Fun and informative few days in Newburyport, MA

I just got back from the Firebrand Technologies user conference (by the way, check out their new website—I love it). There were over 100 attendees from university presses, trade houses, trading partners, and vendors. It was one of the most energetic and highly participatory conferences I've attended. Some highlights:

• Fran's opener when he said that he was leaving Quality Solutions behind—you got us, Fran!—only to go on to announce that QSI is now Firebrand Technologies
• getting to meet the rest of the Firebrand team
• the developer Q&A session
• Doug's TMM Tips & Tricks session
• meeting colleagues from other presses and publishing-related companies
• and, of course, the website session with Brock

I also managed to get some shopping in. Fran had warned us that it would be cold, but I unwisely chose to believe weather.com and didn't dress nearly warm enough. I ended up buying two warm sweaters (and a few other less practical items).

Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman

I finished this one on the plane from Chicago to Lincoln. It was a great book to read on the road, engrossing enough to grab you no matter how uncomfortable you might be.

This was Lippman's first stand-alone (not part of her PI Tess Monaghan series). I had read the description before and hadn't picked it up because I wrongly assumed it would be overly sensational and/or predictable.

Two little girls banished from a neighborhood birthday party take a wrong turn down an unfamiliar Baltimore street—and encounter an abandoned stroller with an infant inside. What happens next is shocking and terrible, and three families are irreparably destroyed.

My only complaint is that I felt the final unveiling was a little clunky. However, this could have been just me—by this time I had been on the road a long time and was super tired. I'll have to take another look at it.

alltop.com

I've been Kawasakied! So has the University of Nebraska Press blog and Kristen Lawrence and Publishing Insider (CARL!).

So go check out Alltop. And if you like books, go here.

Laura Lippman book signing

Some friends and I attended the Laura Lippman book signing last night at Lee Booksellers and it was probably my favorite author event ever. I'm always a little afraid to go to these things when I already really love the books because occasionally you realize that you maybe don't like that person too much. And it can kind of ruin the books for you, even if you realize that what's really going on is that you had unrealistic expectations (of, for example, the author being BFF material. Which, by the way, Laura totally is).

She mentioned that she somewhat regularly gets called "sir" even though she doesn't particularly present as masculine and how that is related to the idea of people being invisible. That we're not seen or don't see others. This used to happen to me regularly as well, but it wasn't until she brought it up that I realized that it hasn't happened since I quit working retail. When I worked at the University Bookstore, for example, I once had an entire conversation with a woman who called me sir throughout.

I bought copies of Another Thing to Fall (the new Tess Monaghan) and Every Secret Thing (the first stand-alone novel—I can't believe I haven't read it before).

I'm such a dork: I forgot my camera, remembered I could use my phone, then forgot all about it. I also forgot to ask Td's question about who she'd like to see play Tess in the movie (if it's ever made). What can I say? I was flustered. Or maybe it's all that meth in the water.

From the description for Another Thing to Fall

The California dream weavers have invaded Charm City with their cameras, their stars, and their controversy. . . .

When private investigator Tess Monaghan literally runs into the crew of the fledgling TV series Mann of Steel while sculling, she expects sharp words and evil looks, not an assignment. But the company has been plagued by a series of disturbing incidents since its arrival on location in Baltimore: bad press, union threats, and small, costly on-set "accidents" that have wreaked havoc with its shooting schedule. As a result, Mann's creator, Flip Tumulty, the son of a Hollywood legend, is worried for the safety of his young female lead, Selene Waites, and asks Tess to serve as her bodyguard/babysitter. Tumulty's concern may be well founded. Not long ago a Baltimore man was discovered dead in his own home, surrounded by photos of the beautiful, difficult superstar-in-the-making.

Sing along, Amy

Leningrad Cowboys & Red Army Choir sing "Sweet Home Alabama"

Timeline

The eBook Reporter has put together a timeline for ebooks that starts in 1971. Reading through it reminded me of my first glimpse of the World Wide Web back some time in the 1990s. I had been using the internet at that point, but couldn't really conceive of the internet with images (which is the way I had heard the WWW described). I was taking a typography class taught by George Tuck and he had us all squeeze into his little office so we could see the computer that had Mosaic on it.

I particularly remember that in our discussion afterward we talked about how in the future publications would probably list URLs as commonly as phone numbers or addresses, and how weird that would be.

It’s Not You, It’s Your Books

In the New York Times Sunday Book Review:

We’ve all been there. Or some of us have. Anyone who cares about books has at some point confronted the Pushkin problem: when a missed—or misguided—literary reference makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast.

Recommended by a certain friend who once broke up with a fella because he demonstrated insufficient respect for copyright law.