Voicemail from my daddy

I got an interesting voicemail from my daddy this morning. I have to set a little ground work, before I tell you about it. My daddy is 70+ years old and retired. As near as I can tell, he keeps busy by gardening and visiting with his friends at Ben’s Burgers’ in Oakland California. When I was a kid in the 70’s, the social spot was Rips Soul Food Kitchen and McDonalds; both on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. Ben’s, as a social spot, is a fairly new thing; he’s older now and he worries about driving too far.

The voicemail this morning was to tell me that he’d received the two copies of Never Wake I’d sent him. Yes, I send copies of my books to both my parents. Now here’s where it gets odd. My daddy then requested I send him two more copies. Was I surprised? Nope. He sells a lot of my books to his Ben’s Burgers social club friends.

Now, between you and I dear reader, I doubt he’s ever read any of my books. I also doubt any of his friends have either. I vacillate between wishing my books were going to people who actually read them, and being damn proud of my daddy for his boldness and his ability to make such supportive friends. Now where was he when I was pushing Girl Scout cookies in the fifth grade?

Libraries to Go

All right folks. My short story deadline looms large, but I wanted to blog about a great feature many libraries are offering.

My commute ranges from 40 minutes to an hour depending on the weather (believe it or not Portlanders have a hard time driving in the rain). I keep this segment of my life from being a total waste of time by listening to podcasts or audiobooks. That’s where Libraries to Go comes in.

With a library card issued from a supported library, you can add your name to a waiting list to listen to all kinds of audiobooks for free. Many of the classics are available immediately. No late fees, no fumbling with CD’s and no last minute trips to the library.

Now, for the catches. You didn’t seriously believe there wouldn’t be any did you? Not all libraries are supported, you will have to download the Overdrive software, and many of the audiobooks can not be burned to CD or downloaded to an ipod. But if you are a gadget head like me, you carry your laptop and or your handheld with you most places anyway.

On a related note, I am amazed at the numbers of people that don't take advantage of the offerings of their public library. I am aware that not all libraries are created equal and funding dictates how many services each library offers. But here in Metro Oregon, our library offers most of the NY Times bestsallers in audiobook and print form almost immediately. Be prepared to wait for the more popular titles.

Manuscript off to the publisher. YES!!!

My manuscript is in the hands of my publisher. What usually happens is the publisher assigns an editor and in a few weeks or months (depending on how busy the editor is) you get the redlines back. I have two books on schedule for edit in 2007. And I should probably write another book in between the two edits. I'll spend the next two weeks revising and editing a anthology piece and figuring out what I want to do next.

In Gabe’s tech ho’ news I finally pulled the trigger on a new laptop to celebrate sending in the manuscript. I purchased a Dell D620. Now for those who don’t know me this is probably my fourth laptop in ten years. I seem to be hard on them. My criteria are simple. You must work, you must work hard, you must not weigh a ton (see above post about the other crap I carry) and you must run at least 99 present of the apps I want you too. Seems easy enough right? We’ll see if Dell is up to the challenge.