Print porn -- 3/28/12

This is a  short, beautiful video of a book being made using traditional methods. Too short, I think. I could watch this all day long. I think if I ever win the lottery (I'd better start playing the lottery), I'll buy a traditional print shop...

   

New music -- Girl in a Coma

I was working on rewrites for my thesis manuscript all day yesterday. A task that, frankly made me want to weep. Fortunately, I stumbled upon a new band that saw me through those dark times. Girl in a Coma is a trio of Latinas from Texas who make sweet, sweet power pop.

A bonus for me was to see so many Latino faces in their videos. It was like visiting family in Southern California. Minus the chance of getting caught up in a brawl...



As a special bonus, you should check out the Tiny Desk Concert they did for NPR.

Some Zomburbia news

I had a lot of time on my hands one day...

I've really been slacking off on this blog. Yikes. Well, I finally have something to write about and I'll try and recommit myself to detailing the contents of my navel moving forward.

My novel, Zomburbia, has advanced into the quarter finals of Amazon.com's BreakthroughNovel Award contest. It's one of 250 YA novels that have advanced. I'm quite proud of that. An excerpt of the novel, the first chapter, is available to download and read. It's in the .azw format so you'll need a Kindle or Kindle emulator to read it.

When the results were first announced and the excerpt posted I was in a frenzy to get people to read it and to comment. I thought that comments would play a part in deciding what books advanced to the next round. Apparently, they do not. But I still want people to read the excerpt. Listen, I spent a year-and-a-half writing and revising the novel and that opening chapter may be all that ever sees the light of day. So, do me a favor, please: Visit the excerpt's page on Amazon, download the bad boy and give it a read. And then please let me know what you think. And if you want to leave a comment on the Amazon, that'd give me a special ego bump. Which we can all agree I need.

I'll be updating this blog in about a month to let folks know whether or not Zomburbia makes it to the next round.

Fingers crossed.