Dennis Cass: "Everybody’s a marketing genius."

By now, almost everyone in the publishing world has seen Book Launch 2.0, even if creator Dennis Cass isn't a household (or office) name. As I wrote in my post Book Trailers, I couldn't recall his name or book title (HEAD CASE: How I Almost Lost My Mind Trying to Understand My Brain), and had to search my own blog for them. But the video, of a hapless author talking on the phone with someone who's giving him publicity suggestions, sure stuck in my brain.

I emailed Cass via his admittedly somnolent blog, Dennis Cass is... (He's spending most of his online time on his new venture, Dennis Cass Wants You to Be More Awesome.) At his invitation I phoned him last week at his home in Minneapolis. The edited results of our talk are below.

Q: When was HEAD CASE published?
A: The hardcover was published by HarperCollins in spring '07; the paperback in March '08. I didn’t even tell my friends when the paperback came out. I didn’t want to say, “Hey, out again.”

Q: How about Book Launch 2.0?
A: The video went up around May 13. It was the coming-out party for the paperback, which was languishing on Amazon. I told HarperCollins publicity about the video, but I said, “Let’s see what it does on its own.” So on the first day I just sent it to five people I knew in publishing, including an editor who knows John Hodgman. The next day, I think I sent it to another five people. [I received it from a writer on May 13, posted the video that day and sent it to GalleyCat, who posted it on May 14.]

You know you’ve done it right when you don’t even ask people to send it along. By day three, when I tried to send the video to another five people, they said “I already saw this two days ago.” It was insulting to them; it happened that fast. By the end of the week, I wasn’t doing anything and it was getting 1500-2000 hits a day. It’s leveled off at around 40,000. In the heat of it, my Amazon sales ranking went up too. I actually ended up selling books for a while.

Q: Book Launch 2.0 was great, but it didn't tie in with HEAD CASE, or even mention it.
A: The main reason why I did the video is, I thought this would be funny even it it doesn’t sell a book. It’s funny and it's true, and writers, editors and people who work in publishing are going to get this.

I didn’t put the book cover or title in the monologue because it would feel like an ad. Random House wouldn’t want to promote a video for a HarperCollins book. Some people at Random House showed it at the Columbia summer school for publishing. Everybody liked it. If it had been more of a hard sell, I don’t think that would have happened. It had to stand alone as its own cool thing.

HarperCollins was really excited about the video. They wanted me to put the cover shot of the book on it. But it’s already up and I'm not going to take it down and recut it.

Q: How did you make the video?
A: A friend who works for an ad agency in town shot it. Every writer should have a guy—or a girl—who understands this stuff, who can make a website, or a video, or a cartoon. Your guy should not just be someone who knows how to build a website, but who gets it—who knows how our culture works.

I had a script for the monologue. It took about 20-30 minutes to do a full take. Once I did it a couple of times from paper we just started playing with it, improvising a bit. I was completely pleased at how it turned out.

Q: Had you written for film or theater before?
A: I haven’t written for performance, but I've done public speaking and improv comedy. I like performing. [Cass has also taught college, which is a public performance in itself. See his NYT Magazine article, My New Look.]

The genesis of the video was that conversation, which I still have with people. Even after they saw the video, they said, “You have to make more videos.” I said, "You’re being that guy." Everybody’s a marketing genius. It’s much easier said than done.

I worked for a literary agency in my twenties, did film rights and sub rights, so I know how the entertainment sausage is made. It’s a miracle that anything gets made, and it’s a double miracle that anything is halfway decent. It’s mind-boggling that things are actually good and find an audience, and are popular and successful. It’s lightning in a bottle when that happens.

I’m flying by the seat of my pants. I’m not a marketing genius, I just did something cool that worked.

Q: What's next?
A: If you could do one of those things a month... It’s like a bubble economy, something’s got to keep feeding it. It was a big hit for as long as it was a big hit, but now what’s the next thing? I'm hoping that people who bought the book as a result of seeing the video will blog about it. I’m not obsessed with my Amazon numbers; I’m focused on building an audience.

I’ve been a moving target, written for lots of different publications--New York Times Magazine, GQ, Mother Jones, Slate, Harper’s--on lots of different subjects. One thing this book experience has taught me is that I need to do something long-term, I can’t just fly around doing what I want. I think the audience for my writing will be based on my voice and my outlook, because I’m not a subject-matter guy. You can call yourself a writer, but you can make little videos and write comic books. [He says this ironically in the video.] You don’t have to write the Great American Novel to have an impact on the culture.

I’m working on my next book; I'm not ready to talk about it yet. [His agent, Heather Schroder at ICM, loved the video.] But there will still be some goodwill left over this fall when I get the book proposal out. I have a side project where I’m giving writers and artists career and writing advice: Dennis Cass Wants You to be More Awesome. [Latest question: Should I blog about rejection?]

It’s nice to make something happen; it’s so hard. There are people with million-dollar budgets and MBAs who are failing at making things happen in our culture. When you get a little wind, it makes you excited. ABC didn’t call me with my own show, but a lot of bloggers and people in the industry contacted me. It was great for expanding my network; 40,000 people is not bad.

The world gives its thumbs up or thumbs down, and you just have to accept it. It’s just a lottery ticket: scratch and win. Most of the times you scratch it and it’s the canary, the turtle and the rabbit. And you don’t get anything. Then you scratch it, you get three turtles and you win five bucks!

Book Trailers: Authors' Views

In my previous post, Book Trailers, I wrote, "What I wonder most about book videos is whether they have a positive impact on book sales. I would love to see hard data, if there is any."

Though I have yet to see any sales figures, I did hear back from some of the authors whose trailers I cited. On Bastille Day, I had lunch at a French (mais bien sûr!) restaurant with client Doreen Orion. In a comment to the above post, after praising my French accent (for which she gets my undying gratitude), Doreen wrote:

I wish I could tell you if my videos have helped QUEEN OF THE ROAD, but they've been released at the same time as my fabulo website (which you've commented on quite a bit, Merci), as well as some of the wonderful reviews the book has gotten. I can tell you that as I'm doing my radio tour this summer, I always mention my website, saying, "it has wonderful pictures of our trip, reviews, an excerpt as well as videos, including of the nudist RV park. Now, don't crash my site, people." And, I have noticed Amazon sales as well as webstats going up after each interview. How much is specifically due to the video, I have no idea, but even if it's only indirectly, i.e., it drives people to my website who then like what they see (PULEASE! I DON'T mean naked, middle-aged me) and then buy the book, I'm not complainin'.

