Copter 104

Yesterday was a pretty quiet and relaxing Sunday. The flock of pubescent girls that had been squawking Friday and Saturday, migrated back to roost elsewhere and we were allowed to listen to the lake lapping at the shore once more.

Around 1:30 PM, we got a visit from my former neighbors. I used to work at Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest and Boggs Mountain Helitack is stationed there. Cal-Fire’s St. Helena Emergency Command Center had dispatched Copter 104 and its firefighters to a fire just over the hill from us. After dropping off the firefighters to suppress the fire, Copter 104 used Clear Lake to fill the bucket for water drops.

Sisters in Crime Publishers' Summit

Some members of the Sisters in Crime visited Harper Collins, agent Simon Lipskar of Writers House, Penguin, and Soho Press on their Publisher’s Summit (See their first installment/second installment).

They report (according to the folks they met) the hot genre is the thriller, “positioning” the story is key, writers need to write lots (more than one book a year, blog everywhere), authors need a “strong Internet presence,” and remember that publishing is a business.

It’s a fascinating read for someone like me, interested in what it takes to get published and what it means once you’re published.

Sisters in Crime Publishers’ Summit

Some members of the Sisters in Crime visited Harper Collins, agent Simon Lipskar of Writers House, Penguin, and Soho Press on their Publisher’s Summit (See their first installment/second installment).

They report (according to the folks they met) the hot genre is the thriller, “positioning” the story is key, writers need to write lots (more than one book a year, blog everywhere), authors need a “strong Internet presence,” and remember that publishing is a business.

It’s a fascinating read for someone like me, interested in what it takes to get published and what it means once you’re published.

Maybe “Heartwood of Darkness” isn’t the best title

On a recent podcast of A Way with Words, I heard about a contest that I’m pretty sure I don’t want to win: The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. This year’s winner is If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs. I like one of the runners-up: I Was Tortured By the Pygmy Love Queen.

Maybe "Heartwood of Darkness" isn't the best title

On a recent podcast of A Way with Words, I heard about a contest that I’m pretty sure I don’t want to win: The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. This year’s winner is If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs. I like one of the runners-up: I Was Tortured By the Pygmy Love Queen.

Maybe "Heartwood of Darkness" isn’t the best title

On a recent podcast of A Way with Words, I heard about a contest that I’m pretty sure I don’t want to win: The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. This year’s winner is If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs. I like one of the runners-up: I Was Tortured By the Pygmy Love Queen.

The First Sixteen Lines

Sixteen.

That’s the number of lines of text appearing on the first page of a book. After the book jacket blurbs, it’s that first page that must compel the reader onward or the book is put back on the shelf.

There is a site that critiques those first lines; it’s called Flogging the Quill and it’s done by Ray Rhamey and commenters.

Two months ago I sent FtQ the opening to my WIP–Into Dark Woods. My opening is now up for the world to see. I can’t look quite yet.

What's for Lunch

My wife and a neighbor walked the dogs this morning. Neighbors stopped them on three separate occasions to warn them of a mountain lion sighting. It seems that a cougar killed a deer yesterday in a neighbor’s yard and then sat with his lunch all day in the shade of a oak. Who knew that wild carnivorous animals actually killed other animals? The contractor working on the house some fifteen yards away took plenty of photos. Turkeys and deer roam in our neighborhood, mountain lions are never far away.

In other related news…
In a BBC article we learn that polar bears (even Knut the polar bear in a German zoo) actually kill fish. Germany’s Green Party is not amused.

As the writer of Marginal Revolution says, “While I can imagine valid criticisms of zoos, this is not one of them. It also should be noted that Knut’s normal diet does not consist of tofu.“