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It's 2013 - the year to celebrate the amazing legacy of Mary Kay Ash. Despite a myriad of challenges, Mary Kay Ash knew that she could do anything that she truly desired. Although it's been nearly 50 years since she founded Mary Kay Cosmetics, 2.5 million Independent Beauty Consultants around the world know that still today, one woman can do amazing things.
As Mary Kay prepares for its 50th anniversary, we're inviting every woman to celebrate her accomplishments and be inspired to pursue amazing new goals. Whatever has been working for you, keep it up. And if there's anything that's not working well for you – change it up! Every day is a new beginning and a perfect time to convert your dreams into action.
Step 1: It starts in the heart. You have to know your "Why?" - the sense of purpose that energizes your dreams and goals. Step 2: Next you need to tap your "WOW!" – that special talent or gift that enables you to convert ordinary into extraordinary. Step 3: Determine your "How" – what are the specific actions and activities that can provide you with the time and resources that you need to accomplish your goal?Step 4: Seize the "Now!" – Lose the wait and take that first step and start working toward your goal today. Step 5: Be ready to take a "Bow" and celebrate your successes as you make progress. Each victory will fuel you forward to your goal.
As I prepare for this amazing 2013, I think about Mary Kay's words of wisdom: 1) Your attitude determines your altitude. 2) If you believe it, you can achieve it!
One woman can do amazing things- and that one woman is you!
Today's post is from Sheryl Adkins-Green, Mary Kay Inc.'s Chief Marketing Officer.
Great advice as we launch the Company's 50th anniversary. Thanks for sharing!
I am so excited about this 50th anniversary for Mary Kay as a writer and caregiver for my aging mother I love the flexibility that Mary Kay give my family. By using Mary Kay Cosmetics I am ageless as I keep my skin healthy and glowing.
Thanks, Sheryl, for some great inspiration to start the year off right! And thanks for sharing some of Mary Kay's wisdom, too. It is amazing how her words are still relevant all these years later. Happy New Year!
Wow -- Sheryl, your timing is amazing. I just left a message about Attitude this morning. I love the way you put it. Lost the wait!!!!! Hilarious and we will remember that. I cannot wait for others to see, read and comment on this blog.
I'm ready to lose the weight!! Love this message! Woo Hoo So inspiring! Thanx
Love this! Will share at our Spanish workshop this weekend! Tk you and blessing to all at corporate this Golden Anniversary Year!
Oh, Yes! One Ketty Can Do Amazing Things!
Thank you for the post and yes I will seize the "Now" and Lose the Wait!
I'm ready, this is my year and I'm bringing a lot of others with me!!!!! Thanks Sheryl
The time is now! Be your best, keep going, and yes one women can!! Happy New year! Keep your (why), in your heart, don't look back!
Sheryl thank you so much for this refreshing message! I needed it! I have the most amazing mentors in Mary Kay but no matter how much belief they have in me, if im not confident in myself and have my steps figured out nothing happens! My prayer for the new year is that God would ignite a passion in me that fuels me to do what I'm called to do!!
Great advice, Sheryl! My Mary Kay business needs a real jumpstart and these words of inspiration are just what the doctor ordered. Thank you and Happy New Year!
Thank you Sheryl, this was rigt on time, as I am focusing in on my goals
goals for my MK business in 2013. I especially appreciated how you specifically note the various aspects of making the goal. I am going to keep each one of your points before me as I work to make my goals reality in this New Year.
Sheryl, this is better than making a new year's resolution - we can apply this to a lot of goals. Thanks for the inspiration. The why, wow, how, now are very catchy!
Great way to start the year off...thank you for the words...they came at the right moment...thanks
Thank you for your encouraging message ! I worked in television news for 40 years until last April and now I am dreaming and learning---One woman can!. I am so thankful to Mary Kay and each person in this amazing company.
Sheryl, this is a wonderful post to begin the new year! Often times we forget that we each have unique talents that, when tapped into, make extraordinary things happen. You are right, the time is NOW! The 50th year is sure to be one to remember!
Thanks so much for helping us get the year off to a great start - I am now one month into my 30th year with this amazing company, and cannot imagine life without Mary Kay.
"Your attitude determines your altitude." was the words you shared during the new employee orientation luncheon, and it was so special moment for us. I have very short memory but I am sure I will remember the quote. Thanks Sheryl!
Sheryl, this came at the right time for me! I have had obstical after obstical to derail me. I am ready to focus on my why, lose the wait, and change my attitude! This is my year to shine bright! Thanks for posting this!
I am so excited about 2013. I'm looking forward to great things in my Mary Kay business!
Thanks Sheryl for the inspiration. Love the Why, Wow, How, Now and Bow!! Looking forward to a great 50th year.
Oh, Yes!! One Woman Can Do Amazing Things!!!!! I am sooo grateful to Mary Kay Ash!! She lead this journey!! And YES!! She DID IT!!!!!!!!! We all stand on her shoulders. Thank You Mary Kay!!! Love Sherie
Great post to start the New Year, Sheryl! The steps you've outlined are very helpful and motivating. We've all been impacted by one woman who believed in herself, jumped in, gave it all she had and mentored others to success!
"Your attitude determines your altitude" really resonated with me. Thanks for sharing!
I have made 2013 my year to re-start MY Mary Kay Business. Thank you for the AWESOME and motivating posting!!!!
My attitude does determine my altitude, and I can only go up from here!!
Great thought leadership to start the year off right! And yes, let's lose the wait in 2013!
your post is an excellent example of why i keep coming back.
Sheryl!!! That is so true and on point with the timing and message the company js sending the world! Cant wait to hav this read at my unit meeting tonite.
Great post, Sheryl! Perfect sentiments to start the new year - Why-Wow-How-Now-Bow. I know we'll have lots of WOW in our 50th year!
Love your post and yes, One Woman Can Do Amazing Things!!! And I am going to be that One Woman!!! Whoohoo! Thanks Sheryl for this Amazing Post!
I CAN believe it, I WILL achieve it!
Great message.
OH! Si una mujer puede hacer cosas asombrosas. Creo que este es el año del jubileo , porque no voy a desistir de ser unas de ellas conociendo a DIOS como conozco, tal cual Mary kay , creo que todas podemos, ponedo amor en lo que hacemos, conseguiremos alcanzar a muchas personas. Dar y recibir es lo más lindo. Todas podemos hacer cosas asombrosas.
The Beauty That Counts BloggersMary Kay's Beauty That Counts blog represents the voice and heart of Mary Kay. Our bloggers share great advice on everything from picking out the best shade of lipstick to the impact of Mary Kay in the community. The diversity of their backgrounds, experiences and personal stories showcase the best of Mary Kay. The blog's managing editor is Virginia Hock with Mary Kay Inc.'s Corporate Communications team.<o:p></o:p>
Discover What You Love™ Video
Mary Kay invites women to discover what they love about Mary Kay to help them feel beautiful, confident and connected.
Mary Kay is known for its irresistible beauty products, rewarding opportunity and positive community impact. Mary Kay's official blog, Beauty That Counts, showcases all three. Discover what you love!
Emily WalshManaging Editor


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Dynamic model for estimating SoC and peak power capability in PHEVs
24 December 2012
Researchers at the Beijing Institue of Technology have developed a battery model to estimate the state of charge (SoC) and peak power capability of a Li-ion battery in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). According to their report in the Journal of Power Sources, their approach can not only achieve an accurate SoC estimate with an error below 0.02, but also give a reliable and robust peak power capability estimate.
The team used an adaptive extended Kalman filter (AEKF)-based method to jointly estimate the State of Charge (SoC) and peak power capability of a lithium-ion battery. (A Kalman filter is used to produce a statistically optimal estimate of an underlying system state from noisy data; an extended Kalman filter works with non-linear functions of the the state.)
To strengthen the links of the model's performance with battery's SoC, they used a dynamic electrochemical polarization battery model for the state estimations. To get accurate parameters, they used four different charge-discharge current to improve the hybrid power pulse characteristic test.
The AEKF-based method is employed to achieve a robust SoC estimation.
They proposed an approach to continuous peak power capability estimation due to the PHEV's requirement for continuous peak power estimates for acceleration, regenerative braking and gradient climbing.
To improve its applicability, they suggested a general framework for six-step joint estimation approach for SoC and peak power capability.
Rui Xiong, Hongwen He, Fengchun Sun, Xinlei Liu, Zhentong Liu (2012) Model-based State of Charge and peak power capability joint estimation of Lithium-Ion battery in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, Journal of Power Sources, doi: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2012.12.003
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subset: commoncrawl


