(It occurs to me y’all might wonder if that’s a typo and I’m going to ponder whether advertisements sell books, but no, I’m talking abs. Naked and totally ripped male stomachs.)

Mrs. Giggles put up an interesting blog post that y’all should go read in its entirety. Very interesting stuff. But I especially like this one:

6. Readers love covers with naked men. Okay, so online readers are too intellectual for that, but let’s face it, those covers sell. Authors

Why?

Well, number one, I enjoy having my kids home. They’re both fairly independent and they get along about 70% of the time. For another 20% the tall kid will get annoyed, don his iPod earbuds and disappear into his room. The other 10% requires maternal intervention, which is usually pretty effective. I just like their company.

But also, their going to school really disrupts my day and I get less time to write. Doesn’t make much sense, does it?… Read More »

Sometimes, when it comes to professional envy, the hits just keep on coming and it’s hard to keep on going. And it doesn’t matter how much you like and/or respect the author, when somebody gets a deal with an editor you want or a house you want or beats you to the punch with a similar premise you’d thought unique, there’s some teeth grinding, some pen tossing and some throwing of the hands into the air.

The first thing I … Read More »

Over in Alison’s comments, the family of Alphasmart, NEO, and dana has been brought up. I won’t recap because you’ve probably already read it, but Walt said something interesting:

It’s pretty bad when a glorified keyboard costs nearly as much as an off brand laptop.

Yes, yes it is. But when it comes time to upgrade away from my Alphie, I’ll pass on the off-brand laptop and go with another Alphie (or the NEO, which is, I gather, the … Read More »