After my special Gay Fiction Edition of Under the Covers, I got inspired to redesign The River in Winter‘s hardcover book jacket. Behold!
Letters from the Country
July 31, 2009
July 30, 2009
Fountain City
If you haven’t read Wonder Boys,
Wonder Boys was Michael Chabon’s second novel, after The Mysteries of Pittsburgh,
July 28, 2009
Under the Covers, Part Six
There will be much to come on the subject of ♥ing NY, and in particular its many gorgeous eating establishments, but first! a special Gay Fiction Edition of Under the Covers.
I should note, however, that there is a New York connection here. While Todd was browsing in his happy place, I walked down the street and browsed in mine.
Actually, Borders is more like my mildly diverted place. I never feel quite at home there. This time I got the fisheye from the cafe baristas when I offered to reuse my cup for a second iced coffee. So, yeah. Borders is not my happy place, Barnes & Noble is. Strand, as it turns out, is my ecstatic place.
But I digress.
July 21, 2009
Much to Say, No Time to Say It
I’m quite busy ♥ing NY, and I haven’t even bothered to boot my laptop since we left home. (I’m tapping this out on my tiny iPhone keypad.) Restaurant reports, photos, and general traveloguish stuff will follow at the earliest opportunity.
July 17, 2009
Why I Hate Flash
I hate Flash because it sucks.
Oh, I know you’re out there, you apologists who say, “Flash doesn’t suck, people do.” I say, what’s the difference?
So far, I’ve run across one proposed use for Flash that makes me say, “hey! cool!” The rest of the time, when I see that “loading, please wait” thing at the front of every Flash movie ever created, I’m all eye-rolling and forehead-slapping and “not another one.” I’ve been doing this a lot lately while visiting restaurant sites, because–as we all know–one cannot have a restaurant site without the whole thing being built in Flash. As we all know, HTML is wholly unsuited for presenting anything as complex as a menu; this would explain why, when a browser that doesn’t support Flash attempts to load a Flash-based restaurant site, the site cannot possibly redirect to anything other than a missing plugin icon.
(Elettaria is the exception that proves the rule. I almost want to go there when we’re in New York, just to give them props for having an alternative, non-Flash, site that works on the iPhone. But Akhtar Nawab lost on Iron Chef America, so I couldn’t possibly.*)
No Looking Back
Some more tweaks on the book cover. The back only this time, since the front hasn’t changed:
(Click for PDF.)
Last night I really liked the way the photos faded to black underneath the text. But in print the effect resulted in a weird band of magenta where the photo met the background. I like this better, especially with the new picture in the middle.
So, yeah, it’s getting really close, I think.
July 16, 2009
I ♥ NY
I have that song playing in my head–you know the one, from the old TV ads. IIIIIIII love New Yooooorrrrk…
It’s not entirely random; this weekend, we are going to the Big Potato. A kind and generous New Yorker (Todd’s brother) has offered us the use of his apartment while he’s out of town.
We’ll be staying farther uptown than I’ve actually ever been, which is kind of cool. Once, I had the crazy notion to try to walk from the south end of Central Park to the north end. I barely made it to the lower 70′s. On a map it looks like it’d be totally easy to walk up through the park in a somewhat straight line, but when you’re actually on the ground the paths keep dumping you out onto 5th Avenue.
But I digress.
Picky, Picky
Still working on that paperback cover.
(You know the drill: click the image for the PDF.)
Different photos on the back. And after printing I decided the type was still too big. Oh, and I rearranged the whole author bio thing.
Am I done, finally? No telling … After all, tomorrow’s another day.
July 15, 2009
Lingering Unpleasantness
I picked up a mild case of food poisoning over the weekend. I’ve had a severe case of food poisoning before, so I’m altogether glad for the mildness of this one. Even so, it’s … unpleasant.
Be not afraid; I’ll spare you the truly gory details. I’ve been spared a lot of really icky GI stuff anyway. The worst and most lingering symptoms have been aches and pains–headaches, sore muscles, joint pain. I’m reminded of that line from “Jack and the Beanstalk”: Be he ‘live or be he dead I’ll grind his bones to make my bread. Right now, my knees and ankles are throbbing as if someone’s been grinding on them. My hamstrings feel like they’ve been stretched tight.
July 9, 2009
Toads and Frogs
As I reported last night, it rained like a mofo. I saw on my Facebook news feed (so you know it must be true), that some kind of record was set. Based only on the water level in the wetlands, it probably is true:
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