Notice Anything Different?

Yeah, got tired, after all these years (I started this blog on August 21st, 2005 - Happy Belated Birthday, NVNC IS VIDES, NVNC NE VIDES!), of the green background. I did get some complaints here and there about the color, which I've been ignoring, but it was finally starting to wear on me, too. Also changed text color and restored the text to 'normal' (apparently I had set it to bold instead of just making the size a bit bigger when I decided the text was hard to read - I've learned new things since then).

I added a little blurb at the top - I know I haven't been great about updating, but I do put something up at my other blog almost daily, so I thought, if you're visiting you might be interested in what I've been doing that's kept me from updating here.

I had a great, half-hour long chat with my son today. We're counting the days until he comes home from Iraq. I won't say anything more specific, except that the light is just beginning to glimmer at the end of the tunnel.

He, of course, wants me to be there when he lands and has started 'reminding' me to make plans. I know I don't always do things as far in advance as I could, but it's really to early to be buying airplane tickets, etc. Especially since the current arrival window is about a month wide.

He's always been one to want things structured and thoroughly planned out. Not that he's not spontaneous, but I think just knowing that there *is* even a tentative, flexible, plan keeps him from getting nervous that there won't *be* a plan.

I can't believe it's already Labor Day weekend. This summer seems to have sped past faster than any I can remember. Tomorrow I go to see CSU San Jose vs. UC Davis - my nephew plays for Davis, so I'll be sitting with the Aggie fans instead of the home team fans. Not that college football has ever been much of a passion for me. My college didn't have football. National champion wrestling and basketball, but no football. The local community college had a great team that I think did very well in its division - but I didn't follow it, either.

I don't want to get all political here, but the news that McCain has chosen a woman as a running mate is all over the place. While it's rather stunning that a woman is on the Republican ticket, the choice has me completely bemused. Did he pick her for her looks? Seriously, the woman is probably wonderful, but she hasn't finished her first term as governor (of Alaska) and her other political credits are all very small potatoes. Her positions are very far to the right, but that can't help McCain, he's got the right. Does he think an anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage woman will get him all those disgruntled Hillary Clinton voters in his camp? Color me confuzzled about this one.

Tempus Fugit

I went to Office Depot last weekend for printer ink. Of course that's not all I got, but that's what I went there for. Ostensibly. Really, just printer ink...ahem, anyway...and of course the place was packed with back-to-school shoppers.

Now that I have an empty nest, I don't keep track of those sorts of things. Glad I didn't need to go to the mall for something. Watching the girls (for some reason it was mostly girls there with their parents - I maybe saw one boy) looking at notebooks and pens and paper made me just a tiny bit nostalgic for the times my kids and I did our back to school errands. But just a tiny bit and only for a moment.

Back to school also meant clothes shopping, and wincing at not only the price tags, but the clothes themselves. I guess every generation goes through it's "really ugly fashion" statement period and ugly is always subjective, so I'm sure my opinion isn't worth the pixels it's written in, but I don't think in 30 years these kids will look back on their mini-skirts and Ugg boots and think "That was the apex of beauty and style." Then again, I thought the midi-skirt was cool. Hey, I'm tall, I carried it off! My daughter was eclectic in her clothes choices, so she pretty much bucked the fads in high school with my full approval. (She did finally buy Uggs last year - her feet were freezing in the winter and the Uggs were nice and warm.)

I forgot about my weekend reflections in the days between now and then, but just got a Tweet from Wil Wheaton's Twitter feed that said "Did I miss a memo? Are tights + UGG boots + a T-shirt dress thingy + a headband the new thing? I keep seeing this disaster everywhere I go." and it reminded me.

This from the actor who wore some of the (sorry, Wil - I know it wasn't your fault) ugliest sweaters ever, as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek, TNG...I hope he knew then what those girls don't know now - sometimes following the latest fashion fad (or being forced into someone's conception of the future of knitwear) just makes you look ridiculous. I was too old for legwarmers and high-heels with torn sweatshirts (Flashdance), but yeah, I did wear polyester disco dresses, so I shouldn't talk.

