As hard as it is to believe, there's actually a groundswell of enthusiasm among American Conservatives to return to a gold standard. Once again, Professor Krugman shows just why that's such an incredibly bad idea.
It's like that old saying, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." The current crop of Republicans seem bound, bent and determined to prove the truth in that!
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Rest In Peace Neil Armstrong
He was never comfortable with the fame that his one small step and one giant leap earned him on July 20, 1969, but I guess now he won't have to deal with that any longer.
I fell asleep, down in our rec room, waiting for that historic event to happen, back when I was 6 years old. To this day, I think that if I'd been even just a couple of years older, I would've made it! I do remember the excitement of the time, though: it seemed as though walking on the moon proved that we were destined for great things, as a species. Too bad we've spent so much of the ensuing 40+ years failing to live up to that.
Anyway, here's to Neil!
I fell asleep, down in our rec room, waiting for that historic event to happen, back when I was 6 years old. To this day, I think that if I'd been even just a couple of years older, I would've made it! I do remember the excitement of the time, though: it seemed as though walking on the moon proved that we were destined for great things, as a species. Too bad we've spent so much of the ensuing 40+ years failing to live up to that.
Anyway, here's to Neil!
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Marketing No Brother Of Mine In The Neighbourhood
Soliciting opinions on the following:
I had an idea this afternoon about printing up a flyer about No Brother of Mine, basically describing the premise of the book and explaining who I am, including contact info such as phone # and e-mail address, and then sticking a copy of the flyer into a bunch of mailboxes of homes in our neighbourhood.
I'd obviously tailor the flyer toward a neighbourhood angle - "Hi neighbour! You may have seen my wife and I out walking but did you know that I've also recently published a book that's been getting very good reviews from everyone who's read it?" sort of thing - to play upon the familiarity aspect of who I am. I'd probably print up 50 copies of the flyer, distribute them and see if anything came of it (i.e. sales or other interest).
It's a pretty low cost form of marketing/advertising, which appeals. However, I'm a little leary that some people might find the flyer annoying or inappropriate.
Thoughts? Please leave them as Comments here, if you have any.
I had an idea this afternoon about printing up a flyer about No Brother of Mine, basically describing the premise of the book and explaining who I am, including contact info such as phone # and e-mail address, and then sticking a copy of the flyer into a bunch of mailboxes of homes in our neighbourhood.
I'd obviously tailor the flyer toward a neighbourhood angle - "Hi neighbour! You may have seen my wife and I out walking but did you know that I've also recently published a book that's been getting very good reviews from everyone who's read it?" sort of thing - to play upon the familiarity aspect of who I am. I'd probably print up 50 copies of the flyer, distribute them and see if anything came of it (i.e. sales or other interest).
It's a pretty low cost form of marketing/advertising, which appeals. However, I'm a little leary that some people might find the flyer annoying or inappropriate.
Thoughts? Please leave them as Comments here, if you have any.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
What Institutional Ignorance Leads To
One of the big news stories south of the border this weekend has been the moronic comment by a Republican Senate candidate who claimed that women can't get pregnant as a result of 'legitimate rape' because the female body has some innate defense against that.
This, of course, is exactly the sort of thing you'd expect to hear from a representative of a movement that denounces science and values ignorance above all else. If you're in that group, then it makes perfect sense that you'd buy into all sorts of ridiculous crap, as you struggle to build up your Rube Goldberg contraption of a belief system. Every moral dilemma that challenges your precarious world view requires another layer of fairy dust - such as a woman's body being able to reject the seed of a rapist - to be sprinkled over the ground around you. Thus you can argue that the Earth is only a few thousand years old, that men and women coexisted with dinosaurs, that all proof of the existence of evolution is actually the result of a worldwide conspiracy of scientists, that the planet isn't really warming up, and so on.
What I can't get, though, is how there can be enough people so deluded in the U.S. that the party that represents those beliefs continues to get members elected. That really boggles my mind.