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On the first restart Joe Kopp got off to a good start and held off Jake Johnson for the GNC victory.
Round 8 of the Grand National Championship presented by Motorcycle-Superstore.com made a stop at the I-96 Speedway half mile this weekend with Harley-Davidson / Lloyd Brothers Motorsport's Joe Kopp taking top honors. Despite two restarts – the first caused by oil on the track and the second because of Bryan Smith's accident – Kopp and his #3 Harley-Davidson took first ahead of Jake Johnson and Kenny Coolbeth Jr.
Capturing the holeshot before the first restart was Johnson, who was leading when the contest was red-flagged just two laps in. In his second start Johnson was unable to earn the holeshot as Kopp got off to a quick lead and began pulling away.
"I knew I had to get out front and not make any mistakes," said Kopp. "I was the veteran, I should be able to keep the 'kids' behind me."
As Kopp created more distance between himself and the rest of the pack, Coolbeth and Johnson began battling it out for second. Unfortunately, a second red flag was issued at this time and riders were once again forced into another start.
The single file restart placed Johnson directly behind Kopp. Heading into Turn 1, Johnson attempted a pass from the inside of Kopp, but couldn't seal the deal. Coolbeth also attempted to make a charge on Johnson for second, but he didn't succeed either.
"There was just one fast racing groove, so it was all about the start," said Coolbeth. "I made a mistake in choosing to start from the inside for the main. They had watered the track for all of my heats and it was nice and sticky, but they didn't water for the main and the track got dry and slick. Kopp and Johnson started up the track and had better traction. Jake and I were faster than Kopp all night, but he got the good start and stayed in defensive mode, which is what he had to do. We are down in points but I'm not giving up. This was a good night for the Harley-Davidson team, and gives us some fresh momentum."
In the final laps of the race Rogers Lake Racing/Blue Springs Harley-Davidson's Jared Mees made a pass on Harley-Davidson/DFW Honda's Chris Carr for fifth, and from then on the positions were set.
Jake Johnson (#5) originally had the holeshot and the lead, but a red flag gave Kopp (#3) the chance to take the lead.
Kopp crossed the line first with Johnson and Coolbeth claiming the second and third podium spots. King's Kustom's Sammy Halbert came in fourth after nearly being consumed by a four-way battle for his position near the end, and Mees was fifth after he made a successful pass on Carr. Scott Powersport's Johnny Lewis secured Kawasaki's best finish in seventh after he was tripped up on oil before the first restart. Rounding out the top-10 finishers were White's Harley-Davidson's Matt Weidman, KK Motorcycle Supply's Henry Wiles and King's Kustom's Jethro Halbert.
Adding special flare to Round 8 was AMA Pro Racing's new program being implemented at three rounds in the 2010 schedule. Under the new program, the top-10 riders from last year's Pro Singles class had the option of racing in the Expert class if they could secure a Twins ride for the contest. At Lake Odessa four Pro Singles riders took advantage of the new program, with Jeff Carver, James Rispoli, Shayna Texter and Brad Baker all participating.
In an impressive performance Baker won the Expert Twins Semi. Afterwards, Baker went on to take second in the Pro Singles main behind GYTR's Jeffrey Carver, and then finally put in 25 laps in the GNC Twins main to take 13th.
2010 AMA Flat Track GNC Twins Lake Odessa Half Mile Results:
1. Joe Kopp (Harley-Davidson)
2. Jake Johnson (Harley-Davidson)
3. Kenny Coolbeth Jr. (Harley-Davidson)
4. Sammy Halbert (Harley-Davidson)
5. Jared Mees (Harley-Davidson)
6. Chris Carr (Harley-Davidson)
7. Johnny Lewis (Kawasaki)
8. Matt Weidman (Harley-Davidson)
9. Henry Wiles (Harley-Davidson)
10. Jethro Halbert (Harley-Davidson)
11. Brandon Robinson (Harley-Davidson)
12. Michael Kirkness (Harley-Davidson)
13. Brad Baker (Harley-Davidson)
14. Luke Gough (Harley-Davidson)
15. Doug Lawrence (Harley-Davidson)
2010 AMA Flat Track Grand National Championship Points:
1. Joe Kopp, 154
2. Jake Johnson, 141
3. Henry Wiles, 139
4. Sammy Halbert, 135
5. Jared Mees, 129
6. Kenny Coolbeth Jr., 119
7. Chris Carr, 76
8. Bryan Smith, 74
9. Johnny Lewis, 65
10. Jethro Halbert, 55
Pro Singles
In the Motorcycle-Superstore.com Pro Singles main Yamaha's Jeffrey Carver took the victory over Honda's Brad Baker and ANT Racing's Rispoli. The event was stopped early on Lap 11 when TLC Racing's Zakk Palmer fell heading into Turn 4. Rounding out the top-five finishers were Michael Martin and Michael LaBelle, taking fourth and fifth respectively.
2010 AMA Flat Track Pro Singles Lake Odessa Half Mile Results:
1. Jeffrey Carver Jr. (Yamaha)
Yamaha's Jeffrey Carver (center) secured the victory in the Pro Singles main ahead of James Rispoli (left) and Brad Baker (right).
2. Brad Baker (Honda)
3. James Rispoli (Honda)
4. Michael Martin (Honda)
5. Michael LaBelle (Honda)
6. Jeremy Hamilton (Honda)
7. Michael Avila (Honda)
8. Gerit Callies (Honda)
9. Brandon Laursen (Honda)
10. Kyle Whitis (Honda)
2010 AMA Flat Track Pro Singles Championship Points:
1. Jeffrey Carver Jr., 153
2. Brad Baker, 125
3. James Rispoli, 115
4. Michael Avila, 88
5. J. D. Beach, 72
The K&N Filters Grand National Championship will next be moving west for Round 9 at Calistoga, Ca on July 31st.


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An Alcoholic Loan
Need a little collateral; look to your liquid assets.
In order to help those in need of a loan some U.S. pawnbrokers are now accepting fine wine to secure re-payment. And business is good. Pawnbrokers say despite their last resort reputation more people are coming to them because they can get a same day loan; instead of waiting weeks or months with a bank.
One pawn shop above a bank in Beverly Hills says its clients include hedge fund managers, bankers, doctors and Oscar winning actors. It says these people; although wealthy sometimes need a boost of fast cash for their latest business venture. An online pawn broker in New York says it regularly accepts wine as collateral from the upper class yet rarely sells it.
And if they do; some shops might want to get to know their newest product a little better. Recently a British pawnshop sold 128 bottles of Chateau d'Yquem for $120,000. Unfortunately those bottles are actually worth at least $250,000. It seems alcohol can solve more than just your emotional problems.


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Greg Hampikian, a Boise State University faculty member in the biological science and criminal justice departments and director of the Idaho Innocence Project, has been named a charter fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
NAI fellows demonstrate a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating inventions that have affected quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society. There are 98 NAI fellows representing 54 universities and nonprofit research institutes. Fellows will be inducted Feb. 22.
Hampikian is internationally recognized for his work in DNA forensics. He founded the Idaho Innocence Project ad BSU and helped establish the Georgia Innocence Project and the Irish Innocence Project. He and his collaborators work on a variety of DNA projects, including developing new cancer drugs, discovering new species of single-celled organisms in Idaho, studying Basque sex chromosomes and inventing micro devices. Hampikian has pioneered the study of nullomers, the smallest sequences of DNA and protein that do not exist in nature.


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If shareholders think a CEO has done something good to boost profits, they reward the boss with a pay increase amounting to 48.9% (on average) of the perceived contribution to higher profits. But when the CEO is seen as causing a profit decline, there's a zero effect on his or her pay, Lucian A. Taylor of The Wharton School reports from his study of more than 4,500 chief executives. This "downward rigidity" of CEO pay is pervasive in companies, whether their governance is good or bad. CEOs are in effect insured against bad news about their abilities, Taylor says.
Good News Boosts the CEO's Pay; Bad News Has No Effect
June 12, 2013


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Vibist Nick Mancini draws fans by the roomful, quite a feat for a player whos new in town and unrecorded. And hes good, but what sets him apart in a town full of good vibraphonists is that Mancini puts on a great show. The music is plenty happening, with some Miles here, a Beatles tune there, a little funk, some originals... and his Collective always has the best young players. But the clincher is his showmanship, the rapport he builds with fans between tunes. He talks about his music, his ax, his bandmates, his years in New York. Its funny and genuine, and it pulls listeners, from neophytes to jaded scribes, into what hes doing. Sat., April 28 at Café Metropol.
The tribute to Ella Fitzgerald at the Musicians Union on Fri., April 27, looks pretty nuts, with all kinds of singers and musicians. No idea if anyone is going to do her Live in Berlin How High the Moon, but the impressive roll of performers includes Charmaine Clamor, Tierney Sutton, Janis Mann, Barbara Morrison and Ernie Andrew with the Frank Capp Juggernaut, among very many.
Almost as out as Ellas How High the Moon scatting should be Russian free-jazz pianist/composer Roman Stolyar with the CalArts Improvisation Ensemble performing new collaborative multimedia works using improvising orchestra methodology on Fri., April 27 at where else? REDCAT. If you prefer your jazz piano straight up and over the top, theres Eldar at the Orange County Performing Arts Center Fri.-Sat., April 27-28. Those same nights the extraordinary Cuban pianist Chuchito Valdés Jr. solos at the Pasadena Jazz Institute. But for pure class, Central Avenue style, theres Gerald Wiggins CD release party at Giannelli Square on Sun., April 29.
Hot meets cool when trumpeter Carl Saunders duets with flugelhornist Stacy Rowles at the Back Room on Fri., April 27 (and Saunders own sextet is at Charlie Os on Wed., May 2). Elliott Caine is the featured guest at the World Stage on Friday, April 27; then on Sat., April 28, his quartet plays the post-bop at the Cafe 322. Also on Saturday, hard-bopping saxist Ernie Watts plays Boston Court (and his new Analog Man really cooks). Even harder and post-boppier, saxist Benn Clatworthy, pianist Theo Saunders, bassist Chris Colangelo and drummer Branley play Charlie Os on Tues., May 1. Their new Live at Charlie Os is excellent. And saxist Azar Lawrence performs the music of John Coltrane (with pianist Nate Morgan, bassist Trevor Ware and drummer Ndugu) at Catalina Bar & Grill, Wed., May 2.
Theres all sorts of takes on Latin jazz this week, like the funky fusion of Cartayas Enclave at La Ve Lee on Fri., April 27. Bronx kid Bobby Matos is all over town with his Afro-Latin Ensemble: at the Millennium Biltmore on Fri., April 27; at Jewels Place on Wed., May 2 (with emcee James Janisse); and at the Crowne Plaza on Thurs., May 3. Power trio Canela (saxist Justo Almario, bassist Abe Laboriel and drummer/percussionist Alex Acuna) storm through Catalina Bar & Grill on Sat., April 28. And the brilliant Caracas-born pianist Otmaro Ruiz brings his exceptional quartet of Ben Wendel on sax, bassist Jimmy Johnson and drummer Jimmy Branly into the Baked Potato on Wed., May 2. Ruizs conception of Latin jazz extends well below the Caribbean, and his music is a swirl of South American rhythms, European classical elements and kicking, beautiful straight-ahead jazz. And the improv is mind blowing.
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But if you dig Brazilian music you must see guitarist/chanteuse Joyce wind up her stint at the Jazz Bakery Fri.-Sun., April 27-29. Her Just a Little Bit Crazy was an exquisite slice of bossa and stony Brazilian pop, including a brilliant, languid take on Hard Days Night. With her quintet, including guitarist Dori Caymmi, this will be absolutely fine.


