2012

Well, first things first, Happy New Year everyone! May 2012 bring you everything you're hoping for.

Before we get back into the swing of things around here, I've got a couple of announcements.

Thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh, whose continued friendship and support seems to be able to net me followers, even on days when I'm not posting. His post from yesterday, featured me along with four other awesome bloggers who are all nearing 1000 followers. If you don't follow Alex, or you don't follow the bloggers he mentions, you should go take care of that.

Other than that, 2012 will probably be a bit different here at the QQQE. I've almost got this novel ready for submission, and I've got a couple agents waiting on me, so I'll be posting less often, and reading blogs less often than I'd like to, but I expect to make up for missing quantity with some great quality posts.

For one thing, my good friend and personal inspiration, Adam Heine, has recently signed with an agent for author representation, and he's going to be sharing and analyzing his query letter with me this Friday, harking back to the series of Successful Queries that are probably what first put this blog on the map.

In the same vein, I'll be doing a lot of query critiques early this new year, but if you have a letter you think might need a little work, feel free to send me an email. And if you are an author, or you know an author, whose query letter landed them an agent, and they'd like to help others by analyzing why it worked, get in touch.

You might notice I changed my blog photo. I do not actually wear my hair like that. I'd probably be fired from my soul-sucking day job if I did. I shave my own head, because there's very little left up top, so I was messing with my daughter over the holidays, and showing her what a mohawk was, and we took that photo. Just for fun.

Finally, I've got some big news coming up, about some exciting things I'll be taking part in this year, but I can't reveal it just yet.

How was your holiday?

Announcements

Okay. So as the title suggests, I have a couple of things to announce:

First, my friend Courtney Barr, from the Southern Princess, has a new blog called All 4 Alabama. She is holding some auctions with some incredible prizes, trying to raise money for the victims of the recent tornado devastation in Tuscaloosa and other parts of Alabama. Now, I know money is tight. I personally have not been able to bid on any of the auctions, because I can't afford it right now, but there are other ways to offer your support.

For now, please just visit the blog, and become a follower. If you happen to notice an auction there with a prize that you can't afford not to bid on, well, then that would be your business.

Second, I've been invited to join the group blog Afteglow Book Reviews. I've always wanted to be part of a group blog, so it's kind of exciting for me. You won't see my bio or photo up in the reviewer sections yet, because my buddy Katrina Lantz just talked me into it last night, but I'll be reviewing something soon, and you people better go follow the blog now, so that you don't miss it.

Please?

Third, I really need to get more done when it comes to writing. My damn soul-sucking day job keeps trying to get in the way of things that really matter, like writing and blogging, so for the rest of this week and part of next I won't really be blogging. I may post some short, stupid stuff, but mainly I won't be able to read all the blogs I love, like yours.

Big Bird: OUT. Peace.

NPR is the Shiznitt

I didn't even realize it until today, but Friday's was my 105th post. Yay me. I started this blog in early March, I can't remember the day, but that means that six months will be coming up soon. And I haven't embarrassed myself into oblivion ... yet.

Anyway thanks for all the lovely comments on Rose's post and query. She and I will be in touch and announcing a winner soon. Well, I assume we will at least, it's really all up to her. I don't have much else today but I do want to share with you all a pretty cool story I heard on the radio on the way in to work this morning.

I listen to NPR in the morning and sports talk in the afternoon. Does this mean I'm old and boring? Yeah, pretty much. Anyway this morning they had an encouraging story about something planned for Paris. They've already got the best health-care in the world, what do the French need now you ask? How about a fleet of electric cars, publicly funded, to allow Parisians to rent them for a very reasonable rate at any time and place?

It's called Autolib, which is short for Auto Liberte. Think of it like the community car programs many major U.S. cities have like FlexCar except that these are all electric, publicly funded, and cheap to use. Paris has had a program called Velib going strong since 2007 in which Bikes can be rented dirt cheap by the public and then returned across town. Velib has already reduced traffic in Paris by 25%, officials hope the car program will do even more to reduce congestion and pollution.

Autolib is basically an extension of the bike plan in which a fleet of 3000 all electric cars will be available for rent at very reasonable rates across the city, can be used for a day or a week, re-charged at over 1000 stations around town, and then returned at your leisure. It's very simple. You pay to use a car when you need it, and there are no hassles like insurance, repairs, and the bane of every urban driver who ever lived: parking.

You can read more about the program here.

What will they think of next?

British Pretendium

As you know I don't normally post twice in one day but when I read this ridiculous article I had to share it with my readers.

Apparently British Petroleum has purchased the search term "oil spill" so that the first link will take readers directly the their own website so that they can convince everyone of all the wonderful things they are doing to clean up the spill.

Here is the article.

I tested it and it's true. Here's a screen shot:

To read today's normal post, please click here.

EDIT: I had to put this post back up for those who missed it and because I found this hilarious (tragic) photo: