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Here are some literary events to pencil in your calendar. To get your event posted on our calendar, visit our Facebook Your Literary Event page. Please post your event at least one week prior to its date.
New York Times illustrator Tamara Shopsin and Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman will headline a conversation event tonight. See them at the Strand on Monday, April 15th at 7 p.m. (New York, NY)
Books of Wonder is hosting a “Girls Get Real” panel featuring four young-adult authors. Hear them on Tuesday, April 16th at 6 p.m. (New York, NY)
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
While hanging out at work, author and Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman introduced his co-worker Travon Free to Twitter’s Vine video sharing service.
The two writers produced a series of funny videos, showing how a little bit of editing goes a long way. We also got a quick tour of the Daily Show offices.
We’ve embedded the complete video story below–what do you think?
continued…
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Sometimes all you need for a book trailer is a telephone. For his new set of book trailers, author Shalom Auslander recorded dark and absurd phone calls with his friends.
To support his new novel, Hope: A Tragedy, Auslander staged strange conversations with Ira Glass (embedded above), John Hodgman and Sarah Vowell. What do you think of the series?
Here’s more about the book: “Hope: A Tragedy is a hilarious and haunting examination of the burdens and abuse of history, propelled with unstoppable rhythm and filled with existential musings and mordant wit. It is a comic and compelling story of the hopeless longing to be free of those pasts which haunt our every present.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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Betsy Bird,
on 1/18/2011
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Marketing yourself. Yeah, forget the hokey-pokey. We know what it’s really all about in this game. You poor authors and illustrators. Isn’t it enough that you sweat and strain to create the highest quality literature for the generation that will inherit the earth after we are dead and gone . . . and now you’ve gotta go and publicize your own book yourself?!? Who’s the yahoo who made THAT rule up? I feel your pain, and so in an effort to help you I shall direct you, today anyway, to someone who shows that the best way to bring attention to yourself is to be creative, low-key, and involve a lot of other folks. The author of Will Work for Prom Dress, Aimee Ferris (she of many names) has for the past few weeks been “posting daily photos of ‘mystery YA authors’ in their angsty teen best (showcasing a range of tragic teen fashion choices), as well as a few truly surly anti-prom shots on http://willworkforpromdress.com/ in anticipation of my upcoming book release on Feb 8.” She’s calling it the “Promapalooza” and promises that in the future weeks there will be serious cases of “Man Perm” an “Agent Week” and much much more. What she has up already is pretty impressive though. I’m not giving away who the cute gal in this photo I lifted from her site is, but I will say that she has a picture book out this year (and she’s definitely not me).
- Speaking of Blue Rose Girls, we’ve all heard of authors and illustrators talking about getting “the call” that told them they’d won a Caldecott or a Newbery. But an agent talking about getting “the call”? I’ve never heard of that one before.
- Well, geez. I was all set to tell you about Ward Jenkins and his crazy contest to convince enough people to “Like” his Facebook profile page for the upcoming picture book Chicks Run Wild. He said that if 300 people “liked” it he’d wear a chicken suit. The happy ending? It hit 333 as of this post. Didn’t need my help. Chicken suit-up, Ward my man.
Celebrity chef Alton Brown hosted a book signing event at New York City Barnes & Noble to celebrate the release of his second volume in the Good Eats trilogy, Good Eats 2: The Middle Years. Author/actor John Hodgman (the “I’m a PC” guy) shared the stage and conversation with Brown (pictured, via).
Brown and Hodgman have been friends since a 2004 road trip. Brown brought a tiny bottle of New York rye whiskey while Hodgman came with a large bottle of Kentucky bourbon. Brown asked for a volunteer and one excited young woman excitedly popped on stage. Brown ordered: “Go to the cafe and get us some ice.” Have there ever been incidents in the past where authors have drunk on stage during events?
Brown’s encyclopedic tome weighs 3.85 pounds, half an ounce more than the previous volume, Good Eats: The Early Years. Hodgman complimented Brown for actually writing the books himself. Brown responded: “I’m actually writing these books. I’m almost done with my next book, how ’bout you?” Hodgman sipped his drink and answered, “Fake trivia takes time, you know.” After the talk, Brown personalized and signed every single book.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Well, folks, wish me luck. Today I give my presentation to the good people of Hamline University, and we’ll see whether or not they find my talk too short, too long, or too nerve-wracked (the smart money’s riding on the last). The weather, as it happens, is perfectly perfect here. I am, however, a little unnerved when folks continually make eye-contact. Don’t they know that eye-contact is a dangerous habit that can lead to death, disease, and dysentery? Or is that just in NYC? Moving on . . . .
