More on how publishing is changing

If you follow Nathan's links, you may encounter something you hadn't thought before. Or confirm what you already suspected, which is also useful. Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent: This Week in Publishing

Online page proofs of "Sultan"

I've just privately posted my new novel on Scribd, with formatting and lots of illustrations which should make it more fun to read: http://www.scribd.com/doc/22810157. You'll need the password, which I can send you. Before I make it publicly available, I want to check for permission for all those images. More importantly, or equally, I hope for comments and suggestions from interested and literate readers like you. I plan to look it over once more, then probably tomorrow I'll be ready to send the password to those interested in reading about old Constantinople, Ottoman warriors, a princess, slaves, and courtiers. Just ask. And if you have any idea about publishers or illustrations, or are willing to write a blurb or review, please let me know. Here's the description: Query, "A Gift for the Sultan"

Adultery and Africa

This short story of mine has just appeared in Neworld Review -- I guess it made them laugh, because they've labeled it as humor. My thanks to the cartoonist, who is not credited. You'll find the story and the cartoon here: Neworld Review: Adultery and Africa

Bill Clinton Global IQ Test

I got only 5 out of 10. Try it. President Bill Clinton Global IQ Test | William J. Clinton Foundation

Get it here!

Fiction anthology, including work by Yours Truly and many other great authors: Above Ground

Chaucer's got rhythm!

I knew there was some reason my mother named me "Geoffrey".



There are lots of other renditions on YouTube, but I like this best -- it gives you the text while they rap. This is just the prologue, but it gives us an idea how these wonderful stories could have been transmitted in an age of nearly universal illiteracy. (Thanks to Dirk for calling this to my attention.)

(To learn how it was done, check out RedYak.com. They do other stuff, too.)

Bolívar was no democrat

A critical analysis of Simón Bolívar's concepts of "liberty" and "people" demonstrates that he was no democrat in modern terms. Written for a contest on the 200th anniversary of his birth (1983), until now this essay has circulated only privately among Latin American historians.
Liberty&People

Mermaids

My first publication in Scribd, to try it out. If you are interested in Latin America and its literature, you may enjoy this essay. Mermaids and Other Fetishes: Images of Latin America

Do-it-yourself, please

This is happening at lots of small (and probably not so small) presses: too few sales to take on new works. Maybe their advice in the second graph is right, and maybe it's the only way to go.

Marion Boyars Publishers are not accepting submissions for new titles at the moment. This may change in the New Year, 2010, but we have decided to wind down our publishing schedule for the time being, so please do not inundate us with manuscripts by email or post, as we will not be able to look at your work or respond.

If you are looking for a good publisher, we suggest that you head for a respected independent bookshop, or a quality chain bookseller, and find a book similar to the one you have in mind. If you are really original in your thinking, you can publish yourself, and send review copies to the main literary bloggers. We can assure you that good books do not go unnoticed in this world, and eventually, your work will find readers.

Fox lore

I collect odd bits like this, for easily guessed reasons: Kitsune Books

Sometimes I wonder why and how great-grandfather Adam Fuchs (who migrated to Indiana from Darmstadt-Hesse shortly after the American civil war) came by our bestial surname. Did an earlier ancestor smell bad, like a fox? Or have red hair? Or -- as I would prefer to believe -- was he (or she) especially crafty or magical, like the kitsune?

Illustration from Kobold Quarterly