Great independent choices; check 'em out.

I met Jeanne Matthews at the Book Passage Mystery Conference three years ago now, and we worked on her first mystery, Bones of Contention, and got it placed at the presitigious Poisoned Pen Press, and now book 2 is coming! Her main character, Dinah, is a delight!!! Read Jeanne's blog post about her writing inspirations.

I send out a fair amount of UPS and the receipt note usually says rec'g dock or front door - something exciting like that. Well, my author Charley Rosen lives up a long driveway in the Catskills, and it's been icey. But the UPS guy and Charley have an understanding about leaving packages on a tree stump by the roadside. Still, i almost spit my coffee out when the UPS email acknowledgment came in around 1:30 and it said, yup. STUMP. Made my day.

Help my friend Jenn gather photos of all 1,200 benches that have been adopted by someone and have a name plaque, often quite poignant. Cool project!!!!

A rave review for a book I've been helping out with: former Intel exec Bill Davidow's Overconnected. If you get a copy or ebook, check out the outrageous Iceland fishermen-to-banker chapter right away!

OMG, laughed out loud. Imagine a cross between Jon Cusack and Basil Fawlty. Black Books is a RIOT!!! Thank you to Heather Doss for turning me on to this.

A nice shout-out from my colleagues at Perennial. Beekeeper's Lament also a gem.

Fun new blog in early stages for the very fun book I was privileged to edit: Rick Horan's SEEDS: One Man's Serendipitous Journey to Find the Trees that Inspired Famous American Writers - From Faulkner to Kerouac, Welty to Wharton.

Since I've been blogging in the short form for awhile anyway, I'm moving over to Twitter now, with the occassional long piece here. Also considering firing up the backlist book, Great Lakes and music blogs. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, follow me at RockNRollGuy. 

Stick with the video past the first gimmick, and on to the LED lights. Delightful!

I'm not schilling products, BUT this time of year, with the dry air and all, I am compelled to remind you, if you want a good night's sleep, about Ocean salt  water nasal spray AND the cute-as-heck penguin humifier. Saw one in someone's office here yesterday!

Colin Hay solo is a revelation. Heard him on the Garden State soundtrack and then regularly on XM. Haunting, beautiful songs, old and new. And he's on a big US tour; don't miss him.

Mike Perry is going to host the Tent Radio Show, airing on 50 Wisconsin and Minnesota radio stations this month! Mike's the best, and cool musical guests!!

They posted dozens..no, hundreds..of their funny show contributor names!

After 25 years of mulling and weighing, I've decided. Tottenham is my team. Why? a) How can you not like the words "Tottenham" and "Hot Spurs"?; b) every football fan I know is a ManU, ManCity, Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal fan; c) cool logo; d) a funny as hell manager, Harry Redknapp.  I suppose I am not an avid fan, as my mood doesn't rise and fall on wins and losses, but i wear my scarf in NYC proudly, and have not been accosted yet. One person did say "That your team, eh? For my sins, I'm a Leeds fan."  And for sheer good deeds, my other favorite team is Barcelona, those Basque booters, who have never taken advertising on their jerseys, but recently paid UNICEF $15million to put UNICEF on their uni fronts. That's very cool.

One of my favorite baseball player names growing up was Walt Dropo, who passed away recently. I went looking online for the car i had - a Senators card - but i found this one of him with the Reds. Such a sad face. It is really quite mesmerizing to wonder what he was thinking. Here's a link, and no, I am not endorsing this particular memorabilia seller.

Right during Xmas week, we put on sale - and the NYT raved about - a new graphic novel of ours called Radioactive. It's the intense and trippy true story of Marie and Pierre Curie. Check it out.

I've seen Tom Rush do his version of Drift Away twice now, and it is a revelation. A much deeper song, and with great guitarwork by Tom. Check it out.

Why do I like a funky bass, oaky wine and burnt bagel chips? Do I need the volume up on everything?

I have yet to see an actor pretend to sip from a coffee cup, or any vessel, and actually look like there is really liquid in it. Is it really that hard to pretend there is some weight to the cup, or no room in acting to smack one’s lips??

Luanne Rice's neat 2-minute video!

Love Santa Monica Press' Art and Design of Wine Labels!

Cool, classy book-related art posters at Postertext!