This, of course, is exactly the sort of thing you'd expect to hear from a representative of a movement that denounces science and values ignorance above all else. If you're in that group, then it makes perfect sense that you'd buy into all sorts of ridiculous crap, as you struggle to build up your Rube Goldberg contraption of a belief system. Every moral dilemma that challenges your precarious world view requires another layer of fairy dust - such as a woman's body being able to reject the seed of a rapist - to be sprinkled over the ground around you. Thus you can argue that the Earth is only a few thousand years old, that men and women coexisted with dinosaurs, that all proof of the existence of evolution is actually the result of a worldwide conspiracy of scientists, that the planet isn't really warming up, and so on.
What I can't get, though, is how there can be enough people so deluded in the U.S. that the party that represents those beliefs continues to get members elected. That really boggles my mind.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
30 Pieces Of Advice On Writing
Tammy pointed me toward this lovely little article that features short, bite-sized quotations from a wide variety of authors, providing advice on their craft. Some I'd seen before; others were entirely new to me.
While many of the suggestions resonate with me, I think the one that I probably live by the most is # 14, from James Patterson:
"I'm always pretending that I'm sitting across from somebody. I'm telling them a story, and I don't want them to get up until it's finished."
No Brother of Mine, judging from all the feedback so far, seems to have come the closest to that target of anything I've written.
Of course, I also strive to be faithful to Elmore Leonard's # 8:
"I try to leave out the parts that people skip."
That one, of course, tends to be highly subjective. So I do a slight variation on it: I try to leave out the parts that I tend to skip as a reader.
While many of the suggestions resonate with me, I think the one that I probably live by the most is # 14, from James Patterson:
"I'm always pretending that I'm sitting across from somebody. I'm telling them a story, and I don't want them to get up until it's finished."
No Brother of Mine, judging from all the feedback so far, seems to have come the closest to that target of anything I've written.
Of course, I also strive to be faithful to Elmore Leonard's # 8:
"I try to leave out the parts that people skip."
That one, of course, tends to be highly subjective. So I do a slight variation on it: I try to leave out the parts that I tend to skip as a reader.
Friday, August 17, 2012
It's Starting To Feel Real
We were lucky enough to have great-niece Emma here for another 2-day visit, this week. Her primary goals this time around were, I believe:
She's actually coming to live with us.
It's a pretty exciting prospect for Vicki and I, as we adore Emma and think she's a fantastic young lady. But there's also a bit of the ol' "fear of the unknown," at least in my heart, considering that Vicki and I have been on our own for something like 7 years now. Adjusting to having a 'younger person' (is that the politically correct term at the moment?) in the house again is probably going to be... interesting, to say the least. But it's now only 2 weeks away, so I suppose it's too late to change our minds about it, right?
Right???
Just kidding, Emma, if you happen to be reading this. We can't wait for you to get here!
- Bring some clothes with her so that the official move-in, at the beginning of the school year, wouldn't be so dramatic.
- Take the bus to and from the university so that she could familiarize herself with the route.
- Buy as many of her textbooks for the first term as she could find.
She's actually coming to live with us.
It's a pretty exciting prospect for Vicki and I, as we adore Emma and think she's a fantastic young lady. But there's also a bit of the ol' "fear of the unknown," at least in my heart, considering that Vicki and I have been on our own for something like 7 years now. Adjusting to having a 'younger person' (is that the politically correct term at the moment?) in the house again is probably going to be... interesting, to say the least. But it's now only 2 weeks away, so I suppose it's too late to change our minds about it, right?
Right???
Just kidding, Emma, if you happen to be reading this. We can't wait for you to get here!
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Just The Kind Of Leadership We Don't Need
Did the folks of Toronto really vote in this buffoon as mayor who's almost certainly going to kill someone on the road before he changes his ways? I guess we do get the kind of leaders we deserve, as sad as that is.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
What Paul Ryan Makes Me Think Of
Paul Krugman, on Paul Ryan (who famously said that Ayn Rand is the reason he got into politics):
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
If Mitt Romney's selection of Ryan as his running mate this weekend didn't give the election in November to Barack Obama, then the American people are even stupider than I thought... which is a pretty tall order, these days.
