Baseball and Baby Showers

I have an excuse for my four day blogging absence: I went to Phoenix!

Spring training with my girls (and Glenn!):



Karen's baby shower:



A little hiking:



And more spring training:



All followed by four hours in Sky Harbor International Airport and two hours on a plane. Fun!

OBAMA YOUTH

The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act (GIVE)

President Obama has called on Congress to create new opportunities for Americans to build a stronger country by helping students perform better in school, prepare Americans for green and innovative 21st century jobs, rebuild cities in times of disaster, improve communities and much, much more. This legislation answers his call.

On March 18th, the House passed the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act, H.R. 1388 - legislation that launches a new era of service that will give Americans of all ages an opportunity to invest through service in our nation's recovery. The “GIVE” act, would require the US government to develop a plan to implement a “MANDATORY service requirement for all able young people”.


Many Americans are calling this forced unpaid labour (SLAVERY) but the really interesting part is the people and organisations which will be excludued!!!!

SEC. 1304. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE
ORGANIZATIONS.

Section 125 (42 U.S.C. 12575) is amended to
read as follows:

`SEC. 125. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE
ORGANIZATIONS.

`(a) Prohibited Activities- A participant in
an approved national service position under this
subtitle may not engage in the following activities:
....(7) Engaging in religious instruction,
conducting worship services, providing instruction as
part of a program that includes mandatory religious
instruction or worship, constructing or operating
facilities devoted to religious instruction or
worship, maintaining facilities primarily or
inherently devoted to religious instruction or
worship, or engaging in any form of religious
proselytization.


DISCRIMINATION OR WHAT!!!!!!!!!

A concerned American wrote: Do you think our “government” really knows the difference between the words “volunteer” and “mandatory”?
If this bill gets passed, do you think they’ll rename this something like “Obama Youth”?…if we want to follow history that is. This bill would be abusing America’s youth just like Hitler did before and during WWII. Some of the activities being described above are very similar to the Hitler Youth program.
I thought we were supposed to LEARN from history. Is OUR government really willing to take the same path?

Another writes: Have you seen what a person “volunteering under this act would be giving up? They would be giving up the right to vote, the freedom of religion, the freedom to protest, and so many more!

The American people are right to be concerned!!!

Oakland in the Springtime

I think most people know that Oakland has its share of problems - like the four police offers who were killed in a single day. But come on, I lived in Albuquerque.

And today, Oakland looked lovely, and tons of people were out and about by Lake Merritt:






I recently declared Spring in San Francisco, but I was informed that such a declaration could lead to three days of blizzard. I have subsequently withdrawn my proclamation, but am still enjoying the weather.

ARC's and Galleys a How to Guide

While I generally enjoy working with Michael's publisher the one disappointment I have is their lack of utilizing ARC's and Galleys. While unconventional, my plan is to take this on myself and for Michael's third book: Nyphron Rising. The mere fact that I'm willing to do this "on my own" as it were should be a testament to their importance.

WHAT IS AN ARC AND GALLEY?
A galley looks like and is the same size as the final book but has a plain cover. The cover may be white or colored. If you are using a colored cover, be sure the black printing is easy to see on it. (Red or dark colors are not a good idea. Use white, yellow, buff, light blue). The cover doesn’t indicate what the final book will look like instead it contains important information about the book to help the reviewer (genre, page count, release date, etc - more on this momentarily).

ARC stands for "Advanced Reading Copy" it looks almost identical to the finished book (i.e. full color cover etc) except that the first page of the book has all the information that would normally be found on the galley cover.

In both cases the book is usually "still in editing" and the reviewers are aware that there will be mistakes and typos here and there. That's not to say that you can put out complete trash - after all you want to garner a good review, but they do realize that there is still some work to do on the book.

WHY DO I NEED THEM
The ARC/Galley has really one purpose only - to get your book reviewed before publication. All of the major reviewers: BookList, Foreword, Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus, etc have zero interest in hearing about your book on release date. They need that information 5 - 6 months so they have time to review and print their opinions. If you send them a "completed" book they won't bother - they really need the additional information that only an ARC or Galley can provide.

INFORMATION TO INCLUDE
Whether the galley cover or first page of the ARC, the information to provide is the same. The format is very straightforward - don't make it pretty - just make it easy to see the facts. The Front (or first page in the case of ARC should include:

• Name of book
• Author name
• Category (e.g. Fiction—Mystery; Nonfiction—Memoir)
• Size specifications (e.g. Trade paperback 6 x 9, # pages)
• Price
• ISBN
• Publisher (name/mailing address/website address)
• Primary Contact
• First print run (number of copies)
• Promotional plan
• Promotional budget
• Available from
• Statement: “Uncorrected Proof—Not for Sale” (Make this bold and easily seen)

A few of the above need further attention:

• First print run: many large pre-pub reviewers will only review books of 5000+ copies on the first run.
• Promotional plan: (i.e. direct mailings, book tours, bookstore displays, book release party, etc.) The competition for reviews is fierce and those with a more comprehensive looking plan will get more attention than those without one.
• Promotional budget: again this helps to make them decide whether to "spend the ink" on reviewing your book. If you have little or no budget just omit this line
• Available from: (i.e. a distributor such as Baker & Taylor or Ingram)
• Primary Contact (publicist, consultant, author—name, address, email address)

The back cover should have:

• Blurb (The hook—same as on the book)
• Author Bio

The spine should have:Name of book Name of author Publisher

SUPPORTING MATERIAL
When sending a copy for review you should put your absolute best foot forward. Again the competition is tough (Foreword Magazine receives 3,000 books for review for each issue and publishes only 85 reviews!) Your "packet" should contain a media folder, press releases, author bio, book data sheet at a minimum. That being said it is common for these materials to get separated from the book itself so make sure ALL the important data is on the Galley or ARC information page.

HOW TO GET ONE
There are many organizations online that provide Galleys...But they are costly ($40 - $60 a piece). The good news is that POD is again your friend - use CreateSpace or LightningSource (see multiple posts on this forum about them) and get them done for $4 - $5.

WRAPPING IT ALL UP
A positive review by a major publication is HUGE for authors, especially new and starting out authors. To use this medium effectively takes a dedication to prior planning to ensure you have something readily available 4 - 6 months before the release date.

City Walks SF #26: Haight Street

I don't have much to say about Haight Street. It might not really be full of hippies anymore, but it's still full of people trying to sell you weed, lots of funky smells, hipsters who think they are just too cool, and other annoying things. I guess if you've never been here before it's worth a short walk from the Park to see the famous Haight Ashbury intersection, but I just can't handle "hanging out" here. Maybe I'm old.



Also, when we got on the bus in the Haight, a lady with a dog got on in front of us, took the last double seat left, even though there were singles on the other side, and promptly let her tiny dog take up its own seat. By the next stop the bus was standing room only, but still there was her dog. Seriously?

City Walks SF #2: Golden Gate Park II and Inner Sunset

The only other City Walk in Golden Gate Park - that's too bad for all the people who haven't walked through the entire miles-long park multiple times.

This walk included the Strybing Arboretum, of which we apparently took no pictures. Anyway, it's a pretty place and might soon cost money, so must go there now!

Stow Lake with lots of turtles, much to our delight.




And Inner Sunset, where we did find a cool new shop. Can't say what I bought there. Also took no pictures here. Apparently Matt gave up when there weren't any more turtles. Alas.

City Walks SF #24: Golden Gate Park I

One, two, skip a few, 99, 100.

Sunday featured high winds and chilly temps, so we chose not to walk across the bridge or along the coastal trail. Instead we hit up the interior of the city, with the northeast corner of Golden Gate Park.

