Del Castillo is Coming to Davis!

Del Castillo, one of our fave Latin rock bands, will perform in Davis, California, at the Mondavi Center on Monday, July 28. DC's drummer, Mike Zeoli, goes way back with our family, as he went to high school in Texas with our oldest, Jena, and hung out for a couple of days with us when we lived in Virginia. Haven't seen him for years, but hope to say hey when we see him in Davis. Check out DC's website here.

Chiron Review

It's out -- Chiron Review's Summer 2008 issue, featuring my short story, "Little House on the Perry," which also took second place in a recent Writer's Digest writing competition (of nearly 3,000 entries!). Read the story here.

Then We CameTo The End

This is a debut novel by Joshua Ferris, a book Nick Hornby says is "a terrific first novel...awfully funny," and which Jim Shepard, author of Love and Hydrogen and Lights Out in the Reptile House calls "...hilarious and heartbreaking..." Katharine Weber, who wrote Triangle and The Music Lesson, also thinks this book is "hilarious." Okay, I read the novel from cover to cover -- 385 pages in all -- and not once did I snort, guffaw, or laugh out loud -- criteria, I assume, a book must meet before qualifying as "acidly funny" (according to James Poniewozik, a reviewer for The New York Times).

The book is also too long by twenty-five percent. That I stuck with it, however, says something positive -- I'm just not sure what it is. All I know is I'm still thinking about it three days later, and sharing an excerpt here:

At first we called it what you would expect -- getting laid off, being let go. Then we got creative. We said he'd gotten the ax, she'd been sacked, they'd all been shitcanned. Lately, a new phrase had appeared and really taken off. 'Walking Spanish down the hall.' Somebody had picked it up from a Tom Waits song, but it was an old, old expression, as we learned from our Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins."

And that's what kept me smiling. The notion of "walking Spanish down the hall," which Ferris had the good sense to repeat, just as my interest lagged.

Hooded Oriole Makes an Appearance

About two weeks ago I told Steve there was a new bird in the yard. I'd heard it calling -- sort of a cross between a woodpecker and a kingfisher(which an online birding site describes as a "rolling, dry chatter"). I stood for a few minutes, peering into our neighbor's eucalyptus tree, and sure enough, a flash of yellow darted out of the tree and over the house, allowing only the quickest glimpse -- not enough to describe. Two days later Steve saw it too, saying it was a hooded oriole, which he'd added to his life list when we lived in South Texas.

A few days later, it started feeding at the hummingbird feeder, along with another young bird, which we assumed was its offspring.

Males have an orange-yellow coloring with a black face, tail, wings and back. Wings have two white bars of feathers. The bill has a slight down curve that comes to a sharp point, enabling them to feed on tubular flowers.

Females are olive-green with yellow undertones. They nest in tall trees, including cottonwoods and live oaks -- both of which grow in abundance in Folsom, California -- as well as eucalyptus trees, although from what I can tell the nest is not in the eucalyptus next door.

We think we've got one female and one immature male, although it's tough to say for certain. The birds are reclusive and skittish, and twice now I've complained that I haven't seen them all day, only to have them appear -- literally within minutes -- at the feeder outside the kitchen window.

The bird is a visitor and will winter in Mexico, heading out around August.

The oriole photo shown here is from this website.

JT's B'day!

Today is Jena Thompson's birthday. She's our firstborn Tid, and we love 'er. Happy birthday, JT!



Jena and Puff Daddy, April 2008, Washington, DC

MJ Rose's Marketing Tips

There's a great article in the August issue of Writer's Digest by MJ Rose, the bestselling author of nine novels including The Reincarnationist and co-author of two nonfiction books on marketing including Buzz your Book. The article, "After the Art," discusses some pretty grim stats: she recently polled 150,000 readers and asked about their bookstore experiences and buying habits. She says 60 percent of respondents said "the sheer number of books they were exposed to overwhelmed them." (I know how they feel. Steve and I walked into a Marble Stone Creamery recently, and I too was overwhelmed. So much so, I walked out of the store without making a purchase -- something Steve laughs about to this day.)

So what's a writer to do?

Presumably we all know we've got to step in and market our own books -- that the publisher's role has much diminished in this regard over the years. MJ says "There aren't many certainties in this business but this: No one thing sells a book. Not just big orders. Not just good placement. Not just terrific reviews. Not just a great cover. Hundreds of little things contribute to success. And you can do many of those little things yourself and yes, you can help your book."

Here are a few sentences from each of five tips (buy the mag to see the tips in their entirety):

1. BECOME EDUCATED. Buy this book: Publicize Your Book: An Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book the Attention It Deserves by Jacqueline Deval. Check out MJ's blog, Buzz, Balls & Hype.

2. TALK TO YOUR AGENT ABOUT YOUR PLANS. She can be your best advocate in fighting for your book, not just with editing and the cover, but with marketing and sales as well.