In Which Dawno Plugs a Book

The happy serendipity of the Internet leads me from a post about a great food meme to a post about a book by a waiter...

I am on Twitter. I tweet. I read other folk's tweets. I follow about 50 tweeters, one of whom is Wil Wheaton, actor, writer, blogger and uber geek. In a tweet he sent last night, he recommended reading a post by the writer of Waiter Rant, a blog, and also, as I find out at his blog, a book. I followed the link in the tweet and read the post, which was insightful. Went to take a look at his book. The Harper Collins website had preview pages, so read all there was available of Chapter 1 and decided I wanted to read the book right then - and, as luck would have it, they had it available as an e-book, so I could download it immediately and not have to wait for it to come in the mail.

Download completed, I dropped everything else I was doing (I've been very busy with the whole beading thing lately and was in the middle of re-organizing my beading area, doing an inventory of my creations and re-naming and creating tags for them, amongst other stuff) and started reading. By 11 pm I was getting rather tired and went to bed with about 3/4 of the book completed. I have just finished reading it.

Waiter Rant (by Steve Dublanika, The Waiter) starts off with a preface that introduces you to the author's conversational, first person style. He's obviously educated and witty:

"Today waiters are expected to be food-allergy specialists, sommeliers, cell-phone-rule enforcers, eye candy, confessors, entertainers, mixologists, emergency medical technicians, bouncers, receptionists, joke tellers, therapists, linguists, punching bags, psychics, protocol specialists, and amateur chefs. Foodie-porn TV programming has generated a new class of entitled customers with already overblown culinary expectations and a rapidly diminishing set of social graces. Economists say that the restaurant business is a bellwether of the nation’s economic health—but I think it’s a bellwether of America’s mental health as well. And let me tell you, 20 percent of the American dining public are socially maladjusted psychopaths. We should start putting Prozac in the Perrier."

147 words into the book and it's got me completely hooked.

The sub-title is "Thanks for the Tip -- Confessions of a Cynical Waiter" and yes, he's cynical. But he's also self-analytical, a keen observer of people and a writer whose descriptions neatly place you right in the setting - I felt like I would be able to recognize his anonymized restaurants and the people who worked there, if I ever made my way out to New York City.

About mid-book the reader has learned a lot about the author's life, what led him to become a waiter, how and why he struggles with the culture of the restaurant world and its denizens. If you are going into this thinking it's just a series of anecdotes about the behavior of quirky customers, you will be disappointed - it's that to a point, but it's also an introspective memoir and very nearly a psychological/sociological treatise on the way people treat people in the service industry. He keeps it all moving apace, however, with his personable writing style and sense of humor. You also find that he puts his education to use with mention of, or allusions to, classical literature, but also from popular literature and culture. While his prose is accessible, it doesn't talk down to the reader, either.

The book is also about the author learning that he *is*, indeed, a Writer. Starting with a blog that eventually gains a large following and then on to getting an agent, and a book deal, the author discloses the ups and downs many writers experience before finally breaking into publication. I know a bit about that as a moderator on Absolute Write where daily writers discuss their triumphs and challenges and disappointments.

*SPOILER WARNING*

Because I want to make a point about writing, I'm going to discuss the end of the book - please don't read on if you don't like spoilers and intend to read Waiter Rant. There's nothing else said after the spoiler, so if you're going to pass up the spoiler bit, you're done - thanks for visiting!

*****************

The book closes with the author still working as a waiter, even though his book has sold. Unlike the lotto winner who walks into work the morning after the numbers were posted (yeah, you don't have that dream, do you?) and says "take this job and shove it," he takes a respite from waiting and then, eventually, goes back to it, albeit at a less stressful place and pace. The hopeful thing about his return to the job, is something he says just a few paragraphs from the end of the book:

"Now that I’m a waiter trying to become something else, I feel like my life has direction. The chip I was carrying on my shoulder fell off. My sense of hospitality has returned. I no longer feel like a loser. Those horrible dreams about wasted talent have disappeared. For the first time in a long time, I’m at peace with myself."