This featured the Conservatory of Flowers, which we have never gone in, but the flowers out front are pretty too.



The DeYoung Museum we skipped as well. Museums are for days when it's not sunny.

We did go in CalAcademy because we are members so it was free, and we wanted some organic lunch. Unfortunately the place was chaotic.



And finally, the Japanese Tea Garden. We hadn't been here since our honeymoon, so we decided to reprise the visit. So many flowers and trees were in bloom!

Just Watched: Garden State

Yup, behind the times as always.

I did not expect to like this movie, as I'm not too keen on either Zach Braff or Natalie Portman. However, I actually really liked it!

I think I just like hearing about people who are more f**cked up than I am. I also must be a hopeless romantic at heart, because I am fascinated by couples who meet and fall in love after just a few days. I know some real life examples, and I have always been a bit flabbergasted by how such a deep connection can be made so quickly. I guess it just depends on the circumstances, and probably a bit of luck. And in the end I guess it just gains you a few months or years on the rest of us normal couples who take awhile to figure it all out.

I also imagine this movie to be kind of how I would perceive life in the town from which I graduated high school, if I ever really tried to go back. Everybody working at odd jobs around town, still partying together at night.

And my favorite quote:

"Don't make fun of my hobbies; I don't make fun of you for being an asshole."

I told Matt that he could use that quote against me. It is so perfect for us!

Pope Says Condoms Contribute to HIV

Have you noticed that when nothing exciting is going on in my life, I report on the news?

Alas, the head of the religion in which I was raised has made another egregious error, declaring that condoms cannot help the HIV problem, and may even aggravate it.

Really? Last I heard, having protected sex was a well known method to help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases included HIV.

Let's use our well-respected soap box to tell millions of people to just not bother wearing the things. I'm sure they just won't have sex instead.

Way to go, Pope.

Shell Says Bye-Bye to Wind, Solar, and Hydrogen UPDATED

Shell, one of those companies often accused of greenwashing for promoting renewable energy in their advertisements while spending only 1% of their investments on it, just announced it's getting out of the game altogether.

What does this mean?

Renewable energy still costs too much for businesses to make money.

Even in this era of oil uncertainty, Shell finds the future of renewable energy even less secure.

Scary!

I don't know much about finance and investments and that type of thing, but to me it sounds like a lot of government R&D money is needed to help make renewable energy competitive. We can't hedge our future on oil sands and a continued oil economy, for the sake of our health, quality of life, and the environment.

***

Note that the second link is from the Breakthrough Institute blog, from the authors of the same-titled book. Check it out.

***

I forgot to mention one of the reasons I originally decided to write this post. In my sustainability class yesterday we talked about the various definitions of greenwashing as well as all the backlash against companies like Clorox and Walmart who have ventured into environmentally friendly products. Many of us discussed how we did not necessarily trust Clorox's Green Works to be as ecofriendly as 7th Generation or Ecover, no matter what they claim. However, apparently the Green Works line is taking market share from other Clorox products, so those people who trust Clorox as a valued name in cleaning have used the Green Works line to venture into more earth-friendly products. I'm sure many of these people would never try an "unknown" brand like 7th Gen. Likewise, thousands of Walmart shoppers would probably never buy organic produce or products had Walmart not introduced them.

The teacher's point of that discussion is that maybe we shouldn't be so quick to judge those companies that are incrementally pursuing green products. Maybe we should applaud them for what they are doing and continually demand more.

That said, what about Shell? I certainly liked to make fun of them for their commercials touting green energy when we all know it's Shell Oil. But based on well-reasoned logic like that of my teacher, I should have applauded their 1% investment. And now they've pulled the rug out, making one wonder if they were ever really serious in the first place. This will probably just make environmentalists' more mad at corporations and less willing to work with them. The news these days is depressing.

Eat the View: Achieved

It seems I'm a little late on my lobbying efforts.

Today, Michelle Obama will begin digging up the South Lawn for an extensive vegetable garden. And some lucky grade school kids will get to help out.

Hooray for local, healthy food!

The Shack - Wm. Paul Young

This book has had a lot of buzz recently - near the top of best-seller lists for months now, and lots of "word on the street".  The interesting thing is that if you go to a site like Chapters-Indigo and look at the reviews for this book, people either love it or hate it.  It is a very polarizing book.

Well, I am going to buck that trend, and come down in the middle.  If I were rating it, I would probably give it 3 out of 5 stars.  A good middle-of-the-road rating.  But the reasoning behind that rating is thus - I loved the story, but the writing style (or lack thereof) got in the way.  So if I were rating the story, I would probably give it the full 5 stars (or at least 4 1/2).  But when evaluated against great works of literature that have stood the test of time, I would have to give it 1 star in terms of style.  And that is unfortunate.  I would be reading along, and loving the story, and laughing out loud (and even crying at one point - in the middle of an airplane!), but then I would come across an ill-written sentence or paragraph, and I would be jolted out of that world, and reminded that it is only a book.

The story is an allegory - a man suffers a great tragedy, and spends a weekend in a shack in the middle of the mountains, in the company of all 3 members of the Trinity, Father (aka Papa), Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit (aka Sarayu).  Each chapter centers around a conversation or interaction with one of the Trinity, and an important spiritual lesson is being taught to the man (and also to the reader).  But unfortunately, the writing style gets in the way, and I was never able to forget that I was being taught a lesson in each chapter.

There were moments of pure brilliance - my favourite was when Jesus was trying to persuade the man to walk on water - but then there would come a sentence or paragraph that is supposed to be part of a conversation, that I could never see anyone actually saying out loud.  The book could have used some serious editing by a better writer.

So, as I said, 3 stars.  I enjoyed reading it, and I'm glad that I did.  I may even re-read it in the future.  But it will not make my top-10 list for the year.  Unfortunately, because I really did want to like the book.

Gross National Trash

This post by Joel Makower fits in so nicely with all the books I've been reading lately; particularly Cradle to Cradle and also Biomimicry.

Apparently our trash that goes to landfills, or municipal solid waste, is somewhere between 1 and 10% of the total waste produced in our country - mostly industrial debris. So while we're busy worrying about how to recycle more at home or buy products with less packaging (or reinventing a Mickey D's take out bag), we may be overlooking the ridiculous amounts of damage being inflicted much earlier in the supply chain.

In fact, according to Makower, the EPA barely even keeps track of all this industrial waste.

What this demonstrates is a need to shift our focus to the production, storage, and shipping of goods. Not only is that much waste bad for our health and our environment, but it certainly isn't an efficient business model.

As a hydrologist, I know that the vast majority of people know that water comes out of their tap but have no idea where it came from before that. I bet even fewer people really know something about the industrial process that created the products they consume.

What to do? I hedge my bets here that a change in consumption practice may not be as powerful a tool as some really smart people getting in on the design end of things. Anyone want to volunteer?

***

Also, this one's for Ms. S.: "West Antarctic Melt a Slow Affair" (In other words, 'collapse' may be a bit of an exaggeration.)

I'd Like to Invite You to a C-Section

This one is for you pregnant ladies (and those considering pregnancy).

I was at the lady doctor today, reading a magazine and minding my own business in a little room, when I hear a male doctor invite someone (a medical student?) to come to a c-section next Tuesday, just as if he is inviting him to a tea party.

Now I know that people have to learn how to become doctors somehow, but hearing an invitation to a (somewhat) private and personal moment just seemed really odd.

So get ready for the guests at your tea party - oh I mean c-section!

