Thursday, November 6, 2008

The road taken


Photo by Andif

17 comments:

Nancy P said...

Isn't that a pretty picture?

My road is taking me to Topeka today (Friday).

maryb said...

Have a good time in Topeka.

For those of you who are part of the producing end in the book industry (as opposed to those of us in the consuming end)- I thought this was funny: "Book industry cheered by the news: This President knows how to read."

Then there's a photo of Obama with a book in his hand and the caption: "In case you forgot what it looks like: A president holding a book"

lol
here's the link:

http://tinyurl.com/5a8fch

Anonymous said...

Safe travels, Nancy. Made it to Alameda safely. Off to San Francisco tomorrow - Alcatraz, Pier 39, not sure where else.

Have a great Friday, everyone!

Nicola Slade said...

Have fun in Topeka, Nancy and thanks for that great photo. There's always something good to look at on here.
My road is taking me to the New Forest here in the South of England. (Well, it was new in the Eleventh Century!) Mr Spock is taking his car to have some gas struts fitted and has suggested lunch in the pub next door to the garage. Work? Word count? Chapters? Forget it, lunch is on!

AndiF said...

Well looks like On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe will be my earworm playlist for today.

And hey, how easy can it get -- my road is taking me to that road.

Safe journey Nancy. Fun journey Beth. Easy traffic journey Mary. Great oaks journey Nicola.

Good whatever journey to everybody.

Family Man said...

Good morning Nancy.

As usual, Andi always has some of the most beautiful pictures. You have a safe trip to Topeka.

We're finally getting some rain down here and it is very welcomed. Now if it would only last for 3-4 days, I would be happy.

Anonymous said...

My road leads to Cherokee, on the fringe of the Texas Hill Country.
We have property with a trailer there. Just me and the Corgi Atticus. Hubby bakes old family recipe rum cakes in my kitchen with scouts for a fund raiser all day Saturday, so I'm escaping.

Actually Nancy, I'm trying to practice that letting go phase you talk about in your book. This Lion(very cluttered desk) is going to leave work early, after I finish teaching, and head out to be alone and just listen.
Listen to myself, my story, the outdoors, and especially our creek.

Happy Trails to those traveling and Happy Home to those enjoying down time there.

Wonderful Weekend to all.

Maria Lima said...

Safe drive and fun trip, Nancy! Morning, peeps. A lovely, lovely Friday has dawned. Had a very late, but productive and effective senior staff meeting last night at the day job. Like the country, I have a renewal of hope. ::beams::

Lisa, I so love the Hill Country. I spent many of my formative years there or nearby and still miss it.

Fabulous Friday to all!

GhostFolk.com said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
GhostFolk.com said...

Maria, congratulations on Blood Bargain!. When a book finally appears in physical form, it is rather like a birth. First thing you do is check to see if all the pages are there. I love the covers they are doing for you, btw. Wow.

Self-promotion sucks. The only good thing is that a lot of it can be done on or through the Internet these days. Consider paying a friend or lover who doesn't have a full-time job to post something about your book (by title) to "interest appropriate" blogs through the major blog bases: Google, Yahoo, FaceBook, etc.

If you pay someone 10 or 15 cents per post, they can make a little money and you can generate a lot of hits at amazon.com, B&N, or whatever your prefer. $200 buys a rather incredible amount of promotion and equals the postage you would pay to send out a flyer or bookmarks or keychains to your publisher's mailing list. People simply knowing about your book is more important, I think, than hand-selling copies by doing signings, etc.

It's tricky, but if you can come up with a crazy, funny, or sexy idea for a couple youtube vid-clip posts (or facebook, my space, etc) it might well be worth the trouble.

Larry Kollar said...

Nancy, every time I hear "Topeka" nowadays, I think of the Topeka in Stephen King's Dark Tower series: you have to ride a homicidal Crazy Train to get there, and it's empty of people if you live to leave the station.

My road? If I don't get hijacked, my road will lead not very far. A little wood chopping, (I HOPE) a little writing, and maybe a little screwing around with cutting a novelty song (in honor of a milestone birthday coming on fast).

Beth, here's a funny bit of synchronicity: less than an hour after I told you about my college roomie in SF, he IM'ed me. I think SF is a great destination for you right now, though… there's so much there that can take your mind off "things."

Ghost, congrats! averts eyes To follow on your "paid shill" idea, if you or someone you know has kids in college, you have a potential labor pool right there.

Mary, Nicola, Andi, FM, Lisa, Maria — safe travels. much slacking, or good times (whichever applies to you)…

Kelly McCullough said...

Hey All,

Happy trails to our traveling band. It's snowing here in Wisconsin and I all always have mixed feelings about that. I love snow and winter and wouldn't want to live without them, but they always seem to come to early.

I'm trying to shift gears at the moment from very dark WWII YA fantasy to WebMage and snark and the transition is a bit bumpy. Especially since the weather is moving in the opposite direction.

Larry Kollar said...

Ugh, Kelly. I've had to promise myself: no new (large) projects until I finish FAR Future. Good luck with the shift!

Nancy P said...

Hi, Guys. I'm sitting in one of the rooms of the prettiest library in the land, the main library in Topeka. I'm not kidding. It's lovely, with pretty pink walls, and a cafe with great food. Or, dood, as I originally typed it. The dood is good.

Ghost, your marketing tip made my own ears go all perky. I take it you suggest this from your own good/dood/food experience?

We're a hyper-active bunch today! (I started to say "peripetetic, but when I got nervous about the spelling and looked it up, I realized that the word refers to walking, and not to movement in general. I never knew that! Makes sense, given the root.)I've already had a McDonald's sausage biscuit and coffee, so I know for sure I'm on the road.

Conda Douglas said...

Safe travels, Beth and Nancy! I'm back from the last trip for me for this year and cracking down for NaNoWriMo--but my spirit travels with you!

Kelly McCullough said...

FarF, in regards to yesterday's note, 28k words could be 2 weeks but it really depends on which 2. I often hit that kind of pace late in the book, but not so much in the front end and not at all around the one third mark where I hit my usual wall.

Larry Kollar said...

Yeah, Kelly, I forgot to specify that's your end-time rate. I hit a wall about half-way through, in my experience.