I like a book with a happy ending.

My Goodness! A Meme!

Edit to add: This font doesn't bold! I'd forgotten. I'm going to go back and change the ones that should be bold somehow so they show up. Sorry!

Haven't done one of these in ages. Found it on Electric Velocipede Blog:

"From the sublime Andy Wheeler, a list of all the food items you should eat at least once in your life.

Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten. (I'm going to put *'s around the ones I've eaten)
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results."

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. *Venison*
2. Nettle tea
3. *Huevos rancheros*
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. *Cheese fondue*
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. *Calamari* (didn't like it)
12. *Pho*
13. *PB&J sandwich*
14. Aloo gobi
15. *Hot dog from a street cart*
16. Epoisses (per Wikipedia, a really smelly cheese)
17. Black truffle
18. *Fruit wine made from something other than grapes*
19. *Steamed pork buns*
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. *Foie gras*
24. *Rice and beans*
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche (looked it up because I've had the Häagen-Dazs ice cream but never the real thing)
28. Oysters
29. *Baklava*
30. Bagna cauda (this sounds really good, I hope I can try it someday)
31. *Wasabi peas* (only tried once, drank a gallon of Arizona Diet Green Tea immediately after)
32. *Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl*
33. Salted lassi (doesn't sound appealing, but I wouldn't cross it out, I'd taste if offered)
34. Sauerkraut
35. *Root beer float* (had AW Root beer floats in frosty mugs from AW drive-ins as a kid - there's a great memory - the different sized mugs, the tray on the car window, the waitress who'd walk up to the car window...)
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (not on my list of 'must do' foodie type things, but I wouldn't turn it down, either)
37. *Clotted cream tea* (had this in Australia with warm scones and strawberry jam - so yummy!)
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O not a big Vodka fan
39. *Gumbo*
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal - this is a 'conditional' strikeout - sounds too hot for my taste
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu Just not that bold.
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. *Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut* oh yeah - I was thrilled when Krispy Kreme started opening stores here.
50. Sea urchin I've seen these, didn't appeal to me
51. Prickly pear - I may have had this as a child, I remember a school unit about desert ecology (lived in the desert as a kid) and vaguely recall having some, but maybe it's just my imagination.
52. Umeboshi - I think we had these in Taiwan, but again, I'm not certain and they probably were called something else
53. Abalone
54. Paneer again, not appealing, probably wouldn't try it, but who knows?
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal don't like thousand island dressing on my burgers. Now a Quarter Pounder with Cheese Meal, yep, had those many times.
56. *Spaetzle*
57. Dirty gin martini don't like gin
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine I know some Canadians, so I'm familiar with this one. If I ever visit a Canadian friend and it's offered, I'll try it. I won't go out of my way to find some, though.
60. Carob chips
61. *S’mores*
62. Sweetbreads uh, no.
63. *Kaolin* if you count being dosed with Kaopectate as a child, I've had it.
64. Currywurst lots of curried foods in this list. I'm not particularly fond of curry, but I guess I'd try it.
65. Durian Interesting looking fruit - the description of its scent as: "Regarded by some as fragrant, others as overpowering and offensive, the smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust." makes me wonder where I fall on that continuum.
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, *churros*, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis really not appealing - but if a Scotsman would get insulted by my refusal to try it, I would try it, so that's a conditional strikeout.
69. Fried plantain - I may have had this, too - just can't recall for certain.
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette - wouldn't mind a taste
71. *Gazpacho* Had wonderful Gazpacho at Baur's in Denver just last week during WorldCon
72. *Caviar and blini*
73. Louche absinthe - couldn't find this, but "louche" refers one to "Ouzo Effect" and all in all, not interested in absinthe anyway...had the chance to have some, too, and didn't partake.
74. Gjetost, or brunost anther cheese - sounds interesting, so I'd try it.
75. Roadkill uh, nope - just the idea makes me shudder.
76. Baijiu Might give it a sip if offered
77. Hostess Fruit Pie I've managed not to have one of these in 51 years of living, I think I can abstain for whatever's left. But, I wouldn't say "never consider eating" because if I were starving and that's all I could eat, yeah, I'd have a Hostess Fruit Pie. You know, under those conditions, I'd probably eat anything on this list...
78. Snail I've had the chance and turned it down so far...but, see above...
79.* Lapsang souchong* not my favorite tea, but interesting to taste once
80. Bellini - sure, sounds nice, I'd try it
81. Tom yum I've had soup at a Thai restaurant, but don't remember what it was, so I'm not sure if I've had this or not...
82. *Eggs Benedict* not crazy about it
83. *Pocky* the kids love this stuff
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. Yeah, I'd like to do that someday
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare - as in rabbit? Have had rabbit, got violently sick afterwards and had to leave the Winter Formal because of it.
87. *Goulash*
88. Flowers - I think I've had flowers in salads at some fancy L.A. restaurants back in the 80s...
89. Horse only if starving, etc...
90. Criollo chocolate - didn't find a listing for this, just "Criollo cocoa, a variety of highly prized cocoa" on the disambiguation page
91. *Spam*
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa would try if ever offered
94. Catfish
95. *Mole poblano*
96. Bagel and lox I love bagels, I love salmon, just don't like smoked salmon, but I might try it some day
97. *Lobster Thermidor* My mother served this at my (first) wedding reception, which she catered beatifully at her and my father's home - it was in a lovely silver chafing dish...
98. *Polenta* had this once with a wonderful dinner of all Eastern European dishes prepared by a colleague from work.
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee - wouldn't pay the premium, but I'd drink it if given a cup
100. Snake ref above, re: starving...