Picasa

For those of you who care (ahem, Karen), Picasa is updated with City Walks and Tahoe pictures.

City Walks SF #19: The Presidio

Today we took a lovely stroll through The Presidio. I love how in this view, it seems like the open space goes on forever. Aside from the eucalyptus and cypress trees (and pretty much everything else), the rolling forested hills, brick buildings with green lawns (of which we seem to not have taken a picture), and warm humidity totally reminded me of Ohio.



Lover's Lane is a trail dating back to 1776, next to this eucalyptus grove, on which Spanish soldiers walked to visit their families in Mission Dolores.



Southern-style buildings.



The San Francisco National Military Cemetery, the only burial ground of size within city limits. We spent much time here doing a favor for Matt's mom - finding graves of soldiers who were moved from Camp Lowell in AZ. Apparently they left some body parts behind and the DAR would like to reunite them.



And a cute little pet cemetery with hand-made, child-written signs about cats, dogs, goldfish, hamsters, and more.



I definitely want to go spend some more time in the Presidio. I love how San Francisco can be so cosmopolitan but also harbors great little (and big) open spaces throughout.

Recommended: The Little Chihuahua

We just visited a cute little "Mexican"/burrito restaurant, The Little Chihuahua, based on a coupon in Green Zebra and the fact that they offer a fried plantain and black bean burrito.

Said burrito may have been the best burrito ever. Why don't more people think to put plantains in burritos?

Way better than the taquerias we have been to in the Castro. If you come visit, you should ask us to take you to the Little Chihuahua.

Just Watched: The Squid and the Whale

www.amazon.com

Have you seen this movie? I do not recommend it. I thought that it would be an interesting take on the difficulties of marriage, but instead it just featured an asshole of a husband and a very young child masturbating at school. At only 1 hour 20 minutes, it still seemed long. If anyone out there liked it, I am very interested in hearing what you might see as its redeeming qualities. Surely there are some?

Softball Season: The End of Alison's Weekend Trips

Today Matt had his first softball practice with the San Francisco Gay Softball League (it's in our neighborhood and all). Turns out there is a game nearly every Sunday for the next 500 months. Followed by excessive drinking. Plus trips to tournaments out of town, Easter weekend fundraising with drag queens, and endless other celebrations and parties.

So we may have acquired a social life, but we have apparently lost all free weekends. Expect fewer posts of fun new adventures...

On the plus side, I went down to meet Matt after his practice and discovered an awesome new park close to our house. Perfect for picnics and a bit of hiking.

Just Read: Cradle to Cradle

www.betterworld.com

I've been reading another "eco-classic," this one published way back in 2002. And boy I should have read it then. If so, I might not have purchased my lovely rug made of recycled soda bottles that is apparently releasing terrible toxins into the air as it abrades. The authors point out many cases in which recycling isn't always better. In which doing less harm is just prolonging the fate of the planet. In which environmentalists should be depressed and guilt-ridden.

The upshot of this book is that we can redesign the man-made world and our products and buildings and everything else in way that not only "does no harm" but also does good. Their point is that we shouldn't just try to improve the current processes and focus on efficiency, but we should start back at the beginning and re-imagine a whole new product or existence.

Well, that is hopeful, and definitely something more people and companies should be pursuing. But I can't help but think that it is a bad idea to dissuade people from recycling. To me, these efficiency and recycling initiatives are just a stop on the way towards greater design and a healthier planet. Or maybe I just don't want to feel bad about myself for being suckered into buying recycled products that may be terrible for both my health and the environment. Ah well...

Easy, fast read, so why not judge for yourself.

Gay Marriage in South Africa

Turns out South Africa allows gay marriage. Great! Turns out also that men like to rape lesbians to "cure" them.

Because any woman that has been raped wants to have sex with more men right away.

What is wrong with people?

Supreme Court Opening: Gossip or Truth?

Who knows at this point, but Ginsburg is teasing. Will Obama have a chance to add a liberal judge?

Direct Selling on Amazon - Advantage vs CreateSpace

If you are self-published, you of course want to be in the Amazon sales channel. I’ve mentioned before that subsidized alternatives such as iUniverse, LuLu, etc are not the best choice for the author since you don’t control price and you are only get a royalty as opposed to the full profit.

The two best options for a self-published author are:
Amazon Advantage – You supply the books
CreateSpace – They print the books on demand

NOTE: It may also make some sense to have an Amazon Marketplace account but I'll cover that separately since it will give you an "ancillary" sales avenue and not a main Amazon page.

In both cases the books can look exactly the same – i.e. no one will know that they are self-published you can use your own ISBN etc. But which one to choose? Let’s start by looking at price.

WHICH IS CHEAPER
While not the completely trivial it is actually a pretty easy thing to determine which will yield you the most $ in your pocket. The factors come down to sales prices and number of pages. Let’s look at some of the facts:

• Create Space has a $40 setup fee
• Create Space takes 40% of list price
• Create Space Printing is .85 + .012*pages
• Amazon Advantage has a $30 setup fee
• Amazon Advantage takes 55% of list price

I’m going to not worry about the $10 difference in setup fees over time they mean nothing. So the real question comes down to how cheaply can you get your book printed.

If we let:
w = your profit
x = # of pages
y = list price
z = printing cost (when printing yourself)

We have the following formulas:
CreateSpace w = y - .40y – (x*.012 + .85)
Advantage w = y - .55y – z

This results in the final equation:
z = .012x - .15y + .85

So let’s say you have a 300 page book you want to sell for $12.00
Z = .012 * 300 - .15 * 12.00 +.85 = 3.6 – 1.8 + .85 = $2.65

So if you can get your book printed for $2.65 or less then Amazon Advantage is the way to go. If your book costs you $3.50 each to print then you would by better off with CreateSpace as you would make $0.85 more per book.

For Michael’s 2nd book Avempartha the specifications are: 344 pages @ $12.95
Z = .012 * 344 - .15 * 12.95 + .85 = 4.13 – 1.94 + .85 = $3.04. Printing prices vary with quantity and I can get books from $4.00 each to $2.07 each so depending on my quantities would decide which would yield the highest profit.

OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER
There are some other things besides price to consider. Books done through Advantage come from your stock of books – so if you are concerned with having a bunch of books you can’t get rid of using Advantage will decrease your books for each one sold where CreateSpace is going to make the books one at a time and not reduce your inventory.

With Advantage you are going to have to pay for shipping the books to the Amazon Warehouse. So you need to account for additional money there in postage and packing material.

In general, books listed through CreateSpace will always be offered to the buying public at full price. When going through Advantage since the discount is so high (55%) Amazon may offer your books at a 10% or even 20% discount which makes it more attractive to the buyer. Your compensation is based on list price so if they decided to discount it you are paid the same amount but it may offer a more attractive price for the consumer and increase sales. Whether a discount is offered is at the sole discretion of Amazon and you have no control over this.

WRAPPING IT ALL UP
Amazon has some pretty stiff fees associated with it but it is the 800 lb gorilla and you cannot afford to NOT have your books listed on a main Amazon page. The good news is it is remarkably easy to do and they provide some very flexible alternatives for self-published authors

Eat the View

Join the movement to grow a vegetable garden on the White House lawn, as an example for the country.


The Garden of Eatin': A Short History of America's Garden from roger doiron on Vimeo.

Visit Eat the View or The Who Farm.

Catching up on Inhabitat

I've been trying to be less obsessed with blogs lately, so today I just caught up on months of posts from one of my favorite blogs, Inhabitat. Some highlights:

New green ferry to Alcatraz.

A cool website for you mothers and mothers-to-be (and people who need to buy presents for such people.)

New green library in Scottsdale.

Eco-resort being built in Monterey.

Is IKEA green? (Other than a thrift shop, where else can you get fairly green products at an affordable price?)

Climate Change: It Just Gets Worse

If you live near the coast (and not on top of a peak like we do), you better think about getting some SLR insurance. I wonder if that exists? Do you think it's included in flood insurance.

Read this.

Just Read: The End of Poverty

www.betterworld.com

Finally, a book that makes economics interesting! Mostly because Jeffrey Sachs discusses all the factors that contribute to extreme poverty, from environment to politics to technology to geography. I have to admit the book was a bit long, at 368 pages, with some points belabored multiple times. However, if you want to feel bad about yourself for living in comparative richness when billions of people live in extreme poverty, this is the book for you... It's actually not all that depressing and guilt-instigating. The redeeming quality of the book is hope, information, and a plan for action. A very slight increase in our taxes, and a heavier burden on the richest of the rich, could easily provide enough money to release millions of people around the globe from the poverty trap. And apparently most Americans are all for foreign aid and actually think the US government contributes more than it actually does.

I do have a couple concerns from this book, although I must admit that I accept most of it at face value because I know so little about economics and because Sachs is so famous.

1) Sachs praises the Green Revolution over and over again for dramatically increasing crop yields the world over. However, I have learned and read many times that the Green Revolution also had disastrous side effects, as the crops must be grown from seed every year, requiring seeds to be bought instead of saved. In addition many of the crop varieties were not designed for specific climates and locations. They may demand excessive insecticide and require monoculture crops. Does anyone know if the benefits outweigh the negatives?

2) This book basically centers on the premise of globalization. Historically countries that have been sealed off have not improved their economic well-being, leaving millions in extreme poverty. Countries that open their doors to trade experience a much higher growth rate and enable more citizens to climb out of poverty. That all sounds great. So how do I reconcile this with the movement toward local sustainability here in the US. If I am supposed to follow a 100 mile diet and buy all local, and if everybody in our country eventually jumps on this bandwagon, are we relegating the rest of the world to poor quality of life?

If any poli sci majors in the proverbial room have insights into these topics, I would be eager to learn.

I recommend picking up this book and reading at least part of it.

ASU Challenges

This one's for you, Sun Devil alums. (Although I cordially invite Wildcats to participate as well.)

ASU is developing something really cool, and I'll just let them speak for themselves:

ASU is unveiling the Challenges Project, an ambitious initiative that aims to identify the most pressing local and global issues we face as world citizens, determine the crucial work being done at the university on each one, and invite everyone—alumni, students, faculty, staff, the public—to help the university tackle them head-on. It’s a way of magnifying the impact of the university, by asking people to pitch in and work on issues that concern them the most....ASU hopes alumni and others will go to the site between now and May to identify the issues they’re passionate about. Later this year, they will be able to return to the site to volunteer to provide expertise, serve on a panel, work on a team, donate resources, or serve as an advocate for problems identified and selected to be part of the initiative with the public.

Read the rest of the article in ASU Magazine and visit the website to suggest an issue. I, of course, plan to be involved in something water-related. Although many people like to make fun of public universities, and especially Arizona State, for the quality of the students and the education, I have excellent things to say about my education there, especially after I left engineering. In addition, I think the university is working to tackle some awesome projects, especially in the environmental realm, from the school of sustainability to a master's in alternative energy. I believe the university is truly working on many issues that matter. Let's join them!

Everyone Should Go To Tahoe in the Winter

A change of pace from the last deep, thoughtful post:

Lake Tahoe is beautiful in the winter.







More pictures to come on Picasa eventually.

Heart and Soul - Maeve Binchy

Opening up a Maeve Binchy book is like curling up under a blanket with a steaming mug of tea - comforting.

This book lived up to all of my expectations.  There is no dramatic plot, but the pages are full of characters that could be my next-door neighbour, or the person in line next to me at the shop, or sitting next to me in the office.

The book centres around a cardiac rehab clinic in Dublin, and reads like a collection of related short stories that are not told sequentially, but are rather are intertwined with each other.  There is some mild drama - a few accidents, a wedding that almost doesn't happen, allegations of impropriety made against a priest - but of course it all works out in the end.  The typical "Binchy bad-guys" make an appearance - the selfish and self-centered boyfriend, the haughty mother-in-law - but most of the characters are sympathetic.

True Binchy fans (like myself!) will recognise characters from some of her other books popping up in this one, usually in a secondary character role.  Aidan and Nora Dunn (Evening Class), Tom and Cathy Feather and the twins (Scarlet Feather), and Fiona and the gang (Nights of Rain and Stars) all pop up in this book.  It is almost as if she has created her own city (which I call Maeve Binchy's Dublin), populated with real people who, of course, will run into each other and interact with each other.

Finishing 2 books in 2 days is a record, even for me, but I was about 2/3 of the way through this book when I got the e-mail saying that Scarpetta was waiting at the library for me, so I really can't brag!

Jade Goody's Christening

On Saturday 7th March Jade Goody went through a religious ceremony conducted by the Anglican church in which she now believes she can enter heaven at her death. My heart goes out to her becasue if she is genuinly seeking reconcilliation with God she has probally be duped. The Bible is clear we cannot be reconciled to God through ANY religious ceremony however spiritual it may seem. The Bible clearly lays out salvation as coming about through repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. Christenings can be viewed as a dead 'Work' rather than a faith experience. I have been to many christenings in which unbelievers have had their children baptised. One such christening was conducted even though the father made it quite clear he was a unbeliever. The Vicar apparently replied that it didn't matter. The ceremony includes promises that God has not made, such as the child receiving the in dwelling of the Holy Spirit and becoming a member of Christs body, at the moment of baptism. God will not be mocked. If Jade is genuinely seeking salvation then God promises to meet that need, however if all she is seeking is a quick fix in the last moments of her life then she is in for a big shock.

Scarpetta - Patricia Cornwell

I was part-way through another book when I received an e-mail from the library telling me that a book that I had placed a hold on was available to pick up.  Now when there is a waiting list for a book, the rule is that you only get it for a week, so I had to put the other book aside and devote the past week to reading the latest Patricia Cornwell book.  What a hardship :-)  I finished it just under the wire today, and managed to get it back to the library 15 minutes before closing time.

Spoiler alert - if you follow the series but haven't read this book yet, some details may be revealed below.

I have followed the adventures (and mis-adventures) of Kay Scarpetta for the past several years, and this book did not disappoint.  Several loose ends from the end of the last book were cleared up, and more so that some of her other books, there was a happy ending.  I finished the book with a smile on my face, rather than biting my nails wanting another one right away.  Now with a successful series, that may be a mixed blessing.  After the ambiguous ending of her last book, I had my name on the waiting list at the library as soon as this book came out, but I don't feel quite the same urgency to get my hands on the next book (whenever it is written).

The standard cast of characters made an appearance - Kay and Benton, Lucy, Marino - and some old faces make a comeback, including Berger.  There is a tentative reconciliation between Marino (who isn't dead) and the others, and we learn about the death of Rose, shortly after the end of the previous book.

The central mystery itself was conventional and a bit disappointing - nothing too complex, and it seemed designed to further the story of the cast of characters.

I don't think that Patricia Cornwell has ever written a bad book.  This one isn't one of my favourites in terms of the mystery to be solved, but I did enjoy the focus on her characters that I have been following for years.  And it was no challenge to get through the 500 pages in a week - the pages just flew by.

Now back to finish up the book that was interrupted...

