I’m going to BEA Book Expo America. Are you?

May 17 2012       7 responses so far

Book Expo America is in just 17 days. BEA, from June 4-7 in New York City, is  “the largest publishing event in North America.” This will be my first time attending. On June 4, there is the BEA Blogger Con, sponsored by BEA, which I am also planning to attend.

Here are some tips posts I’ve bookmarked:

Book Expo America Tips for Writers by Jerry Simmons. This post was a useful overview of what the event is all about, with info like:

BEA is focused around the six big publishers, no doubt, without them the BEA would hold little relevance to the general public. As it stands today, the media is interested simply because of the celebrity authors and future bestsellers that are on display. Each of these big companies may spend well in excess of $1 million on this show so it is a big deal for them and they spend a lot of time in New York preparing.

Booth placement is key for this show and the sponsors do the best they can to make everyone happy. Size of the booth is indicative of how much money the sponsors are receiving from the big publishers. Having attended more than 20 I would have to say that the BEA as it now stands is as much representative of corporate publishing as anything else.

This post from Library Journal is librarian focused but I found it very useful.

After Seven trips to BEA, YA author Michelle Madow offers her best tips, such as:

10) If you see an author walking around at lunch looking for a place to sit, invite them to eat with you and your friends. In 2010 my brother spotted R.L. Stine looking for a seat and invited him to join us. We ended up eating together for an hour and having a great conversation! It was so interesting talking with R.L. Stine about his books, and learning about his writing process. He’s such a cool, nice guy!

Tips from BEA Event Director Steve Rosato, including eating a good breakfast, wearing sensible shoes, and having business cards. I actually did have business cards made up:

You guys know I got "Tripler" from "Triple R" right?

The black border won't appear on the finished version

 

The folks at Wastepaper Prose — readers and writers — have a very nice series of posts on BEA. I especially liked What the Heck Do I Do Now?

Ultimate BEA Party Guide 2012 (romance genre focused, some invitation only) from Andrew Shaffer. I’ve always wanted to attend a Lady Jane’s Salon:

Lady Jane’s Salon Monthly Romance Reading Series. Madame X. 94 West Houston St, Soho. 7pm-9pm. $5 cover or donated romance novel.

Romance reader and writer Katiebabs, also a seasoned BEA veteran, has a tips post from both points of view.

There is a BEABlogger Con, schedule here, on June 4. As I have mentioned here before, it is very author/industry focused. I declined an invitation to serve on a panel, as have many others, for that reason. A recent promo video, Get Your Swag Bag On is so insulting I don’t even know where to begin. Suffice to say that I am not attending BEA for the purpose of gorging myself on free books.

Here’s a partial list of bloggers attending BEA.

Thankfully, there is another option on the same day, the UNcon. Folks are suggesting topics they can lead discussions around. One of them is “authors on Twitter”, another is “negative reviews”. Both of those are more interesting to me than the topics on offer at the official con. that said, I’ll do what the people I most want to spend time with are doing, and right now that looks like BEA blogger con.

If you can’t make it to New York, you can participate in Armchair BEA:

So, what exactly does being a participant entail? First and foremost, you’ll be able to celebrate and participate in an event that happens each year in New York City, Book Expo America, from the comfort of your very own home, hopefully a snugly armchair! Secondly, and we hope equally as important, you’ll be able to meet new book bloggers and join together in a celebration of the wonderful community that comes out of book blogging. Last year we had over 600 participants, so you’re bound to meet some new great bookish friends! Lastly, it means participating, however you’re able to. This can be by posting, tweeting, discussing, or even by simply reading and commenting on participating blogs. Your level of participation is entirely up to you, but we hope you’ll find something to get you involved in this fabulous event!

Here’s a link to the brand new BEA Conference App and a link to the BEA show planner. I loved it that I could click on the events I want to attend and import them to the app and my Google calendar.

I’ve been struggling a bit trying to figure out what my goals are for the conference. Like every other blogger, I’ve received tons of emails from authors and publishers asking to set up meeting at booths, etc., and I’ve turned all but one down (I’m attending the Random House breakfast for “power readers”). As a blogger, I registered as “non editorial media.” I gather other bloggers are going to network, grow their blogs, and get industry news that will create great content. I’m most interested in seeing and meeting other bloggers, hearing what authors have to say about their work, and hearing what some publishers have to say about trends in various genres. I’m signed up to attend one breakfast, hosted by Stephen Colbert, and featuring authors like Jo Nesbo and Barbara Kingsolver, and I’ve noted the locations of a few of my favorite authors. I’m not sure about networking or growing my blog. I’m on the fence about the blog in general.

But one of the main things, for me — and my fellow working moms will especially understand this — is to be someplace where I’m not at anyone else’s beck and call. For three days, I don’t have to answer an email from a student or colleague, take an ethics call from the hospital, give a talk, make a snack, let the cats out, walk the dogs, pay a bill, straighten the family room, etc. etc. Just the freedom to walk through a crowd of people who do not need me for anything will be pure bliss. Between that and seeing old friends and new, I can’t wait for BEA.

