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Out of 8490 entries in the Technorati directory of entertainment blogs, nearly 2700 are for books!!!!!

The nearest competition is offered by film blogs, coming in at a measly 745.

Please bear with me for ten minutes or so. The tabs in the navigation bar will soon be back to normal.

It's been a while since we have posted to this blog, but I mean to change that with some news and some great new promotion ideas.

It is no secret that one of the best ideas to come out of web marketing and writing books is the BOOK TRAILER! That said, I am happy to announce that my 2009 Berklee School of Music graduate son, Dave Hoon Newman, has now added the creation of original book trailers to his repertoire.  Honestly, it is the perfect vehicle for him: he is a gifted musician and composer, and he is also a wonderful visual artist. Blending video and sound is something he does VERY well and something he has been doing since he was nine years old. Now, with his degree behind him and serious training in not only music but sound design,  he has found his perfect medium. He already has a couple of film soundtacks under his belt, as well as the creation of new audio for existing TVads. Adding book trailers was the perfect step.

Check out his site and make sure to check out no only his sound design and film work,  but also some of his original music. Here is his MySpace page for his music.  http://www.myspace.com/davehoonnewman

I have to admit it, that Dave'sbook trailers are the most professional I have seen.I think it has to do with the fact that he creates  ALL ORIGINAL music and also performs it. The music for trailers that he does does not exist until he writes it.

Have a book coming out? Think about a truly custom book trailer!

 All photos courtesy of Cakewrecks

Here is the problem when you like to blog and when you also like to read the blogs of others: it all takes time, and on any given day, I seem to have less and less of it. Truth be known, when it comes to choosing between entertaining myself reading what other people have written or attempting to wax poetic myself and share my thoughts with readers, I choose--you guessed it--entertaining myself! Surprise, surprise!

In the blog post before this one, I wrote about getting in my daily dose of pick-me-up at Awkward Family Photos. Love the site. Can't stay away. Can't stop laughing. 

But my other, equally enjoyable place to visit and find a smile on my face and maybe even tears of laughter in my eyes is CAKE WRECKS. Cake Wrecks is exactly that--a blog devoted to the so-called professionally done cakes one can buy in a bakery, supermarket, or wherever, that are, in a word, wrecks. As defined by Jen Yates, the genius behind the site and the book that came out of the site:

 WHAT IS A WRECK?

"A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places."

All photos courtesy Awkward Family Photos

Addicted. Totally. And without remorse of any kind. It's my computer and I. It's not just that I love using it as a tool to create art. It's the web. The Internet is my worst vice and my greatest enjoyment. I am always on it. My husband has even said that someday he expects to come home find me stuck INSIDE the monitor, like some sort of Twilight Zone episode.

 
I can justify it to some extent, because I am not a TV watcher of any significance. I'd rather be on line, checking out everything from eBay to newspapers to blogs by other artists and writers then sitting in front of some mindless sitcom or self important drama. I've even discovered a whole cache of blogs that write about vintage stuff and collecting, which is what this very blog started out as about 5 years ago. There is no end to the kind of information I suddenly find myself interested in. Hey--wanna  know more about scroll saws? Ask me!

Lately, however, my addiction to the net has to do with something more essential: getting my daily dose of humor. And my top choice of enjoyment?  AWKWARD FAMILY PHOTOS.

This story is astonishing. Some entrepreneurs are just whitewater rafters, through and through, aren't they?

Ramona snaffled Peter Stothard, the editor of the Times Literary Supplement (TLS) and had a chat to him about newspaper book reviews a couple of weeks ago.

Lynne is a brave, brave person and I hope podcasting will enable me to listen to her broadcast on teh Beeb when it happens in a week or so, and drink champagne.
If there is anyone out there who wouldn't mind translating that Latin from the BBC's head office in the picture for me, I'd be most grateful.

As Jessamyn West says, will these books get all messed up? Via librarian.net, from Vogue Italia.

And if there are librarians out there looking for a testdrive of things to do with the library's new Kindle before it's released to the users, Kathryn Greenhill has a ripper list here.

