January 7, 2007...5:50 am

Back for Real

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Diana channels Kristin Nelson:
What’s playing on the iPod? The Bitch is Back, by Elton John.

Sorry, couldn’t resist. ;-)

So just when I think I should get rid of that Google Alerts thing, I get a glimmer of gold in my panning sieve — this one in the form of a review from the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in San Jose:

This is the book for you if you believe in conspiracy theories. Eli University’s secret Rose and Grave Society has unexpectedly tapped girls for the first time in its 150-year history. Amy Haskel, editor of the campus literary magazine, fully expects to be tapped into Quill and Ink, the literary society. So she’s shocked and amazed when she realizes that the most powerful, notorious and ultra-exclusive Rose and Grave Society has tapped her! Vivid cloak and dagger initiations, quirky characters and situations, and college-life romance provide a provocative look into the heart of the Ivy League. Fast-paced and funny, Secret Society Girl is an entertaining quick read for teens and adults. The second book in the series — Under the Rose: An Ivy League Novel — is to be published in June 2007. — Cheryl Woods.

Isn’t that nice? Thanks! And SJL.org has a handy dandy feature, for anyone who needs something new to obsess over, that shows you how many copies are in the library system, checked out, on hold, or :-( missing. I’ve only been to San Jose once, and my main memory of the trip was the rocking children’s museum, but when I return, I shall have to check out their libraries.

Went to a movie tonight with Sailor Boy and Sailor Parents. We saw Children of Men, which is very very violent, and which Sailor Boy and I disagreed mightily over. He says that the idea of global infertility is a MacGuffin, and the plot is the same as Willow. I say decidedly not, as the plot of Willow made no sense, even to the ten year old I was when I saw it, and the identity of a MacGuffin qua MacGuffin is extraneous to any storyline, whereas global infertility is intrinsic to the storyline of Children of Men (a premise), and the miraculous pregnancy (which is not a spoiler because it’s in all the ads) that forms the driving force of the plot is the natural story question that arises from this premise.

We did this over beers.

Then we went to a bookstore. Some authors tell me they get depressed when they go into bookstores because there are so gosh darn many books and they begin to think that there’s no way they can compete with that many books. I also get depressed going into bookstores, but it’s the same depression I feel when I go into pet stores. I want to take them all home and provide loving homes in which they will all be petted and nurtured and read and loved and have their covers tended and cherished, rather than stripped.

Seriously, though, I had the best time in the bookstore tonight. I’ll tell you all about it on Monday, when I reveal the cool idea it gave me.

8 Comments

  • Okay, I have to know…what is Google Alerts?

  • Diana Peterfreund

    Rachel:
    http://www.google.com/alerts

    Basically, it means you can enter any search string you want, (say, “Rachel Vincent”) and then when it appears, Google sends you an email with the link. It’s helpful to find obscure reviews. (But I wouldn’t recommend “Stray.”)

    the downside is it also points you to things you may prefer not to see.

  • I’m one of those who can sometimes feel overwhelmed in bookstores. Sometimes I feel like there’s never a way to stand out when I look at the rows and rows of books, spines out so that they all blur together. How would I ever find a new author that way? Other times I just think of all the authors out there who put so much effort into each of those books and who daydreams about people like me finding it and taking it home and loving it and becoming big fans. Sometimes I can almost feel all of those author expectations hovering over the aisles of the bookstore.

    I don’t go to bookstores as much anymore. I tend to get my books from Amazon based on what people are recommending or who I know that just came out with a book (it’s nearly impossible for me to not buy a book from an author I ‘know’ even if it’s not my type of book – maybe I’m hoping it will work like karma if I’m ever published). But I did go before Christmas and it was heaven – I left with many many additions to my TBR pile.

  • Congrats on that great review!

    As for the emotions bookstores bring, as a beginning writer I always found great hope walking into Barnes & Noble. I thought if all those books could be published, then mine could, too.

  • Shannon McKelden

    Nice review, Diana!! I can check the King County Library here in the Seattle area and see that there are 10 copies of VENUS ENVY on order and two holds placed already!! That’s pretty fun!

    Also love Google alerts. Put your name in a few different ways, like: “Shannon McKelden”, “Shannon McKeldon” (too many people misspell my last name this way), “McKelden, Shannon”, and “Venus Envy and Shannon”. Gets lots of different results depending upon how they are listed on a site.

    Google cracks me up, though. I’ve been meaning to tell you this. If you look up “Shannon McKelden” in Google Images? First two pics to come up are the original cover of SSG and YOU. Not sure why!! LOL!

    Shannon

  • Diana Peterfreund

    SB has now adjusted his theory. today, he said it was “Saving Private Ryan” set in the future, which I wholeheartedly agree with.

    I go into bookstores all the time, if only for the people-watching it affords. No one knows who buys what on Amazon. I like to see what oflks are browsing,a nd what they look at when they browse.

    Shannon, that is very very odd. I can’t imagine why. What does it link to?

  • Diana Peterfreund

    I mean, aside from the obvious in which we’re secretly the same person.

  • I saw the 30 minute promo on the SciFi channel for Children Of Men and it hooked me. Can’t wait for this one to make it to DVD.

    I love bookstores. I can feel my blood pressure drop when I enter one. Except for the one that used to be a prison. The side exit was the previous area of the gallows.

    Made me wonder if I brought a ghost home with my book.


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