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Only three Taiwanese pitchers have ever played in Major League Baseball.
The Astros are hoping that righthander Chia-Jen Lo becomes the fourth after they signed the 22-year-old for a bonus believed to be $250,000, making him the first player from Taiwan in franchise history.
International scouts told BA that the Angels, Red Sox, Twins, Royals and Athletics also had interest in Lo. According to scouts, Lo's best pitch is his fastball, which sits at 89-93 mph but has touched 95-96 mph at times. He mostly works off his fastball, though he has a show-me curveball and a recently-added splitter. He has average command and profiles as a middle reliever.
"A year ago, we talked about the importance of establishing a presence on the Pacific Rim in order to take advantage of another significant talent stream," general manager Ed Wade said in a press release. "At that time, we tasked Glen Barker with overseeing our scouting in Taiwan, China, Japan, Korea and Australia. Glen has worked tirelessly to get us up and running on the Pacific Rim, and today's signing of Chia-Jen Lo is a very significant indication of the work that Glen has done."
Lo pitched this summer for Taiwan in the Olympics, where he allowed one run in two innings of relief. He has pitched in several other international competitions dating back to the 2004 World Junior Championship, including the 2008 and 2006 World University Championship and the 2007 World Port Tournament. Lo will likely begin his career in A-ball in 2009.
The other three Taiwanese pitchers who have pitched in MLB are Chien-Ming Wang, Hong-Chih Kuo and Chin-Hui Tsao.
Video Of Lo


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However, localization wasn't the only goal. Audi Motorsport wanted to create a lively and personalized fan-based experience that was emotional for users and simple for editors to manage. In particular, they needed an intuitive editorial interface that would allow their staff to quickly generate new content as well as respond to social media comments and discussions.
Building upon the conceptual and technical baseline of Audi's "Vorsprung durch Technik" brand website, we went to work on the following milestones:
We were proud to receive positive feedback from Audi Motorsport executives and editors as well as their key constituency: die-hard Audi racing fans.


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2017 Pigott Entrepreneurship Lecture
The Dash
Dash has multiple meanings- Mr. Wolff will address several meanings as they occurred in his life. He will speak to the challenges and opportunities that he enjoyed. And to the comparison of the rewards of getting and of giving.
Featuring Fritz Wolff
Chairman, The Wolff Company
» Tuesday, March 21, 2017
GU Jepson Center Wolff Auditorium
Reception beginning at 5:30 - 6:00 p.m.
Lecture and Q&A session 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
The entrepreneurship lecture is made possible through a permanent endowment established by the Pigott family to educate the next generation of global leaders.