In Response: My Thoughts on Marriage

Warning: this post ended up very long, so just stop reading when you get bored! Or don't even start.

CNA asked in response to my divorce post what sort of discussion Matt and I had about equality of marriage issues before we took the plunge. Although neither of us really remembers what the discussion was, I started to think about my beliefs and decisions about marriage and how they have changed over time. After re-reading this post, I realized I have strayed far from the equality issue into all sorts of other interconnected marriage-related arenas. I am obviously "not into the whole brevity thing." Here goes...

Matt and I have been married for over two years now, and got engaged over three years ago. Over this time, my perceptions of marriage have evolved continuously. In the beginning, I was really sucked into the whole wanting to be engaged thing, I think, even more so than wanting to be married or thinking about what it meant. I wanted to have a ring on my finger and talk about my fiance. My friends in grad school were planning their weddings too, so discussing our plans together was a fun little event. Matt and I were moving to New Mexico together, and for some silly reason I felt weird telling people that I was moving with my boyfriend.

Plus we were moving to New Mexico, a place that would seriously limit my options for the next several years, and I think I wanted some promise that I would get something out of my sacrifice, i.e. a boyfriend for life. (Incidentally, when Matt had been planning to move to Canada earlier, he didn't want me to come because we hadn't been together very long and he didn't want such a commitment. But since Canada sounded fantastic and exciting to me, I kept pestering him that I would love to go, and if it didn't work out, it didn't, no hard feelings, I would just have fun in Canada. And I meant it. So apparently it is New Mexico's fault that we got married...)

I don't think it was until sometime during our engagement that I actually began to consider what getting married and the institution of marriage meant. First of all, 50% of marriages end in divorce, so it's not like getting married is a guarantee of a boyfriend for life. Second, to me, getting married was somewhat of a chance to throw a fun party while we signed our names to a piece of paper that would allow me to cheaply obtain health and dental insurance for my poor student boyfriend. Third, I really didn't envision getting divorced to be any different from or more difficult than breaking up with a live-in boyfriend. Sure there are legal hassles with divorce, but to me the emotional and material difficulties of breaking up were sure to be equally bad either way.

In sum, I don't think Matt and I ever took marriage as seriously as many people do. (Maybe I shouldn't speak for him...) Yes, we were professing our love for each other, and that was awesome, but nothing was going to change in our lives, realistically, other than being granted the rights that come with marriage including employee benefits, visitation rights, and life and death decisions. Things that are very useful in a household when two people want to share their lives with each other. And all we had to do to get those rights was to sign a little piece of paper.

I really can't remember how much of a discussion we had about how it was unfair for us to get married when others can't, particularly same-sex couples. I know we thought about it, and decided that the benefits outweighed the negatives. And we had a gay man marry us through the miraculous power invested in him by an internet certificate. Two days after the ceremony, I wrote this in a blog post:

Well, this past weekend was the big event! Matt and I made our commitment legal and are now able to obtain certain benefits that are unavailable to many others. Part of me felt like participating in this institution was morally wrong until it is open to everybody, no matter who they want to marry. However, I also wanted to marry Matt! So since I went ahead and did it, I pledge to advocate for equal rights and vote for politicians who do as well.

I also had many other concerns about the institution of marriage, based on their patriarchal and anti-feminist origins, as I also discussed in my old blog. I actually think those issues are less of a big deal to me, because you can change things to make the ceremony have meaning for yourself. In fact, I judiciously avoid referring to our "wedding" because I can't stand that term. I was not wedded to someone else. However, no matter what you do, the concept of marriage itself cannot be extricated from its origins, and for this reason I totally understand and sympathize with those who decide not to marry themselves.

In fact, I must confess that when CNA informed me that she and her boyfriend were having a baby together without being married, I felt rather terrible about myself for awhile. I started wondering why I hadn't been strong enough and liberal enough to shun the institution; that I had been too desperate for some sort of commitment. Then I remembered she was having a baby, and actually, I think, has made a much bigger commitment than I have (no pressure :) !) Anyway, I digress. I think there are all sorts of ways that people can make commitments together and share their lives together without being married (or without having a baby). You could even throw a big party without actually getting married! However, marriage does confer some rights and provide some conveniences often not otherwise available.

I also think that Matt and I see our marriage very differently than other people might see their own. My mom used to chide me for leaving Matt all the time, on vacations to various places and a summer in LA. To her, our marriage apparently meant that I should be by Matt's side at all times, no matter what other things I want to do with my life. And I don't think she would have thought that if we were still just living together. But that is not what we think. Matt completely understands my needs for freedom (although sometimes he follows me across the country).

And I can imagine that many women, if their husbands suggested getting a divorce, whether or not in jest, would not have taken it in stride as I did. Some people think marriage is nothing to joke about. I think Matt has a good point. Although we previously decided to get married even though same-sex couples can't, we have now been living in San Francisco, hanging out in the Castro, and watching Proposition 8 pass. Marriage equality seemed to be so close, but it slipped away by a few percentage points.

In California, we have something called a domestic partnership (different from when your employer gives you benefits for your domestic partner based on tax returns showing you live together, etc.), where couples are granted, as far as I understand it, the same rights granted to married couples. However, as argued this morning, this difference in nomenclature basically relegates same-sex couples to second class status. I actually looked into domestic partnerships today, thinking that maybe I would actually consider getting divorced if we could retain our rights through another measure, but it turns out the domestic partnerships are only for same-sex couples or opposite-sex couples in which one member is over the age of 62. Or some crap like that. So heterosexual couples are actually prevented from showing solidarity by choosing a domestic partnership instead of marriage. (I recently read an article about how a new institution for same-sex marriage in France is actually being used by record numbers of heterosexual couples who are choosing it over traditional marriage. I will look for the link.)

So, I think at this point, unless Matt convinces me somehow, that getting divorced in solidarity is not really a good choice. What difference would it really make? Sure, we'd be making a statement, but who would really know about it? Our friends, most of whom are liberal? Our conservative family members who would just write us off as cuckoos? Instead, I can, and do, support the fight to overturn Prop 8.

I also read a book, called The Offbeat Bride, in which the author discusses in length her and her husband's decision to get married despite the lack of equality. They made this decision despite the fact that some of their gay friends questioned or resented them for doing so. And I'm sure many people choose not to be married for these very reasons. All valid points.

In the end, I am not trying to judge anyone here, either for thinking more highly of marriage than I do, or more poorly of it. Although when I got married my motivations were different and more immature, now I view marriage mostly as a granting of rights that are important to me and will become even more so the older we get. I think maybe in some states there are other ways to obtain these rights, but it is so much more complicated than signing a piece of paper. (Convenience is such a good excuse, isn't it?) We have made decisions to partake of the institution while trying to minimize the negatives. Had I been more mature at the time, maybe we would not have made that decision. I love my husband, and he loves me, but as I was sitting on the couch while he suggested getting divorced, I imagined our lives being absolutely no different than they are now. Although I did ask him if I would still have health insurance.

I think getting married or not is a complicated decision in this day and age, and everybody should make their choice meaningful for them. I think that ultimately marriage should be relegated to the religious arena from whence it came, and the government should go about providing equal rights to everyone in some other manner. I'm not sure how. Maybe consenting adults just sign a piece of paper that grants them the rights currently granted in marriage.

(In fact, Matt thinks that marriage should not even necessarily be limited to two people, although that opens a whole other can of worms in terms of rights and decision-making ability - your multiple spouses could fight over whether to pull your life support tube. I also think in this day and age there is still a huge risk for involuntary servitude and physical and sexual abuse of women within what amounts to polygamy. Maybe it works for some people, but proper caution must be exercised.)