Sherry Thomas, another client, emailed me that coincidentally today she downloaded a trailer for her second novel, DELICIOUS. A techno-head, Sherry makes the trailers herself, though "frankly I can't tell you what a book trailer does. I think I just like to make them--once I figured out how to use Windows Movie Maker. It's a lot of fun."

On the down side, Sherry notes that when her agent, Kristin Nelson, posted the trailer for PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS on her blog, PubRants, one commenter wrote that "the trailer made her definitely not want to read the book." In which case it probably wasn't her kind of book anyway, says I.

On the up side, a Dear Author post in March, My First Sale by Sherry Thomas: Love in the Ruins of Home Improvement, received a slew of positive comments. Julie Leto of Plot Monkeys wrote:

Please consider this an example of a book trailer selling a book. I’m going out today. I cannot resist a book if the author has this kind of sense of humor! Besides, I love Victorian books.

Sherry wrote that Leto " also later contacted me and told me she enjoyed the book very much, and if I would like to guest blog at her place when it's time for my upcoming release."

In my previous post I wrote about the viral hit Book Launch 2.0 by Dennis Cass (HEAD CASE: How I Almost Lost My Mind Trying to Understand My Brain). Doreen Orion echoed my observations:

I had the same thought about Cass' video: It was hysterical, but didn't give any info about the book. I also wonder if people outside the industry "got" it. I sent it to a few civilian friends and they didn't see what was so funny, until I explained the joke. So, I wonder, too, if it really helped sales.

In my post I'd added parenthetically, "One of these days, I'll contact Cass & ask what effect the video had." Well, yesterday was one of those days, and this morning I received the below message from him:

Great post and thanks for the mention. My vid definitely increased sales and was very beneficial in other ways. If you'd like for me to elaborate (for your blog or just for your own curiosity) I'd be happy to, but there's a lot to say and saying it would require writing it, which would require work.

Far be it from me to make anyone do extra work, especially if it involves writing. So per his invitation, I phoned Cass to follow up. I'll post our interview soon.

Book Trailers

Lately I've been thinking a lot about book trailers, as they're the Newest Thing in book promotion. Was mulling over doing a post about them, and then the other day someone asked me my opinion during my monthly "guest expert" stint on the Backspace Writers Forums. Below is a revised version of my response.

A good trailer will garner attention for a book and author. And as debut author Julie Kramer pointed out, having a video is great if you're going to be interviewed on TV. It's a helluva lot more interesting--and memorable--than a static shot of a book jacket. Videos can be particularly useful for "genre" fiction such as mysteries, thrillers and romance because they can create a mood that lures in readers, as the last four do in the list below.

I've seen book trailers that are really good, some that are so-so and some that are total yawns. HarperCollins believes in trailers so much that they're producing them inhouse. GalleyCat has been posting several each week; see Web & Tech.

A book video, just like a TV ad, has to TELL & SELL: Tell what the book is about and sell it to the target audience. It has to answer the Three Big Questions:

1. So what?
2. Who cares?
3. What's in it for me?

After watching a book trailer, the viewer should think, "Wow, I gotta buy this book!" Not just, "Wow, I gotta forward this video!"

Here are some trailers that tell & sell in an enticing way:

• FORESKIN'S LAMENT by Shalom Auslander
• SCHLEPPING THROUGH THE ALPS by Sam Apple
• QUEEN OF THE ROAD by my client Doreen Orion
• YES, YOU'RE PREGNANT, BUT WHAT ABOUT ME? by Kevin Nealon
• PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS by my client Sherry Thomas
  
• THE REINCARNATIONIST by M.J. Rose
• STALKING SUSAN by Julie Kramer (published yesterday!)
• WAKE by Lisa McMann

TROPHIES by Heather Thomas has a lavishly produced video that doesn't quite do it for me because the narration (by Gore Vidal!) is ponderous, the dialogue murky, and after nearly 5-1/2 minutes (yawn...) I still didn't know what the book was about nor why I should care about its main characters. Also the bit about dissing the waiter is a little too reminiscent of one in the late, lamented (by me, anyway) TV series "Action" (available on DVD; see it now!). But the acting, whether by dolls or real people, is terrific.

After I forwarded it to GalleyCat two months ago, Book Launch 2.0 went viral. I think everyone in publishing saw it and sent it to everyone they know; I got it at least 3 times. But though achingly funny, the video had nothing to do with the book it was ostensibly promoting. In fact, I couldn't remember the author or book title--or even whether the book was a novel or nonfiction--to save my life. I had to search my blog archives: Dennis Cass, HEAD CASE: How I Almost Lost My Mind Trying to Understand My Brain. (One of these days, I'll contact Cass & ask what effect the video had.)

Last year, there was a big hoopla at BookExpo about the big-bucks "mini-feature" for Ian McEwan's ON CHESIL BEACH. I watched the trailer online. OY. Read my assessment in What's Not to Like? Let Me Count the Ways...

What I wonder most about book videos is whether they have a positive impact on book sales. I would love to see hard data, if there is any.

One concern I have is that book trailers will be added to the ever-expanding list of things that authors "must" have to stay competitive. Which means that they'll be spending time, and especially money, on what are basically commercials for their books instead of writing their books. My position is that every author doesn't have to have a blog, a social networking page or book trailers. (Every author absolutely should have a website, though.)

My second concern is, where are all these book trailers going to be shown besides online? There's been talk of having TVs in bookstores constantly running videos. Everywhere one goes nowadays, whether the supermarket, the mall or the swimming pool, there's music blasting over loudspeakers. There are TVs blaring at the dentist, the auto repair waiting room and the airport. To me, bookstores and libraries are the last secular havens of quiet enjoyment. I don't want that peace shattered by endless loops of book trailers.

Happy Bastille Day!

Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix

All together now:
"Allons enfants de la patrie, le jour de gloire est arrivé!"
(Read all about "La Marseillaise" here.)

July 14 will always be a jour de gloire for me. Twelve years ago today, Darling Husband and I were married in Portland, Maine. Our wedding cake was inscribed Liberté, Fraternité, Félicité. (I didn't think Fraternité was quite the thing.)

