Digital Book World Conference schedule for Google Calendar and iCal

I created this calendar for the schedule of events at the Digital Book World Conference and thought I would share it for anyone else using Google calendars or iCal imports.

To add this to Google Calendar, under Other Calendars, choose Add > By URL and paste in the following link: http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/lifeway.com_37ac0lbh1ipdd674ed0bpo0a4g@group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

Or, click the link above and save the .ics file to import to your calendar.

This is my first time sharing a calendar so please post a comment to let me know if it worked or not.

Thanks, Paul.

Great Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY

Makes me want to apologize to all my vendor friends, especially the free lance independents. Especially because free lance independent is the future economy for most work (including yours and mine).

How Good is Your Spelling?

Long-time friend of Cumberland House and author, Martin Manser, is a reference-book editor and language trainer & consultant in the UK where he offers courses to writers, companies, and university students. For full details of his open public courses held in London and also details of tailor-made courses, see his Language Trainer and Consultant page: http://www.martinmanser.com/MMTraining.aspx.

Here's a fun little spelling quiz from his December newsletter. I scored a "very good," which was generous.

1 a stupefying/stupifying effect
2 the forword/forward/foreword to the book
3 a forgone/foregone conclusion
4 the troubled period of adolesence/adolescence
5 a stand-up arguement/argument
6 and other miscellaneous/misellanious/miscellanious items
7 I am very loath/loathe to say no
8 the South African system of apartheid/aparthied/apartheit
9 the yoke/yolk of slavery
10 an insurance waver/waiver
11 the rudimentary principles/principals of physics
12 lackered/laquered/laqueured/lacquered wood
13 What impeccible/impeccable behaviour!
14 Yours truly/truely, Freda
15 They’re just good friends/freinds
16 a hypersensitive/hyposensitive personality
17 to canvass/canvas/cannvass public opinion
18 He suffers from agoraphobia/agraphobia
19 the national curriculum/curiculum in education
20 to seek professional/profesional/proffessional advice
21 The economy is not very boyant/buoyant at the moment
22 She complemented/complimented him on his fine appearance
23 Clostrophobia/Claustrophobia is the fear of being in enclosed places
24 He was severely censored/censured/censered for the brutality of the attack
25 in ecstacy/ecstasy/exstacy at the thought.

Answers to spelling quiz (above)
1 stupefying
2 foreword
3 foregone
4 adolescence
5 argument
6 miscellaneous
7 loath
8 apartheid
9 yoke
10 waiver
11 principles
12 lacquered
13 impeccable
14 truly
15 friends
16 hypersensitive
17 canvass
18 agoraphobia
19 curriculum
20 professional
21 buoyant
22 complimented
23 claustrophobia
24 censured
25 ecstasy


25 out of 25: well done! 20-24 very good. 15-20 fair. Below 15: you are relying too much on your spellchecker!

Despite all the advanced points of writing that I am often asked about on courses, I often find participants on my courses need help in basic points of grammar. So, remember, whether you’re looking for a refresher course on the basics or you simply want to increase your confidence in more advanced aspects of writing, email me and I’m be glad to help. mailto:help.mhmanser@aol.com

As ever, don’t forget that if you regularly write for more than an hour a day, you could benefit from brushing up on your skills in writing and editing.

I LOVE Last.fm

Have you heard of Last.fm? I learned about it last week. Joe Wikert wrote a post about his new found admiration for the iPhone. Someone commented on his post that using Last.fm on the G3 network is better than satellite radio. I've had satellite radio-envy for a long time. I've had rental cars with Sirius and I LOVED it. I'm not a talk radio person, it is the targeted, commercial free music I love.

Anyway, last week I downloaded the Last.fm player on my computer and my iPhone. It automatically imported my music list from my iTunes library. I clicked on "recommended" and listened all day long. The program selected songs it thought I would enjoy based on music already in my library. There was no interruption. It did not play any songs from my library. Over the course of about seven hours there was one song I skipped because I didn't like it. And there were dozens of songs and artists I'd never heard before that I want to hear again. As each song plays, the CD cover is displayed with information about it and the opportunity to click to purchase--really brilliant marketing. There are also channels by genre and probably more options to discover. I haven't explored all the features.

The sound quality was great. Again, over the course of about seven hours there were a couple of hiccups, but they were just flickers. I have a first generation iPhone so I have to have high speed wireless access (no G3 for me, yet), but when I have a wi-fi connection, it works great.

Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words

On the drive home tonight I heard this story on All Things Considered and it cracked me up. It is about a show running at the Triad Theater in New York called Celebrity Autobiography. Every Monday a different cast of comic actors like SNL stars Fred Armison, Will Forte, and SNL alumni Rachel Dratch, Molly Shannon and other stars read passages from celebrity autobiographies. Books read during the radio story included Mr. T: The Man With the Gold: An Autobiography by Mister T, the Motley Crue memoir The Dirt, and Good Morning, I'm Joan Lunden.

Reading the story on the NPR site doesn't do it justice. You've got to listen to it. I have to get my next trip to New York scheduled for a Monday stay over. It sounds like a lot of fun.

In the mean time, maybe we could come up with a list of celebrity autobiographies from the used bookstore, remainder bins (or our own bookshelves) to suggest for the show. Any ideas?

How authors can stay positive through the publishing process

Richard O'Connor, author of Happy at Last: The Thinking Person's Guide to Finding Joy (St. Martin's) wrote the Soapbox feature for the 10/27/2008 issue of Publishers Weekly. It is a nice piece on the search for happiness.

"Humans are wired to be able to feel good when good things happen," he writes, "but the feeling never lasts."

Here are some tips from O'Connor:

Focus on what you can control. Write well, and be proud of that, no matter what.

Chances are your book won't sell as much as you want it to, but don't let that ruin your life.

Behavioral economists have shown that when we get what we want, we'll just want something else. . . You need to find more substantial goals, like getting to work on the next book.

Here's my favorite tip: When you go to bed at night, think of three good things that happened during the day. Little things, like a good grilled cheese sandwich, or bigger things, like how you love someone. Maybe you wrote a great paragraph or learned an interesting fact. Research shows that if you do this, not only will you be in a better mood the next day, but the more often you do this, the happier you'll be.

I really need to get better at doing this--taking stock of the good things every day. Here are my three good things from today:

• The autumn colors and mist rising off the river in the sun this morning.
• Overhearing my daughter tell my wife that she loves her, completely out of the blue.
• Flipping through a photography book called Old Dogs.
  

What good things happened during your day today? Share them here. Maybe what you share will be someone else's good thing.

Election Day Freebies

Well, it's almost over. I must say, as disillusioned and cynical as I am about politics, I've enjoyed the focus in the news the last few days on the final campaign strategies heading into the election. At least I've enjoyed it more than the dismal news of the fallout from the economy that is all we've been hearing the last couple of weeks--closed doors, lost jobs, lost homes. With the Dow up around 1000 points from the low of the last few weeks, maybe we'll get some relief on that front too.

Rallying enthusiasm for election day turnout I've heard of at least three companies making special offers for voters and I am already planning my route from the polling place. Actually I early voted, but I am still going to make good on some of these offers.

Starbucks is offering a free tall cup of brewed coffee all day, November 4.

Krispy Kreme is offering a free star shaped donut with patriotic sprinkles to all retail customers wearing an "I Voted" sticker on November 4. I early voted and my sticker is long gone but I may try for the free donut anyway.

Ben & Jerry's is offering a free scoop of ice cream from 5-8pm, November 4.

Are you aware of any other offers? Post a comment here to share with others.

VGT's Omnivore's Hundred

Here's a fun one, especially for you foodies and cookbook authors. It originated on the Very Good Taste Blog. Thanks to Krisan Matthews over at The Publishing Curve (and Anthromama and the Editorial Ass before her) for posting it first.

Here’s what you do:
1) Copy the list below into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/uncategorised/the-omnivores-hundred/ linking to your results.

I'm pretty sure I've had 57 of the 100. There were several I had to look up (Bagna cauda, Phaal, Fugu, etc.) and a few that I hope do not mean what I think they mean--but I'm afraid they do-- (Oxtail, Roadkill, Horse!).

How did you do?

(P.S. The list has generated a lot of questions, so the author created an FAQ for it over here!)

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
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
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
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

My Second Favorite Day of the Year

Today is my birthday. Birthdays are great. I eat what I want. I relax a bit from doing any real work at home and at the office. I walk around with the anticipation of a (pleasant) surprise around every corner. People call, send cards and emails, bring gifts. There's cake. I like my birthday.

I'm typically not one to worry about my age either. Thirty-five was tough for me. According to the Constitution, one must be at least 35 years old to be elligible to become president of the United States. It bothered me that I was nowhere near ready to become president when I turned 35, but I truly have no political aspirations, and Teddy Roosevelt remains the youngest to become president at age 42 after McKinley was assasinated.

Today I turn 39. It is my last year in my thirties and I've got some work to do. I'm struck by the number of people close to my age in very powerful publishing jobs: Markus Dohle, chairman and CEO of Random House, 39; Brian Murray, HarperCollins CEO, 41; Jonathan Karp, editor-in-chief and publisher of Twelve, formerly editor-in-chief at Random House, 43; Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder, president, chairman and CEO, 44. I learned this week that Mussolini was 39 when he came into power in 1922. Others born in 1969: Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Chastity Bono, "Diddy," Brett Favre, Tracey Gold, Ken Griffey, Jr., Dave Grohl, Ice Cube, Nancy Kerrigan, Jennifer Lopez, Matthew McConaughey, Edward Norton, Matthew Perry, Christian Slater, Emmitt Smith, Gwen Stefani, Dweezil Zappa, Renée Zellweger, and Catherine Zeta-Jones (also born September 25, 1969).

Oh, by the way, my favorite day of the year is the 4th of July. Great weather. Watermelon. Family and friends. No gifts. No pressure. Freedom. Fireworks. God bless America.