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
If Mitt Romney's selection of Ryan as his running mate this weekend didn't give the election in November to Barack Obama, then the American people are even stupider than I thought... which is a pretty tall order, these days.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
3rd Novel Progress Update
This afternoon I finished the 2nd chapter of my 3rd novel. It took me over a month to get through it, but most of that time was spent in the activity commonly known as "not writing." Part of that was due to waiting on feedback on Chapter 1 from Tammy, which never came due to her crazy busy work schedule down in Melbourne, but mostly it was just me procrastinating.
Last weekend, though, Vicki and Julie began 'pestering' me with questions about the book, which got the creative juices flowing again. A week, and 20 pages of writing later, it's coming along quite nicely. I accomplished everything I wanted to in the second chapter, including providing some nice backstory to several of the characters.
I should also mention, for posterity, that I have the book's title already in mind, and have had it since before I started writing the first page. That's different than either of the first two novels, where the title came to me well into the writing. For the first one, I think I was about halfway through when I floated Game Over as a possibiity to Julie, and she immediately loved it and started rattling off all the ways in which it would work. I believe I was several chapters into No Brother of Mine before I started even thinking of titles, and it was really the line of dialogue, "No brother of mine would try to kill his own father," that sold me on the utility of that particular choice. This time around, however, I had the title before I really had much of the story. So we'll see how that works!
Last weekend, though, Vicki and Julie began 'pestering' me with questions about the book, which got the creative juices flowing again. A week, and 20 pages of writing later, it's coming along quite nicely. I accomplished everything I wanted to in the second chapter, including providing some nice backstory to several of the characters.
I should also mention, for posterity, that I have the book's title already in mind, and have had it since before I started writing the first page. That's different than either of the first two novels, where the title came to me well into the writing. For the first one, I think I was about halfway through when I floated Game Over as a possibiity to Julie, and she immediately loved it and started rattling off all the ways in which it would work. I believe I was several chapters into No Brother of Mine before I started even thinking of titles, and it was really the line of dialogue, "No brother of mine would try to kill his own father," that sold me on the utility of that particular choice. This time around, however, I had the title before I really had much of the story. So we'll see how that works!
Friday, August 10, 2012
On This Date In History
I've probably mentioned this factoid on the blog before, but am currently too lazy to look and see.
Anyway, 37 years ago today (Aug 10, 1975), while on a family trip to Cedar Point amusement park, we stopped at a convenience store in Sandusky, Ohio, and I went inside to see if they had any comic books. I'd left for this trip as the owner of 998 comics, you see, and I was hoping to maybe pick up # 1000 before I got back home. (And yes, I'd counted my comics... and even started cataloguing them by this point!)
As luck would have it, there was a 3-pack of comics in the store that I was sure I didn't own at least 2/3 of, since you couldn't really see the comic in the middle of the bag. It turned out I needed all 3, and so that mystery middle comic - Detective Comics # 452 - became the thousandth comic in my collection!
And it's been all gravy since then.
[Update later that evening: Yup, sure enough, I covered this 2 years ago. Oh well, it's a good enough story to show up a couple of times here!]
Anyway, 37 years ago today (Aug 10, 1975), while on a family trip to Cedar Point amusement park, we stopped at a convenience store in Sandusky, Ohio, and I went inside to see if they had any comic books. I'd left for this trip as the owner of 998 comics, you see, and I was hoping to maybe pick up # 1000 before I got back home. (And yes, I'd counted my comics... and even started cataloguing them by this point!)
As luck would have it, there was a 3-pack of comics in the store that I was sure I didn't own at least 2/3 of, since you couldn't really see the comic in the middle of the bag. It turned out I needed all 3, and so that mystery middle comic - Detective Comics # 452 - became the thousandth comic in my collection!
And it's been all gravy since then.
