, Republican candidate for president.” Intrigued—since I had missed this connection in previous coverage of the drama—I continued to the New York Times article that detailed a greater involvement in the smear campaign, including alleged participants like Publisher’s Weekly Editor in Chief Sara Nelson. The article essentially summarizes the official complaint as best as twelve paragraphs can manage, but the real winner is the .pdf, which lists the case’s background, Regan’s personal “climb” to “[building] a Publishing and Media Juggernaut” and 124 authors whom she has published. While the case seems to be well-made—from what I can see by glancing at the more interesting subheads through out the document—it’s certainly going to be a long haul. Her demands for “no less than $100 million” from HarperCollins and NewsCorp are certainly stiff, though between the two corporations, I’m sure someone will be able to handle the bills if she wins. And with the writers’ strike continuing, Borders installing TVs in their stores, and the National Book Awards being announced tonight, it certainly isn’t a quiet week in publishing.