3. FIGURE OUT HOW MUCH OF YOUR ADVANCE YOU WANT TO ALLOCATE TO MARKETING YOUR BOOK AND HOW YOU SHOULD SPEND IT: ADVERTISING, PUBLICITY, A TOUR, ETC. No matter how much you want to spend -- don't spend it until you read number 4.

4. BECOME A MARKETING PARTNER WITH YOUR PUBLISHER. Ask your agent to set up a meeting with either your editor or the marketing department of the house or both so you can find out what they're doing, what they aren't, and what you can do to help.

5. SIX MONTHS PRIOR TO PUBLICATION START RESEARCHING OPPORTUNITIES ON AND OFFLINE THAT OTHER AUTHORS HAVE USED SUCCESSFULLY. Don't hire anyone without talking to at least a few clients who've been satisfied with the service.

Do Bees Sleep?

Each evening, around 8 p.m., the bee activity on our lavendar plants slows considerably, and a number of native bees actually appear to be sleeping -- or at least dozing -- while clinging to a stem.

Tonight I finally looked this up, and it seems that bees don't sleep, per se, but remain motionless at night, thereby reserving energy for the next day.

Woodworking in Iraq -- Guest Editorial

KQED.org, based in San Francisco, recently featured "Woodworking in Iraq" by my Squaw Valley writing cohort, Andrew Wiener. It's intelligently written and well presented -- give it a listen by clicking here, or by reading the version below:

Take it from an amateur woodworker who thrives on do-it-yourself kits, building a democracy in Iraq is a lot like building a Murphy bed. The Murphy bed kit that I bought provided a materials list, clearly written instructions, and though it promised to include all of the necessary hardware, had a few missing parts that would create some problems, but that Perseverance would be sure to solve. I could fault the designer’s claim that the project could be completed in just a matter of hours, but I won’t, because it did take just a matter of hours, just more than I anticipated. But alas, an unforeseen result: the lumber yard affixed to every piece of finished wood, a sticker confirming dimension and price, and after these tagged pieces of wood had been cut and assembled, there remained the task of removing the stickers before applying wood finish. But these stickers weren’t easily removed. They tore in uneven strips, leaving ultra-thin streaks of adhesive that came off only through gentle scraping that took, well, a matter of hours. It was only then realized that the space beneath each sticker had never seen the light of day, leaving dark rectangles, randomly scattered, that no natural finish could hide. I should have learned from this experience, but instead relented to a walnut stain to hide the mistake, even though the grain shouted oak, and forged ahead to build a matching cabinet, as if Confidence alone could prevent this project from also having an unplanned result for which an ill-matched solution would have to be fashioned. And therein lies a lesson for President Bush, the ultimate do-it-yourselfer. With similar self-deceiving confidence, and according to his own clear instructions on how to build a democracy in Iraq, this President is waging a war with many problems that have yet to see the light of day, with missing pieces that no military toolshed can replace, and which, after many, many more hours, will result in something quite different than he originally intended.

Ladybugs -- Organic Pest Control

Steve and I released live ladybugs in the garden this evening, placing them on the crape myrtle (where aphids are most offensive), rose bushes, and lemon tree. We bought the bugs last year in the garden department at Home Depot, and found them again today when we were looking for potting soil. They come in a mesh bag measuring roughly 6.5 x 7 inches. Directions stress keeping them at temperatures no warmer than 65 degrees, then watering the area where they'll be released, cutting off the top of the bag, and sprinkling them like seeds onto plants and trees. (Odds are they'll rush out of the bag, climbing onto your fingers and hands before you can urge them onward.) The bugs come from Ladies in Red, although a look at their website indicates they sell only to retailers and distributors. There's an email address and phone number, however, so you can call to ask who sells the bugs. (Click on images to enlarge.)

Quite the View for Canada Goose

This Canada goose made itself comfy in a hawk nest built in an aspen a few miles east of Elko. I was surprised she'd claimed it as her own, but according to A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds by Colin Harrison, "The nest is usually by water...rarely it may be on a raised site, a rock ledge, tree-stump, broken tree-trunk, or even the old nest of a large raptor." The goslings will have quite a jump. (Click on pic to enlarge.)

Bryson's Dictionary, Part 2

A few more of Bill Bryson's definitions:

fewer, less. Use less with singular nouns (less money, less sugar) and fewer with plural nouns (fewer houses, fewer cars). *Amazing how many advertisers get this wrong.

fortuitous. Means by chance; it is not a synonym for fortunate. A fortuitous event may be fortunate, but equally it may not.

hoi polloi. Means "the masses, the common populace," and not "the elite" as is so often thought. A second problem is that in Greek hoi means the, so to speak of "the hoi polloi" is redundant.

koala bears. Wrong. Koalas are marsupials and have no relation to bears. Just call them koalas.

lacy. Not -ey.

Parmesan cheese. (Cap P.) In Italian, parmigiano (no cap.). *I don't get this. If Parmesan is capped when used with cheese, why isn't champagne capped when referring to the wine? If I had that email address for Bill, I'd ask him.