Gonna Pimp My Review Blog Post and Think About Our Servicemen, Past and Present

I have been working all day on a review for my other blog Drive By Booking (although I do have about 3/5ths of a post specifically for this blog in draft - that'll go up tomorrow). So I thought I'd just post briefly tonight and ask you to take a peek over there.

If you know someone published by a small press (not self-published, but small POD or ePub press is fine as well as offset publishers) ask them if they'd like to have me do a review of their book. They can contact me at the email over in my sidebar.

Hope you've had a good weekend - for my U.S. friends, I hope you enjoy your Monday off as well. As it's Memorial Day, I'd like to also mention my thanks to those who have and are serving in our Armed Forces.

My paternal grandfather was in the Army. My father, the Air Force. My sister and her husband and my brother were all in the Navy. My brother served in the first Gulf War on the USS Tarawa. Now my son takes his place in this line of servicemen as a Army Paratrooper and there's my daughter's significant other who just got back from 6 months tour in Kuwait with the Navy. You can understand, I'm guessing, the significance of this holiday for me. I'm blessed that on this day I don't have a lost loved one to mourn, but I do have a heavy heart for those who do and am prayerful that my son and my daughter's SailorBeau will stay safe during their service.




dawno

Birds, Books, Book Reviews and Blog Widgets

A mocking bird visited briefly today. I'm always enchanted by the many different calls they use. This one shared about a dozen different calls before he flew off. I'm considering putting out a feeder in hopes he'll come by more often. We've got a hummingbird or two hanging about as well, I hope the flowering shrubs and vines keep them interested as I have no desire to put up a hummingbird feeder and attract bees or wasps.

I'm juggling about 4 books right now on my reading list. Earlier this week I finished John Lescroart's The Suspect, I just finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road a few minutes ago. I've also been reading P.N. Elrod's The Vampire Files, pt. 1, Jonathan Kellerman's Obsession, and Elizabeth Bear's WorldWired. Somehow I keep them all straight in my head. Although a book about a Vampire cyborg hooked into a global overmind with OCD could be interesting...if only I were up to the writing thereof.

I've got some Charles Strauss (Glasshouse, Iron Sunrise) waiting to be read (I've read several already and am hopelessly addicted) and the new Miranda July book (No one belongs here more than you. Stories by Miranda July), whose website I mentioned a while back, amongst many others stacked up in a teetering pile in my overcrowded office. Yes, my "to read" pile is getting rather tall.

I've joined "Library Thing" to start organizing and tracking my reading online. I can also show "recent additions" in a widget. As I was constructing the widget code, I noted that anyone who clicked through and bought one of the books would be contributing the Amazon Affiliate % to the Library Thing account, but, if I was an affiliate I could put my affiliate code in there and get the benefit. So I joined Amazon Affiliates, too. The widget and any Amazon ads will sit on my other blog, Drive By Booking, although I have put a teensy little link here, over in my sidebar under the Drive by Booking link.

Speaking of reviews (smooth segue, huh?) - I've put up my first small press book review up on Drive By Booking. I hope to do one a week there. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get enough small press submissions there, but I'm hopeful. There's also a new review over on POD People, although I didn't write it.

I'm testing out yet another new gizmo on the blog - when you hover over a link you'll get a popout box that gives a preview of the linked page. It's called Snap Shots provided by a new search tool called Snap. If it's fun and useful or too annoying, let me know - it will help me decide on whether to keep it or not.


dawno

Wherein Dawno is Going to Catch Up On Her Reading and Review Books

But before I talk about the reading, here are a couple links I thought I'd share (several are from Stumble! or otherwise noted).

This poster

This site tells you everthing their server knows about you when you visit it.

This one is just freaky. Once it loads, move your cursor around.

Condiment Museum. I'm not remembering where I found this, but I was suitably impressed.

Via BoingBoing: Keyboard Waffle Iron. Reviewed by the hubby: "I love it".

Speaking of reviews, I started a blog ages ago called "Drive By Booking". For some time there was nothing in it. Then I used it as my National Novel Writing Month journal in November of '06. Now I'm going to put up reviews of books.

Some will be by folk I've met on Absolute Write (like the first one I'm doing as soon as I finish the book). Others will be about various books that catch my fancy. I think it will feature stuff by new authors - either debut books or at the least the 2nd or 3rd ones. Occasionally I might finish a book I thought was so good that I'll mention it, but it won't be the main purpose of the blog. I'll be attempting at minimum of one post a week. Click on the little moving book icon in my sidebar to visit the site.

And I won't do this with any of the books I read. Promise. (via Stumble!)

I've spent a great deal of the afternoon wandering around the Internet via Stumble, via Google Reader, working on the little animated book gif for Drive By Booking (yeah, it's not Pixar, but who cares?) and talking to my daughter as she waits at the airfield for Sailor Beau to arrive. The crowd is yelling and hooting, so she hung up - the plane has arrived. There's someone in the crowd holding up a sign that says "Welcome Home Sex". Someone came by a while ago and gave her a flag to wave. The first place Sailor Beau wants to visit upon arrival is In 'n Out Burger. I'm so happy for my daughter that he's finally home.


dawno