[Update later that evening: Yup, sure enough, I covered this 2 years ago. Oh well, it's a good enough story to show up a couple of times here!]
Entertainment As Research
Vicki and I just viewed Raiders of the Lost Ark for the umpteenth time, but interestingly, this was the first time I've ever watched it as research for a book I'm writing.
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
In Other Brain Surgery News...
... Disney just announced that Joss Whedon will return to write and direct the sequel to this year's blockbuster, The Avengers. Considering that the film has already grossed over a billion (with a 'b') dollars worldwide, and that jaw-dropping figure doesn't include any DVD/Blu-Ray revenue yet, can we officially call this a no-brainer? Not to say that the House that Mickey Built couldn't have royally screwed the pooch on this one, but thankfully: they didn't.
Saturday, August 04, 2012
Climate Change: Here, And Worse Than Expected
That's the finding of a soon-to-be-published new analysis of recent weather changes, as NASA scientist James Hansen reports in a new article:
"This is not a climate model or a prediction but actual observations of weather events and temperatures that have happened. Our analysis shows that it is no longer enough to say that global warming will increase the likelihood of extreme weather and to repeat the caveat that no individual weather event can be directly linked to climate change. To the contrary, our analysis shows that, for the extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no explanation other than climate change."
and
"These weather events are not simply an example of what climate change could bring. They are caused by climate change. The odds that natural variability created these extremes are minuscule, vanishingly small. To count on those odds would be like quitting your job and playing the lottery every morning to pay the bills."
This peer-reviewed analysis won't stop the deniers from denying, of course. I just hope that someday they get called on the carpet and held accountable for all the damage they've done by spreading their misinformation. It'd be a very small bit of justice served, admittedly, but at least there'd be that.
"This is not a climate model or a prediction but actual observations of weather events and temperatures that have happened. Our analysis shows that it is no longer enough to say that global warming will increase the likelihood of extreme weather and to repeat the caveat that no individual weather event can be directly linked to climate change. To the contrary, our analysis shows that, for the extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no explanation other than climate change."
and
"These weather events are not simply an example of what climate change could bring. They are caused by climate change. The odds that natural variability created these extremes are minuscule, vanishingly small. To count on those odds would be like quitting your job and playing the lottery every morning to pay the bills."
This peer-reviewed analysis won't stop the deniers from denying, of course. I just hope that someday they get called on the carpet and held accountable for all the damage they've done by spreading their misinformation. It'd be a very small bit of justice served, admittedly, but at least there'd be that.
Thursday, August 02, 2012
Don't Abandon The Teaching Of Algebra
While I'm not tutoring anymore, I still find the topic of education - especially Math education - to be quite fascinating. When I saw a New York Times piece entitled "Is Algebra Necessary?", I immediately disagreed with several of the points in it. Fortunately, others more invested in the question have provided detailed responses to it, such as this one.
A key sentence in that preceding response, I think, is:
"Few pre-college math teachers majored or even minored in math, and until more teachers do, improvements will be hard to come by."
That's something I've heard, again and again, from students I've tutored. It's not at all uncommon for a high school Calculus or Functions teacher to rely on students in the class to explain the solutions to particularly tough questions... raising the question, "Did the teacher even understand the solution himself/herself?" It seems to be extremely rare for Math geeks from high school to end up as teachers, since they more commonly go into Engineering, Computer Science or related technical fields. And yet, logically, you want someone very comfortable with high school Math to be teaching it, don't you?
Until that disconnect is fixed, we can expect more and more young people to follow Barbie's example, and declare resignedly that "Math is hard."
A key sentence in that preceding response, I think, is:
"Few pre-college math teachers majored or even minored in math, and until more teachers do, improvements will be hard to come by."
That's something I've heard, again and again, from students I've tutored. It's not at all uncommon for a high school Calculus or Functions teacher to rely on students in the class to explain the solutions to particularly tough questions... raising the question, "Did the teacher even understand the solution himself/herself?" It seems to be extremely rare for Math geeks from high school to end up as teachers, since they more commonly go into Engineering, Computer Science or related technical fields. And yet, logically, you want someone very comfortable with high school Math to be teaching it, don't you?
