RIP George Carlin

George Carlin will go down in history as the man who told us all the seven words you couldn't (at the time) say on television. My favorite Carlin routine, however, has always been Keeping People Alert. During my days as a retail clerk, I was disappointed that no one ever tried to use any of these on me! (Warning, NWS for language...this is a George Carlin clip, after all!)

A few photos from Yaoi Jam 2K8

I spent this past Saturday and Sunday at the Renaissance Phoenix Hotel for the first Yaoi Jamboree. It turned out to be a rather lowkey, intimate affair, but then I only had to drive twenty minutes to get there so hey, I can't complain! I enjoyed meeting fellow yaoi fangirls, attended some interesting panels, and drooled over the hot bishie-on-bishie action. Between my camera being on the wrong setting the first day, and my light meter getting thrown off by the orangest damned room I've set foot in since my 70's childhood livingroom, I didn't get too many salvageable pictures. (And here I used to be a photographer!) But here are a few highlights of the festivities:



Sephiroth and Cloud are most happy to see one another...
and I was most happy to photograph it! >:)



Near treats Mello to the yaoi paddle:



BJD group shot. Aren't they pretty? (That's it, I'm starting my Blue doll!)



Close-up of the BJD neko girl. (Yes, this one is actually female!)
Note, the spots on the eyes aren't from the flash. This particular type
of BJD eye is called an "anime eye" and crafted to look as such.



When fandoms collide - Lt. Commander Inuyasha:




And one more of Sephy X Cloud because these young
ladies did such a fabulous (and hot!) re-enactment:




Turnout seemed a bit low and a few of the events were cancelled, but this was their first year so some snags were to be expected. Overall I had a very nice time, and other attendess reported the same. Hopefully the event did well enough that there will be a Yaoi Jam 2K9!

The "moon illusion" tonight!

Mother Moon will look more like Big Bad Mama Moon tonight during moonrise. More info as to the mechanics behind what's known as the "moon illusion" here:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080617-moon-illusion.html

The link offered by space.com for local moonrise times keeps timing out, as they are likely getting slammed, so I suggest finding your local moonrise time here:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/moonrise.html

Yaoi for a good cause

Many thanks to readers who purchased Close to Me during its first month of release and contributed to the ten percent royalty donation to the EIF Women's Cancer Research Fund through Pantene's Beautiful Lengths. Here's a copy of the receipt, with my personal info and amount of donation blacked out. (I'm here to announce the donation, not brag about my royalties, though I'm pleased to say it was a nice donation that exceeded my projected goal!)



Per information provided at the Beautiful Lengths' website, "ten percent of all donations will go towards the creation of Pantene Beautiful Lengths real-hair wigs", while the remainder goes to the EIF Fund "to support groundbreaking research projects to fast-track the development of better prevention methods for breast and reproductive cancers." One of the areas of research includes "a blood test that will detect breast cancer in its beginning stages, when survival rates are highest." So part of the donation will help a brave woman battling cancer, while the rest goes toward battling the disease itself.

While yaoi is a guilty pleasure for many of us, it's nice to know that our love of the genre can also be put toward such a worthwhile cause. I thank each and every one of you who made this donation possible, and I thank all of my readers for making the Blue Ruin series such a success! :)

Goddess Bless,
Kitty Strauss

"E-books smell like burned fuel."

I admire Ray Bradbury. I read many of his works during my formative years, and we can see today that in many respects, he's proved a prophetic visionary. But as many folks grow older, they often lose that vision and somewhere along the way become set in their ways. I cannot help but feel that Mr. Bradbury has reached that point in his mature life and is waaaaay off on this prediction he made at the recent BookExpo America convention:

"There is no future for e-books because they are not books," said Bradbury, speaking to The Associated Press before a convention lunch Friday. "E-books smell like burned fuel."*

So that's what that smell is! "Burned fuel"? I understand Mr. Bradbury is not dissin' the medium itself but is rather alluding to his concerns addressed in his cautionary classic Farenheit 451. There is certainly room for concern about censorship in the form of altering works in digital format or restricting access to electronic information. However, I think unaltered, uncensored works and data saved on a microchip or floating around out there in cyberspace are less likely to fuel a bonfire than contrabrand print books. According to William Gibson (a more timely visionary, even if he overlooked cell phones in the Neuromancer trilogy) we will eventually download digital information to our actual brains. Which again leaves room for corruption depending on which version of things you download, but it also paves the way for truly storing information as it was originally conveyed, in a medium that no one can touch or destroy.

As far as marketing projections go in regards to e-books, according to Publisher's Weekly:

"Penguin has reported that e-book sales from the first four months of 2008 have surpassed the house's total e-book sales for all of last year. According to the publisher, the spike is "more than five times the overall growth in sales, year-on-year, through April 2008." Penguin Group CEO David Shanks said he attributed the jump, in large part, to the growing popularity of e-book readers."**

I guess only time will tell how off the mark either Mr. Bradbury or myself are in regards to the future of e-books. Now, there are moments when I do feel that paper books will never be *completely* phased out by electronic format, and yes to be honest, I'll always prefer the tactile experience of a print book to an e-book. (As my e-book readers raise an eyebrow at this statement...) But then I think back to how, overnight, all the music stores switched from vinyl to CD, and then a decade later, the video rental chains transitioned from VHS to DVD. The shifts were gradual at first and then bam, there was no turning back. With mom-n-pop brick-n-mortar bookstore chains on the decline, while the bigger franchises report decreasing print sales, I truly believe that the shift from paper to e-books will bitchsmack us right between the eyes within the next ten years. How's that for visionary? Though I'm tucking away both a print and an electronic copy of Farenheit 451, just to be safe.

Sources:

*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080601/ap_on_bi_ge/bookexpo_america;_ylt=A0WTcVrV4ENImXEB9A1REhkF

**http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6564510.html

A hunting we will go

I'm one of 41 homoerotic romance authors participating in Rainbow Reviews' month-long scavenger hunt! Here are the juicy details:

For the month of June, Rainbow Reviews is hosting a scavenger hunt! Some fabulous authors have agreed to donate copies of their books as prizes, and all you have to do is find a graphic hidden somewhere on their site! The rules of the hunt are simple:

1. Each participating author has placed the following graphic somewhere on their website.

2. Visit each site and find the graphic.

3. Fill out the Entry Form (opens in a new window).

NOTE: The links in your email must go directly to the pages where you found the graphic. I know it’s hard finding a graphic on every single site, so you must find at least 25 links to qualify for a prize. The more you have, the better your chances of winning.

4. All contestants who provide a mailing address will also receive a goody bag stuffed full of promo items from a bevy of authors! Bookworm Bags is supplying bookmarks, postcards, pens, pins, CDs, and other fun goodies, so be sure to include a snail mail address to get free things!

5. On June 30th, the winners will be announced … one for each book we’re giving away!

Again, 41 authors are participating in the hunt, which means 41 books are up for grabs! To get started, just click here:

http://rainbow-reviews.com/?page_id=277

Good luck! :D