Ok, I know that even for Roy Blount Jr. (if he reads my posts on him, my admiration for him borders on stalking) but really, I just think he’s the most amazing American humorist alive today. At last year’s Texas Book Festival I’m fairly certain I completely frightened Mr. Blount as I somehow kept ending up being in pretty close quarters to him at various times during the Fest. (Truly, it was just happenstance!)
And I have to say that one of my favorite novels by Mr. Blount Jr. is First Hubby and I’ve got to tell you that now more than ever is the time to read this book. Get it used on Amazon, Powell’s, Alibris, wherever! Just get it. They should be reprinting it as we speak (but they probably won’t.)
Here is a short summary of the plot, “First Hubby is the story of the long romance between Guy and Clementine, beginning in the sixties during a political demonstration. As the decades pass, Guy becomes a moderately successful writer, while Clementine goes into politics, working her way up to Vice-President. Then, when the President drops dead – killed by a fish – one of the most hilarious memorable moments of any novel in recent years – Clementine Searcy Fox becomes President of the United States. And Guy becomes America’s First Hubby.”
Read the novel.
It’s not too late to get your seat at one of the best days you could spend in terms of learning about how publishing works and how to get your book published.
For more information go to this link.
There’s even time for you to still turn a manuscript in! So go to it!
Ok, now is the time to start using Shelfari! And is there anything Amazon is not buying up? I have a cool virtual futon for sale – that’s great for reading books from Amazon. Maybe Amazon will buy that? :>)
And I have to give a shout out to Wayne Hurlbert who is the first one to turn me on to using Shelfari.
I’m crazy about Joe Biden so I’m pretty excited about all the latest happenings in the world of politics, however, if Michelle Obama says, “Uhs, Um, Umm” one more time I’m going to go even more crazy!
Stop with the “Uhs”. Surely, someone much more adept than I, is media coaching her and advising her that it’s very distracting when someone finishes each thought with an “Uh” afterwards. It’s probably something very unconscious on her part, but someone needs to make her aware of it.
One of the tricks you can do when you’re working on getting rid of the “uhs” is to practice taking an extra breath after you finish a response to a reporter. This helps lessen them immensely.
It’s a similar thing when people say, “You know?” after something they’ve just told you (so of course you know because they just told you!).
My grandfather cured me of saying “you know” one particularly hot summer in Texas when I was twelve, by making me put a quarter in a jar each time I said it. It was his jar, not mine.:>)
So uh, you know, how uh, that’s a meaningful memory, uh, you know?
I had the great luck of contributing a post to one of my favorite business folks Drew McClellan for his widely popular “Marketing Minute” blog. The post is focused on telling your company story.
I also shared a personal story about my own growing up and how I was always encouraged to tell stories. My grandfather and his sister, my Great Aunt Florence made it a practice to sit myself and cousins in a circle and encourage us to tell stories. Every summer we traveled to Gulf Shores, Alabama and would spend a month there with all my cousins from Alabama and our stories were very much part of the family tradition.
And one of our family mantras was, “If you can’t tell a good story, then you’ll probably lose your invitations to Sunday suppers and good fried chicken.”
Naturally because of my deep love for good fried chicken, I learned to tell good stories!
One of the best books you can read on storytelling and how it works in business is by Annette Simmons, “Whoever Tells the Best Story WINS: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact”.
Read this Business Week article and make sure you’re on Facebook!
Great post by Daniel Sacco of DailyBlogTips on Alexa Rankings and what they mean. This is one of my favorite blogs that I also recommend all clients read.
Latest news on Sony’s new move to improve its competitive battle with Amazon’s Kindle.
Ah, this makes me miss my days as a tech journalist when I read an article that is so wonderfully written and engaging. Still not sure what Twitter is? This article is for you.
Go and read this great blog post by Bob Lefsetz on Stephanie Meyers, music and what folks need to be doing online to connect! Brilliant stuff!
I love this quote from the post, “Artifice is so seventies. The Net community is about sussing out the truth. Give them the truth and your honesty will endear you to them.”
And kudos to my smart pal Jerry for tuning me into this!
A superb client interview! This makes me very happy and it’s an insightful interview.
It’s always wonderful to be inspired by your client after you read an interview with him!
And today is a great day as well because my client Mitch Ditkoff had his Changethis Manifesto published! Love the Changethis.com folks!
And I think it bodes well that his came out on the same day that brilliant David Meerman Scott’s new one was posted too.
What a wonderful gift to work for such talented folks!
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