Until that disconnect is fixed, we can expect more and more young people to follow Barbie's example, and declare resignedly that "Math is hard."
Nice Post On Agile And Why It Works
Many of the most commonly tossed around objections to Agile are covered off in this Forbes article, making it a very good read indeed.
Monday, July 30, 2012
No Brother Of Mine Is Popular With The Ladies
(Yeah, that title works really well on a number of levels!)
I've noticed lately that my second novel seems to be especially popular with female readers. The most recent example of this came when our financial planner bought a copy of No Brother of Mine but didn't get a chance to read it because, minutes after he got home with it, his wife picked the book up and began devouring it! The next thing I knew, I was getting updates from him such as:
"Well... So far [she] hasn't put your book down. Impressive!!"
and then, the next day, quoting his wife:
"I am loving this book! I love the protagonist...wanna finish it quick!"
A few hours after that, it was:
"She loved the book! She is going to tell the world about it I can tell. Congrats sir!"
followed by news that his wife had passed 'his' copy of the book on to her mother, who she was sure would love it. I quickly pointed out that it could hardly count as 'his' copy considering that he was now at least 3rd in line for it!
At any rate, I definitely seem to have struck a chord with many readers who happen to be among the fairer sex.
I've noticed lately that my second novel seems to be especially popular with female readers. The most recent example of this came when our financial planner bought a copy of No Brother of Mine but didn't get a chance to read it because, minutes after he got home with it, his wife picked the book up and began devouring it! The next thing I knew, I was getting updates from him such as:
"Well... So far [she] hasn't put your book down. Impressive!!"
and then, the next day, quoting his wife:
"I am loving this book! I love the protagonist...wanna finish it quick!"
A few hours after that, it was:
"She loved the book! She is going to tell the world about it I can tell. Congrats sir!"
followed by news that his wife had passed 'his' copy of the book on to her mother, who she was sure would love it. I quickly pointed out that it could hardly count as 'his' copy considering that he was now at least 3rd in line for it!
At any rate, I definitely seem to have struck a chord with many readers who happen to be among the fairer sex.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
"I Could've Sworn That Was My Mat!"
I hate to have to break it to you, Cooper, but this is Jonesy's World now... we're just living in it!
[Update the next day: As commenter Jimmy points out, there was a mat/Matt pun just waiting to be played here, but I fumbled the ball. Needless to say, Cooper also feels as though his Matt has been at least somewhat stolen away by Jonesy, although I've been trying hard to split my time between them to reduce those feelings.]
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
No Brother Of Mine Reaches A Milestone
According to my records, my second novel has now outsold my first one! That's somewhat impressive, considering that Game Over was released last September, nearly a year ago, while No Brother of Mine has only been out for less than three months so far. This feat was helped along by the book club that my niece Vanessa got NBoM into, Vicki's tireless efforts in talking it up to everyone she meets, as well as a much-appreciated high level of repeat business from the first book to the second.
It's very gratifying to have the numbers trending in that direction, and I can only hope they'll continue to do so as I release more novels in the future. At the moment, I can safely say that my books sell "dozens and dozens of copies", but obviously I long for the days when I'll be able to boldly proclaim that it's "hundreds and hundreds", instead. More than that might be dreaming, but even that level of readership would make me very happy indeed.
It's very gratifying to have the numbers trending in that direction, and I can only hope they'll continue to do so as I release more novels in the future. At the moment, I can safely say that my books sell "dozens and dozens of copies", but obviously I long for the days when I'll be able to boldly proclaim that it's "hundreds and hundreds", instead. More than that might be dreaming, but even that level of readership would make me very happy indeed.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Jonesy Makes Another New 'Friend'
After 3 sessions getting to know Cooper over the past several weeks, it was time for Jonesy to finally meet Finley. We're going to have both of Julie's pets for a week shortly, so we figured we should get Jonesy used to them before that happens. Julie was of the opinion that Finley would be fine with the new kitten, even going so far as to predict that he'd 'mirror' whatever Jonesy did (curiousity for curiousity, indifference for indifference, etc.) I had my doubts, as I've had enough experience bringing a kitten into the presence of an older cat to know that the usual result is that the kitten's OK with it while the mature cat tends to flip out, at first.