Thank goodness for Wikipedia, where I had to look up a number of foods to decide if I'd strike through them or not. I linked to them, too, in case you do the meme and were as unfamiliar as I.

If I didn't comment on it, in general, it's something I'd try if the opportunity arose. Let me know if you do this so I can come see your list!

Worldcon Report Day 1 & 2

Spotted "in the wild" at Denvention: John Scalzi (seated and chatting, I probably rudely interrupted), Lois McMaster Bujold (on an escalator and in the dealers room but I didn't get to meet her), Jo Walton, Jay Lake, Robert Silverberg, and Kaja Foglio. Had drinks with friends at the other end of same long table with Jo and Jay and got Jay to sign my new copy of Escarpment, introduced myself to John Scazi, was too shy to say hi to Robert Silverberg who was chatting with a group near the escalators up to the dealer's room, which I had just left with some lovely new jewelry in hand.

A new friend got Lois to sign a copy of a very special chap book with stories inspired by beautiful beaded jewelry which included one by Lois. Have Kaja's autograph and a picture of the two of us. She was very pleasant to chat with. I was practically the first one into the dealer's room on the first day, so I didn't have to fight any crowds to talk to her, either.

I got said lovely jewelry from Elise Matthesen, who is quite the artist in stone and glass and wire. I also found an autographed copy of I am not SPOCK at Jim & Melody Rondeau's table and Saturn's Children by Charles Stross and Escapement by Jay Lake (who signed it and drew some cogs on the cover page at the bar last night) at the Borderland's table.

The night ended (Thurs.) with a great gathering of Viable Paradise alumnus visited by Teresa Nielson Hayden and Madeline Robins who regaled us with tales of days in the comic book biz and other publishing stories.

Tomorrow I'm going to sleep in so I'll be able to stay up late for the Making Light and Tor parties.

Denvention is Nearly Here!

I'm looking forward to going to Denvention, the 66th Annual SF WorldCon. I voted for the Hugos and I've been reading the pocket program. There's a party on Friday night I'm looking forward to attending - I "know" everyone who's going to be there, although I'm such a lurker on the site that's hosting it, they'll probably go "Dawno who?"

I may have to hand out these (well, not the last one, I'll be wearing that):

I'll try to post about the trip, we'll see if I have enough energy left at the end of the day.

Never Give Up, Never Surrender!

