Wednesday, October 21, 2015

BUILDING A BOOK

BUILDING A BOOK - Todays post is the third in a series of reflections I had after attending Litquakes digital publishing conference, digi.lit, on June 21, 2014. This session was all about the ways books can be built--in print or electronically--in todays ever changing publishing landscape. The panel consisted of three reps from top online book sellers, but didnt include Amazon, which continues to be number one. Kobo runs aps/ ebooks and got out of the ereader/ tablet hardware business in 2014. They partner with indie bookstores and report that 'first free' series sell extremely well. Smashwords will let an indie author post an ebook for free on multiple platforms. Think of it as one stop shopping, to get into all places and availability, in multiple formats. Ingram Spark purports to be Amazons main competitor. Their books are not labeled independent and are associated with Ingram wholesale. My opinion? None of them have the same reach as Amazon, so upload your ebook, for free to Kindle. Nobody beats their POD (print-on-demand) for professional results at a cost effective price. Yes, thats why they continue to be number one.

The following conference sessions will be covered in this series of blog posts.
1. Digital 101: Is Digital publishing the best option for me?
2. Do you read me? Author Branding and Marketing
3. Building a Book
4. The Changing Ways we Read


Sunday, October 18, 2015

THE GREEN INFERNO

THE GREEN INFERNO - The Green Inferno, directed by Eli Roth, was inspired by the 1980 Italian film entitled Holocausto Canibal. Stephen King tweeted a glowing response to the film, stating it was “hard to watch, but you can’t look away”. Roth is known for directing horror films such as Hostel, Hostel II and Cabin Fever. Hostel is one of my personal favorites in the horror film genre. It showcased a flawed main character you can root for, who is put into a dangerous scenario, and is able to fight his way back to freedom. While Green Inferno uses some of the same structural conventions, the impact is less effective and nowhere near as original. However, I did enjoy it and do recommend watching this film. Keep in mind it is very violent, politically incorrect and should not be seen by anybody with a sensitive disposition. Be warned, and, stay out of the jungle!   








Tuesday, October 13, 2015

LITCRAWL 2015

Don't miss Litcrawl this Saturday October 17, 2015!

Listen to me read at Litcrawl, part of the larger Litquake festival, at City Art in San Francisco which is at 828 Valencia Street, beginning at 7:15pm. 

http://www.litquake.org/events/alabama-street-writers-group-facades

https://alabamastreetwritersgroup.wordpress.com/



Sunday, October 11, 2015

THE KNOWN UNIVERSE

THE KNOWN UNIVERSE - The observable universe consists of everything (planets, stars, light, signals, gas, etc.) that can be observed at the present time because it has reached the Earth visually (Hubble Ultra-Deep Field) since the beginning of the cosmological expansion. 





THE KNOWN UNIVERSE

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

NYCHOS

NYCHOS - These pics represent street murals from the Austrian artist Nychos, seen around the time of his exhibit at Fifty24SF Gallery, in San Francisco's Lower Haight. Enjoy!