Too bad THE BLACK TOWER by Louis Bayard won't be out till August 26, because it would be the perfect book to read today. Set in 1818 Paris, it's a mystery about the not-so-pretty aftermath of the French Revolution. Bayard has a marvelous gift for bringing other times and places to pulsing life. You'd swear he'd lived in Dickens's London (Mr. Timothy, which I reviewed for People), trained at West Point in 1830 (The Pale Blue Eye) and consorted with legendary French detective Vidocq. As in The Pale Blue Eye (featuring a young Edgar Allen Poe), THE BLACK TOWER has a terrific triple-whammy at the end. No way you'll see it coming.

French movies to watch tonight (or anytime):

• Paris Je t'Aime -- made me laugh, made me cry; with Gérard Depardieu
• La Vie en Rose (La Môme) -- with Academy Award-winnier Marion Clotillard and Gérard Depardieu
• Cyrano de Bergerac -- with Gérard Depardieu; rhyming subtitles by Anthony Burgess (!)
• Jean de Florette -- with (quelle surprise!) Gérard Depardieu*
• Manon of the Spring (Manon des Sources) -- sequel to "Jean de Florette" (Depardieu isn't in it, but it's a spoiler to explain why)
• Les Enfants du Paradis -- still heartbreaking after 63 years

*Darling Husband: "Is there any recent French movie without Gérard Depardieu?"
Moi: "I like Gérard Depardieu!"

I've Got 99 Problems and the Thermometer Is One

It's 99°F outside right now. That's what it says on my Yahoo home page, anyway. When I clicked for the detailed forecast, it said 95°. Whatever, it's too @#$%! hot.

The only consolation--for sweaty people, not gasping plants--is that the humidity is all of 7%. (News flash: Denver is officially a desert, drier than Los Angeles. And it's on the edge of the Great Plains, not in the Rocky Mountains.) In Virginia when it's this hot, the humidity is often as high as the temperature. There were times in Charlottesville when I'd step outside our air-conditioned house and my glasses would fog up. Feh.

Time for more iced tea...

Quote of the Day

That’s the problem with the truth, isn’t it? People don’t always want to hear it.

--from Recalling a Cheerful Man Made Angry by Hypocrisy by Clyde Haberman in today's NY Times. Writer Eliot Asinof, who died last month at age 88, had been a front in the 1950s for screenwriter Walter Bernstein ("The Front"), who called him "God’s angry man."

At a recent memorial at New York's Harvard Club,

Julian Koenig, who knew Mr. Asinof going back 80 years, told the assembled group that his friend “didn’t like agents, and he didn’t like publishers.”

“And lawyers,” a woman cried out.

It's Hard Out There for a Cat

Above and bottom, Max reacts to the news that he received only 1% of the vote in the Summer Cats popularity contest.

"You're going to be a star tomorrow," I whispered to Max last night. I'd sent a photo of him sacked out on the edge of a bed to GalleyCat, which is having its annual Summer Cats contest. (See Thursday entries and vote here.)

Filled with excitement, first thing this morning I clicked on GalleyCat, only to discover that Max had received zero votes. I was crushed. Now I know how the mother of a beauty pageant loser feels. It was small consolation that when I checked a few minutes ago, Max had received 1% of the vote.

I have to admit that Katinka (the companion of one of my favorite novelists, Katharine Weber), Sebastian and Petunia are pretty damn cute. (I said "Awwww!" at the pic of Petunia sleeping in a manuscript box.) But out of loyalty I cast my vote for Max.

As you can see, all this has deeply affected him.



Update July 11, 11am:
Max has now garnered 3%. I think some people have been playing Mama Rose and haranguing their friends to vote, as one cat (not mentioning any names) who I don't think is terrifically cute is now in the lead with 23% of the vote. Hmpf!

Voyage of Discovery Leads to a Prize

Yesterday's Shelf Awareness had an item telling about the reaction of UK Guardian blogger Nicholas Lezard to

the announcement that Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth had won the Frank O'Connor award outright when the judges chose to dispense with a shortlist (Shelf Awareness, July 7, 2008).

To learn more, I clicked on the link to Lezard's July 7 post:

Give Us Back Our Shortlists
The judges should have given a handful of writers the chance to put 'shortlisted for a Frank O'Connor award' on their next book

Call me provincial, but I'd never heard of the Frank O'Connor award, so I Googled it and was led to the home page of The Munster Literature Centre. (Its title bar just reads "Home Page." How dumb is that?) At the top it congratulates "new O'Connor laureate" Lahiri.

Below the little book jacket image and to the right of Lahiri's enormous headshot (oh, by the way, she's gorgeous; hmm...) is an announcement for The Sean O'Faolain Short Story Prize, which I'd also never heard of. But here's where it gets good:

• The competition is open to original unpublished short stories in the English language of 3,000 words or less. The story can be on any subject, in any style by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world.
  

• Entry deadline is July 31st 2008.
  

• The winners will be announced at the International Frank O’Connor Festival of the Short Story in Cork in September. The winners will be invited to read their prize winning stories at the festival.
  

• First Prize: €1,500 (approx US$2300) and publication in the literary biannual Southword.
  

• Second Prize: €500 (approx US$790) and publication in Southword.
  

• Four other shortlisted entries will be selected for publication in Southword and receive a fee of €100 euros (approx US$158).

See full competition rules here.

Who's Your Publisher?

I just received an invitation to a book launch party for a debut novelist. Details were on Evite: date, time, place, author's name, book title, plus a handy link to the author's website. But...no mention of the book's publisher. Was it self-published?

I clicked on the link and found a beautifully designed author website, with headshot and jacket image on the first screen of the homepage, just as they should be, plus blurbs by other authors. But...no mention of the book's publisher. Was it self-published?

I scrolled further and found pull-quotes from PW and Kirkus reviews--signs that the book is from a trade house. I clicked on the "Sample Chapter" tab. At the top of the page is the book's title; at the bottom is a line reading "[Book Title] - Now available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, and stores everywhere," with links to the book's page at both retailers. But...no mention of the book's publisher.

I clicked on the "Contact" tab. That page reads:

Contact Me

I am always happy to hear from readers. Please fill in the form below and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Members of the media and events organizers, please see the contact information on this page:
[URL for--aha!--a publisher]

This author is not alone. I can't tell you how many author websites I see that don't mention their books' publishers. I've said the following till I'm blue in the face, and typed it till my fingers were sore. Here it is again:

ATTENTION AUTHORS!
Don't make people hunt for your publisher's name! Feature it prominently, along with your book's ISBN, on your website and in your press materials.

