Publishing Insider

XM

Just about to pack up and leave for the weekend, and Roundabout comes on. Damn; I have to wait now. Thank goodness it wasn't Inagaddadavida. (But, on my running music mix is the wonderfully long Move On Up, by Curtis Mayfield, made famous by the first Groove Tube. Flashback, anyone?)

Rules for living

Just some things I've overherd of late, and when taken at face value, they stand up as pretty good rules of life:

Always wave back at the deputies.

Bowl in your own lane.

You have to go under the overpass.

Road trip

I'm looking forward to attending a panel at BEA about bookstore tourism. A very interesting, fun trend, I think. I've also posted the link to Larry Portzline's site permanently off to ze right somewhere.

NPR babble

Will someone please explain the significance of the Nikkei average to me? NPR reports on whether its up or down EVERY morning as if it should mean something, and I don't see that it does. I've written NPR to explain, and now they probably have a file on me. ("It's the Nikkei crank again.")

Heads up!

We love Hillary Carlip! She can juggle and write. (Wait, I can do that! Oh wait, no I can't.) Check out her irrepressible self at Queen of the Oddballs site!

Feet up!

Check out Sarah Bilston's blog for Bed Rest, her book just out. Neat advice about... waiting ... and reading, plus a recipe or two! 

Tightwire

We love Elliot on Idol and we do love Donny Hathaway, but it pains us when a song like "A Song for You" is credited to Hathaway and not the actual writer, the great Leon Russell. I'm pretty sure I'm right about that.

Handy Dan

Daniel Handler's novel Adverbs is out to wonderful reviews, and he has an essay up at Powell's. (The link to the book description at our site is written by Daniel, and it's a hoot.)

Numeral disorder

I've officially had it with different delete numbers for different phonemails. I'm fine with most of modern life, even the proliferation of codes and passwords, but if the same woman's voice can exist on so many phonemail systems, can't 6 OR 7 be the official delete number???

Lily rules

From one of our New England reps - and this is just so damn sweet: "Wellesley Booksmith had a fabulous authorless event for LILLY'S BIG DAY last weekend.  They advertised that they were having a mock wedding in the store and they needed flower girls.  So a few Saturdays ago, 77 little girls showed up in their finest flower girl dresses.  A staff member came dressed in her wedding gown, read the story, gave the girls flower bouquets and rings and they marched around the block and practiced their walk down the aisle.  Someone even made a wedding cake! It was just amazing and so cute!  I think Kevin (and Lilly) would have been proud!" Kevin is on tour to dozens of stores, but other stores are hosting these events when he just can't make it to every store that wants him without being on tour all year!