Summertime and the blogging's easy

Ah, summer. The kids are at camp (getting rained on). The lawnmower broke, leaving me to draw the ire of the neighborhood lawn nazis. And endless meetings have kept me indoors so much I'm probably having vitamin D withdrawls from lack of sunshine. Aside from that, it's all good. Worry not––I'll be back on Monday, with a vengeance.

You should never judge a book by its lack of cover

No word on covers yet for HOTEL.

The waiting is not unlike the anticipation of seeing your first child come into the world. Is it going to be all cute and cuddly? Or is it going to show up covered in maconium and sportin' a cone-head. I know, I know--I should just be happy with whatever I get, but let's be honest––while all babies are precious, not all babies are beautiful. In fact, some are downright goofy looking. (I know this becase I've seen my own baby photos, I looked like I popped out of someone's chest cavity ala Alien, but with more hair on my head).

My better half delivers babies for a living, so she's assured me that whatever the literary stork brings us, we will undoubtedly love it. I'm sure she's right.

Polls never lie, they just exaggerate a little

A recent Zogby/Random House survey showed that Jon Stewart had more influence than Oprah, when it came to driving book sales. Hard to believe? Well, let's see for ourselves in this highly scientific poll created by NASA engineers.

A "blurb" is not the sound you make when you laugh and milk shoots out of your nose

A friend of mine actually made up a word for when that happens. He calls it a burfel. That same friend burped until he accidentally threw up in the school library––but that’s a story for another time.

What I’ve been thinking about lately are blurbs––quotes from other authors.
My all-time favorite was Neil Gaiman’s blurb about Sherman Alexie’s YA novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

Gaiman wrote:

“I have no doubt that in a year or so it’ll both be winning awards and being banned.” (It won the National Book Awark. Book-ban still pending).

Though this doozy from the author of Little Women runs a close second:

"If Mr. Clemens cannot think of something better to tell our pure-minded lads and lasses, he had best stop writing for them." --Louisa May Alcott, member, Concord Library Committee that banned Huckleberry Finn (1885)

Speaking of blurbage, Zogby and Random House just released a survey of 8,000 readers last week. One figure that jumped out, was that a whopping 35% of respondents said they’ve purchased a book because of a quote from another author.

Is it just me, or does that figure seem a tad high?