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Moonstone and Brodin Have Met!

It only took eleven chapters. Sigh. In the original novella, they met just a few pages in. Then again, it was a novella. There were no scenes in the main city, no scenes with the king and evil prince, no Zakira (!), no Rowena, etc.

Because this is their first scene together (not counting the previous time they met), this is going to be harder (pun not intended, I swear!) than I thought. Especially as there are so many other factors, such as worrying about their fates, looking out for agents of the prince, and dealing with Zakira, Moonstone's traitorous brother, and dealing with Guy, the leather-bound captain of "The Water Whip," etc.

 
Cheapened by the Checkout

Here's the subhead from another article linked by Booktrade News Digest:
"The mountain of discounted books at supermarkets isn't democratising publishing but dumbing it down"
You can read it here

Gag me. God forbid people should be able to buy books for less so that people with less money can buy more books. God forbid they actually buy books they might be interested in reading instead of what someone thinks they *should* be reading. This writer regrets the fact that when grocery stores offer discounted books, they offer the latest best-sellers instead of, say, the classics or something. Well duh!

The stores don't want to put something there that won't sell. They're risking their money on what they put there, especially with so few slots to fill. People waiting in the line at the grocery store aren't hoping to buy "A Farewell to Arms." They buy stuff that jumps out, like Dan Brown. That's not saying they won't read the classics sometime, although many will read them only in school, when they're forced to do so. Considering how schools teach the classics, do you blame them?)

The article ends with "DJ Taylor is a novelist and critic." Yeah, I'm gonna rush out and buy *that* person's novels. ;-)

 
Another Article About Why E-books Are Foundering

Here's an article in pdfzone.com.

This guy has some weird ideas about how to succeed with e-books. For example, he thinks they're not for "recreational reading." And all e-books should be short (unless they're computer manuals). And the publishing infrastructure gets in the way.

Wow. What am I going to do about all those long e-books I have? Particularly the "recreational" reading? Should I give up? Apparently I shouldn't have been enjoying the reading experience. I've read elsewhere that short e-books are now the "only" way to go and that there are sites that specialize in sending short articles to readers' iPods. That's fine unless you want to read something, oh I dunno, in-depth.

It is Adobe-centric, but I guess that's to be expected from a site called pdfzone.com. Still, I have to wonder how much he knows about the e-book world outside of Adobe. About what sells what at sites such as Fictionwise and eReader. About the revial of the GEB 1150 through eBookwise and Filament Technologies. And of course, about the popularity of romantica e-books. While shorter titles are popular at many of the romantica publishers, they still publish some very long titles.

 
Revisiting the Maddox and Leona Story for a Bit

I had heard of someone who put her own stories on her eBookwise to make notes, so I decided to try it. You can make markups on the stories, and even insert blank pages and make notes. (The tough part is reading your own handwriting later.) It's wonderful to be able to use real handwriting instead of Palm's Graffiti symbols, but at the same time, out of habit, I sometimes write with the Graffiti symbols out of habit! Also, the letters I make with one continuous motion generally come out great, although the ones where I have to draw one or more lines (such as Ts and Es) often get a little messy because I don't have good aim. Still, it flows really well.

I ended up rereading the new Leona and Maddox stuff and making notes on what I saw (and circling typos as I noticed them). I also marked up some of the chapters that came after the new parts, although most of those will have to be completely trashed because I changed the plot. Still, I don't mind as I like the new Maddox so much better, and the new Leona kicks butt as well. Now I just have to figure out if her father is really guilty or if he's covering up for someone (maybe her mother isn't really dead, she's insane and committing treason!) or if he was framed or (as in the original) he and Rissa created the charges against him as a "test" of Maddox's ability to judge with compassionate. (Too bad that last one is so hard to make believable. I always thought it reflected the themes because it pointed out that they never realized Maddox was compassionate all along.)

 
One Year Anniversary of My Surgery
And I'm doing fine without my uterus. Nothing's going wrong here at a~!($#*#$*(#$#*$$**$#*

Heh heh, kidding. ;-)

I did consider going to Bob Evans for scrambled eggs tonight (rimshot), but I had things to do at home instead.