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Pop Culture
Hollywood Now: Chris Pine, Rachel Weisz & Ari Graynor, Plus So Many Babies!By Gerri Miller
New flicks with celebs in interfaith relationships and from interfaith backgrounds, plus their baby news!Go To Pop Culture
Inside Baseball
My five-year-old son is very subtle. The morning after our Havurah Purim party, my son told me, "You know, not everyone knows what a Purimspiel is."
"But you do, honey, because we saw one last night. It was the play people were acting out, about Queen Esther."
He nodded. "But not everyone knows what that is."
Sometimes my son will start using words correctly and then ask me later what they mean. I'm always sliding new words by him and finding out that he's picked them up when he hands his dad a board book of the Noah's Ark story with the request, "Read me the abridged version." My big challenge is to introduce the words in such a way that he gobbles them up like a little Pac-Man and doesn't shut off his attention.
This is also my challenge at my job. The difference is that I am writing here for adults who are, generally speaking, highly educated. It's tempting to use terms that are particular to my generation, like Pac-Man, to my Jewish circles, like Purimspiel, or to my passion for internet slang, like–"your mileage may vary." (Our president wasn't familiar with that last one, but he took my word for it that you would be. You are, aren't you?)
When it comes to Jewish terms, I want to use some, because I want to draw readers into Jewish culture and religion, to empower people and give them a sense that they can participate. But I don't want to go too far and alienate our readers who aren't Jews, or Jewish readers who aren't completely comfortable with the lingo. As my managing editor put it, "You don't want it to be inside baseball."
I often find myself in situations where Jewish people who are a lot more impressive than I am view my Jewish knowledge in that "inside baseball" sort of way. It's crazy to be sitting there with a brain surgeon and have that person impressed with me. For all I know, you are a rocket scientist, reading this post, and I'm not even together enough to find my shoes.
How does the traditional Jewish liturgy for Passover, the haggadah, think about the people attending the Passover seder? It gives us Four Children: one is wise, one is wicked, one is simple, and one doesn't even know how to ask? We should have another category: one is actually a nuclear physicist, but this is his first seder, so slow down please. If our mission is to be welcoming, we have to remember the one who is not wicked, not simple, can ask just fine–but isn't ready for inside baseball.
Anyway, I think this Passover-themed video straddles that line just fine. Your mileage may vary.
Note: All comments on InterfaithFamily are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed.
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Indu Sundaresan: The Twentieth Wife
Pocket Books (Feb.)
Throughout her childhood, Indu Sundaresan's father, a fighter pilot with the Indian Air Force, delighted her with bedtime stories—tales from Hindu mythology and an ongoing saga of his own creation that featured Silver the Horse and Jumbo the Elephant. Each night, he would stop the story at a moment of high drama, leaving his daughter eagerly awaiting the next installment.
While Sundaresan credits her father and grandfather with giving her a love of storytelling, she never imagined herself becoming a writer. Instead, she came to the U.S. in 1989 and entered graduate school at the University of Delaware. She left four years later with degrees in economics and operations research—and a husband bound for a job in Seattle.
The couple was barely settled into their new home when Sundaresan decided to put economics aside and carry on the family tradition as a storyteller. "It was something that had obviously been percolating in my mind. So I sat down and wrote a novel. And then I wrote another." When she decided that neither book was commercial, she began yet another, The Twentieth Wife. Sundaresan based this novel on the true story of Mehrunnisa, the daughter of a Persian refugee who became the 20th—and most beloved—wife of Jahangir, an Emperor in 17th-century Mughal India. "Even though she never produced an heir," says Sundaresan, "Mehrunnisa became the most powerful woman in the dynasty that built the Taj Mahal."
To transport herself back to steamy 17th-century India in the midst of cold rainy Washington winters, Sundaresan would crank up the thermostat in her home and settle in to write in shorts and a T-shirt—"but then the phone would ring and I would be back in Seattle." Sometimes, she would set the novel aside to indulge in other creative passions, like building sets for a community theater production of an all female Odd Couple.
She began sending out the first 50 pages of her novel in 1996. "The early rejections were 'Dear Author," then 'Dear Ms. Sundaresan.' When I finally got a 'Dear Indu,' I knew I was getting somewhere. Then last year, people began asking to see the entire novel."
"This is not an easy career," says Sundaresan, who is working on a second novel that will continue Mehrunnisa's story until the time of her death. "And I think the storytelling comes far easier than the writing." One thing does come easily—like her father, Sundaresan made certain that each chapter would leave readers eagerly anticipating what would come next.
—Lucinda Dyer
Sales Tips: "The market hasn't seen a big historical novel set in India since The Far Pavilions," says Pocket publisher Judith Curr. "Indu has created a wonderful, sweeping story of love, betrayal and the building of the Taj Mahal." The Twentieth Wife has been optioned by Gaea Films for a TV mini-series and Sundaresan will hit the road next winter for a West Coast promotional tour.
William Norris: Snapshots
Riverhead (Sept.)
Writing a book about family relationships may not be a, well, novel idea, but it seemed to be expedient for William Norris. "I think family is fascinating, but I didn't particularly want to write about it because I wanted to be original," he explains. "But it's what I had. I was 23 when I wrote the first story using these characters and I didn't know anything else. I don't know that I do now."
Now 28, Norris planned to be a lawyer while in college but came to the realization in his senior year that it wasn't for him. After a stay in England, where he tended bar, Norris joined "Participation 2000," a campaign run by Bill Bradley that sent staff members to Democratic candidates around the country. He also began writing fiction and decided to apply to graduate programs. He was accepted to Sarah Lawrence College and on the first day was asked to submit a short story for the following week's class; it was the genesis of Snapshots. Eventually, says Norris, he used the piece as his graduate thesis. "It was the first story I did that wasn't filled with adolescent angst. The characters stuck around in my head so I thought, 'If they're gonna stay around, I should do something about it.' "
Snapshots is the story of the Mahoneys, a seemingly perfect, Irish Catholic family living in an affluent New Jersey suburb. The novel begins when the four siblings make their way to the family's Jersey Shore beach house for Christmas. From there, the story goes back in time, through 25 years of the Mahoneys' lives, tracing the routes that made these characters who they are. Norris uses alternating narrative voices as he explores the weighty topics of homosexuality, mental illness and alcoholism. He originally wrote much of the novel in first person but was encouraged to change it to third person by author Linsey Abrams, a professor at Sarah Lawrence.
"A family is composed of more than one person. If a father is treating a child in a way that seems unjust to the child, I think it's important to consider why the father's doing it," says Norris. "The ability to jump in and out of the characters' heads became really liberating for me and allowed me to write something more honest, particularly in instances where the genesis came from real-life experiences." The change paid off. After finishing Snapshots, Norris queried six literary agencies. Only one—ICM—agreed to take him on as a client, but it was a serendipitous move: less then two months later, Riverhead Books bought the novel.
The fledgling author's already at work on novel number two, while he's teaching creative writing courses at Hofstra University and being the curator of the Emerging Voices Reading Series at New York's KGB literary bar. Not surprisingly, Norris hopes that readers will identify with his book and its universal themes. "I gave my mom a copy of the manuscript a year ago and she wrote me this beautiful letter. I thought, 'That's so great, she read it and she got it.' Now I just hope other people do the same."
—Michael Archer
Sales Tips: Cindy Spiegel, Riverhead co-editorial director, who acquired Snapshots with editor Wendy Carlton, was struck immediately, she says, by the novel's "wonderful and unusual" qualities. "Not only is the writing exceptional, but Norris tells his story in the same way that we meet people—in a sense, backwards. Just as the Mahoneys go from adulthood back to their younger incarnations, we meet people as adults and then slowly uncover parts of their earlier lives." Because of his ability to peel back layers of the affluent suburban life, Riverhead is promoting Norris as writing in the tradition of John Cheever and Rick Moody.
Elizabeth Rosner: The Speed of Light
Ballantine (Sept.)
Elizabeth Rosner named her first computer Virginia in honor of Virginia Woolf. "I particularly admire her ability to explore the interior lives of her characters, allowing that to propel her narrative," she says. "Since I had always loved the way Virginia Woolf used floating narration to move us from consciousness to consciousness, I realized that the characters in my novel could take turns narrating without waiting for a self-contained chapter. This gave me a chance as a writer to let the story unfold from several angles at once."
Two of the three principal characters in The Speed of Light are Julian, an anxiety-ridden scientist, and his initially buoyant sister, Paula, an aspiring opera singer. Both reside in the same apartment building in Berkeley, Calif. The third pivotal presence is Sola, a refugee from an unspecified Central American country. All three have been afflicted by terrible trauma, although with the siblings, being offspring of Holocaust survivors, their painful experiences might seem more at a remove than those of Sola, the sole survivor of a political massacre in her native village. Ballantine executive editor Dan Smetanka, who acquired The Speed of Light, remarks, "It's the first novel I've read in which the Holocaust is presented as past family history. It's a stylized book; you feel that Liz is a poet in every line. Her poetic imagery helps take people through very difficult subject matter."
Rosner, 41, explains that the novel is an outgrowth of her more emphatically autobiographical poetry. "Although I'm reluctant to categorize myself, I would say that being a child of Holocaust survivors has shaped me not only as an artist but as a human being. We are only just beginning to hear from the so-called Second Generation. The category of Holocaust literature must extend itself to include non-survivors who weren't alive during World War II," she contends. "I felt compelled to explore the effects of inherited grief."
A key element in The Speed of Light is Julian and Paula's deceased father's inability to address the horrifying circumstances of his detention in Auschwitz. "The point is that the father chose silence as the only possible response to the pain of his experience, even though both he and his children ultimately pay another price for that silence," explains the author. "Sola is a reminder to me that terrible suffering and loss continue to occur all over the world."
—Charles Hix
Sales Tips: Smetanka states categorically that the novel belongs in the genre of literary fiction—"We took the manuscript to the Frankfurt Book Fair, and we accepted preempts from the most literary houses in Europe. We sold it to France, Germany (where the subject matter has great resonance; an editor at Bertelsmann said she has been waiting 10 years to read a book like this), Holland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Denmark." He notes that Borders has accepted the book in its Original Voices program. Declining to liken Rosner's novel to any other, Smetanka says, "People will talk about how incredibly powerful it is. They will make their own comparisons."
Brock Clarke: The Ordinary White Boy
Harcourt (Sept.)
Considering the hero of Brock Clarke's debut novel—20-something Lamar Kerry Jr., who returns home after college to avoid being extraordinary—it's not surprising that Clarke wasn't one of those overachievers who started writing early. "At age 12, I was watching baseball and picking my teeth," says the self-acknowledged "smart-ass."
In fact, it wasn't until Clarke was in graduate school that he began writing fiction. "I was about half-way through the Ph.D. program in literature at Rochester before I decided I wanted to do both—critical and creative writing." As a result, he maintained a somewhat schizophrenic writing schedule. He completed the novel and wrote many of the stories in his award-winning short-story collection, What We Won't Do (to be published by Sarabande next spring), while completing his dissertation on politics in the literature of writers like Grace Paley, E.L. Doctorow and William Kennedy.
Despite the laugh-out-loud humor in The Ordinary White Boy, much of it surrounding Lamar's job as a part-time newspaper reporter-cum-plagiarizer for the Valley News, Clarke regards the novel as a political work in the same vein as the fiction of many of the writers he studied for his dissertation. "Political writers are people who have political concerns," he observes. "People think they're humorless. But they don't have to be." One of Clarke's goals in writing a novel about race—much of the action concerns the town's only Hispanic, who is missing—was to break out of the confines of what he regards as "the To Kill a Mockingbird pattern. It seemed to me that the notions and facts of race have changed in the last 30-odd years, and yet we still talk about race the same way."
Clarke deliberately chose to set the novel in Little Falls, N.Y., where he himself grew up. "It offered me a chance to write about a world that is beautiful and ugly both, smart and dumb, not easily praised for its natural beauty. I haven't seen many books where the small town setting isn't either romanticized or demonized." In addition, he views Little Falls as a metaphor for "the frustrations in our lives. In one way people are defined by a place, and they're confined by it."
Hopefully Clarke's second novel, which he is in the midst of writing, has no autobiographical elements. He claims it's merely coincidence that after he began An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, the Thomas Wolfe house was torched.
—Judith Rosen
Sales Tips: Harcourt executive editor Ann Patty characterizes Clarke's novel as "the populist antidote to A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. It's about being a regular guy, not being a genius." Even though Patty only publishes five books a year, she was ready to buy The Ordinary White Boy after reading just two pages. "First of all, I loved the title. He has a voice from the get-go. I rarely see a novel with such an assured voice."
Sue Monk Kidd: The Secret Life of Bees
Viking (Jan.)
It began the evening Sue Monk Kidd and her husband were comparing "how I met my future in-laws" stories with friends. Sandy Kidd won hands down with his recounting of the first night he spent in the Monk family home in Georgia—the night he was attacked by bees. "The bees," recalls Sue Monk Kidd, "visited us regularly for years. They lived in a back bedroom and actually made honey inside the wall. Now and then it would leak out through the cracks and create a mess on the floor. No one ever considered exterminating them—as my mother said, 'What kind of terrible people kill honeybees?' "
The incident provided the genesis for a short story, but from the beginning Kidd always intended to develop it into a novel. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees is the story of young Lily Owens, who runs away with her fierce-hearted nanny, Rosaleen, and is taken in by an eccentric trio of beekeeping black sisters named May, June and August.
Kidd dreamed of becoming a writer, but studied nursing in college—a choice she puts down to coming of age in the pre-Women's Movement South and watching far too many episodes of Dr. Kildare. But her talent as a writer was hard to miss. "For the love of God," pleaded one of her English professors, "why are you a nursing major? You're a born writer." The conversation, remembers Kidd, "sent me into a mini crisis. But even with that affirmation, I still couldn't take the plunge. I became a nurse."
Kidd's "hunger for the world of stories" never dissipated. She began publishing personal experience articles and essays, became a contributing editor at Guideposts magazine, and published three successful "spiritual memoirs" with Harper San Francisco. But Kidd never resigned herself to life as a nonfiction writer. "I always used fiction techniques in my books and I never lost my passion for narrative and the power of the story." At 42, she finally took the plunge into fiction. "It was a longing I couldn't ignore. It was very scary; I couldn't imagine having any success."
