Dear Martha: Alton Brown (from Good Eats, best cooking TV show ever) writes an open letter to Martha Stewart that starts out: “Men don’t like you because you’ve made it clear you don’t need a stinkin’ one of us and that makes us mad because in a lot of ways you’re a hottie.”
Ahahahaha!
Just got back from the Waterside Conference, the yearly conference for computer book authors. I haven’t actually written any computer books in a long time, but I still go because, well, I like the parties and its a chance to catch up with a lot of people I really like and don’t get to see very often. Plus in recent years its been up in Berkeley and that’s just a drive up the right side of the bay for me. It’d be different if I had to actually fly somewhere to get there.
As far as the conference goes there were also some interesting talks about branding and connecting with readers, about what’s up with the computer book industry right now (it still sucks) and what’s actually working well (design, Mac, gadget books). The interesting turn that was emphasized this year: publishers want name brand authors. They want celebrities in a particular realm of technology or someone who can otherwise stand out from the crowd. This is a big change from…well, any other time I’ve been writing computer books, when the author wasn’t as important as the series (Dummies, Teach Yourself, Bible, etc, etc). Its a good thing for me, since even four years after I stopped writing books I still have a recognizable name in the industry.
Mostly, though, the conference was all about parties. I got to see Molly and Dave and Christian and met Deb and bunches of other people I forget (or who don’t have web sites I can link to. :)
I didn’t login once while I was gone, mostly because there was no wireless connectivity at the conference and I forgot to bring a cable for the internet in the hotel rooms (plus it was $10 and I’ve developed this thing about paying that much for getting online). I didn’t miss it much, although now I have lots to catch up on.
Back when I was a goth I had a real thing for cemetery sculpture: for angels draped in despair on headstones, etc. I had a photograph of a cemetery angel on my home page for a long time. I even wrote angsty fiction about it (you cannot be a goth unless you write angsty fiction.*)
This is a really beautiful collection of cemetery art and sculpture from around the world.
*I am JOKING. Do NOT send me hate mail.