So that's the end of my long-winded marriage blog. And again, that is just what I have come to terms with myself, and I completely value everybody else's opinions on the subject. In fact, I'd love to hear them! Let's have a discussion. And I'll let ya'll know if we get divorced.

Breaking News: Big Boost for e-Books

NEWS RELEASE
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, announced today that it has acquired Fictionwise, a leader in the e-book marketplace, for $15.7 million in cash. Barnes & Noble said it plans to use Fictionwise as part of its overall digital strategy, which includes the launch of an e-Bookstore later this year. In addition to the closing purchase price, Fictionwise may receive earn out payments for achieving certain performance targets over the next two years.

ANALYSIS
I think this will mean big things for electronic books. Between this and the Kindle initiative we may finally start to see some legitimacy in the e-book world.

Star-studded Prop 8 Video. Check it out!

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... from Jack Black

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Also see timeline of this morning's oral arguments at That is So Queer.

Arrested Development on Hulu

Do you know about Hulu? Free TV on line. No strings attached. Very short commercials. Because just what we all need is more TV in our lives...

We've been watching season 1 of Arrested Development. Fantastic, hilarious show. Why have I never watched it before?

Green Hair Cuts

Some many years ago, CNA convinced me that I should try getting a fancy hair cut at Toni & Guy instead of the usual super cuts I'd been getting. I fell in love. The layers, the personalization. How had I ever lived with hair cuts that cost less than $50?

More recently, I moved on from just fancy hair cuts to fancy, eco-friendlier hair cuts at an Aveda salon in Albuquerque. Fantastic products, fantastic cuts, and a stylist who was not afraid to thin out my super thick hair. Loved it! One of the best things about the ABQ.

Then I came to San Francisco. It appeared that a hair cut at an Aveda salon might run up to close to around $100 including tips. (Have you ever been to a fancy salon? You have to either take who you can get and just pay however much they cost, or you have to feel cheap and ask for a stylist on the low end of the payscale. The low end was $65.)

So I went to a salon in my neighborhood that an independent website claimed was about 45% green. They at least hawk some type of organic hair products. Although they did have organic products on the shelves, I never did check them for the presence of parabens and SLSs. It didn't matter. My stylist used his own products, not the organic ones. The payscale went from $35 to $60. With my medium length hair, I was charged $60, the top end. The stylist never even got the personalization shears out. And convinced me he needed to keep my hair longer for his little style to work right, but it didn't help. So now I still have longish, super-thick hair, and it cost $72 and featured nasty products.

Next time I will probably toss out the cash and go to Aveda. Or at least not a salon in the Castro, where the stylists might be focusing on men's hair rather than women's.

Does anybody have a stylist who is not afraid to thin? Or a green salon? I may be willing to travel for these services.

Also check out the new info on these super green salons. Maybe there is one near you.

(My justification for spending this much money is that a good cut will last me 6 to 8 months or more. No need for the every six weeks payment.)

NYC Addresses Idling

This is interesting. The original article I saw, from an environmental news source, notes that idling a vehicle for more than 60 seconds will result in a stiff fine. They neglected to mention, per MSNBC, that this only applies in school zones. Big difference. Be careful where you get your news.

Today Matt Told Me That Maybe We Should Get Divorced

So much to blog about this morning! So little time!

Today, the California Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in the same-sex marriage cases. As far as I understand it, the central issue is whether voters actually had the authority to take this right away from people (ban same-sex marriage). Generally, the courts are the ones that make decisions on constitutional issues (equal civil rights, etc.). And I think if we put a number of constitutional rights to a vote, many of them would be taken away, not just gay marriage. This case will also determine what happens to the marriages of 18,000 couples that took place in the few month span that it was legal in 2008.

People were marching last night, camping in front of the civic center, holding rallies in front of the court house. They even set up a jumbotron outside of the court house for large groups to watch.

A local news station will be livestreaming the oral arguments from 9 am to noon Pacific time, if anyone is interested. I will obviously not get anything done today again.

Oh yeah, Matt said that if the supreme court supports the voter-approved ban on gay marriage, maybe we should get divorced in support. I reminded him that we had considered that issue before we actually did get married, but he appeared not to remember. So maybe tonight he'll be serving me with papers. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted!

More Thoughts on the Death of Environmentalism

Some time ago (okay in college), I thought that when I grew up, I wanted to be an environmentalist. I wanted to work for an environmental organization. I wanted to advocate for environmental protections. I wanted to protect nature from humans.

My departure from this belief has been slow and steady, starting with the first and only environmental non-profit for which I worked. It was not terribly well run, nepotistic, feuding with the national organizations, preaching against grazing without addressing ranchers' needs, and saw government as the enemy. And yet the people were fantastic and had the best of intentions.

Prior to working for this non-profit, I had already interned with two national and one state resource management agencies, where I had also encountered fantastic people with the best of intentions.

While in New Mexico, I associated with people intimately-connected to a nonprofit similar to the one for which I had worked, and I volunteered for them. I found deceivingly similar nepotism and questionable business practices.

I then went to work for the state and encountered environmental organizations that told flat out lies about the state government (although the state did not help itself) and once again ignored the needs of their ranching and farming community members. Even after I stood up for my agency (possibly against my own better judgment), called on my card-carrying environmentalist values, and tried to make friends with the enviros, I found more incorrect propaganda on the internet from a prominent and trusted national organization being spoon fed by the local one. I can handle persuasiveness; I can't handle outright lying. My last straw.

I have always thought that environmental organizations could improve their usefulness and success by adopting for-profit business models. Pay your employees a decent wage ($25,000 does not cut it, now matter how virtuous the cause!), hire people who will do a good job (not just your buddies), and make meaningful alliances with others including corporations (and some organizations, like the Environmental Defense Fund, do this successfully).

"Break Through" has just confirmed and expanded many of my thoughts about environmentalism. By regarding humans as separate from nature, and all human development an intrusion, environmentalists isolate and push away a large portion of society. All the farmers and ranchers I have met during many jobs were upstanding, smart, thoughtful, and inspiring citizens. Meeting with them and hearing their stories was one of my very favorite parts of my job, even when I had to drive hours to do so. They were true red and I true blue, and they knew it because I can't keep my mouth shut, but that did not affect their opinions of me. I believe they were truly interested in compromising on issues to protect the environment and their livelihoods. The environmentalists working with them were not interested in compromising, and will possibly drive them from their farms, inviting whole new realms of exurban development. I believe that more environmentalists need to see the environment as inclusive of human society, and figure out how to work cooperatively with all types of people in all types of places and careers to achieve mutual benefits. Let's call it win-win-win.

Environmentalists have also been loath to embrace the use of economics as a way to achieve their goals. As my disenchantment with the enviros was hardening, I read a book by the Stonyfield Farms CEO and became convinced that working for a corporation could be one of the very best ways to intigate environmental and social sustainability. Corporations must play a leading role in mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change. We can't just stand back and tell them they are bad. We must work with them to innovate. Economics is a powerful driving force, and the environment is not separate from it.

Well, this has turned into a missive. (Have I posted about my disillusion with environmentalism previously?) I am tired of the subcategorization and segregation of issues and people that should go hand in hand. I am tired of environmental organizations that won't hire me because I have worked for the government and vice versa. We all have learned by now, I am sure, that I am jaded. But "Break Though" gives me hope for the future. Although I will still support environmental causes, I need to make sure that comprehensive and holistic approaches are being taken to solving problems, even if those approaches are "non-environmental."

But I still don't know what to be when I grow up.