The Secret Life of Bees grew, says Kidd "out of my Southern background and my intimacy with the racial wounds and tensions of the 1960s. I needed to do something with my memories of that time, to psychologically and spiritually digest those experiences and put them into a narrative." Midway through the novel, Kidd realized that she had no idea how it should end. Then, August, one of the beekeeping sisters, appeared to her in a dream. "She was complaining about my ideas for an ending. They were all wrong, she said. Then she proceed to tell me the ending. I've always had a great dream life," laughs Kidd, "but that's never happened again!"
—Lucinda Dyer
Sales Tips: According to executive editor Pamela Dorman, "This is the kind of book that women talk to each other about, that a mother will give to a daughter."Kidd's work has already won praise from Anita Shreve as "reminiscent of Reynolds Price in its ability to create a truly original voice." Viking plans an eight-city tour and Hollywood has come calling: Lauren Shuler Donner, whose films include You've Got Mail and X-Men, has optioned the book for Winchester Films.
Owen West: Sharkman Six
Simon & Schuster (Oct.)
West, an ROTC Harvard grad who spent six years in the Marines, penned a military novel, he says, to fill the gap left by existing books in that genre. "I loved all the techno-thrillers when I was younger, but when I was in the Marines, I didn't think they quite reflected my experience. They were great books, but technology and an interesting Cold War plot didn't reflect the modern experience of the grunt, or the good soldier. You need to talk about how the face of war has changed, even though its nature never will."
The 31-year-old author began working on his novel after his stint in the Armed Forces, while attending Harvard Business School. "I was in my Business French class, which is a course you take when you don't want to go to class or work. That's when I wrote the plot outline. I thought that a modern '911 brushfire war'—we don't even call them wars anymore, we call them operations—would be a good setting."
Simon & Schuster has likened his book to Joseph Heller's Catch-22 in its wickedly revealing insider's view of military life, rife with inherent conflict. "The narrator's questioning himself," West tells PW. "He's questioning the rules under which he has to operate. He's forced to have a cutting sense of humor, otherwise he might go crazy."
West further explains, "In all the 'brushfire wars' in the '90s—Panama, Somalia and the Serbian crisis—the rules of war were very strange. You saw the old conflict arising between what the military wants to do and what they're allowed to do. In Serbia, they had a ceiling that the planes couldn't fly under, because it would put the pilots at risk of being shot down by anti-aircraft missiles. But conversely, it's very hard to do effective bombing from such a high altitude. So what you're saying is, we want to go to these wars, but we don't want to have any casualties."
Another aspect of Marine experience included in West's novel is the irreverent language that's part and parcel of military life. According to the author, "I didn't even notice that when I was writing, because that's just the way Marines talk. If you look at old war novels, except for Norman Mailer, no one really swears. Now, even generals like my book, but they don't feel they can endorse it, even though they agree that Marines do talk this way.
"In the end it's just a story," he continues, "but I did want to give a view into a modern infantry platoon—how it functions and how the restrictive rules of war affect those men who are actually out there carrying rifles on the tip of the spear."
—Hilary S. Kayle
Sales Tips: According to senior editor Marysue Rucci, "Owen set out to be a 'Gen X Tom Clancy.' What he succeeds at is combining his personal experience and the experiences of his grandfather and father—this military background—with a sensibility that's very modern. His audience is broader than Gen X, but it is a younger audience." As for the profanity, Rucci reasons, "It is a raw book; that's part of its allure. There's always the danger of turning people off when you have that verisimilitude. But it's important to Owen that he portrays the reality."
Doug Marlette: The Bridge
HarperCollins (Oct.)
A funny thing happened to Doug Marlette on his way to becoming a novelist—he won the Pulitzer Prize. He won the esteemed award with his "day job" hat on—as a cartoonist. His incendiary political cartoons, drawn for newspapers throughout the country, along with his comic strip, Kudzu, have made the North Carolinian a well-known name in publishing circles and attracted a legion of fans. But Marlette never thought of himself as a novelist.
"The title character in my comic strip, which was based on growing up in a small town in the South, wanted to be a writer," Marlette tells PW. "I didn't realize it was my aspiration, too. It wasn't conscious but it may have been coming out in the strips."
The transition to novelist seemed to be a gradual process for Marlette. On the heels of his political cartoons came Kudzu, which required more character development and dialogue, and then Marlette wrote a musical. "It seems like I was moving toward a novel. It was a bit like a salmon swimming upstream. While the whole world seems to be going more toward images, I was crawling back to words." It wasn't an easy crawl, though, as Marlette readily admits. "Cartoonists are notoriously illiterate; we consider words a crutch. The wordless cartoon is the ideal. I was stunned that I could write anything more than a caption. It totally crept up on me."
The idea for The Bridge originated when Marlette moved from New York City to Hillsborough, in his native North Carolina. (He was born in Greensboro, but had relocated to New York to work for New York Newsday.) He found he had deep family roots in Hillsborough, as his grandparents had met and married there while working in the cotton mills. Marlette soon began hearing colorful tales about Mama Lucy, his feisty, snuff-dipping grandmother who had been bayoneted by a national guardsman in the General Textile Strike of 1934 (she survived the incident, in the largest walkout in American labor history to that time).
Picking up those threads, Marlette tells in The Bridge the story of Pick Cantell, a successful newspaper cartoonist whose career has hit the skids. He gets fired from his job in New York and returns with his wife and son to Eno, N.C., where he begins renovating an old home and putting his life back together. In the process, he discovers his family's ties to the Southern city and the fact that one of his grandparents had led a "secret life" that Pick had known nothing about. The novel is, in Marlette's words, "a tale of love and betrayal, forbidden passions and long-buried secrets, and one man's struggle with his heritage and with himself." And HC executive editor Carolyn Marino tells PW, "Like Doug, I'm a North Carolinian and was drawn to a story that took place near where I grew up, but what particularly intrigued and charmed me was the novel itself, especially the story within a story." For its vivid characterizations and evocative sense of place, Marino likens The Bridge to the work of another Southerner, Pat Conroy.
So will Marlette repeat the novel-writing process? "It was a pleasure to do, but incredibly difficult. I want to do it again, though. A cartoon is like a slam dunk, a novel is like a whole season."
—Michael Archer
Sales Tips: The Bridge has already received extensive media coverage—Liz Smith's column noted that the publishing industry is calling it "the best first novel out of the state of North Carolina since Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel." Other advance praise has come from such noted authors as Pat Conroy, Kaye Gibbons, Joe Klein and Studs Terkel. HC's extensive promotional campaign will include a seven-city tour.
Tess Uriza Holthe: When the Elephants Dance
Crown (Jan.)
Tess Uriza Holthe, 34, couldn't be more cheerful as she talks about the ease with which her novel, When the Elephants Dance, happened. An accountant by training, Holthe, who lives in the Bay Area, had enrolled in a creative writing workshop at the Book Passage in nearby Corte Madera. "The class was given an exercise to write about a myth in the family," she says. "I did a list—I'm a lister—and after 10 minutes I had 10 myths. I was so excited. I thought, I could write a book! It hit a vein with me."
A year and a half later, her novel, a WWII story set in the Philippines, was finished. "I would write at night after work, for two hours," she says. "Even if it was just one word—just for the continuity of it. I was possessed. All these myths just came out." A few weeks after attending the Maui Writers Conference at the suggestion of a friend, she had not only an agent but a contract with Crown. "After the writing class, I felt as if someone had said to me, 'Go play now, go play.' It's so weird that I found writing so late in my life. I'm so glad that I did."
Holthe's parents, Filipino immigrants, expected their children to follow respectable careers—nothing "artsy" like being a writer. But their own lives were filled with stories and storytelling, and these took hold in their youngest child. "Three things were always going on in my family," Holthe says. "My father is cooking in the kitchen; there's a marathon mahjong game going on in the living room; and my grandmother and father are telling stories. I grew up surrounded by wonderful stories. I would hear them endlessly."
In the novel, a group of Filipino civilians, hiding out from Japanese soldiers as the battle for possession of the Philippines rages in the street, regale each other with stories to help the time go by. Outside is hunger, rape, torture; inside is all fantastic narrative. Five of their stories are interspersed with scenes from the war, seen from shifting points of view: that of a 12-year-old boy, his 17-year-old sister and their neighbor, a guerrilla warrior.
"The opening is based on something that happened to my father, but I researched the rest," Holthe says. It was this history that made the book difficult, she adds, as reading about the wartime atrocities would bring tears to her eyes. By contrast, "The mythical stories just flew. I really felt there were spirits in the room when I was writing. I felt as if my grandmother was in the room."
—Suzanne Mantell
Sales Tips: Executive editor Kristin Kiser compares Holthe's book to One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Joy Luck Club but describes it, too, as "like nothing you've ever read before. She takes you into this harsh world with babies dead in the road and then transforms it in the next few pages with magic realism. She transforms worlds large and small." Crown has announced a first printing of 75,000 copies, with ARCs going out and an eight-city tour planned.
Bill Roorbach: The Smallest Color
Counterpoint (Oct.)
Readers of Harper's, the Atlantic and other periodicals may be familiar with Bill Roorbach's warm, energetic and finely wrought short stories and essays, which have popped up in print regularly over the past decade. Earlier this year, his story collection from U. of Georgia Press, Big Bend, won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Roorbach is also the author of an acclaimed memoir, Summers with Juliet, and a how-to book about transforming experience into readable and meaningful form, Writing Life Stories. The appearance of The Smallest Color marks his first claim to the term "novelist"—a claim that has taken more than 10 years to realize.
The book tells the story of Coop Henry, a successful, middle-aged man whose older brother, Hodge, has been missing for 30 years. Coop knows Hodge's secret and has guarded it since he disappeared, but then it starts to ruin his life. "Coop has got to come clean, and in order to do that he has to lose everything he's got," Roorbach says. "Everything he has stems from the secret."
Roorbach, 47, knew as a child that he'd become a writer. When he was five, he asked his parents for a desk for Christmas, to sit at to compose his thoughts. "Fiction was my first love," he explains. "I just wrote stories all along." But he also played the piano and, for a while, "music won out." After college in Ithaca, N.Y., Roorbach joined a band, hewed to a musician's peripatetic life and supplemented his income with odd jobs, including bartender, plumber and handyman. In retrospect it was all preparation and fodder, though at the time it was a lot of fun.
At graduate school at Columbia, at age 33, he was steered toward nonfiction: "It was faster, easier, a great way to start." But The Smallest Color had its inception even then. "I wrote the book piece by piece, with long pauses between drafts," he says, emphasizing that there were many, many drafts.
One of the biggest challenges of The Smallest Color, according to Roorbach, was owning up to its deepest truth. "I had been afraid to make the brother as bad as he is. But he really is bad. The last step was to admit how bad. It was like breaking the sound barrier. It's so much harder than nonfiction. In journalism or memoirs, the story is there for you—the art is in structuring it. With fiction, you have to find out where the story is."
This past spring, Roorbach gave up a tenured teaching position at Ohio State and, with his wife and 10-month-old daughter, moved to Maine ("It's what Connecticut was like when I was growing up there in the '50s"). He plans to devote full time to writing, with a bit of teaching thrown in. On the calendar for next spring is a book of nature essays, with another novel to come out some time after that. "I could probably do a novel now in three years, but I will probably use breaks, writing other things in between," he says. "Fiction and nonfiction don't get in each other's way for me. The voices are different."
—Suzanne Mantell
Sales Tips: Quotes from Colin Harrison and Richard Russo accompany what senior editor Dawn Seferian calls "a literary thriller. It's not a murder mystery, but it's that kind of thing. I was hooked from the first sentence." Counterpoint has acquired paperback rights for Big Bend and will bring it out at the same time as the paper edition of The Smallest Color.
Glen David Gold: Carter Beats the Devil
Hyperion (Sept.)
Do you believe in magic? Glen David Gold does, or at least he believes in magicians. His novel, Carter Beats the Devil, is the tale of Charles Carter, a real magician who lived in San Francisco and, as Carter the Great, was widely known for his skill as an illusionist in the 1920s. During the five years it took Gold to research and write the novel he developed a lot of affection for Carter and his ilk. "What kind of a guy rolls out of bed, has his coffee, and says, 'I'm going to think of a new way to saw someone in half?' " asks Gold. "A magician has a personality not unlike that of a writer, because he's trying to manipulate reality."
Or, in Gold's case, manipulate history. Carter Beats the Devil is an addition to a family of historical fiction that includes Darin Strauss's Chang and Eng and Lauren Belfer's City of Light (not to mention E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime)—all novels that aspire to recreate an era through less-remembered historical figures who were legendary in their time. Like those authors, Gold aims to use historical fiction to transport rather than to educate didactically. Says the author, "What you want is to be able to imagine yourself back there, and it's fun to try to get the real personalities of people we think we know."
Gold began the novel as a student in the creative writing program at the University of California at Irvine. Pressed to meet a deadline, he hammered out the first chapter while living in a rococo Oakland, Calif., apartment building complete with hidden staircases—"It was a place I imagined Carter would have lived in himself."
Before enrolling in graduate school, Gold wrote for TV and movies, but had trouble getting a foothold. He wrote a script ("a romantic comedy about lesbian biker chicks and the men who love them") that made the rounds and eventually landed him a job as a staff writer for 101 Dalmatians (go figure). Gold held that position for all of eight hours before his department was let go. In the end, his sole television writing credit was for an episode of the Nickelodeon cartoon Hey Arnold!—an episode in which Arnold performs a magic act.
No magic was involved in acquiring Gold's debut, however, says Hyperion senior editor Leigh Haber: "There are times when you get a manuscript and a light goes on, not only because you love the novel, but because you instinctively feel that it's a great fit with the publishing house. That was definitely the case with Glen's novel."
—Natalie Danford
Sales Tips: Set for a 75,000-copy first printing, Carter will be backed by a $100,000 marketing campaign that includes national print advertising and a tour of the West Coast. It will be excerpted in the August issue of—what else?— Magic magazine. Along with its four-color illustrations the novel sports an exceptionally eye-catching cover, taken from an actual Charles Carter poster. Years ago, Gold received a copy of the poster from his father as a birthday gift.