Galaxy Quest was a movie about the cast of an imaginary TV show called Galaxy Quest and how their fictional roles became reality when the Thermians come to collect them from a fan convention to help save the Thermian people from destruction. The movie also seems to be a comic-satirical look at the whole SF (especially Star Trek) fan/convention phenomenon and how the actors of those shows relate to that. (By the way, if you've never seen Galaxy Quest, it's a fun movie on its own, whether or not you've seen any SF tv episodes/movies).

So, what do you call a documentary about the making of the Galaxy Quest series, which seems to be a, in part, a satire of the Trekkies documentaries? Whatever you call it, I thought it was clever and enjoyed watching "The Galaxy Quest 20th Anniversary Special: The Journey Continues". I didn't know about it until it showed up on a blog on my RSS reader. So if you've not seen it either, Origami Unicorn has put the YouTube captures up on her blog in three parts. Part one starts here. Enjoy!

Things have been quiet on the Author Advocate Legal Defense Fund donation front - if you can help promote the fund or can donate, please help!

Moderating

I'd love to see more discussion of mediation techniques people think work well and maybe links to some posted discussions elsewhere, if you know of them. I've read just about everything I can find that Teresa Nielson Hayden has posted at Making Light and at Boing Boing about her methods. I was drawn to this post at Making Light yesterday because I've seen James in action over at Absolute Write where I am a moderator, too.

I co-moderate the Politics and Current Events (P&CE) forum at Absolute Write with MacAllister Stone. That part of AW has been going through some interesting changes lately.

MacAllister and I have been attempting to create a place where there can be rough and tumble discussion by the members who like that sort of thing, but also create a more comfortable space for the ones who don't feel comfortable in that environment - a topic that the comments in "Got it in one" back on July 1st explored to my great edification at at time when we were just making our changes (the "new P&CE" began on June 30th).

It's been exhilarating, exasperating and exhausting at times to moderate there, and I'm always on the look out for discussions that will help me do a better job.

I hope to see some comments...well, I always do, but this time I'm hoping even more.

note: thank you Dr. Science, for your comment on the above-mentioned thread, where you discussed posting your comments into your blog - I hadn't considered that before now!

Arizona Diet Green Tea Excess

Yesterday I went to our local Walgreen's to replenish our supply of Arizona Diet Green Tea. I bought ten 23 oz cans from the store cooler and got 10 one gallon jugs from the shelf. I've only been drinking the canned tea since yesterday and I noted, during my last trip to the 'fridge, that I am drinking the second to the last can now. Subtracting 46 ounces (plus about 10 that were left over un-drunk from last night's last can and poured out) from 230, I've had 174 ounces in just under 24 hours. A quick check on Google tells me there are 128 ounces in a gallon.

I wonder if drinking over a gallon of Arizona Diet Green Tea a day is bad for me? I may donate my corpse to science for the answer.

Oh, so I go to the website to put in a link for Arizona Diet Green Tea and they've done a huge site makeover. It's pretty. It's flashy (and perhaps made so with Flash, so excuse the pun). There's a lovely little butterfly that follows my cursor around, flapping its wings and even casting an animated shadow. When I moved the cursor up to the top of the page to click a tab, there was a "clinking" sound effect, like glass bottles of tea clanking together, as it "hit" the edge of the page. So I can't put a link to the Diet Green Tea like I used to do, but here's the site if you want to peek: http://drinkarizona.com/

By the way, here's also music on the site... I hate music on websites for the most part, but this music is cool and I'm leaving the tab open so I can hear the songs - right now they're playing Ginger Rose, "Charlie Brown". There's a player at the bottom of the page with a pop up list of songs. You can turn the music off from there.

OOH! There's a decaf version of my tea - has a black label. The regular version has 15mg. per 8 oz of tea, (that's about half of what's in a cup of regular tea, and about a quarter of what's in a cup of regular coffee). Still, after drinking a gallon, I'm surprised I'm not buzzing around like Apu in that episode of the Simpsons where he thought he was a hummingbird...