On your Contact page, include:

• your publisher's name, website link and whom to contact there (usually the publicist; be sure to encrypt his/her email address)
• your literary agent's name, website link and mailing address
• if applicable, contact info for your freelance publicist, speakers' bureau and film agent.
  

Belly Laugh of the Day

Through an author, I just found out about Davis Wager Literary Agency in L.A. I scoped out the website and burst into guffaws when I clicked on the DWBlog.

Quote of the Day

"He might be a criminal but at least he listened to his mother."

--Ross Intelisano, a lawyer for investors who lost millions to hedge-fund scammer Samuel Israel III.

After being convicted of defrauding Bayou Fund investors of some $450 million (!!!) and being sentenced to 20 years in prison, Israel, "the scion of a wealthy New Orleans family," staged a fake suicide off the Bear Mountain Bridge with the aid of his girlfriend. (Ooh, bad move! She's in a universe of trouble now.) Then he went on the lam for a month at an RV park in Massachusetts. But after talking to his mom, Israel turned himself in to police--though he had trouble finding a station that was open full-time.

Read all about it in the NYT: Fund Manager Who Faked His Suicide Surrenders.

In honor of Mrs. Israel, I declare a four-day moratorium on Jewish mother jokes.

The Light of Dawn!

You'll excuse my gushing, but I love this blog! I especially love my readers! Most of all, I adore readers who leave brilliant comments that lead me to the TRUTH--or at least a happy solution to my email migration woes.

In Bella v Laptop, Solidus left a comment suggesting that I download Thunderbird and use that to import my Eudora address book, then use Outlook to import from Thunderbird. So I downloaded Thunderbird. Nada, even when I imported the Agents sub-address book into the main Eudora Nicknames folder. WAAAH!

Then I Googled the terms Thunderbird import Eudora address books. That led me to the Mozilla site, where I found information about Dawn, a FREE program that converts address books in Eudora (and many other programs) to Outlook (and many other programs).

After uninstalling Thunderbird, I downloaded and installed Dawn. My first attempt at importing didn't work. Then I transferred the Agents sub-address book into the main Eudora Nicknames folder. VOILA! OH HAPPY DAY!!!

I'm still going to have to do some manual work: transferring each Eudora sub-address book (Clients, Family, Friends, etc.) into the Nicknames folder for importation and transferring it back again, then going through each entry in Outlook to put info in the proper fields (I was sloppy about that in Eudora) and assigning categories (Mailing List, Agent, Client, Author, etc.).

But still, I'll take quick, clean-up tedium over endless, brain-melting tedium.

And Solidus, I owe you a drink. Make that two drinks!

Quotes for the Week

"With all the guns in this county, couldn't we kill a muskrat?"
--AP, Burrowing muskrat causes levee to fail in Missouri.

“The rubbish fairy is dead.”
--NY Times, Take Out the Trash Precisely, Now. It’s the Law.
Seems that people in Britain are getting fined if their garbage bin lids are open just 3 inches. This is only possible in a country that doesn't have raccoons. (Or street people, who constantly rummage through the dumpsters in my neighborhood and leave the lids open.)

Bella v Laptop

<-- What I looked like (or felt like, anyway) after wrestling with my computer most of today.

For a while I considered sticking with Eudora, rather than manually re-entering each address book listing into Outlook. But when I downloaded Eudora 8.0, I found that it didn't recognize the address book from version 7.1. And that version doesn't cut it for me anymore, especially when it comes to composing and sending my newsletters.

So I'm going to spend the next few weeks engaged in the mind-numbingly tedious task of transferring every single !@#$! address listing from Eudora to Outlook. After which I'll look like this -->

Images from Stoned Agin! by R. Crumb.

P.S. July 1:
See the happy, non-mind-numbing conclusion in The Light of Dawn!

The Pain!

Medieval thumbscrew.

I'm not referring to my recent surgery, from which I'm recovering nicely. Now that all the hardware has been removed from my right arm, I can do some things (walk with the arm hanging down, fold sheets, pull keys from my jeans pocket) painlessly for the first time in two years.

No, my agony is coming from a Perfect Storm of cyber woes:

1. My 3rd PDA in as many years died just before my surgery.
2. After 4 years, my laptop is getting so slow that the only solution is to wipe it clean and reinstall EVERYTHING. Which will happen later today under the supervision of the Boy Wonder, who was the IT guy for Obama's San Antonio and Philly offices during the primary campaign. (BW: "All those years alone in my room paid off!" Me: "Grrr...")
   
3. After 12 years of using Eudora for email, I'm switching to Outlook. Its "import" feature falsely claims that it will transfer the Eudora address book, which means I have to manually copy each of the hundreds of entries--the reason why I didn't switch 4 years and many entries ago. (I know what I'll be doing during the rest of my R&R!) And backing up Outlook data files, I discovered last night, is another royal pain.
   

Condolences and advice gratefully accepted.

Jane (that's "Miss Austen" to you) Still My '08 Pick

Laurie Viera Rigler has just released the last in her trilogy of "campaign" videos celebrating the paperback release of CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT. See Laurie's blog post about her Austen Dream Team.

From Book Reviewer to Author Photographer

For years I've seen (and occasionally chatted with) Miriam Berkley at the annual National Book Critics Circle members meeting, luncheon and book awards ceremony in New York. Now, thanks to a lengthy interview in Eric Forbes's Book Addict's Guide (condensed in the July issue of Quill), I've learned that there's a lot going on behind "The Eyes of Miriam Berkley."

They Let Me Out Again!

Away from Bear Creek in Lair O' the Bear Park

With Darling Husband at the wheel and Jenny in the back seat, late this morning we set off for one of our favorite jaunts: west to Morrison, then up scenic, twisty Route 74 for a walk in Lair O' the Bear Park (love that tacky name!), then lunch at Bear Creek Restaurant in Kittredge, idyllically located on a bend in--you guessed it!--Bear Creek.

But first the painful part: gassing up the Toyota Highlander. When we bought it four years ago, it cost about $25 to fill up. Today it cost $64.75. I haven't driven in almost two weeks, but you can bet that when I do so again (probably tomorrow), I'll be consolidating all my errands into one run.

Back to the fun part...


A female hummingbird dipped into some nectar while I dipped into a margarita at Bear Creek Restaurant.

Jenny made like a cow and nibbled grass after DH and I had our lunch.




I could have spent the rest of the afternoon sitting by the creek near the restaurant (below), but alas, we had to return home.

Sour Cream: A Political Harbinger?