Finally - Anne Beilby reports on the Text website that the French rights to Gerald Murnane's The Plains were sold to P.O.L. just before he won the Melbourne Prize. One more country besides Sweden in which Murnane can be enjoyed.

If you read this blog, you already know that I obsess about the passing of time. You know that I wish I could time travel. You know that I love antiques and Ken Burns and the Oxford Project and anything that allows me a glimpse into the past. 

Now that I have discovered Google Street View, I even take trips to old neighborhoods of my past so I can "walk around" a see what those places now look like compared to  years ago. Let me tell you that can be fun, but also depressing. Sometimes places look very much like they did when I was living there, like my old street and house in Stony Point, New York (but the town itself is totally different) or the house my husband and I lived in in Buffalo, NY,  as newlyweds. Most of the time, however, things have changed so much, I don't recognize the neighborhood at all, or, in the worst case scenario, they  don't even exist, which is the case with both of the apartment buildings I lived in as a child with my grandparents in Newark, New Jersey. Gone. Empty lots. Rubble.

The discovery of Google Street View is just one of the wonderful things I came upon when I discovered my absolute favorite, MUST VISIT EVERYDAY blog: SHORPY.

To quote from the site:

THE 100-YEAR-OLD PHOTO BLOG

The blog is run by Dave, who posts the most magnificent high resolution pictures of years gone by. I do not know any personal information about Dave, except that he has some facinating looking family members whose mid century pictures he occasionally puts up on the site.  

Put your hands up if you remember Alan the Copywriter, one time inhabitant of these shores.

I thought so.

Well, it turns out that he also remembers you. Yes, that includes you slouching at the back. Pay attention there.

Anyway, Alan did not a few posts on this here blog about some of the rather cool designs coming out of Penguin Press last year. One of the highlights was an innovative interview he did with designer and damn good egg Coralie Bickford-Smith. This made a lot of people very envious. Of Coralie; of Alan; of smart and sexy people having smart and sexy fun.

What do you mean: don't remember, sir? Got eyes, haven't you? Then why don't you refresh your memory by taking a good look at this. 

Where was I?

Oh yes. Alan. He's not been quiet in his absence. He has his own blog now - smartysexypants that he is, he appears to have set it up all by himself. It's very cool and called Greater Than Or Equal To. And to prove that he still has his fingers on the publishing pulse he's just done a new interview with Coralie about her wonderful new designs for some new Penguin hardback classics.

New, you hear. It's all brand, spanking new.

So why not get over there and see what Alan and Coralie have got to say to each other. Poke around. Go through Alan's drawers. Criticise his choice of wallpaper. Get the keys to his liquor cabinet and go get good and drunk.

Smart and sexy don't even begin to describe the fun you'll have.

Colin Brush
Senior Copywriter

Now online, at a blog near you: George Dunford's terrific article on litblogs, for the Big Issue of two weeks ago (that would be number 335, with the shot of the King on the front.)

Very pleased to see that one accessible - in a short space, George has captured not just the atmosphere of Michael Williams' drinkies a few weeks back, but also some useful conclusions, and given a few of us some nice nods along the way. (Angela was required to be in two places at once on that occasion. Not even Ange can do that yet...) Thanks, Mr HP.

squeezing water from a stone.
making diamonds from coal.

this is what it feels like in my brain as i get down towards the end of napibowriwee.

one more day after today.
the finish line is in sight.
but i feel like i'm beginning to lose the wheels off the ol' jalopy. :)

i was lucky in that before this all started, i had book ideas scribbled on pieces of paper that i filed away so i had some things to work off of and develop. but as i sit here with one more day to go, i've tapped my reserves. gonna have to dig deep for one more idea.