- The other day I was recommended a middle grade novel I had not heard much about called A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz. The cover did nothing to make my heart pitter-pat any faster (it’s sort of using a faux David Frankland silhouette technique) and the title? Haven’t we done enough fairy tales? But then I saw the blurbs inside. Laura Amy Schlitz? She doesn’t blurb anything. Jack Zipes? One of the best children’s literary academic scholars out there. So I gave it a read, and you should too considering how hard I fell for it. We’ve got ourselves a new amazing debut author, folks. Salon ran a fun article on blurbing as well, that you might enjoy. It’s called Beware of blurbs and makes a lot of sense. Still and all, had I not seen the blurbs (and gotten a personal recommendation from Monica Edinger) I might have missed the book altogether. They do have their uses. Thanks to @neilhimself for the link.
- Says author Philip Womack, “When I started to write children’s books, most people would nod sagely and opine, ‘they’re the hardest audience to write for – very picky, children’. This is a cliché which is almost monstrously wrong. The vast majority of children (and by “children”, I mean anybody in those prepubescent years who has yet to make the leap to Jane Eyre and Great Expectations) have the literary sensibility of a dead snail and will read any old rubbish.” As opposed to adults who are all discerning in their tastes, I suppose. Womack then goes on to equate Stephenie Meyer to J.K. Rowling, which may explain why this article goes by the subtitle how to write a children’s best-seller, and yet the author is, himself, a relative unknown. Ah well. When I say that I just sound like the snarky commentors. Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link
- You can take the girl out of Kalamazoo but you can’t take the Kalamazoo out of the girl (Kalamazoo, in this case, being a town and not a dreadful disease with a catchy name). Little did I know that author/artist Mark Crilley was a Fine Arts major at Kalamazoo College. That and other interesting facts about the man come up in his recent spotlight piece at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Later he goes on to say, “For whatever reason, I just don’t seem to show up on people’s radars as an illustrator for hire. The happy exception was Little, Brown’s recent re-issue of
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Michelle Rafferty, Publicity Assistant
Douglas E. Phillips is the author of The Software License Unveiled: How Legislation by License Controls Software Access, which reframes the debate between proprietary and free software to ask whether “legislation by license” should control either kind of software access. In the article below he answers the question: Can I legally make my PC think it’s a Mac? Read other OUPblog articles by Phillips here.
Apple boasts that a new Mac can run Windows natively, just as if the Mac were a PC. But what if you want to run Apple’s operating system on a PC, so the PC thinks it’s a Mac?
If you watch Apple’s “Get a Mac” ads, you might think a Mac-like PC could only be a good thing, because it would work better than a PC. And if you watch Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” commercials (which reportedly were 
created on a Mac), you might also think a Mac-like PC would be a good thing, because it would be cheaper than a Mac.
But if you do manage to run the Apple OS X operating system on a PC, the people you meet won’t be John Hodgman and Justin Long. They’ll be Apple’s legal team, and it’s possible they will sue you.
The software license agreement for OS X Leopard declares: “You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer or enable another to do so.” You can be sure that, when Snow Leopard debuts this fall, the same language, or something a lot like it, will bar you from using the new latest and greatest Mac OS on anything that isn’t adorned with the Apple logo.
Does Apple mean what the license says? Ask Psystar, a Florida company that makes and sells computers with OS X preinstalled. Apple has sued Psystar for violating the OS X license agreement and for infringing Apple copyrights and trademarks. Psystar filed for bankruptcy, but last month, the bankruptcy court ruled that Apple’s case could go forward. (Psystar then moved to withdraw its bankruptcy petition.) If Apple prevails on the merits, watch for more litigation in which not just public copyright law, but also the private law of Apple’s software license, plays a key role.
According to Apple’s lawyers, Psystar managed to make its hackintosh only by using a modified version of OS X. With or without the Apple-only hardware requirement in Apple’s license, modifying copyrighted software without permission is clear copyright infringement. On the horizon, though, is a new method that apparently doesn’t involve changing the Apple software at all. An Apple legal effort to block this method could place the software license front-and-center.
Apple uses Intel’s Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) in Intel Macs. EFI replaces the older Basic Input/Output System (BIOS). Early IBM PC clone makers of the 1980s had to reverse engineer the IBM BIOS, using clean room methods to avoid infringement. EFI, in contrast, is a publicly-available industry-wide specification. The EFI layer, sandwiched between the PC’s firmware and the operating system, includes a boot manager that loads the operating system. With the EFI layer, you can boot an Intel Mac in OS X.
A new device, the EFi-X, implements the EFI specification – making it possible to boot an unmodified retail copy of Apple OS on a PC – with a $189 dongle. (“Dongle” is a hardware device needed to run a piece of software, originally used to fight piracy. Ironically, this dongle opens the door to doing what Apple’s software license seeks to stop.)
If person buys a PC, an EFi-X, and a retail copy of OS X, running the software might not involve any copyright infringement. If that’s the case, then to block the practice, Apple would have to enforce the software license agreement. Making clear that the license legally binds may be one reason Apple is so vigorously pursuing Psystar, which on its own seems like a pin-prick.