A couple of weeks ago I was shopping at one of my favorite local food stores: European Mart. In Denver at least, "European" is code for "Russian." There's also the St. Petersburg European Deli, among other Russki markets in the area.

What did I espy in the dairy cooler but a plastic container emblazoned СМЕТАНА on the (red) logo of a black-and-white, flower-garlanded cow's head with a flower in her mouth, marked RUSSIAN STYLE SOUR CREAM and proclaiming ЗТО ВКУСНО!

Ooh! I had to buy it. When I got home, I found out that it was as good as it looked, and tasted just like the sour cream of my (not that long ago) childhood. I was hooked.

Today was my first real outing by car since my surgery on the 13th (not counting the trip to the surgeon for rebandaging last Monday). Darling Husband drove and we took Jenny for a walk along (and in) Cherry Creek, then stopped off at European Mart for supplies.

I headed to the dairy case for more of that fantastic sour cream. On a shelf were the same clear plastic containers filled with thick white stuff, with the same cow logo and Cyrillic type.

Only this time the label was marked CANADIAN STYLE SOUR CREAM. I think it's an omen.

P.S. Thanks to Wiktionary, I've learned that СМЕТАНА is a Russian (not Canadian) feminine noun, pronounced "smetána," meaning "sour cream." And according to Google, ЗТО ВКУСНО is Russian (not Canadian) for "extremely tasty."

The View from Here

The scene in bed this afternoon, with my three faithful companions: Jenny, Max and a book-- HOLLY WOULD DREAM for now, but BookExpo added many volumes to my To Be Read pile. (The cane by Jenny's head is a holdover from previous surgeries that has yet to make its way back to the basement.)

How'm I Doin'?

With that big chunk of metal out of my arm, I feel better now. In fact, I feel better than James Brown...

R&R with Max

Since I came home from the hospital last Saturday, Max has spent most of each day sleeping on my bed--whether I'm there or not. After lunch I found him luxuriating (above). When I settled in with the laptop, he woke up long enough to give himself a few dabs (below), then moved to his favorite cyber spot (bottom).

This morning, a neighbor who's a massage therapist told me that scientific studies have shown that a purring cat helps bones regenerate. In which case those 11 holes in my humerus should fill in pronto. (Note the vastly reduced bandaging, again due to bathroom triage. The tape on my right hand really is "suntan" color--my suntan, anyway.)


Now I'm going back to HOLLY WOULD DREAM by Book Promotion 101 workshop alum Karen Quinn, just visible at upper left.

BEA: SoCal Rado Producers

Now that I can type freely with both hands again, here comes more coverage of BookExpo.

On Thursday, May 29, the second of three "Media Matters" panels moderated by publicist extraordinaire Kim Dower (aka Kim-from-LA), was "Southern California Top Radio Producers." Panelists were:

• Jacob Conrad, editor, Day to Day, National Public Radio
• Lyle Gregory, producer, The Michael Jackson Show, KGIL
• Michelle Kube, producer, The Bill Handel Show, KFI AM
• Terrence McNally, host, Free Forum with Terrence McNally, Pacifica Radio, KPFK
• Mindy Steinman, producer, Airtalk and FilmWeek with Larry Mantle, KPCC
  
• Marrie Stone, guest host, Writers on Writing with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, KUCI
• Jesse Thorn, producer & host, The Sound of Young America, podcast & public radio stations

As a rule of thumb, you don't want to have more than four people on a panel, as it gets too unwieldy. But Kim did a great job of keeping the discussion on track and giving everyone a chance to speak. She started by asking the panelists to describe their shows and the types of books they feature.

McNally: I believe we [as a nation] can do better, and I want to find out how. That's the focus of my show. Almost always have nonfiction authors.

Conrad: "Day to Day" is news-driven. Listen to the show and get to know the voices of the hosts. [Pitch authors/stories for specific hosts.] We have fiction and nonfiction authors who have stories of their own [and are not just hawking their books].

Steinman: Nonfiction authors, a very few fiction with local interest. "Airtalk" is a two-hour daily news show. The last half-hour is the cultural segment. We get hundreds and hundreds of books a week; our eight producers get hundreds of emails a day. KNOW THE SHOW. No how-to, plastic surgery, celebrity bios. It's off-putting to be pitched what we don't cover.

Thorn: My show is younger-person oriented. I do all in-depth interviews: a lot of funny people, a nonfiction author on something unusual, musicians. No books with numbers in the title, or about John Adams. If Ted Turner wants to talk bison, I'm there.

Stone: We're a weekly show covering the art and craft of writing. All phone interviews. We do literary fiction, noir; no prescriptive nonfiction, how-to or romance. We get hundreds of books a week.

Kube: Bill Handel is a lawyer, he's crazy and has A.D.D. His attention span isn't long. An interview is no more than 15 minutes. KNOW THE SHOW. We're news-oriented, have 12 topics each morning. Our mission is to EDUCATE, INFORM & ENTERTAIN. Fiction must have a news hook. Bill hates how-to, dislikes self-help. We get hundreds of emails a day. Nothing makes me more crazy than getting the wrong pitch. LOOK AT THE WEBSITE.

Gregory: We are producers and hosts. Show is 2 hours a day. I went back on air [after being off for quite a while]. We're having fun with this, the third act of our baby boomer careers. Sometimes we do a thing every 15 minutes, sometimes we do it the whole hour. Thank you all for being here!

Kim: Know the show! Educate, inform and entertain is what it's all about. For broadcast, it's more important to have a great guest than a great book. You must be engaging and a good talker. The producer must know if the guest has a speech impediment. TV is about looks, radio is about voice.

Kube: I do a pre-interview, set up guests for Bill. Sometimes they fall apart. Bill hates it when an author says, "As I said in the book..." or "You have to read the book." [I hate that too! An author who was a college professor pulled that on me. I killed the piece and repurposed another interview I'd done for PW.]

Gregory: If you're plugging your book [on the show], you sound like a used-car salesman. Don't plug your book; Michael will plug it for you.

Kim: On live radio, you have to be a self-contained unit.

McNally: It's about the radio show, not selling the book. If people like the radio show, they'll buy the book.

Kube: We featured HOW TO DUCK A SUCKAH with a former pimp [Big Boom] as a relationship expert.

Kim: You have to talk to the author first [before you pitch him/her to media]. I knew to pitch Big Boom to Bill Handel.

Gregory: Sometimes we need that extra push.

