Shorter and Definitely Sweeter

I've got to stop the long rants and whinefests for a while, so I'm just going to do some quickie stuff today. (All together now, "Thank you, God!)

Could This Have Been Planned Somehow?

Big A little a reviewed Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku yesterday. I can't say that I'm really crazy about haiku. I can't say I even understand them. I believe they involve some math, which always throws me. However, I'm reading Criss Cross right now, which includes a section written in haiku. Or I think it does. It looks like haiku. At any rate, it's very clever, and isn't it one of those great cosmic coincidences that Big A little a would do a haiku review so soon after I had a haiku experience?

As Close As I've Ever Been

I have never been to one of those professional book conferences where publishers give out catalogs and review copies and authors discuss the business of writing. So I really enjoyed Anne Boles Levy's post at Book Buds about her experience at the L.A. Times Festival of Books. The people at Readerville have been talking about this Festival, too. But the Readervillians tend to be interested in people like Joan Didion and Frank McCourt who aren't noted for their work in the field of children's literature.

Be sure to check out Anne's earlier post about her actual encounters with authors. One went something like this: "I come running up to him screaming "You're Marc Kompaneyets!" since he might've forgotten that. It's never a bad thing to remind someone of their own name, I always say."

Ten Questions May Be Too Much For Me

Since I've done such a lousy job of publicizing my own book, I was interested in Buzz, Balls & Hype's post on Picking a Publicist. But the ten questions you're supposed to ask yourself when interviewing a PR consultant are probably more than I can manage.

And, yes, I do recognize that either the first or last reason for hiring a publicist probably applies to me.