I had to disable the pop up blocker for the site to get to the storefront - unfortunately they don't have the decaf on sale by bottle or can, just concentrate. I did discover that there are 11 oz cans of the caffeinated diet green tea available, though.

Ok, enough about the tea.

I brought back my bangs - now I look like the avatar picture I use on a lot of sites and in my AW profile again. By the way, that picture is a cropped and de-colorized wedding photo.

I figure with Denvention coming up maybe it'll help people recognize me. I'll be giving away "Do You Know Dawno?" and "I Know Dawno!" badge ribbons. Find me if you want one.

Still looking for more ideas on how to keep the donations coming in to the Author Advocate Defense Fund.

Stay Safe Son

Woke up at 4:15 this morning to take my son to the airport for the first leg of his journey back overseas. We got to the airport at 5 and I parked and walked into the terminal with my son, expecting to part with him at the security line. The check in line was very long, but as it turned out, it was because nobody was mentioning the shorter one for my son's airline. I figured it out and he walked over to the shorter line. In about 10 seconds an attendant from the airline came up to him and took him out of line directly to a kiosk, got his pass for him and took us up to the counter where she proceeded to get my son's girlfriend and I passes to go back to the boarding area. Wow! We got an extra hour with him before he boarded the plane.

I tried to get some pictures of him as he was boarding, but they were blurry - I think I had the camera on the wrong setting. Yep, it was set to "close up" - dang. Here's the best of the lot:

"Smile son!" I said. The kid is such a goofball. I kept my composure - probably wouldn't have if his girlfriend hadn't been there, though. Now it's 5 or 6 more months until he's back. God bless and watch over you, dear - and the same to all the sons and daughters headed over and still there, too.

Thank You, Charles Stross!

Charlie Stross, SF author of The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, Singularity Sky, Halting State, Accelerando, the just released Saturn's Children (and many more), has posted about the Author Advocate Defense fund in his blog today and the fund got a nice run of donations, it's over $1k now. If you can't donate, please post about the fund, because others will donate if they hear about it from someone they trust.

Some good info on how to post about the fund are in this post on Absolute Write by my blogging forum co-moderator L M Ashton - just skip the parts about joining the blog carnival (or not - join AW and join the carnival!) - there's advice about what to say, links to information about the cause and code for a donation button, all in the post. (Thank you again, Laurie, for taking the time to do the post and organize the carnival)

A bit of personal stuff...

Tomorrow is my son's last day home. Three weeks seems like a nice, long time for a vacation from work, but when the job you have to go back to is soldiering in Iraq for 5 or 6 more months, it's way too short. My dad came up from L.A. to visit earlier this week and we had two lovely days with him. We shopped and ate out and just sat around and talked, it was wonderful. My son has caught up with friends, visited Las Vegas, and also taken care of some important stuff he could only do in person here, so I think he'll go back satisfied that it was a good visit.

Otherwhere on the web...

I hope you're all watching Dr. Horrible's Musical Blog. Act II is up now, Act III goes up the 19th. The FAQ's on the Master Plan page are a good read for the background to how the whole thing was conceived.

Back from Vacation in Vegas Update to Author Advocate Defense Fund News

Just got home yesterday from Las Vegas with my son, his girlfriend and my husband. Stayed at the Venetian, which is beautiful. Two things will keep me from going back, the constant perfuming of the hallways on the way to the room, and the distance from the monorail. I prefer taking the monorail whenever possible to get to other hotels, and from the Venetian you have a long walk out, down the strip and then through Harrah's to get to the station.

We visited the Hilton to have a final lunch at Quark's and ride the Star Trek: The Experience ride (we just did the Klingon Encounter one) before it all closes down in September. On the way home (hubby and I drove) we stopped and bought a couple bottles of Klingon Blood Wine and a case of Romulan Ale.

We went to Zumanity on Friday night and had dinner at Benihana's on Saturday. Don't ask me about the gambling - I didn't come home ahead like last year. I did stay within my gambling budget, but only brought home a little of it. I did hit two pretty big jackpots Friday night and Saturday morning - just gambled with it later and said "bye bye".