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Finalists in the DWR 2003 Holiday Champagne Chair Contest.
Reader comments
Jan 15, 2004 at 2:08PM
This is so great.
Jan 16, 2004 at 10:13PM
Great indeed. I saw the announcement a while ago and reminded myself then that I had to see the results, and then promptly forgot, so thanks for the reminder!
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.


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Aurora, CO
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The waiting is over! Check out our list of the most beloved family-friendly businesses in our area. Parents voted between Jan 6-Feb 3 on their faves, and here's who came out on top.
Most Loved Arts & Crafts Center
Tara is an Independent Gallery Guide with Gallery On The Go in Southeast Aur... MORE »
Most Loved Arts & Crafts Center
A great place to relax and enjoy quality time with family and friends. MORE »
Most Loved Local Charity
Project Helping organizes and executes group volunteer events for those impa... MORE »
Most Loved Kids Consignment Shop
A Wee Bit Worn LLC Specializing in consignment and resale of gently worn c... MORE »
Most Loved Dance Studio
We work to give each student a good foundation in dance regardless of whethe... MORE »
Most Loved Pediatric Dentist
Family 1st Dental welcomes patients of any age, we love to help everyone!! W... MORE »
Most Loved Indoor Play Center / Kid Gym
The Little Gym of Park Meadows offers progressively structured classes and a... MORE »
Most Loved Learning Center
GradePower Learning is the first supplemental education program of its kind.... MORE »
Most Loved Martial Arts Studio
ATAFMA is more than just a martial arts school As a proud member of the A... MORE »
Most Loved Music Lessons
At School of Rock we believe the best way to learn music is to play music. W... MORE »
Most Loved Orthodontist
Welcome to Garlock Orthodontics. Located at 6020 S Gun Club Rd #E1 in Aurora... MORE »
Most Loved Pediatrician
Advanced Pediatric Associates has been providing compassionate and comprehen... MORE »
Most Loved Family Photographer
A native of Castle Rock, Colorado, Raemi is a lifestyle photographer, specia... MORE »
Most Loved Place to Go
Chuck E. Cheese's features games, rides, prizes, food and entertainment that... MORE »
Most Loved Place to Go
Bowling at Brunswick is family fun at its best. It's a great way to spend so... MORE »
Most Loved Place to Go
Celebrity Lanes is a Family Entertainment Center located at the Northwest co... MORE »
Most Loved Preschool
Where academic preparation meets a world of opportunity! The preschool years... MORE »
Most Loved Sports Classes & Camps
Arapahoe Little League focuses on proper guidance and leadership. We promote... MORE »
Most Loved STEM Programs
Colorado STEAM Academy--Where success comes first! We believe that every stu... MORE »
Most Loved Swim Lessons
SafeSplash Swim School specializes in teaching swimming to children ranging ... MORE »
Most Loved Toy and/or Book Store
All C's Gaming Arena is your go-to store and event location for all the hott... MORE »


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Learn about this topic in these articles:
fission process
...on the particular nucleus being considered. Fission can be induced by exciting the nucleus to an energy equal to or greater than that of the barrier. This can be done by gamma-ray excitation ( photofission) or through excitation of the nucleus by the capture of a neutron, proton, or other particle (particle-induced fission). The binding energy of a particular nucleon to a nucleus will...
gamma rays
...ray can be directly absorbed by a nucleus, causing the ejection of nuclear particles or the splitting of the nucleus in a process known as photofission.
...neutron, or alpha particle. For example, magnesium-25, upon absorbing a photon of sufficient energy, emits a proton and becomes sodium-24. Photodisintegration differs from the nuclear reaction photofission, in which a nucleus, upon absorbing a photon, splits into two fragments of nearly equal mass.


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25 June 2008
Arctic ocean volcano blew its top – even under pressure
THE deep ocean continues to surprise: it appears a volcano on the seabed has exploded with a force thought impossible.
In 1999, the largest-ever swarm of quakes was recorded on a mid-ocean plate boundary, on the Gakkel Ridge in the east Arctic basin.
To find out what caused it, Robert Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, and colleagues peeked at the ridge with a remote-controlled device. They found shattered rock spread over 10 square kilometres, suggesting a series of volcanic explosions (Nature, vol 453, p 1236).
Such explosions can occur in shallow water if the water rapidly vaporises, but beyond 3 kilometres down the pressure is too high. Sohn reckons the magma must have contained up to 10 times more carbon dioxide than thought possible. This separated out as the magma rose and built up in a chamber beneath the seabed. Eventually the roof cracked and the


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Cycling Rural Spain: Baix Region
- Location
- Spain, Europe
- Self Guided Dates
- Daily March to end October
- Trip Duration
- 8 days/7 nights
- Cost
- $1450 per person
- Guide Type
- Self Guided
- Bike Rental
- $195
- Single Supplement
- $595
- Difficulty
- Easy / Moderate
- Trip Includes
- accommodation, breakfasts, luggage transfer, route notes and maps
- Start Location
- Corca
- End Location
- Sant Pere Pescador
- Trip Reservation
Gentle cycling tour through nearly flat or gently rolling terriain from the azure Mediterranean Sea into the green Catalonian countyside.
Discover the backcountry roads of rural Spain. Pedaling on quiet roads with little traffic, stopping en route to delight in the local cuisine and taste the wine.
Pedal back through history as you cross fields of sunflowers and wheat, forests of pine and even rice fields. Relax in comfortable hotels with their own unique charm.
Located in the Costa Brava region of Spain, this trip is a fairly easy commute from Barcelona.
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It's summertime (almost) and the living is easy. Unfortunately, warm temperatures and a laid-back attitude also can make it easier for burglars to break into your home.
"During warm weather, people tend to be a bit more careless and leave windows and (patio) doors open for ventilation. That can make them more vulnerable (to break-ins)," says Marlee Chapman, crime prevention supervisor for the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.
Our current tough economy only adds to the problem. Burglary and other personal crimes traditionally increase when money is tight, say crime-prevention specialists.
Although an expensive alarm system with central monitoring probably offers the most surefire security, you don't need one to help thwart intruders.
"There are plenty of inexpensive ways to better secure your home. Many of them use inexpensive hardware and most of them you can do yourself," Chapman says.
Here are some tips to make your home more secure:
- Lock up. Always lock all doors and windows. Every entrance door should have a single-cylinder deadbolt lock with at least a 1-inch-long bolt. Sliding glass doors should have a slide-bolt lock at the bottom or a pin, so the door can't be lifted off the track. Install thumb-turn screw locks or anti-slide bolts on all windows so at night or when you're away, the window can open no more than an inch. However, for the most security, all windows should be closed and locked at night or when you're gone.
- Don't neglect the second story. Be sure to lock windows and balcony doors on second floors.
- Safe and solid. Make sure your exterior doors are solid core and at least 1¾ inches thick so they can't be kicked in.
- Screen door safety. Install a security screen door with a steel frame and ring guard for a deadbolt lock. It offers the ventilation of a screen door and the security of a solid wood door.
- Peek out. All external doors should have a peephole with a wide-angle lens allowing a 180-degree view to see who's outside without opening the door.
- Lighten up. "Lighting is one of the most inexpensive and efficient ways of securing the home," Chapman says. "A burglar doesn't want to be noticed." Install motion-detector or dawn-to-dusk lights in strategic locations around the outside of your home. Turn on lights at dark doorways. If the light doesn't bother you or your neighbors, leave the entryway light on all night.
- Use timers. Put indoor lamps on rotating timers. Same thing with a radio. A dark, quiet house announces that nobody is home and is an open invitation to a burglar. "Try to simulate regular family activity with lights going on or off in several rooms during the evening," Chapman suggests.
- Don't help burglars. Don't leave ladders outdoors, which can offer thieves access to a second story. Store barbecue tools, garden shovels and baseball bats in the house or garage where intruders can't use them to break a window or as a weapon against you.
- Plant security shrubbery. Thorny bushes such as bougainvillea, Chinese holly or natal plum next to ground floor windows deter hiding or entering through a window.
- Don't advertise that you're away. Avoid leaving an outgoing message on your telephone answering machine telling callers you're gone. Ask a friend or neighbor to pick up your newspapers and mail and check on your house every day when you're gone. You can also put a vacation hold on your newspaper. For the Union-Tribune, call (800) 533-8830 or go to signonsandiego.com/myuniontrib. To have your mail held, go to the U.S. Postal Service's Web site, usps.com.
- Be a good neighbor. Sign up for your local neighborhood watch and display the crime-prevention sticker near your door.
- Get checked out. Both the county Sheriff's Department and the San Diego Police Department offer free residential security inspections, which will assess your home's security and offer helpful tips. To schedule an inspection, call the sheriff's crime prevention unit at (858) 974-2289 or go to sandiego.gov/police/neighborhood to find the SDPD community relations office in your neighborhood.