And sure enough, Finley decided to hiss and growl constantly at Jonesy whenever he saw him initially, which eventually got Jonesy's back up (literally):
However, Jonesy kept going back for more, and eventually, after a few hours together, there was a limited sort of acceptance on Finley's part:
In other words, progress was made, but there's still some ways to go before they'll be playing together. Fortunately, Jonesy and Cooper didn't backtrack at all in how comfortable they are with each other, so we're hopeful the two cats will similarly pick up where they left off the next time they meet.
One thing's for sure: Jonesy's very bored today, after all the excitement of having two four-legged visitors to entertain him last night! Lucy just doesn't cut it after that, I'm afraid.
And sure enough, Finley decided to hiss and growl constantly at Jonesy whenever he saw him initially, which eventually got Jonesy's back up (literally):
However, Jonesy kept going back for more, and eventually, after a few hours together, there was a limited sort of acceptance on Finley's part:
In other words, progress was made, but there's still some ways to go before they'll be playing together. Fortunately, Jonesy and Cooper didn't backtrack at all in how comfortable they are with each other, so we're hopeful the two cats will similarly pick up where they left off the next time they meet.
One thing's for sure: Jonesy's very bored today, after all the excitement of having two four-legged visitors to entertain him last night! Lucy just doesn't cut it after that, I'm afraid.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
My First Book Club Experience
Well, that was a lot of fun!
Thanks to niece Vanessa, I spent this evening as Guest Author for the Quai du Vin Book Club (possibly just a name I made up for them). All of the club members had read No Brother of Mine as this month's book (again, courtesy of Vanessa) and I was invited to come and hear what they had to say about it and answer any questions they had. Happily, they all seemed to enjoy it very much, and I can only hope that's not just because I was there and they didn't want to hurt my feelings.
As Vicki said on the drive home, it was very interesting to hear how each person responded to different aspects of the book. Some keyed on the fast-moving plot as what interested them the most, while others were drawn to the characters or the relationships between them. Several women mentioned that certain personality attributes of Mitch, Sarah, etc, reminded them of people they know or even of their own feelings towards others.
This is the first time I've had the opportunity to have such a large-scale, interactive feedback session on the book, and I absolutely loved it! I hope I get the chance to do the same sort of thing at other book clubs, as it really helps to hear what parts of No Brother of Mine resonated the most with readers. Thanks to Vanessa, Candice, Debra, Justine, Karin, Katherine, Kim, and hostess Lisa for a very enjoyable and gratifying evening!!
Thanks to niece Vanessa, I spent this evening as Guest Author for the Quai du Vin Book Club (possibly just a name I made up for them). All of the club members had read No Brother of Mine as this month's book (again, courtesy of Vanessa) and I was invited to come and hear what they had to say about it and answer any questions they had. Happily, they all seemed to enjoy it very much, and I can only hope that's not just because I was there and they didn't want to hurt my feelings.
As Vicki said on the drive home, it was very interesting to hear how each person responded to different aspects of the book. Some keyed on the fast-moving plot as what interested them the most, while others were drawn to the characters or the relationships between them. Several women mentioned that certain personality attributes of Mitch, Sarah, etc, reminded them of people they know or even of their own feelings towards others.
This is the first time I've had the opportunity to have such a large-scale, interactive feedback session on the book, and I absolutely loved it! I hope I get the chance to do the same sort of thing at other book clubs, as it really helps to hear what parts of No Brother of Mine resonated the most with readers. Thanks to Vanessa, Candice, Debra, Justine, Karin, Katherine, Kim, and hostess Lisa for a very enjoyable and gratifying evening!!
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