 
Precious Doe Case Solved!

If you've followed some of the forensics TV shows, you might have remembered the case of Precious Doe -- they named her that because they didn't know her name. She was a child of less than four years old, whose body was discovered in woods near Kansas City in 2001. Authorities have tried for years to identify her body because they know that once you identify the body, you take a huge step toward finding the killer. They used reconstructive techniques to make models of what she might look like, and then used all the media at their disposal to get the photos out there.

Of all the cases I've seen on TV, this one is one of the saddest I remembered watching. It was bad enough that she was a murdered child. Even worse, she was a murdered child without a name. No matter how hard authorities tried, no one came forth to identify the girl. At the same time, it showed the good side of people, too, as many people worked together to try to get that girl a name. An advertising company even donated billboards to the cause, and people put up a permanent memorial to her.

Now, not only has she been identified, but they have arrested her mother
and stepfather for the murder. :-( Allegedly, the !@#$ stepfather got high on
PCP and beat her to death. Even worse, it seems that they could have gotten medical
attention for her, but they didn't because there were warrants out for
them. Ugh.

You can read more here, but you might have to sign up:
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/11570349.htm

 
Jim Morrison Was Right...
People are strange when you're a stranger.

I heard about this one on the news this morning. Some members of a church in Rancho Cucamonga got nervous about three men with shaved heads who suddenly started showing up to church services in April. They were certain these guys were skinheads and were "up to no good." Before the service ended, the men stood in the front of the congregation and looked around, and then left without saying a word. They came back on the next Sunday, sitting together and talking to each other through the service. Somebody called the sheriff.

Of course, the men turned out to be Marines, just back from Iraq. They were looking for a fellow Marine in the church. They were very polite to the sheriff's deputies and very cooperative.

The priest later explained the whole thing to his parishioners. He's quoted as saying, "We don't want to make it more than it is."I was reassured by the police that (the men) wouldn't be back." Yeah, no wonder! :-)

One woman from the parish was quoted as saying, "I was just upset that they went inside the church and did this to us. It was very disrespectful." Y'know, I've been to church services before. There are people who do all sorts of odd things. My father always mutters witty quips to me throughout the service -- he just can't help himself. Then there was that boy in my school who sat in a pew with a whole package of Pop Rocks going pop-pop-pop in his mouth, loud enough for everybody to hear. Nobody called the police. But then again, neither of them had shaved heads. Sure, the guys could have come in and asked for help. But they were probably shy. And seeing how people suspected them of being skinheads right off the bat, I can see why...

Don't these people read the news? These days, when I see men with short haircuts, the *first* thing I think of is "armed services." The second thing I think of is "I hope he doesn't get killed." The third thing I think of is "OK, he *might* be a skinhead," but I usually think of that jokingly.

Besides, I can never hear the name Rancho Cucamonga without thinking of that great Jack Benny skit in the railroad church with the announcer saying "Train leaving on Track Five for Anaheim, Azusa, and Cucamonga," over and over again, until he got desperate and begged people to get on the train. :-)

 
Another Gross Finger in the Food Story

I don't know why this one hasn't received as much coverage as the story about the woman who claimed she found a finger in her Wendy's chili. At least this one really happened. This time, the finger really was in the food! Good grief!



You can read an article about it hgere. I love the headline "Despite finger, body parts in food rare." Well thank God for the little blessings. :-/

This time, a customer found part of a finger in a pint of frozen custard. He said at first he thought it was a piece of candy, so he put it in his mouth and started chewing. Then he ended up spitting it into his hand, and that's when he started screaming.

The description of how it got there is really ... odd. Remind me to be careful next time I buy a pint of frozen custard. According to the article, the owner said that "23-year-old employee Brandon Fizer tried to catch a bucket of custard he had dropped and accidentally put his finger into a machine that beats the custard mix. As shop workers tried to help Fizer, a drive-thru window attendant unknowingly scooped frozen custard from the bucket containing the finger and served it to Stowers."