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Remember when Robert De Niro was Ed Norton? Well, now Ed Norton is Robert De Niro. Trust me, it makes perfect sense. Check out a promo trailer for Norton and De Niro's new thriller "Stone", set for a 2010 release from John Curran, the director of "The Painted Veil" and "We Don't Live Here Anymore". The film stars Norton as a bad, bad dude who tries to get De Niro to set him free. How does he do that, you ask? Well he's got a pretty little wife played by Milla Jovovich who will do anything for him. This includes seducing De Niro's parole officer and having lots of extra-marital sex. Hi-jinks, as they say, ensue.
"Stone" is based on a play by Angus MacLachlan, who also wrote the movie.
A word of warning: though whoever put the trailer up on YouTube doesn't mark it as such, the trailer has NSFW language and nudity. You have been warned. And oh yeah, the trailer also gives away a hell of a lot, so watch out for that, too.
Update: The people behind the movie, apparently mystified by how YouTube works, "demanded" that I remove the vid, even though it's just embed codes and I don't actually have the video anywhere near me, and that YouTube is the person they should be threatening. Dear movie people: please join the 21st century and learn how embed videos work. Thank you. Here's a pic of Milla Jovovich instead.
Update #2: Find the official trailer below.


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These jihadists are playing the Gitmo kuffar judge like a cheap fiddle, just as their fellow jihad mass murderer, Nidal Malik Hasan, is manipulating his own courtroom kuffar. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has already won permission to wear a U.S. Military camouflage vest and to get court dismissed early so he can get his sleep. KSM is wringing every accommodation he can from his witless dhimmi judge. For the judge to rule against such requests would of course be "Islamophobic." (continue reading...)(...more)
Jihad Watch - 28 January 2013
Categories: Other countriesUSAIntegrationIdeologyNetworks


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Mead made speedily
Lost Cause Meadery noteworthy for reduced fermentation period
Ian Anderson 4 p.m., Nov. 19
(Page 2 of 3)
"Basically, there was some extra money left over from last year, and we designated it for the retailers in the neighborhood. I think we've got a lot of high-profile events for the bars and clubs, and what we were looking to do was promote retail. So with a little seed money we put together a group of Gaslamp retailers starting last summer and tried to figure out how to spend it. The concept was 'What makes us unique?' Well, obviously we have a high percentage of locally owned businesses. We don't have the big boxes of malls and big chains, and we were thinking about the process of shopping, of going in and out of stores. In trying to figure out what makes us unique, we came up with the initial phrase, 'I found it in the Gaslamp.' It was that sense of the discovery of something that we wanted to communicate. We handed the program off to Juddesign, and they took it over and turned it into several different concepts, all of which were amazing. The one we chose was 'Shop Outside the Box.' That phrase captures what we are going after. The obvious comparison is to malls and chain stores. The hot trend in retail has obviously been the superstore, but we know there are a lot of people who absolutely hate those places. This was an effort to communicate with those people."
Keller added, "Our goal is to get people to realize that there are 75 to 80 stores in the Gaslamp and that it is more than just a great dining and entertainment district. There is something else happening here, and so we need to start adding that idea of shopping to people's idea of the Gaslamp."
Even though city press releases plug the Gaslamp's shopping, Keller thinks the Gaslamp has a way to go before it becomes a reputable retail district. "From my point of view," he said, "and I know that not everybody agrees with me, I think that a certain percentage of national stores here is critical. There just isn't that much good independent retail. I say we need some of the clothing stores. I don't think that we'll become a real shopping district until we get some more of the nationals, with all the product and expertise that they bring. In order for us to be perceived by San Diegans as a shopping district, we need to get more retailers down here. And I hope that includes some additional independents and a few more national chains. I hope we end up with a balance. That will benefit the local stores, who in turn will attract people to the national stores. What the billboard promotes is old-fashioned street shopping, like that on the street level in San Francisco, Santa Monica, Pasadena."
Michael Stepner, dean of the New School of Architecture and a planner for the Gaslamp Quarter from 1975 until 1992, agrees with Keller. "The goal of balance really has not been achieved," he told me on January 30. "You have Fridays and Saturdays when the place is jammed with people going down for the restaurants and the entertainment. I think we haven't developed a sufficient retail market downtown to cause a lot of retail to spill out from Horton Plaza. While some things have gone in, what was envisioned was a lot more businesses going in on the ground floor of Fifth and Sixth Avenues, not just restaurants. We haven't quite achieved that. I would like to see city officials get more daytime commercial tenants in there and go out and find businesses."
Stepner also thinks that Pasadena can be a lesson for San Diego planners. "I look at Old Pasadena as a model, which has achieved more of a balance," he said. "You do have a real strong daytime use there. The big chains can be used to bring in business."
Patti Judd owns Juddesign, an advertising and design firm at 696 State Street, and the Paperie, a retail store at 534 Fifth Avenue. Judd developed the billboard and a "Shop Outside the Box" campaign that ran in San Diego Magazine in December. She told me on January 29, "We took a look at what's unique about shopping in the Gaslamp, which is that the stores are not all cookie-cutter like at the malls. There's a certain cachet with downtown right now, and there's an urban quality that you can't get anywhere else, and so, in terms of developing this campaign, we asked, how do we go in and talk to San Diego, not just to the tourists, but to get the word out that there is quality retail down here. I think that a lot of people still have the impression of downtown as kind of creepy and not the most desirable place to go."
I asked Judd if she would like to see more city-sponsored endorsements of the retail aspects of the Gaslamp. "Absolutely," she said. "Absolutely. But we know it's not going to happen overnight. We have to make it a more attractive place for retail, and that means there has to be a draw during the daytime as well as the nighttime to support the rents that are going on. As far as what CCDC [Centre City Development Corporation] can do, I think it's really their messaging. Previously, the Gaslamp has been touted as a place for nightlife. Part of our messaging has been to make sure they include this shopping experience. We wanted to get away from the perception of the Gaslamp as just a historical district or just an entertainment and dinner place. It needs to be a complete community."
According to Judd, parking has contributed to the problem. "It's affecting both of my businesses, and that is something they can do something about to make it more attractive. A lot of people say, 'Oh, I don't want to go down there and pay for parking.' They know that the meter maids are scooting around."


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Barry A. Lanier
Barry A. Lanier (Georgia)
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Bamber Rage
Laughter retreats in the face of my grief,
Repulsive scent, like charred human remains.
Clinging to the damp stone walls of my chamber,
I found your rage..and still live in it, too-
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Educational Attainment and Other Characteristics of the Self-Employed: An Examination using Data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics
This study examines the relationship between education and the choice to become an entrepreneur. In doing so, it builds on previous research linking entrepreneurial activity with educationalattainment. Weaver, Dickson, and Solomon (2006), for example, survey the literature on this topic, and find that individuals with more education are more likely to be self-employed and successful. Brush and Manolova (2004) write that "human capital is the starting point for obtaining and developing other types of resources when a new venture is founded and directly influences its start-up process, survival, performance, and strategic direction."
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Route Grade Votings
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This is the well-positioned crack high on the side-wall, starting via the upper section of Fat Man's Chimney, or the tricky slab to its right. Finish leftwards using a good pocket and a long reach.
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text: Afternoon all. I was bored last week and decided to buy myself a reverse camera. Fitted it over the weekend and I have to say I am massively impressed ! It was a bit of a pain to route the cables from the trunk to the nav but apart from that it was straight forward. I opted for a Sony CCD 520 TVL camera, the quality of the image is brilliant ! Just thought i would let you all know


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IndiGO Auto Group CEO Todd Blue Featured on Cover of Inaugural 2014 Issue of Rancho Mirage Magazine
The article features Mr. Blue's lifelong fascination with the automotive industry and his new Desert European Motorcars Dealership in Palm Springs, CA
January 17, 2014 (Newswire.com) - The Desert European Motorcars team attended a launch party at local favorite Wally's Desert Turtle to celebrate the release of the inaugural issue of R/M Magazine on Tuesday, January 14, 2014. The cover photo and corresponding article feature Indigo Auto Group CEO and Desert European Motorcars Dealer Principal, Todd Blue and his wife, Karen.
In the article, writer Carolyn Patten highlights Mr. Blue's lifelong fascination with the automotive industry, which began as a preteen reading Automotive News during trips with his father to buy scrap metal from auto assembly and parts-stamping plants. Patten details Mr. Blue's entrйe into the car collector business, utilizing his personal postwar European sports car collection to launch indiGO Classic Cars in 2007. He purchased Porsche of North Houston in 2010, followed by Lamborghini Houston in 2011.
Mr. Blue stated, "We looked all over the country, seeking a new opportunity shortly after the Lamborghini acquisition. We felt this next step would be the most important one in our future."
That next step came in August 2013 with the purchase of Desert European Motorcars, Southern California's premier luxury automotive dealership. Located on Highway 111 in the heart of Rancho Mirage, California, the dealership is comprised of eight world-class automotive brands including Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, Audi and Maserati.
"America is a car culture and there's a huge culture in the desert," the article quoted Mr. Blue. "The opportunity to associate with this many brands, and in such a special community as Rancho Mirage - it can't be duplicated."
Categories: Consumerism
Tags: automotive, Collector, indiGO Auto Group, Palm Springs


