David Lubar's Blog, page 21

Vienna sausage?

Another Weenies book is in the can. Monday, I sent Attack of the Vampire Weenies to my editor, who will send it off to copy editing. This is my fifth story collection. More importantly, at the moment, it's the last thing on my plate with a fixed deadline. I have two more books to finish, but neither has been scheduled, yet. Which means I can actually come up for air. As wonderful as it was to write a series, the books came out so close together than I didn't really get to savor the norm...

The dominance of male canines in young adult literature

Accoring to a recent survey by the Young Adult Pet Studies Association (YAPSA), there is an alarming trend in current literature toward characters owning only male pets, especially in canine areas (both surviving pets and plot-doomed ones), though feline sex ratios are also a major concern. (The avian study is unfinished at this moment, but is unlikely to ease any worries.) Though the full implication and cultural damage from this has yet to be determined, there is definitely cause for conc...

View and far between

I hope The View has the Pope on as a guest, just for the suspense of seeing whether Elizabeth Hasselbeck interrupts him, too. I wonder who'd be able to get out an uninterrupted sentence around her? Darth Vader might be able to pull that trick off.

I never watched The View before, but that woman is really rude. I think the talking (hot) heads on both sides of the issues have done to discourse what John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors did to tennis. Decades ago, tennis was a civilized sport where ...

Good choice, Mr. President

President Obama ordered the number 5 sub at Tastee Sub Shop in Edison yesterday. He made the right choice, both in venue and menu. Tastee makes the best subs I've ever tasted. I used to live within walking distance of the shop. Or maybe it was waddling distance. The number 5 is defintiely the way to go. It's pretty much a ramped up version of a classic Italian sub.

Today's anagram

Oliver Stone

Evil one rots.

Unnecessary clarification #127

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Pass the Weenies

I'm doing the final pass through the next Weenies book before it goes off to copy editing. (Most of the stories have already gone through multiple revision passes, so I'm not expecting major changes.) It's nice knowing what I'll be doing for the next week or so. It's especially nice revising a story collection, as opposed to a novel, because I can always cut any story that is giving me too many problems.

I need to figure out what to call the Weenies books as a whole. "Series" doesn't see...

Sweat Heart of the Rodeo

I just saw some photos from my visit to the Cherry Hill Library, and was amazed to discover that, through sheer effort and an overdriven metabolism, I managed to produce a sweat stain that bears an amazing resemblance to Texas.



You have to swap the point at the top with the rectangle at on the left side, but all the parts are there. Next time, I'm going to try for something more biblical, so I can sell the shirt on eBay.

Mayhaps I am a tad naive

Okay, so the high-placed Penguin editor told me the deep discount copies of Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie available from Barnes and Noble were from a small quantity of "hurt" books that had been purchased by some middle man and then resold. Fair enough.

However, if you go to the listing for the book (which seems to be available in large enough quantities that the current sales rank is 575), and click on the further information about bargain books, you'll see that: "Bargain books are not used...

Sleazoid marketing

One of the things that makes me bristle (and I have a surprising number of bristles for a bald guy) is sleazy, transparent marketing gimmicks. I just received an email that opened with "Thank you for your interest in XXXX." (I'm not naming them, since I don't want to give them any traffic.) Since I have no interest in them, and since I never wrote to them, that greeting is guaranteed to make me dislike them right from the start. What possible motivation can they have to act like they are ...