My new Kindle Touch (what I’m reading ON now)

May 12 2012       5 responses so far

In March 2009, I took the e-reader plunge and bought a Kindle. It was the white keyboard with the bubble keys. I still have it and it still works great. A friend “borrowed” it about 6 months ago and I haven’t seen it since, but it’s ok, since in December 2010, I purchased a newer model, a graphite Kindle keyboard, for my son for Hanukkah. That’s the one I’ve been using, since he tends to use it only when he’s forgotten his book at school and begs me to download an e-version so he can get his homework done on time (most recently? Lord of the Flies, which is surprisingly very expensive!). It has a leather cover with an integrated light, and that one works great too. This spring, he’s been bringing it to school, and I do hope he uses it more. He says he reads faster on the Kindle, and that has been my experience as well.

I asked for, and received, a Kindle touch wifi 3g for my birthday a couple of weeks ago.

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Review: Snowbound with a Stranger, by Rebecca Rogers Maher

May 11 2012       2 responses so far

Like a lot of romance readers, sometimes I seek particular tropes, and this one, an advance digital copy of which I received from Carina Press via Net Galley, features one of my favorites: the heroine and hero stuck together for days with no outside disturbances. Pure relationship development! It’s like eating a cupcake without the cake, which for some people is too much, but for me is pure enjoyment.

Although you might not think so, given modern technology, it’s a lot easier to find the “stuck together” trope (I’m sure there is a much catchier real name for it) in contemporaries than in any other subgenre of romance.  In historicals, there’s too much accountability to other people, so the closest you usually get is the road romance. Being stuck doesn’t work for PNR or romantic suspense either, because it’s not exactly actiony.

I’d like to take a minute and point out the great cover for this one. The cover is what actually first caught my eye:

It’s not 100% accurate as far as the way these two are physically described in the text, but yippee for something unique and visually arresting, suggestive without being erotic, featuring fairly average looking people, and an image that fits the plot. Well done!

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Review: These Days are Ours, by Michelle Haimoff

May 10 2012       10 responses so far

I received this debut novel (Grand Central, Feb 2012, 304 pages) from the author, and while it took me a few weeks to open it up, once I did, I couldn’t put it down.  These Days Are Ours is a snapshot of a few months in the life of Hailey, a recent college grad trying to find work and love in New York City six months after 9/11. the setting is captured perfectly, not just in terms of 9/11, although I thought that was weaved expertly into the story, but by references to the clothing, music, bars, cocktails, and other cultural references of the day. Hailey is extremely privileged — her mother is the publisher of Details and her step-father a “highest-up” at Conde Nast — but she doesn’t want to use her family’s connections to find work. But with a group of friends to go clubbing and shopping with, and a cushy landing pad in her family’s Fifth Avenue penthouse, Hailey’s job search is a bit desultory. In the meantime, Hailey has an extreme crush on Brenner, a recent Princeton grad with a prestigious fellowship and a future as a human rights lawyer. She and Brenner hooked up once, and Hailey would like to renew their acquaintance. Then she meets Adrian, a transplanted Pennsylvanian and recent Brown graduate who is solidly middle class but perhaps a better match for Hailey in the ways that matter.

These Days are Ours is not easy to categorize.  It’s written by a woman, with a woman protagonist, all of the reviews I’ve read are by women, and it has a Reading Group Guide at the end, which suggests “women’s fiction.” There’s the urban haute bourgeoisie* setting, the embarrassing flounces, the youth of the protagonist and her friends, a few scenes at Barneys, and several mentions of high end brand names, which suggests “chick lit.” And finally there’s a strong romance plot — Hailey and her two suitors are much more memorable than any of the assorted friends she hangs out with — and a HFN (“Happy For Now” in romance genre lingo). It’s listed by the publisher as “fiction” and that’s probably the way I’d categorize it, too. Given the controversy around the new HBO show Girls, I should make explicit what is probably obvious by now: there are no people of color in this book. (*ten points if you get the reference)
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Twitter hiatus, productivity tools, what I’m reading

Apr 30 2012       18 responses so far

1. I decided to take a break from Twitter, so I deactivated my account. I believe I’ve got a month to reactivate it, but I don’t mind starting over if need be. I love Twitter, but it’s too much of a time suck right now. How do I know this for sure? Well, I signed up for Rescue Time, a free program that tracks what you are doing on the web. Suffice to say I did not like the results over the past few weeks. The thing about Twitter is that it always feels like a really short break. But adding up those many short breaks a day is a terrifying thing.

I’ve been trying out some other productivity tools. Freedom is a good (free) program, for Mac users, that turns off the web for a set amount of time. It’s great when I need to write a draft of an ethics consult or a syllabus (For PC users, Self-control does the same thing).

When I’m writing a paper or presentation, though, I need the internet. So, I downloaded Anti-Social, another Mac program, by the same people who brought us Freedom. Anti-Social, which costs $15, blocks a predetermined set of known time wasters (the usual suspects, including Twitter and Facebook), and then any other sites you enter in, for a set amount of time. The nice thing about Anti-Social (as opposed to browser specific programs like Leechblock, which only works when you are in Firefox) is that you can’t get around it by opening another browser.

I do have Leechblock, and one nice thing about it is that you can set it to give you a certain amount of time on a specific site. You see the timer counting down in the right hand corner of the browser bar. After that, you can’t get into the site until the next day. Or… you just open Safari. (You can see why I needed Anti-Social)

This article from The 99 percent lists a few other productivity tools.

Anyway, I did not expect my break from Twitter to alarm so many people (who then emailed me). I’m sorry I didn’t tweet about it first!

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My Three Cents on The Story Siren Plagiarism Case

Apr 29 2012       27 responses so far

As most readers of this blog are by now aware, a top YA blogger was caught plagiarizing, and the fallout has been significant. (Just Google “plagiarism” and “The Story Siren”).

I’d like to make three points about it, from my own point of view as a philosophy professor who specializes in feminist ethics, and as someone who does a good amount of clinical ethics work outside the academy:

(a) The important of the apology: I’ve seen some bloggers asking what the point is of an apology. Of course, no apology has the power to reverse time and undo the moral wrong that has been committed. But I don’t view ethics as a ledger you keep clean. Ethics is a way of being in community. The Story Siren’s plagiarism created rifts in the community. In particular, it damaged the trust on which the book blogging community is based. A good apology can help begin the process of moral repair. What we got from The Story Siren, beginning from the moment she asked her victims to keep quiet, continuing when she deleted her own plagiarism post, and then again when she reworded her own (already inadequate) second apology post, was the kind of apology that seeks to repair personal damage and restore personal social status, much like the celebrity and politician apologies we see on TV every week.

A restorative apology is not focused on the self, but on re-building community. Since The Story Siren appears to be moving on, business as usual, I doubt one is forthcoming. I’m sorry that she has opted not to take this opportunity for educating and strengthening the book blogging community.  I won’t bore you with my idea of the elements such an apology would contain, but I will make a prediction based on my many years as an ethics consultant working with health care providers who have made medical errors: without a meaningful attempt to take responsibility and restore trust, The Story Siren will never fully recover. With them, she may become more admired and influential than ever.

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15 Surprising Things About Pretty in Pink

Apr 24 2012       14 responses so far

I watched John Hughes’ 1986 film Pretty in Pink on TV last night, and I just so happened to be reading You Couldn’t Ignore Me if You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation by Susannah Gora (Crown, 2010) at the same time. Credit to Gora, especially Chapter Six,  ”SITTING PRETTY: Ringwald and Hughes Reteam for Pretty in Pink, a Rose-Tinted Look at Teenage Love” for most of the list below.

1. The poster. The Breakfast Club (1985) was released just a year prior to Pretty in Pink (1986), and its poster featured the characters staring unsmilingly at the camera (Annie Leibowitz’s camera, to be precise). According to Gora, this was a departure from teen film posters which tended to emphasize the funny or silly, even when they contained serious elements (see, for example, the poster for Fast Times at Ridgemont High).

2. The Ringwald-Hughes reteaming, sort of. Ringwald had already starred in Sixteen Candles (1984) and The Breakfast Club, both written and directed by John Hughes. As he had done with those films, Hughes wrote the part of Andie Walsh for Ringwald. But he left directing duties to first time director Howard Deutch, who was until then best known for cutting film trailers. The studio, Paramount, wanted a bigger name for the female lead, someone like Jennifer Beals, who was famous for her role as the welder-exotic dancer in Flashdance (1983). Luckily, Beals turned them down.  Can you imagine an actor best known for this shower scene as Andie?

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9 Great Things About Ruthie Knox’s Ride With Me

Apr 21 2012       25 responses so far

At the suggestion of a tweet from author Jill Sorenson, I picked up this contemporary romance the other day (Feb. 2012, Random House/Loveswept). I thought it was great. (Edited to add: also cheap at $2.99) Here are ten reasons why:

1. I know that guy: the hero, Tom, is so well-characterized I feel like I could walk by him any minute. Not so much his exciting history or his great looks — that’s the stuff escapist novels are made of — but the little things he did that seemed so real. Like going on a cross country biking trek wearing cargo shorts and an old Nirvana t-shirt, buying beer and chipped ice instead of water at a rest stop, taking his hands off the handlebars to stretch, swinging out into the traffic lane so he can look back and see the heroine, refusing to use a GPS, being open to detours and fun little hole-in-the-wall pit-stops.

2. Unique setting: the hero and heroine are cycling from Oregon to Virginia on the TransAmerica Trail. Have you ever read a romance novel that took place almost entirely on two wheels?

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