After all, it’s hard to believe that Psystar is making even a dent in Apple’s sales or its reputation. According to Apple’s complaint, commentators have said “that Psystar’s Open Computer is ‘missing stuff like iLife, Bluetooth, an IR receiver, DVD burning and the ability to update your computer,’ is ‘LOUD, Crazy Loud,’ it ‘breaks the OS’s automatic updates, and that ‘video was DOA right out of the box.’” These comments don’t exactly make the machine sound like a computer “for the rest of us.”
If the allegations about Psystar in Apple’s complaint are even partly true, the competitive cost to Apple must be well below the cost of its legal fees. But Psystar may be the ideal defendant, from Apple’s perspective, for making clear that Apple can enforce the Apple-only hardware clause in its license. No one wants a crazy loud machine, but what if devices like EFi-X or built-in EFI hardware make it possible to run OS X on a stylish Sony that costs hundreds less than a comparable Apple-branded machine?
Apple probably doesn’t have to worry too much. It might have to stop supplying those cool logo stickers with every copy of OS X, in case a user slaps one of them on a Dell to show that it’s really an “Apple-labeled” computer after all. (If you only put it on your own machine, you can’t really be infringing Apple’s trademark.) But with a little rewording, Apple could make clear that the license allows you to use OS X only on a machine that has been given its Apple label by Apple itself. The courts have left little doubt in recent years that such a license term will be enforced. Whether it should be – so that running Windows in a virtual machine on a Mac is a one-way privilege – is another question.
From the people (including myself) who brought you the 700 Hoboes Project comes the fascinating and wondrous 700 Mole-Men Project.
The instructions, should you choose to play along, are simple:
Obtain (preferably through legal means) a copy of John Hodgman’s new book More Information Than You Require.
Find and consider the list of 700 Mole-Men and their occupations.
Create an image depicting one (or more) of the Mole-Men.
Post it to flickr and add it to this group.
From there it will show up, at random intervals, on 700molemen.com.
Repeat 699 times or less, depending on your temperament.
Seen above (ironically enough) is #17. Mr. Nathanael Glowingass, a Declarationist, drawn by halcyonsnow.
More than just a dog that dies — a dog you have to shoot yourself. Even better!
ew, what next, SOUNDER kibbles?
when, oh please, when will they stop destroying jay ward cartoons? who watches those things? my kids loved the originals when i showed them the DVDs and had no desire to see any of the movies that were made because the “looked dumb.”
and while i agree about john hodgman, i think he’s more deserving an original creation for voice work. something in the pixar family, i believe.
finally, i’ve had my eye on picking up a copy of suzuki bean ever since i found out about it a year ago. i’ve read the scribd copy but its become a sort of fetish desire object for me. i cannot explain why.
They named the dog food after a dog that GOES MAD, then dies. Hm. Nutrition at it’s best. Wacky.
You know, I would’ve suited up and worn that chicken suit in public even if I *didn’t* hit that magic number 300.
It’s crazy the things we have to do to get our books noticed!
I loved All of a Kind Family, and I was a Catholic kid growing up in the New Orleans area. I also loved Miriam Chaikin’s books, although hers were more subdued and serious (from what I remember…it’s been a while, but I think one of the siblings was chronically ill?).
Hodgman did do the voice of the dad in Coraline. And I too am horrified by the notion of a Peabody movie but . . . . GAH! Not to have Hodgman, if you’re going to make the film anyway, seems the greatest crime of all. Downey Jr. can be Sherman, if he wants.
Why stop at rabid dead dog food? How about Velveteen Rabbit Food (plush and inedible and maybe tinged with scarlet fever, but LOOKS Real) or Wanda Gag Cat Chow (dosed with fertility drugs)?
And thanks for the All-of-a-Kind shout-out, Betsy!
rams, that sounds like a great/horrible tagline for the bag “Old Yeller Dog Chow – for the dog you have to shoot yourself!”
I too loved All-of-a-Kind Family. Thanks for the heads up on that lovely article!
I live in KC, but haven’t been to the Reading Reptile in a while. I might have to scoot over there and see what’s what with the DNA collection…
Thanks for the shout out, Elizabeth. Much appreciated,
James Preller (Fathersread.com)
Enjoyed the All-of-a-Kind Family article so much!! (There are five of the books, but I only knew about four of them till I was a parent, when I found the fifth.)
Also, there’s a great article linked in the All-of-a-Kind Family comments – links to a post about fictional characters reading about other fictional characters (as Henny in All-of-a-Kind Family waits early for the sequel to Anne of Green Gables, a plot point I had forgotten).
http://eveninaustraliakidlit.blogspot.com/2011/01/to-get-all-meta-on-you-books-about.html