For some reason I found this mesmerizing. Only 1:21 in length so you tell me if you were as fascinated as I was. Enjoy!
And if you really like this sort of thing, enjoy the eight minute rendition of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor on the organ.
A Time for Lament
For a while we were able to rattle off the cities or the names of various people and incidents where someone died. Every place from Columbine to Sandy Hook to Ferguson to Fort Hood to Charleston to Orlando to Dallas to Nice. But now the litany has become too long and transformed into one long cry. Not a cry for a rally but literally a cry of lament. What makes it worse are the untold tragedies …
Fun Fridays – July 15, 2016
If we can’t laugh at ourselves we are doomed. Enjoy today’s commercial break. (Add new words or phrases in the comments below but don’t use any of them in your next writing project!)
ICRS Observations 2016
On the last week of June Dan Balow and I attended the 2016 International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in Cincinnati. It was my 35th consecutive year attending…which only means I’m old… By now you may have heard some reports regarding the low attendance, which are true. There were only 2,114 registered attendees, nearly a 30% drop from last year. Fortunately the convention hall …
Fun Fridays – July 8, 2016
Blind pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii plays his own composition at Carnagie Hall. The piece is titled “Elegy for the Victims of the Tsunami of March 11, 2011 in Japan.” Around the three minute mark you’ll see something very touching as he performs. Does your own writing move you?
Fun Fridays – June 24, 2016
“How NOT to get published!” Karen Porter of Bold Vision Books put together this hilarious video of the wrong way to pitch your book at a writers conference. As she says, every incident is based on real events. I can attest to that truth! Enjoy!
Confusing Industry News in Bookselling
Last week the Hastings, a chain of 126 retail stores, declared bankruptcy. Approximately half of their sales are from books (the other half are movies, music, games, etc). They claim “a decline in the market for physical media properties like music, movies, books, games and media rentals.” They had losses of $16 million on sales of $400 million. Among their largest unsecured creditors …
Fun Fridays – June 17, 2016
Ever been in a meeting like this? It never happens in book publishing. Ever. However, publishing does like its fiction…
Fun Fridays – June 10, 2016
Watch the entire nine minute segment from last week’s “America’s Got Talent” audition. Amazing. Now, as a writer, think of this from the judge’s perspective (or the agent or editor’s perspective). There are talented people who perform well and deserve praise. And then comes something special that stands out. Those of us on this side of the desk have experienced …
Reaching a New Generation of Readers
Last Friday I posted a fun song about Millennials. Earlier this year a number of articles told of a Pew Research report that declared there are more Millennials in America than Baby Boomers. There are now over 75 million people ages 18-34. Boomers (ages 51-69) are no longer the largest demographic. (And there are more 22-years-olds today than any other age group.) This was inevitable, of course, …