Thorn: A lot of shows look for people who are really exciting. We don't necessarily do that. Scott Simon says, "If you're on tape, you can always wait till they answer some more." [You can't do that live, though. Dead air is...death.] Amy Sedaris is so good, she could come in and talk for an hour about ducks. I would marry her if I could. [You read it here first, folks!] For the interview, get the author to a radio station with an ISDN line. Pitch authors who are experts on topics, not just because they have a book out.

Kim: How do you want to be pitched?

Steinman: When you're pitching, send a copy of the book. Be sure to include author contact information.

McNally: Pitch by email; address on personal website. Send the book. Answer the question: How can we make society better? We can pre-record for Tuesday show.

Conrad: Email with engaging pitch with contact info. Rarely do phone interviews; must be on ISDN line.

Steinman: A one-page email and send the book. Don't call unless you're following up, nor when show is on the air, nor just off the air. Include TITLE, AUTHOR, PUBLISHER, PUB DATE and 2-3 sentences about the book. [Books don't necessarily have to be current.] When Gerald Ford died during Christmas week years ago, we searched Amazon to find an author of a book about him.

Thorn: Galleys are great. Pitch me by email: jesse (at) maximumfun.org. I hate the phone. Feel free to send books, they're like the fruitcakes Pee Wee Herman got on "Pee Wee's Playhouse."

Stone: ARCs are best. We're already booked through August. The earlier you pitch, the better. Follow up with email.

Kube: Pitch by email. I don't check voice mail every day. Pub date is important. If offering times, use Pacific Time. The top or bottom of the hour is no good.

Steinman: Always include the author's tour schedule.

Gregory: Pitch by email. Don't send galleys. We can do cell phone interviews. We book guests anywhere from a minute to a month in advance. The book is a business card.

Kube: The big misconception [among publicists] is "I have to book TV first." It's not always true that the TV audience is bigger than radio.

McNally: TV is background. In the car, radio is foreground.

Question from audience: Will you take pitches from authors?

McNally: An email's an email.

Thorn: It's extremely rare for a publicist to pitch something appropriate for the show. DO NOT SEND ME A BOOK WITH A PINK COVER.

All: Use appropriate language on air! [They don't want the FCC coming down on them for profanity/obscenity.]

BookExpo Overview Like No Other

Ya gotta read Paul Constant's Text Message from Los Angeles in The Stranger, "Seattle's Only Newspaper":

On the demented, celebrity-crazed, surrender-happy, endlessly-on-the-verge-of-being-wiped-off-the-planet publishing industry. (Note to panicked book lovers: Everything is going to be okay.)

When Worlds Collide, or "Globalization Rules!"

Long-time readers of this blog may remember my 2005 post, When Worlds Collide, about the Polish-Mexican Bistro in London's Shepherd Market.

After that I thought I'd seen everything. And then I read an article by Michael Kimmelman in yesterday's NY Times, For Blacks in France, Obama’s Rise Is Reason to Rejoice, and to Hope. I thought my head would explode from cognitive dissonance when I came to this:

[Youssoupha, a Congolese rapper] was nursing a Coke recently at Top Kafé, a Lubavitch Tex-Mex restaurant in Créteil, just outside Paris, where he lives. Nearby, two waiters in yarmulkes sat watching Rafael Nadal play tennis on television beneath dusty framed pictures of Las Vegas and Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson. A clutch of Arab teenagers smoked outside.

I read the passage to the Boy Wonder. After bursting out laughing, he proclaimed, "Globalization rules!"

It's Hard Out There for a Book Publicist

This just in from an inhouse publicist, "Jane," who's promoting a nonfiction book by "Sally," a nonfiction author who's going to be reading at a premier Denver bookstore. Sally was recently interviewed about her book on NPR and had an opinion piece on its subject published in a major metro daily. I had suggested that Jane pitch a local network affiliate that often has authors on its mid-day show.

I'm crossing my fingers that there will be a good turnout at Sally's bookstore event. Tour media has taken shape nicely in her other cities, but I have had SO much trouble with Denver media.

Despite (or perhaps because of? I guess a publicist never knows...) repeated and persistent follow-up, nothing has come through. The TV show was initially interested, but ultimately said they were "understaffed" on the days Sally would be in town. The other TV and radio shows I repeatedly reached out to either ignored me or said the book wasn't newsy enough, even though I pointed out all the Colorado-specific news hooks.

And the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News have been utterly and mysteriously silent for the month-and-a-half I've been pitching them on this book. Sigh.

I'm bummed, because I wanted to get Sally topline media coverage in every city she visited, but at least I know I did my darnedest (even if it didn't pay off). I feel like maybe the run-up to the convention in August has the major Denver news outlets focusing strongly on the presidential campaign, at the expense of other stories that might fill their political/cultural coverage slots? Sigh, again.

So remember, authors:
Just because your publicist didn't get you any media coverage doesn't mean she didn't work her buns off for you.

"Be prepared. And don't be frivolous."

During the tribute to Tim Russert on Sunday's "Meet the Press," that's what James Carville said he told politicos who were going to be on the show. But his advice applies to anyone (authors included) who's going to be interviewed, whether it's on TV, radio, in print or in public.

If the interview is worth your time, it's worth taking seriously. Know the show/publication/venue and be familiar with the interviewer. Know what you want--and DON'T WANT--to say.

Be a pro: be prepared, not frivolous.

Perforated

I woke up at 4:30 this morning (the longest I'd slept in nearly a week) with the inside of my upper right arm itching furiously beneath the layers of fuzzy wadding and knit wrapping.

I scratched and scratched--carefully, as I didn't want to hit the incision--but there was no relief. So I toddled off in search of gauze pads, etc., then ensconced myself in the bathroom to perform triage.



Xray of my right humerus with plate & screws last year (above) and today (right).

After unwrapping miles of knit cotton and masses of batting, and removing the fiberglas(?) splint, I patted the itchy area with gauze squares soaked in witch hazel. When it was dry, I taped large gauze pads over the incisions on my upper arm and hand. Then I lined the splint with more gauze pads, cradled my arm into it and rewrapped the miles of knit cotton from armpit to knuckles. All using my non-dominant left hand. Then I went back to bed and slept for nearly four itch-free hours.

When I got up, I made an appointment to have the arm rebandaged this afternoon--a week earlier than I was supposed to have seen the surgeon again. Hooray! He ditched the splint, as well as the miles of wrapping, so now I am just bandaged from armpit to elbow and wrist to knuckles.

Per the Xray above right, the humerus is perforated with at least one hole for each of the 11 screws pictured here. Which means that until the holes fill in, the bone could easily rebreak--necessitating another steel plate. Ugh.

At the end of our visit, the surgeon ordered, "No lifting. And don't fall down." Not me! I'm not even picking up a full cup of coffee. And I'm watching every step.

But at least now I can bend and straighten my right arm. And best of all, I can easily type with two hands again.

The Cat Stays in the Picture

As you can see, Max lost no time in reclaiming his favorite spots as soon as I returned home. He couldn't care less that my right arm looks like a prop from "The Mummy." Neither does my dog Jenny, who quickly realized that all petting and ear-scratching were only going to come from my left side. (She runs away at the first click or flash, which is why there are so many more photos of Max.)

I am SOOO glad it's warm out, as the only garments that fit over all the wadding are tank tops, my silk kimono and Darling Husband's Hawaiian shirts. I wore one with 1940s pin-up girls on it to and from the hospital--which of course coordinated with my cotton-knit skirt and black slides. (I'm always ready for the Fashion Police.) However, the white compression stockings I was commanded to wear after surgery mucked up the ensemble.

P.S. Thanks for all the kind wishes! They greatly lift my spirits.

I've Lost That Magnetic Feeling

Steel plate (5-1/2 x 1/2 x 1/8") & 11 screws removed from my arm on Friday the 13th. One of the screws was outside the plate, holding together a split in the bone.

The surgery to remove the plate (above) from my right arm and release the carpal tunnel went very well, I was told as soon as I regained consciousness late Friday morning.

I'm heavily bandaged from armpit to knuckles, with a plastic brace from just below the shoulder to 4" above the wrist, keeping my arm at a 120° angle. I'd thought the carpal tunnel surgery would be at the wrist, but when I peeked inside the bandage on my hand, I saw a red gash across my palm. No wonder it hurts when I stretch my hand! (Which I'm doing as little as possible.)

The reason for doing the carpal tunnel surgery was because my middle finger was almost all numb, the index and ring fingers partly so. Therefore I was alarmed, to put it mildly, to have ZERO feeling in my middle and ring fingers (they might as well have been made of wood), increased numbness in the index finger and a partially numb pinkie.

I was repeatedly assured that the numbness was due to a powerful local anesthetic that had been injected in my hand, which would take 5 to 6 hours to wear off. I wasn't feeling so hopeful at 7pm--11 hours after surgery--when my fingers were as numb as ever. But by yesterday morning they were as before the operation.

Nerve tissue repairs at the rate of 1mm per day, so I have a long wait till the feeling in my fingers comes back; possibly longer till the pain in my upper arm subsides.

But at least I have that damn hardware out of my arm (though I'm grateful that it pulled the humerus back together). And though I can't bend or straighten my right arm much, I can--big bonus!--type with that hand, as long as the arm is propped on a pillow (i.e., in bed, not at my desk).

The other good news is that I'm not in much pain. After long and earnest discussions with medical personnel over which oral pain meds I can tolerate (hardly any, though I'm OK with IV morphine & love how Fentanyl* makes me feel absolutely nothing), I was sent home with a scrip for Demerol. The stuff is supposed to make one drowsy, but after taking two 50mg caps, I woke up every two hours last night. So the Demerol is going into the unused medicine drawer. If my arm starts hurting again, I'll just have a margarita.

*I just read on Wikipedia that Fentanyl is available as a transdermal patch. Why the @#$%! didn't any of my doctors prescribe it to me two years ago, when I was in agony for months and unable to tolerate any other pain meds? AAAARGH!!!

Down for the Count

I'm off to have my 7th--and I hope last--surgery since being tossed by Gomez the thoroughbred two years ago. I'm praying that the 3rd time is the charm for my arm. This time the surgeon is removing the 6" steel plate that was installed in August '06 and doing carpal tunnel release on my wrist. Objective: Less pain in arm, more feeling in fingers.

Instead of finishing my coverage of BEA and writing a newsletter, I spent yesterday in the garden, weeding, planting and transplanting like a fiend. Now the yard looks great (mostly; there are still plenty of weeds) and I am aching in every single joint.

Off to get sliced, diced and sedated--fortunately not in that order. Can't wait for that morphine drip! (Actually, I can.)

Au reservoir!

Quote for the Ages

Over the past three days, I did three 90-minute phone-in publicity seminars for Authors Guild members. There were 34 participants last night, one of whom emailed me with this astute observation:

We have to put aside our masks of humility and get out there and promote what we believe in: our books.

--Nancy Bo Flood, author of THE NAVAJO YEAR, WALK THROUGH MANY SEASONS, a Children's Choice award book

Hard...er...Soft Times in Nevada (Quote of the Week)

Speaking of sex (per previous post), this week's Advertising Age has two priceless stories. First there's Bordellos on Billboards: Bleak Economy Impels Brothels to Exercise Recent Right to Market.

George Flint, director of the Nevada Brothel Owners' Association [wow, there's an association for everything!], said revenue at the 25 legal bordellos for which he lobbies is down 25% to 45%, depending on the location.

Mr. Flint blames much of the downturn on the high price of diesel fuel, which led to this quote for the ages:

"An awful lot of our customers are truckers," he said. "It's the disposable income factor: Money for new wristwatches and gettin' laid just isn't there."

In the print edition, on the jump opposite the brothel article was the headline for a piece by Bob Garfield:
Ads for Lube Manage to Arouse Interest and Satisfy TV Bosses.

I thought the double entendre was unintentional, but no, the piece is about the new TV campaign for K-Y jelly. I read it aloud to Darling Husband and the Boy Wonder, stopping frequently for guffaws. By the time I got to the end my face hurt.

Nobody wants a bore-gasm, so the scientists at the K-Y company have used their microscopes, beakers and what-have-you to make the climax or peak of sexual pleasure, which occurs during sexual activity and which in males may include ejaculation and in females vaginal contractions, less ho-hum. One tube for him, one tube for her, and together ... the ultimate bonding experience!

Exactly like epoxy, only without the annoying wait.

Let's Make Guacamole, Liebchen!

Germany Abuzz at Racy Novel of Sex and Hygiene, announced the New York Times yesterday.

WETLANDS, by 30-year-old "television personality" Charlotte Roche (surprise! she's pretty and thin), has:

sold more than 680,000 copies, becoming the only German book to top Amazon.com’s global best-seller list.