Just Read: Break Through

www.betterworld.com

I loved this book! And I would say that it's a must-read not just for environmentalists, but also for those interested in politics, particularly of the left.

From the blurbs on the back of the book:

Nordhaus and Shellenberger are right. The Industrial Age gave us an environmentalism of limits and a politics of 'no.' The Creative Age requires a politics and culture of 'yes' - one that rekindles human aspirations for a better future and unleashes the vast human potential all around us to accomplish it.
~Richard Florida, author of Rise of the Creative Class

Environmentalists, along with many other causes of the left, often focus on very specific issues, declining to address a multitude of situations that may be involved in any one problem. How can we protect the Amazon, the authors argue, when many people who live in Brazil have not had their basic needs met? How can we address high asthma rates in cities by trying to reduce pollution when secondhand smoke or mold in inadequate housing may be a bigger trigger? How can we combat or prepare for global climate change when we embed the message in sacrifice rather than economic possibilities? How can we garner support for universal health care when many people are worried that adding additional burdens on the system would make their own coverage even more insecure?

This book is a fascinating compilation of social science theory, history, and so much more. The authors suggest how environmentalism and politics can be redefined in a way that will work better. In ways that might finally achieve more fuel efficient cars, more access to health care and insurance, and more possibilities for the economic and ecologic future.

Addressing global climate change starts with economic investment and development. No matter how you feel about it, money is more motivating to people than guilt and sacrifice. In fact, the authors discuss how guilt immobilizes people and how couching things in economic opportunity and potential addresses people's insecurity.

"Whereas guilt drives us to deny our wealth, gratitude inspires us to share it. It is gratitude, not guilt, that will motivate Americans to embrace the aspirations of others to become as wealthy, free, and fortunate as we are."

Check this book out from your local library!

Maximizing Your Exposure on Amazon

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get this post out - Todd was kind enough to offer to be a guest blogger for me and I just haven't had the cycles to post it.

Anyway, Todd Fonseca has a blog that I found so useful I added it to my Useful websites links "see the right panel". It is called Tag My Book on Amazon and while I did a little intro on Tagging on this blog - he is the real expert on the subject. So without further delay. Here is Todd's guest blog on tagging.

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Did you know there is a free way to have your book featured on some of the most heavily visited sites on Amazon? Sound too good to be true? It’s not, and you’re about to find out how easy it is.

Amazon’s customer communities are massively visited pages. For example, with the success of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight books, the “Vampire” customer community on Amazon is huge-over 12,000 customers, 80 discussion threads, and almost 5000 products listed! As you would expect, the top listed books on this community page are Meyer’s novels. But it might surprise you that it is not sales that put Meyer’s books in the top spot. Rather, it is the number of times these books were tagged with the word “Vampire”.

Tags are the only factor that define placement on customer community pages.

What does this mean? If you had your book tagged more often than Meyer’s, your book would be #1 in this community!

The issue – you’d need a lot of “Vampire” tags. Also, each Amazon customer can only tag a word once for a particular book. This means, you would need a lot of friends to tag your book to get to the top spot.

The answer – joining a “tag team”. A “tag team” is a group of authors who work together to tag each others’ books to help them achieve the top spot in their chosen customer communities. “Tag My Book on Amazon” is a blog which currently has approximately 200 authors that are all working together to tag each others’ books. Most of these authors are close to or are already at the top spot in their customer communities.

For more information on tagging, how to tag, how to choose the best tags, read reviews of “tag team” books, and achieve maximum exposure on Amazon, join us at:

http://tagmybookonamazon.wordpress.com/what-is-tagging/

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Thank you Todd! I highly recommend Todd's site for any published author. It is an important marketing tool that really deserves attention.

Just Read: Biomimicry - Innovation Inspired by Nature

www.betterworld.com

I may be behind the times, as always, since I am reviewing a book published in 1998. None-the-less, this book features some really cool stuff! From trying to create super-strong yet somewhat flexible materials based on spider silk to trying to grow replica rhinoceros horn to help preserve the animals from extinction caused by people killing them for their desirable bodily feature, this book takes on many aspects of using nature as inspiration for innovation. Super-fast computers built out of tiny biological parts - maybe coming down a pipeline to you. Watching animal behavior to learn more about natural medicinal cures - happening as we speak. Figuring out how the "mind" is attached to the physical body and using those properties to create cool new functions - an anesthesiologist's dream.

I think in the ten years since this book was published, a lot of people have picked up the mantle of biomimicry. But I don't think it has really started to reshape the world in the meaningful and comprehensive ways the author imagines. Something to think about!

Putting your best foot forward

I'm a pretty avid reader, and participate a lot on GoodReads. (NOTE: If you are not on this site - you need to be - at least make an author profile and add your books to it - again I'll make a whole post on this someday.) In any case, many groups allow authors a section where they can tell members about their books - the so called "Shameless self-promotion post". This is an invitiation to advertise your book - so use it wisely. I developed a "kind of template" for Michael's books. Recently when reading someone else's post I was amused to find that they copied my format exactly - GOOD FOR THEM!! It made me realize a few things

1. I'm appalled at how some authors squander this opportunity
2. I put a lot of thought into what and how I structure posting
3. I've never explained my thought processess

So in today's post I thought I would discuss this in more detail.

A TYPICAL POST
The following is “pretty standard” – a brief description with a link to the author’s site:
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Nurse Geri Lanham would rather be anywhere than helping the doctor take her favorite patient off life support. Something goes terribly wrong and she wakes up in 1888! Trying to find her way back to her time Geri learns once a promise is made from the heart it can transcend time to be Forever Promised. check it out at http://www.foreverpromised.com/
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CRITIQUE
What is wrong with this. Well I can think of several things:

1. No GoodReads links
2. No buy link
3. No reviews
4. No headline
5. No sample chapters
6. No publishing data
7. No cover graphic

Let me cover in detail the format I've come up with and some of the thinking behind it.

FORMAT
I have a method to almost all my madness and for creating the self-promotion post I divide it into the following sections:

1. Information Dump - Just the facts mame
2. Book Overview - headline and blurb
3. Awards (optional)
4. Reviews
5. Other
6. Book Cover

I usually use "all caps" as headers before certain sections like REVIEWS and AWARDS.

INFORMATION DUMP
This is the place with all the "facts" and lots and lots of links. It puts everything at the fingertips of the reader so they don't have to go "searching" for something. It is designed to make it as easy as possible for the reader to get at anything related to the book.

First line: Title, Author, and Genre
Make sure that the title is a link to the GoodReads Book Page. These are denoted by [book:The Crown Conspiracy4345290] where the number is unique to the title. If you don't have a GoodReads link to your book - Get one, they are easy to come by and important. Likewise the author should be a link to the GoodReads Author Page designated by [author:Michael J. Sullivan2063919]. Again if you only have a profile and not an author page you MUST get one - otherwise you are missing some excellent marketing opportunities. If you don't know the "numbers" use the "add book/author" link when editing the post and search for it.

As for genre, yes your book must fall into one - if you don't then you are already in trouble. If you can't think of a genre you are probably in "Literary Fiction" so put that. Narrow your focus as much as possible - be very specfic: Don't just say "Fantasy" try to further classify it such as : Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Fanasy Adventure, Erotic Fantasy...you get the picture. This lets the reader know immediately whether they will be interested or not. It gives a context and will act as a way to filter and tarket your audience.

Second line - Publication info (ISBN, Publisher, Publication Date)
The most important piece of information is the ISBN (both 10 digit and 13). Armed with this, readers can search to find your book on the Internet and comparison shop and so fourth. Very savy book buyers will appreciate you putting this information where they can get at it easily.