While I was gone Neil Gaiman and John Scalzi posted about the Author Advocate Defense Fund. The traffic to the page did take a nice uptick. Unfortunately the Pay Pal script that had been working just fine up to the time I left stopped working. I'm not sure if it's something with Googlepages not liking the script, or what, but when I got back I had some emails saying people had tried the button and it didn't link to anywhere. I've updated the page and will use different coding for the link if it breaks again. There's always the button in the sidebar of this blog, too, if you just happen to be hanging out and decide to help.

A couple posts ago someone suggested starting a blog tour and now there's one going on with the Absolute Write bloggers. Thank you L M Ashton! Now, go give the bloggers some link love, and fund tour in your blog, too!

Another Mention of the Fund!

Origami Unicorn mentions the fund. Thank you Catherine!

Other bloggers are mentioning the suit, and while I'm leaving comments, perhaps if you're a regular commenter/friend on their blog or LJ, it would mean more to them to hear from you about the donation site? Your help is appreciated. Your donations are too - there's a button right over there in the sidebar, for your convenience :-)

Great Comment About Author Advocate Defense Fund Publicity

This came in comments to my last post - and I think it's worth bumping to the front page.

To be clear, I have been commenting where I can find a polite reason to, but I'm not going to become a comment spammer. The post has to have some relation to Barbara Bauer v Jenna Glatzer . I have also sent emails to a number of those writers and agents mentioned. I'm still waiting responses from some.

There are some names I will definitely email that I hadn't known of or thought about, because I'm not a writer so the "how would you get the word out if it were about your book" part didn't occur to me. I should research this as if I was going to send out a query! All these years on Absolute Write and have I learned nothing?? *grin*

But, the suggestions are all good ones and I thank you, anonymous, for the comment. One question, though - who's Patry Francis?

I've underlined some really important points of the comment, not about publicity, too (bold doesn't work, I've discovered). Anonymous is dead right about the cost of this - these defendants really need your help. I'm not a publicist, nor can I dedicate long hours to this, as I have a day job that demands its own long hours, but I'll do what I can.

How would you get the word out if it were about your book? A press release? You'd notify bloggers and publishers that have high reader volume like Gawker, Galley Cat, and Publisher's Lunch. You might ask some of the better known blogging agents for help,people like Kristin Nelson, Jessica Faust, Janet Reid, Nathan Bransford, Jennifer Jackson, Jonathan Lyons, Evil Editor, and so on.

{break added by Dawno to make it easier for her to read}

Even if they didn't, or couldn't, for legal reasons, add a link in their next daily post, they might not mind if you left one in comments. It never hurts to ask. Remember how we all got together to help Patry Francis?

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Organize a blog tour. (note from Dawno: I've posted about this at the AW blogging board, but I can't organize the tour right now, maybe in a couple of weeks, after my son goes back to Iraq) Get out there and be seen and heard. Faint heart never won a fair amount of money, and I can tell you for fact that's what is needed. Would any one of your readers like to mortgage their home for the cause? That's what some of the defendants are being asked to do to pay their lawyers.

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And have you calculated the number of lawyers involved? (note from Dawno: yes, I know exactly how many lawyers are involved, it's public record who is defending them) Everyone is gung ho to jump on the Babs Bandwagon, but in all honesty, they have no idea at all exactly how much this is costing the defendants. The case is what's commonly known as a SLAAP suit -- litigation intended to intimidate and silence critics or opponents by burdening them with the enormous cost of a legal defense so that they abandon their criticism or opposition.

I am not a lawyer, and I can't say whether or not this qualifies as a SLAAP suit, but regardless, it will be expensive and they do need help. Please donate!

Getting the Word Out Is Hard Work

I've been sending emails to people like John Scalzi and Neil Gaiman, and if anyone blogs again about the case, I will try to make polite and appropriate comments. Other than that, I'm wondering how else I can get the word out about the Barbara Bauer v Jenna Glatzer, et al Author Advocate Legal Defense Fund. (as you can see, I hope that using a link to the site with the name of the case will help getting it into more searches - but I know I'd have to do that a lot to get any traction).

