Interesting

Agamisu asks about Nepotism and the Writing Career. If you have been reading this journal for any length of time you pretty much know what my answer to that question is. But if you don't want to go searching for my bitter entries about losing friends over Teddy Bear Cannibal Massacre, you can read it. Besides I ended up by praising brotherrabbit and avantpop for contributing damn good stories to BADASS HORROR.

Legit or Scam?

Ok, since I have a small press and since I know that I need to publicize the books I publish and since I want to actually make money at this eventually, I do find this intriguing.

Greetings,
Book publicity costs money...but it doesn't have to cost a lot of money. My name is Rachel Jones and I am a Book Marketing Consultant with Jenkins Group, Inc. I'm contacting you to tell you about an opportunity that will not only help you share your message, but sell more books as well. It's my Targeted Media Book Publicity Program and it's returning fantastic results for a very low investment. I have designed the program as a focused and cost-effective method of making the public aware of your book without the hassle and expense of an overpriced PR firm.

My program begins with the creation of a professionally written press release, solely focused on the latest news surrounding your book. Whether your book has just been released or it’s in its fifth printing, the media needs to know and I am here to show you how.

Based on target audience information I obtain through a title analysis profile, your release is delivered via email and fax to a custom media list of up to 800 editors, writers, reporters, producers, hosts, columnists and syndicated writers, all looking for the latest information surrounding the book world. Once delivery of your release is complete, I provide you with the entire custom media database as a briefing book for you to keep as an essential tool to assist in the follow-up of your message.

Want to learn more? I have included a link to an informative PDF document with additional information, pricing and the success stories of some of our past Targeted Media clients. Here is your chance to tell the world about your book while maintaining control of your message and cost.

http://bookpublishing.com/ip/includes/target_media/target_media_msg_1_31_06.pdf

I thank you for taking the time to check out my program and I look forward to helping you take an important step in gaining more publicity and sales for your book! Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have, I'd love to talk to you.

Best regards,

Rachel Jones
Book Marketing Consultant
Jenkins Group, Inc.
Bringing Books to Life!
http://www.bookpublishing.com

However, since I'm naturally suspicious of email solicitations and I suspect that this is marketed to vanity press writers, I wonder if it will do me any good. Anyone have any experience with the Jenkins Group?

France Joins in

Apparently France has decided that if the Danes can piss off the Muslims, so can they.

It comes complete with a picture of Palestinians burning flags.



Which they claim is REALLY Danish this time. No, honest, would Palestinians burn the wrong flag? After all, these are the same geniuses that elected a party guaranteed to reverse every single peace process concession in favor of a vague "truce" that they wanted no part of before they got these jobs that would force them to be in the public eye.

Fun. Fun. Fun.

And apparently Cindy Sheehan wore a t-shirt and got arrested. So she's going to consider putting a Republican in place of Diane Feinstein (check the end of the article) because nothing wins an election better than splitting the vote.

So anyhow Vampyre gubernatorial candidates...I think we need more of them.

(no subject)

Israel has a fight to clear an illegal settlement.

The question of course is how much support is either move going to get in the wake of Sharon's incapacitation and Hamas' victory? I know I was supporting the Gush Khatif dismantling on the basis of a two-state (three-state?) solution in view which included reasonable Palestinian leadership and hardline Israeli leadership with a track record for not taking any shit.

On the other hand, maybe these settlers need more pimps and whores --

Oh I don't think we've flogged the Vampyre Governor candidate to death yet...

Just saying...

Literary thoughts

Random ones.

Is Southern Gothic really possible after Civil Rights? It always seemed like the basis of Southern Gothic was the inability of the South to negotiate the Plantation Myth with the fact of slavery, so writers like Faulkner wrote books about these Plantation owners and Southerners tearing themselves apart. I know you can do freaky shit like Flannery O'Connor but is it Gothic?

Does Ishmael Reed still write books. I haven't heard about him from a long time. I loved The Terrible Twos and Flight to Canada - the daemonized Xmas story and slave narrative respectively. Later books I wasn't too fond of. He was always trying to be on a multicultural mission but his books were funny and great. I'm almost annoyed that The Illuminatus Trilogy quotes him from Mumbo Jumbo but the former is still more popular.

Of course, naming one's talk show host character Okra Hippo is not going to win you any friends.

And I am loving Absalom! Absalom! but I wonder if Faulkner put the cast of characters in the back (with their histories and relationships) in the original text. Because it's keeping me from drowning in the confusion of his prose. I like the book once I get used to the prose but he's still got characters that won't say what's on their mind and try to get around it. That, in addition to the five page sentences, does get on one's nerves. Still, he's less irritating than Joyce.

That's about it. Now I have to go find some MLA articles for the final paper for this class. Well there's a Bibliography "examine the critical papers" paper. I think I'll focus on Nathanel West's The Day of the Locust but I don't know how. Although I might just do a paper on Los Angeles and the myth of Hollywood and the whole tension between the myth and the reality that the writers are trying to portray and how they feed off each other. I also want to talk about Fritz Leiber but I might not be able to swing it.