20 bucks for a good idea. anyone?

for more info on "napibowriwee" go to http://paulayoo.com/

had to actually do a bit of 'real' work today on another assignment so could not think PBs till now.

also losing a bit of steam as well. a couple ideas i was toying with just don't seem to work as PBs-- more like a comic book/GN or heck, maybe an animated short. so must abandon them...for now.

but i went ahead and worked up my 'wordless' PB.

because it is without words, i scribbled them out in thumbnail form. actually, what passes for my 'chicken scratchings'. my thumbnails will generally look a little cleaner than these, but because i wanted to get everything out of my head without losing the thread of the idea, i just dash them out very messily. usually what i do from here is to redraw them again as thumbnails but with some added value like some specific details or elements i want to highlight or push. but i'll leave that for another time. this will be my 'cheat' day. (get by with as little as necessary :)

i've been brainstorming all day today. let me toss a few ideas 'atcha. o.k. see, there's this caterpillar. and he's actually eating his way through the book. it'll be all colorful and bright and at the end, he changes into a butterfly.

uhm, you do realize it's been done?

really, by whom?

eric carle.

carle?

yes, it's called "the very hungry caterpillar".

you don't say...well, how about that...what about this one. there's this boy and he's all rowdy. he has a tiff with his mom who then sends him to his room, see, and the kid sails away to this island where he becomes king of these creatures and he--

sendak.

what?

maurice sendak. he wrote "where the wild things are"

"where the wild things are"...hmm, nice title.  i was going to call mine, "where the wild cats are at"

uh, not as catchy.

sez you!
speaking of cats i was also mulling over a story about this lanky feline who wears this really tall hat. it's all stripey and cool looking and--

"the cat in the hat"

i like that title. thanks.

no, it's been done. by dr. seuss.

come on, dude. give me a break.

sorry.

pigeon driving a bus.

mo willems.

but this time he actually gets to drive the bus.

try again.

pigs on lily pads flying around a small town.

weisner. "tuesday"

jumpin' jehosaphat! are there any cool, original ideas left in the world???

you're just gonna have to work a little harder.

(grumble, grumble, grumble.)

it's funny where ideas for picture books come from. one could sit down and say, "i want to do a tale with a jack rabbit" and then sit there for the longest time trying to find an angle, a slant or just something humorous to grab onto and turn into a story.

or one can just drive around town and a spark will light up.

like yesterday for instance.

i was driving along when i spotted this young boy standing near a street corner near a lamp post. as i drove by, i thought i saw him look down and reach over for a yellow ball that seemed to roll right up to his feet.

this got me thinking of a story with a progressive nature. like 'the old woman who swallowed a fly'. something where one action begets another, larger action and so on. i started rolling with this idea as i continued on with my drive.

dr. seuss' 'to think i saw it on mulberry street' came to mind as well. i haven't read it since i was little, but i do feel there is some shared qualities ther, but i hope to add my own personal 'tweaks' and sensibilities here. just to see what comes to mind.

all in all, for napibowriwee, i'll play with this idea.

so, yes, those magical 'ideas'- you never know where they'll come from or when they'll hit you. you just have to be open to the possibilities and play with it.

for more info on "napibowriwee" go to http://paulayoo.com/

3 1/2 stories now!

getting ahead of the curve.

:)

for more info on "napibowriwee" go to http://paulayoo.com/

another story down!

3 in 3.

this last one was a little trickier in that it was longer in word count (approx. 580 compared to the previous 234 and 300) and more plot oriented.

also, maybe having the dodger game in the background didn't help my concentration :)

(but hey, the dodgers won today and are 10-0 at home to start the season and are off to a tremendous start and that's aces in my book. woo hoo!)

i'm not promising excellence with these first drafts, but i hope i have some nice bit of clay to mold.

for more info on "napibowriwee" go to http://paulayoo.com/

lame idea # 42

does anyone want to read a children's picture book story revolving around 10,000 tse-tse flies, 26 exercise balls, a ball-peen hammer and a can of cheese wiz?