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Before Hurricane Sandy brought her wrath to the East Coast, my family celebrated this weekend the wedding of my little brother and my now sister-in-law! I am using the time while we still have power to blog, as Mr. Ly is using this time to battle a bear in Skyrim. I hope everyone who is in the path of Sandy is safe and sound, and mostly dry. I am particularly freaked out by the severity of the storm, but as long as I have power, I am going to use my time wisely and I need something to keep my mind busy! Recapping our last unmarried wedding as guests is the perfect distraction.
As Miss Gray Wolf recently blogged about, when you attend a wedding close to your own, you notice things that you might not take notice of otherwise. The details that, as brides, we spend hours obsessing over go unnoticed by many a wedding guest—unless you are planning your own wedding! My sister-in-law and I are very different types of brides (for one, I don't think she's ever been on the 'Bee) and had very different visions for our weddings from the start. I have tried not to compare our weddings, but as you can imagine, when you have two family members getting married just three months apart, it's hard not to. My brother's wedding was more of your rustic/barnyard feel with lots of Mason jars and wooden touches. The venue was spectacular and my sister-in-law did a really excellent job putting her vision together!
(all photos personal)
A good shot of the venue, Pomme, set up for the ceremony, which was later transformed info the reception space
Seating chart made with an old wooden frame & chicken wire, mini clothespins holding them
Centerpieces and table numbers—Mason jars with daisies on wood that was burned by the bride
Our wedding is not rustic at all, but despite our different visions, we will have some similarities at our wedding. For one, we are using the chuppah that my sister-in-law's father made for their wedding. How's that for something borrowed? It's a gorgeous structure made out wood that came from the town that my sister-in-law was named after, and covered in a tallis (Jewish prayer shawl) from my dad's cousin. It's a beautiful blending of families, and I will proudly marry Mr. Ly underneath it. We will be adding more flowers to the front and draping it with white fabric, but being married under the same chuppah as my brother is a great honor that I am not going to pass up!
My brother breaking the glass at the end of their ceremony
Also, some of our vendors are the same. We are using the same florist and the same DJ company. My brother had a different DJ than we do, but he still did a great job of keeping the dance floor packed all night!
Oh, and cake. What would a Lyre event be without an amazing cake? Yes, MOH Diane made my brother's wedding cake, which was, as always, gorgeous and delicious (chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream).
Finally, as you might guess, my brother's guest list and ours look fairly similar (at least our half of the list) and most, if not all, of our family members will be attending both of our weddings. Mr. Ly and I had a prediction of how many times we would hear "You're next…" from our relatives and family friends. My prediction was 40 times, and Mr. Ly predicted 30. We both overshot it, but we think we heard it about 25 times, and if you count the variations or people asking us "Are you all set?" it probably would be closer to my 40. Seriously, all set? We have almost three months left, people! I just smiled and said things are coming along nicely, and tried to change the conversation. While I usually enjoy talking about our wedding plans, this weekend was neither the time or place for that. I wanted to focus this weekend on my brother and his wife, and their marriage.
We had an amazing time at my brother's wedding—and if our wedding is even half as fun as my brother's, we'll be set! Let's just hope we don't follow suit with the natural disasters surrounding the wedding weekend—no blizzards, please!
We're next!
Now that the weekend is over, it really has started to hit me that we are next! I had my first anxiety dream last night, which coupled with the anxiety I was already feeling about the hurricane didn't provide the best night's sleep. Now we'll just have to weather the storm and see what the next few days bring. Please stay safe, bees!
Anyone else go to a wedding this weekend? Married brides—do you still compare weddings to your own after you are married?
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Reception Etiquette for the Bride and Groom (and Bridal Party!)@ 6:00 am


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Curiosity propels mild-mannered professor Will and his three friends to the Sahara to excavate a site where radar has detected trilithic stones hidden beneath the sand. There they stumble upon an ancient artifact that will change their lives and the world forever: a gateway between planets, linking Earth to distant worlds where they will discover wonders and terrors beyond imagining. Now each traveler must play a crucial role in unraveling an ancient mystery, the solution to which may reveal the true origins of the human race, if they can survive the journey back to Earth.
©2005 Jack Williamson; (P)2006 Blackstone Audiobooks
"Williamson's artificial creatures are brilliant as always. Lush descriptions and a refreshingly brisk pace buoy the novel." (Publishers Weekly)
"Williamson's combination of SF technological inventiveness and heroic quest is surprisingly successful, offering a neat origin story for humanity, to boot." (Booklist)
"Move along, nothing to hear..."
We selected this book because it was read by Harlan Ellison. This book is proof H.E. will ____ for food.
This book is garbage. It is written by a person that clearly knows nothing about SciFi, character development, story telling, or plagiarism.
The story appears to be an attempt to write a bad script for the TV series Stargate. It even has a "major" character that is a large black man with a symbol on his forehead.
This is boring, repeats the same sentences over and over and over again, carefully dodges telling story, has huge leaps of illogic, and is generally racist.
That this book ever got published astounds me... that an audio book was generated for it is offensive.
Please, if you have to read/hear it for yourself because you don't trust our judgment, don't pay for it!
"Too long, too boring"
Some fun visuals but overall not enough new concepts to keep my interest. Characters were boring, too. Ellison's narration was just so-so; he should stick to writing.
"What a disappointment"
"The Stonehenge Gate" starts out ok. It kept me interested for the first several chapters then the author goes off into lord knows where totally losing my attention. Don't waste your money. I was so bored that I totally lost interest in finishing the story.
"This book is appallingly awful"
Do not buy this book - the narrator is painfully and ridiculously melodramatic, and that doesn't help - but the story itself is just rancid. I guess if you were looking for an example of poor narrative, characterization, and repetitive exposition, you have found a gem.
I wouldn't have given it any stars, but I guess you can't do that here.
"Don't But This Book!"
This is about the worst narrated book I've listened to yet! Poorly read, poor timing, poor sense of the dramatic, the reader has taked a mediocre book and made it a horrible one. I don't usually give up on a book, but I give up on this one!
"Can you say useless wonder?"
The author starts off with a fantastic overall plot. Then he proceeds to completely mutilate it from chapter one on.
The story is told from the First-person perspective of a traveller "Stone" who is swept from earth through a star portal built by the supposed progenitors of intelligent life on earth. To the best of my ability to tell those progenitors failed completely if the reader is to judge by the actions and intelligence of the book's main characters. The main character is a coward, inept, of less than average intelligence and completely useless to his comrades. I was left with little or no respect for any of them past the first chapter.
The narrator does not help at all. When I listen to an audio book I want to listen to the Author tell the story HIS way. This narrator wanted to make it a broadway production starring himself. I wanted to reach through my headphones and slap the guy.
Just stop the stupid theatrics and read the book already... please!?
Waste of money. And I rarely say that about books.
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As a family owned business for over 35 years, we take great pride in everything we do. We understand that buying diamond jewelry online without "touching" or "seeing" the actual piece can be very difficult and sometimes even a frustrating process, while also personal and should be treated with extraordinary attention. Our main believes and goals, is to formulate longstanding relationships based on trust so that you will refer to us as a friend in your buying process.
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After opening the season in the 2012 Hollis Eble Tournament, the Rockwood Middle School Tigers and Lady Tigers played their regular season opener at Wartburg on Monday.
The Roane State Community College women's basketball team is young but determined.
"They are so competitive with everything," head coach Monica Boles said.
It's not quite David and Goliath, but the Kingston Yellow Jackets have a tall task at hand as Blair Harrison's squad hits the road to take on defending state champion and No. 2 ranked Christian Academy of Knoxville (CAK) in the second round of the TSSAA Class 3A playoffs Friday night at 7 p.m.
Midway's return to the TSSAA Class 1A playoffs did not turn out as well as they hoped, dropping a 28-12 decision to Cloudland Saturday afternoon.
Although they did not make the playoffs, the Oliver Springs Bobcats did play a game over the weekend as Wiley Brackett's squad defeated Stone Memorial, 47-30, Saturday afternoon at Grace Christian Academy.
For the third time in the past four seasons, the Boyd-Buchanan Buccaneers have ended Rockwood's season as Friday night the Tigers dropped a 27-19 decision in Chattanooga in the opening round of the TSSAA Class 2A playoffs.
Coming off a disappointing 28-0 loss to Loudon to end the regular season, the Kingston Yellow Jackets put together a phenomenal performance Friday night in blowing out Polk County on the road, 49-14.
After a grueling regular season, three teams from Roane County will be starting postseason play Friday night as Midway, Kingston and Rockwood have all qualified for the playoffs.
All three teams will be on the road facing teams that have been a thorn in their side in recent years in the playoffs.
For Midway, the Green Wave will be traveling to Cloudland in the first round of the TSSAA Class 1A playoffs. Midway has played at Cloudland three times in the playoffs since 2001, but the Green Wave have yet to pick up a victory.
The final week of the regular season for the Tennessee Valley Athletic Association yielded no big surprises as the division leaders all remained in first place and now the championship games are set to be played on Saturday, Nov. 10.
But first, the cheerleader championships will take place this Saturday at the Roane County High School gym. The first group of competitors will take the floor at 10 a.m. This is the fourth year the league has had the cheerleader competition.
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