Listing the publisher serves one purpose and one purpose only - to give credibility. If you are self-published by an easily recognized name (iUniverse, LuLu, CreateSpace etc) LEAVE IT OFF. It works against you. Just don't say anything. If you are published by someone else (even an unknown small press) you will get some credit by listing it here. And of course if you are published by someone really big then you get even more brownie points. Use the "biggest" name you can - If you are published by a imprint of a larger house use the main house as the publisher. If you are self-published through your own company then use it. Sure they won't know who this publisher is but they won't immediately think you are self-published. But of course if you named your publishing company "Michael Sullivan's Books" and you are author Michael Sullivan then again leave it off.

Publication Date - this should be listed if you are within 3 years of publication i.e. 2006 and above when the date is 2009. If your book is "older" than that it is showing its age and you should not not expose this - just leave it off.

Third line - Previews
If you have book trailers - put links to them here. A book trailer will never "make a sale" but again it establishes creditability. I never recommend spending money on a trailer but if you have the skills to make them yourself (or you can get someone to do them for $75 or so - go ahead and get yourself one) people like to see them.

The most important part of the Preview is the Sample chapter. It is so important I wrote a whole post on this and you can find it here. It is important to give the users a "try before you buy" option and the best way of doing this is a good sample chapter.

Fourth line - Links
This contains links to "other places" to find out more - this is where you have links to the author's website, a books website (if seperate from authors), blogs, and also your GoodRead pages (author & book). I know we already have links to them on the first line but it is worth repeating them in this list. I seperate the links by a pipe

There are two other opportunities that GoodReads provides that are worth taking advantage of and having links to: Groups and Giveaways

GoodReads Group - You should make yourself a fan group on GoodReads. This is a place where people can ask you questions, you can post information about upcoming signings, and is basically a forum between the author and their fan base - Don't worry if you don't have a lot of people in the group to begin with - we'll work on that as part of another post but having a link to it will help get other peopel to join.

Giveaway - GoodReads offers the ability for authors and publishsers to give away free books - I spoke about it in this post. In general, even an unknown book will get hundreds of people signing up (Michael's first book had 682 and the second is currently at 802 people and there is still a month until it is awarded). Again this will help give "credibility" to your book. Leave this link up even if the contest is over. If the contest is "on" they can sign up. If it is over they see the large number of people who had signed up and go wow look at all the people interested in this book!

Last line - Buy Links
Usually a book will fall into one of two categories: General Availability (able to buy from Amazon and Retail Stores) or limited availability (able to buy from author and publisher's sites only). Regardless of the category your book falls into you should have links where they can buy. If your book has wide distribution I would list Amazon, Borders, and Barnes & Noble (Amazon first). You don't have to list every store in existance such as Powells and Albris - the big three should be enough. BUT make sure that you link to YOUR SPECFIC BOOK not just the "site" - You can't believe how many times I click on a link like this and find myself on www.amazon.com . I then spend many minutes doing searches with the book name and author name trying to find the right one. Remember you are trying to make it as easy as possible...don't put up a roadbloack to a sale. If you don't know how to find "your specfic link" - do a search on the site with your ISBN then just cut/paste from the address line of the browser and use this as the link address.

Also if you are in "general availability" then provide a comparison shop link that searches across multiple sites. I use DealOz - again use the ISBN and do a search and get "the specfic" page for your site. Doing this on Michael's book I get 20 - 30 sites some from all over the world.

If you are not in general availability it is even more important to have links to buy pages. There have been several times I've tried to "checkout" a new GoodRead's Author and couldn't find anywhere to buy the book - if that is the case why are you even promoting it? It is even more important for a book not in general availability to post a "buy link".

Last, but not least - you should always have a link where people can buy direct from you. Throw in signing and offer a discount. Even with credit card processing charges and a reduced price you'll still make more on a direct sale then through any retail chain. Remember that the distribution channel gnerally takes 40% - 55% off the top. To learn more about selling direct use this link.

BOOK INTRO
After all the links section you need to tell them about your book. This is simple it should consist of your headline and blurb. Period. Remember your headline needs to be short and your blurb should be one paragraph. This has been posted in the past to learn more use this link.

AWARDS
This of course is optional but if your book has won awards then list them here. Put one per line and indicate the date of the award and - here is the important part - put a link to the actual award page where you are listed so that they can "verify" that you indeed won the award listed.

REVIEWS
Pick up to 5 of your best "1 sentences" from reviews. Think carefully about the "order" of the reviews based on the "source" not the "content". For instance I put Fantasy Book Debut first for Michael but then put in a "general review" before listing "Fantasy Book Critic" so that I didn't top load all the "Fantasy site reviews". Use quotation marks and italics for the actual quote then use a long dash (em dash) and then list the "source" as a link. That way they can click on the source to read the "full review".

If you have a lot of reviews (The Crown Conspiracy has more than 100) provide a link to the page on your website where you list "all the reviews")

OTHER
This is of course optional. Since Michael's book is part of a series I usually post a bit about the series as a whole to put the book in context.

BOOKCOVER
Close the post with a picture of the cover. I use a 100 x 145 resolution file as this is big enough to provide good detail but not to big to be austinatious. Of course it should also be "linked" to a relavant page - eithe the GoodReads Book Page or the Author's Page.

TEMPLATE EXMPLE
Whew - that's a lot but by using good formatting it fits nicely. I'm reproducing the post I use for Michael's book "The Crown Conspiracy" to use as an example.
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The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J. Sullivan (Fantasy Adventure)
ISBN: 978-0980003437/0980003431 (Aspirations Media Inc, Oct 2008)
Previews: Author's Book Trailer Publisher's Book Trailer Sample Chapter
Links: Website Blog GoodReads Group Author Profile Book Page Giveaway
Buy: Amazon Borders Barnes & Noble Comparison Shop Signed Copy

They killed the king. They pinned it on two men. They chose poorly.
Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater make a profitable living carrying out dangerous assignments for conspiring nobles until they become the unwitting scapegoats in a plot to murder the king. Sentenced to death, they have only one way out…and so begins this epic tale of treachery and adventure, sword fighting and magic, myth and legend. The writing style focuses on characters and plot rather than verbose world building. This first book of the Riyria Revelations is a heroic adventure written for adult readers yet suitable for those 13 and older.

AWARDS
2008 ReaderViews Literary Award Finalist
2008 Fantasy Book Critic Notable Indie
2008 Adventure Writers Competition, 5th place
2007 Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Finalist for Fantasy

SAMPLE REVIEWS (All Reviews)
"The Crown Conspiracy is right up my alley, traditional fantasy, "good" bad guys, a large dose of humor, lots of character development and plenty of surprises." — Fantasy Debut

"Michael J. Sullivan has written a book I will read over and over again and it most definitely will always reside on my favorite’s shelf." — ReaderViews

"There is so many layers to this story that to explain it in a few words is nigh impossible." — Front Street Reviews

"The Crown Conspiracy is great fun and a romp end to end...Highly recommended and another positive surprise for 2008." — Fantasy Book Critic

"A fast paced and riveting fantasy, "The Crown Conspiracy" is well worth reading." — Midwest Book Review

ABOUT THE SERIES
Instead of a string of sequels, The Riyria Revelations is a six-book fantasy series conceived as a single epic tale divided into individual episodes. All were written before the first was released so that plot elements are intertwined, yet each is self-contained and can be read independently from each other. With this series you will not be held hostage to read the next one--you will simply want to. Coming in April 2009, the second book entitled Avempartha is available for pre-order now from Amazon.com.