The book, which will be published next year in the United States, is a headlong dash through every crevice and byproduct, physical and psychological, of its narrator’s body and mind. It is difficult to overstate the raunchiness of the novel...

[WETLANDS] opens in a hospital room after an intimate shaving accident...

Ewww!!! Must. Erase. Mental. Picture.

...eventually reaching avocado pits as objects of female sexual satisfaction...

Whoa. Avocado pits? Who knew? To think I threw two on the compost pile just this afternoon.

Hipster organic marital-aid tip:
Cucumbers, hard-boiled eggs (In the Realm of the Senses) and yams (performance artist Karen Finley) are so last-century.

BEA: SoCal TV Producers

I've finally recovered enough from BookExpo last weekend to write about it. So here goes...

On Thursday, May 29, publicist extraordinaire Kim Dower, aka Kim-from-LA, moderated three back-to-back "Media Matters" panels. The first was "Southern California Top TV Producers." Panelists were:

• Maria Hall Brown, producer & host, "Book Mark" on Real Orange on PBS station KOCE, seen throughout Los Angeles and Orange County
• Carole Chouinard, senior producer, The Tavis Smiley Show on PBS station KCET
• Barry Kibrick, producer & host of Between the Lines with Barry Kibrick, seen locally on PBS station KLCS & nationally syndicated through American Public Television
• Greg Mantell, producer & host, The Gregory Mantell Show on cable TV
• Heather Rothman, host of Book Talk with Heather Joy, on Los Angeles cable TV & soon to be syndicated in 16 European countries
  

As usual, my scribbled notes are impressionistic; make of them what you will.

Kibrick: Some of the brand-name fiction writers really stink. I've read manuscripts by my friends and thought, 'If my authors only wrote as well...'

Kim: There's a big difference between a great guest and a great book.

Mantell: Sometimes actors are terrible guests [because they're used to saying other people's words].

Kim: Sometimes actors need media training because they don't know how to talk about their books.

Chouinard: Most of the interviews on my show are 12 minutes. WIZARD OF THE CROW had a quiet author [Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o] with an amazing story. The publicist sent me the hardcover and all these articles about the depth of the author's experience. When the paperback came out, I went to the executive producer and Travis and said, "We have to do this author!" Travis said, "We'll make it work." It was a combination of a good publicist, me deciding to take it on and all hell breaking loose in Kenya. [The show aired in Dec 2007.]

Kim: Caring about something and pushing for it might work.

Brown: Publicists, when you want to pitch a book, don't read a script about the book and leave it on my voice mail. My favorite guests give personal anecdotes. Nonfiction writers tend to speak in generalities [which isn't good]. Persistence without harassing me pays off. I love my authors most of the time.

Kim: You have to know that the author you're pitching is worthy to go on camera.

Mantell: I sent an author home who called me in a panic from the green room, saying "I can't talk about my book." I knew it was going to be a train wreck. [Ya think?! WTF was up with that author?]

Kim: Don't ever deceive.

Kibrick: Be persistent till we say no. Once we say no, give up. Be creative. I did a segment with the guy who designed the California quarter, Garrett Burke [Quarterama]. Garrett approached me, he's a fan of the show and wanted to give me a quarter. I invited him on the show.

Kim: What about self-published authors?

Kibrick: No self-published. [The other panelists nodded in agreement.] There must be someone behind the book with deep pockets. I had Jack Klugman on for TONY AND ME [about him and Tony Randall on "The Odd Couple"] and only after the show did I find out that Jack self-published.

Kim: We have to be honest about the author and product, and what we're pitching. Know your material before you go on.

Rothman: Even a huge name can be so reticent on camera. Thirty minutes is like 3 hours. I prepare for my interview as if for a final exam. I had John Dean on and they sent questions in case I hadn't read the book--which of course I had.

Brown: I don't read press materials. [Sounds of breaking hearts throughout the room.] A lot of the time I scare interviewees because I know something about them they weren't expecting to hear. I spend the first 10 minutes breaking down their media training. [Sound of Kim's heart hitting floor.] I do my own research. I pissed off John Stossel [woohoo!!!]. The first thing I asked him made him angry for 30 minutes. I was intimidated about interviewing the late David Halberstam, but he was one of the sweetest, kindest, most gentle people I ever met.

Chouinard: I don't use the questions in the press materials. [More hearts plummeting.] I look for nuggets for Travis to mine. I usually pre-interview the author. Reviews are very helpful. I give Travis bullet points on a briefing card.

Kim: The idea of an interview is to be spontaneous, but it takes a lot of preparation to be spontaneous. [I quote Dolly Parton in my workshops: "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap!"]

Kibrick: I go deep, but I don't want to surprise the author.

Mantell: I look at a press kit for about 10 seconds, then if it interests me I look further. [More shattered hearts around the room.]

Kibrick: Author questions in a press kit are good for national a.m. TV shows.

Kim: Oftentimes that's all they'll look at.

Mantell: Send an up-to-date visual. One author sent us her photo and it turned out to be from 30 years ago.

Kim: B-roll footage is always helpful.

All: Some look at DVD of author's past appearances.

Kibrick: Let me see the book. I'm going to make the author come alive.

Kim: What advice do you have, and how should people pitch you?

Mantell: Know the show. Pitch by email: greg(at)gregorymantell.com.

Chouinard: Know your show. Tavis is African-American. We don't do "typical" Af-Am material; most people pitch too narrow. We are politics, news, current events. Pitch by email: cchouinard(at)kcet.org.

Brown: Send me the book, even if you pitch by email or phone. If I don't get back to you, try again. Email: mhall-brown(at)koce.org.

Kibrick: Email is best: barrykibrick(at)aol.com. No is no. I get hundreds of books a month. I donate every one I don't use. Books are gleaned through by my staff.

Rothman: Pitch by email: hjrothman(at)aol.com. The New Yorker likes to call in the early morning; they can't subtract 3.

Kibrick: You REALLY need to know the show.

Kim: To pitch the wrong guest to the wrong show is a waste of time.

The Sound of Waves

Before throwing ourselves into the BookExpo hurly burly, last Wednesday afternoon Darling Husband and I had an enchanting two hours at El Matador State Beach (above), north of Malibu.

Enjoy...


Pelicans from the cliff top.









Ocean-made art.











Looking down.

















Looking up.

From the beach.

Below: Yours truly, snoozing. Ahh, bliss!