If you have any ideas for publicizing the fund, please let me know!

Author Advocate Legal Defense Fund Update

The fund has reached $500. I've been sending emails to site owners/bloggers that I think will be friendly to the cause and making comments on blogs that have mentioned the lawsuit in the hopes of attracting more publicity to the fund.

The other day a site called Journal Fen posted a link to something I said in 2006, as well as the link appearing in the comments at NJ.com and this blog had over 200 visits on that day. I'm hoping the person who made the original post will consider linking to the Author Advocate Fund page, too.

If you add the link or mention it on your blog, I'll gladly add you to the sidebar on the Author Advocate Fund website.

A Little Help, Please?

A certain literary agent sued Wikimedia Foundation last year (the information here shows the case was filed Sept '07 - I have also seen a report that the case was filed in January of '08).

On July 1st the case against Wikimedia Foundation was dismissed. Rumor has it the case against two other defendants, (in addition to Wikimedia there were 19 individuals and the SFWA) but I have yet to find any links to support that.

The lawsuit brought this agent back into the spotlight - the most probable precipitating events were pretty much ancient history as far as the internet was concerned. Places as diverse as Information Week, Gawker, and Publisher's Weekly, have picked up on the case in the past few months due to Wikipedia's involvement, as well as a number of writing related sites and blogs.

I mention all this because I was asked to help some of the defendants in this case by setting up and administering a defense fund. The donation button for this fund is in my sidebar. I've also created a webpage with additional information.

The defendants would appreciate your help. One thing you can do is either share the webpage link or link to the PayPal donation page on your sites and blogs.

Lee Goldberg and Author Scoop - Thank you! There have already been visitors to the webpage and new donations to the fund as a result of your mentioning the fund on your sites.

Thank You Joshua D. Evans!

Joshua posted a comment on John Scalzi's Whatever blog about a website called Pandora. They explain it better than I could:

Since we started back in 2000, we have been hard at work on the Music Genome Project. It's the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Together our team of fifty musician-analysts has been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics ... and more - close to 400 attributes! We continue this work every day to keep up with the incredible flow of great new music coming from studios, stadiums and garages around the country.

With Pandora you can explore this vast trove of music to your heart's content. Just drop the name of one of your favorite songs or artists into Pandora and let the Genome Project go. It will quickly scan its entire world of analyzed music, almost a century of popular recordings - new and old, well known and completely obscure - to find songs with interesting musical similarities to your choice. Then sit back and enjoy as it creates a listening experience full of current and soon-to-be favorite songs for you.

So, I felt like listening to Sting, and thought I'd test the site to see what they would produce - it was pretty amazing. I love my iPod, but Pandora provides more variety and introduces me to artists I wouldn't have known about. Especially since I don't listen to radio or actively search out new music - this takes what I know I like and then offers up songs in that vein - sometimes they're old familiar ones, sometimes they're completely new - but I'm liking all of them so far.

Just wanted to share one picture I took at the convention today that's too cute not to share here:

I'm pretty tired and rather sore - hauling all my stuff from the parking lot to the table is exhausting. I've pretty much got the loading down to a science - on the last day I'll be taking so much stuff, too. I also realized today that I have some perfect beads for this convention's theme. Little carved skulls, might be bone, too. Oh, well.

My table mate Carlos has been wonderful. Not only do I enjoy his company, but he's been so nice to keep an eye on my things when I have to dash to the restroom or want to grab a snack. He does lovely drawings and I bought a print today that is very clever and quite whimsical.

I also bought one of the items in the art show, a lovely piece made from watch faces and gears. I think I'll put a clasp on the back and wear it as a brooch.

I saw some of my favorite lanyard necklaces go to happy buyers this weekend. I'll miss them, but I'm also glad to know that people really like my work enough to buy it.

Time For Me to Pack Up for the Day

But I'll leave you with some pirates and vampires (?) before I go.