Coraline trailer

January 24, 2009

I’m really looking forward to seeing Coraline, one of Neil’s books that’s been adapted for the silver screen by Henry Selick. (No, not Magnum PI. That was Tom Selleck.) It’s out in the US on 6th Feb, you lucky people, but doesn’t get to the UK until May. Meanies. This trailer is wonderful though.

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Bookcamp: Designing the socialised book

January 17, 2009

Interested in paper books, and how to turn the into social objects. They are very social things all ready – people pass them on, each one is the same, they last a long time. But what would you do if you designed a book to be a social object. Designing a book to read includes […]

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Bookcamp: Harper Collins, Authonomy & Book Army

January 17, 2009

Harper Collins – Kate Hyde, Mark Johnson. Authonomy, book with rating new books. Getting agents on board. Going to be using Blurb to move manuscripts into PoD. Big learning curve. Tension about being a large company wanting to find the best books, with the needs of the community. People quesitoning why they’re doing it and […]

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Bookcamp: When users create their own stuff

January 17, 2009

I’m here at Bookcamp today, a day of talking about publishing, books, paper and all sorts of related things. Notes are a bit all over the place, but hopefully they’ll be interesting. Comic Life, kit who put together a comic for show and tell at school, ended up selling copies to his friends. What if […]

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Writing as sculpture

January 15, 2009

I’ve nearly finished the first draft of The Revenge of the Books of Hay, a couple of months later than I had intended to, but so it goes. I’m currently writing one of the very last scenes, a big showdown between two of the key characters, and whilst I was writing the other night I […]

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Ada Lovelace Day needs you

January 12, 2009

We are just 95 signatories off reaching our target of 1000 people, all promising to blog about a woman they admire on 24 March 2009. I had originally been a bit worried that we wouldn’t see 13 people per day sign up, but the reaction to the pledge has been just awe inspiring. Now my […]

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Join me on Ada Lovelace Day

January 6, 2009

I’ve mainly stayed away from the discussion of gender issues in technology. I didn’t think that I had any real expertise to share. But over the last six months, after many conversations, it has become clear that many of my female friends in tech really do feel disempowered. They feel invisible, lacking in confidence, and […]

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Gorgeousness on Folksy

January 4, 2009

I joined up with craft marketplace Folksy in November, in the hope that I could sell some of the necklaces that I made last year. I’m really enjoying myself, because although I’ve only sold one piece so far, the community is so much fun that it rather makes up for the slow sales. So far […]

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A little bit, every day

January 1, 2009

Last year, psychologists discovered that humans aren’t really all that great at “willpower”: The brain has a limited capacity for self-regulation, so exerting willpower in one area often leads to backsliding in others. Another key discovery last year was made by Kevin, who found that if you overwhelm your body clock with exhaustion at the […]

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Drouth termination! Free rain!

December 8, 2008

Sometimes, I just love spam: How can anyone resist free rain? It’s usually so expensive here. I wonder how well Mr Sander does with plagues of locusts or, in a surprise reversal of fortune, rains of frogs? Although isn’t offering services such as “drouth termination” somewhat heretical for a self-confessed Christian businessman? Surely that’s God’s […]

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Let’s get Folksy!

December 5, 2008

Christmas is coming – a fact confirmed by the fact that I’ve already eaten one huge turkey (Thanksgiving!), there’s about 18 inches of snow on the ground here in northern Illinois, and there are more Christmas lights up than you can shake a stick at. I’ve just joined Folksy, a UK-based crafts site, and put […]

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Asterix yn y Gymraeg

November 26, 2008

Dw i newydd darganfod bod ‘na fersiwns Asterix The Gaul yn y Gymraeg. Mae ‘na wyth o deitlau: Asterix y Galiad (1976) Asterix ym Mhrydain (1976) Asterix a Cleopatra (1976) Asterix Gladiator (1977) Asterix ym myddin Cesar (1978) Asterix yn y gemau Olympaidd (1979) Asterix a’r ornest fawr (1980) Asterix ac anrheg Cesar (1981) Dyma’r […]

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Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most verbose of all?

November 26, 2008

It’s coming up to Thanksgiving here in the US, and a thin layer of snow still sparkles on the ground in the winter sun. On Friday, (that’s the day after Thanksgiving for any of you not steeped in American tradition) we shall drive to Milwaukee for a spot of Christmas shopping and, in the case […]

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Craters on the moon driving me quietly mad

November 17, 2008

Years ago, possibly during the late 90s or early 2000s, there was a project to identify craters on the Moon. There was a website that displayed a fairly good photo and you drew a red circle around each crater you could see. When you saved the image, you were served another. It was, in fact, […]

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How to get published

November 17, 2008

Last week, Kev and I went to a quiet little event at One Alfred Place with publisher Alan Samson and author Mark Billingham, which was timely in more ways than one. Both Alan and Mark were interesting speakers and I could have quite happily sat down with them and grilled them at length, particularly Alan […]

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