.....(chirp, chirp).....

thought not.

slept in today. feeling much better after the bout with whatever bug i had yesterday. feeling almost like my normal self. don't think it was the s---- flu going around. not unless it's something one can kick in 24-36 hours. or maybe i just have a super human immune system. like wolverine! yeah, cool. arrgh.

still, decided to stay in today which meant, unfortunately, i skipped out on going to a wedding.

sad, yes, but it gave me time to lay back and do some writing.

wrote out rough (and i do mean 'rough') drafts for two stories.

that'll at least get me back on track.

time to get back to bed and curl up with some comic books. let's see what wolverine is doing now.

for more info on "napibowriwee" go to http://paulayoo.com/

went to lie down and rest the ol' body. let it try and heal thy self. but ideas came to me. i plotted out 4 stories in long hand and need a middle and an ending on a fifth. this is all coming together nicely. granted i haven't strung words together to actually form sentences, but there is time enough later. i do so love the conceptualizing stage. where one can just let the mind wander and feel out tales.

why does my hair look like conan o'brien with that updo sweep? oh, yeah, cause i didn't wash it and it's a little ratty today. i wonder if there could be a story in that??...

time for lunch and off to paint. 3x3 canvases won't paint themselves. (as much as i wish it were possible)

for more info on "napibowriwee" go to http://paulayoo.com/

woke up this morning feeling very off. actually, 'woke up' is a relative term. i woke up several times this morning because my stomach was not doing so well. now it seems i'm running a slight fever. slight.

rats.

i hope it's not that s---- bug going around. i don't see how i could have contracted it. i didn't leave the apartment at all yesterday. i just trudged around the place in my robe with my kleenex box shoes muttering to myself.

this will make painting and writing tricky...

for more info on "napibowriwee" go to http://paulayoo.com/

before i can get heavily involved in the picture book writing, i need to finish 3 paintings. damn you, paying gigs, why do we need to chase the green cabbage in order to eat and live? i'd much rather have fun making up stories.

if i only had a machine that could take dictations straight from my brain. i wouldn't need to speak the words, rather it would just take my thoughts and write them down. granted, those thoughts would come out all jumbly and disorganized and...strange. but i could then paint and "write" at the same time.

also, i wouldn't leave the market having forgotten that one item that was on the tip of my tongue that i couldn't remember cause the 'brain machine'© would have written my shopping list for me.

for more info on "napibowriwee" go to http://paulayoo.com/

cold...cold...so cold here inside my head.

where are the ideas????

where, where, where!

come on, something....

.......

wait!

nah!

eh...

yes, yes...

gotta go.

TAP, TAP, TAP, TAP...

for more info on "napibowriwee" go to http://paulayoo.com/

friday may 1st.

having a bowl of cereal while surfing the 'net and checking email. need an idea. what to write about. what would a kid like to read about? stare at bowl of cereal. is my cereal talking to me? i listen closely. snap, crackle, pop. what about a story where the honey bunches of o's escape the confines of my bowl and make a mad dash for freedom...? nah, too complicated. too elaborate. too...dumb. how about water buffalo...nah, lame. when i think of water buffaloes i think of fred flintstone and the order of the water buffalo and his silly hat. ah, my kingdom for an idea.

WWPD (what would Paula do?)

for more info on "napibowriwee" go to http://paulayoo.com/

in support of my friend, paula yoo, establishing the first national picture book writing week, affectionately nicknamed "NaPiBoWriWee", i, ken min, will endeavor to play along.

the object is to write 7 picture books in 7 days.

it'll be tough, but i think it could be fun. (or i could be in for a load of pain! :)

the 'fun' begins may 1st and will run through the 7th.

i think what i will do is simultaneously track my progress on a daily basis during the week both here on my website as well as my facebook page.

for details and more info, and heck, if YOU want to play along, check out paula's website for the skinny:

http://paulayoo.com/

take up the challenge. take up the gauntlet!

PBS Parents is debuting a new blog about children's books: Booklights. Go take a look. It's written by several of the kidlitosphere's finest. PBS Parents is the online adjunct to network's children's television programming.

Ten candles for the Complete Review.
Ten years old. My word.  Michael Orthofer muses on a decade, and resolves to sign his name to more reviews in future.

The Complete Review (founded in 1999) and its attendant blog, The Literary Saloon (around 2002), continue to set a very high benchmark for all literature blogs with an international readership. It's hard to believe one person is behind most of it - he does have a team of multilingual readers and reviewers, I know, but claims responsibility for the architecture and (gasp) the enduring URLS therein.
Then there's the eclectic news service - where else would I find a report like this straight from an Indian source on railway book stalls?

Bravo, Michael and team, long may you run.