Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Star F*cker

I admit it: The best part of this job is going to be the authors. Once a week, we meet with the publishers and vendors for our specific catagories. The big pubs: Random House, HarperCollins, ect. meet with all of us at once to save time.
Last week, the Random House rep told us Jackie Collins had returned to their house. He was wondering if we wanted to meet her. He said he'd bring her around for a dinner later in the Summer...

JACKIE COLLINS!!!!!!!

(I hope she doesn't mind that I have never read a book of hers and all my questions will be about Joan)

Sunday, June 19, 2005

You can't get to heaven on a dinosaur

So I saw 'Batman Begins.' It was pretty good and had an incredible twist at the end. Katie Holmes was pretty bad, and she had nothing to do, except utter my runner up post title, 'You could die, can you at least tell me your name?'

No my dear readers, my title came from a van load of Vacation Bible School kids who were next to me in traffic singing this anti-evolution song, 'You can't get to heaven on a dinosaur.' It made me weep.

Monday, June 13, 2005

Buy the Book

Well Happy Campers, I started my new job today. I love it!

The first day was a little hectic as first days usually are. I sat in on several meetings and even had some input right from the get go. The various catagories I buy for are for the most unremarkable: cooking, westerns, ect. However, I am also responsible for co-ordinating Author Events at a regional level. This means I assist stores with specific author signings and mini-book tours. There is someone else who manages national tours, but I am snapping at his heels.

My apartment is nice, with the exception of Tom not being around. These first few days have been hard, but we talk constantly, and I am so busy with training, I don't have time to be sad.

I missed the BEA conference, but one of the buyers was nice enough to bring me back a copy of Gregory Maguire's new book. I am surprised I am writing this, instead of reading it already.


Randy

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

On the road...

For those of you who have been slightly vocal about my lack of posts, here you are.

And what a scoop I have today: I start my new job on Monday.

Yes, that's right. I have accepted the job offer at Home Office. BF and I have been busy these last few weeks getting all of this ironed out. This is the reason I have not written much, and the fact I have a weekly book review. You see, I am moving up first, Tom will be following in a few months. We decided to keep this as low profile as possible for now just to make sure his customers didn't get wind of it too early. Then he would have no work to do, and since he has not decided whether or not to close, or relocate his business, that woud be bad.

I didn't want to blog it because gay aircraft mechanics from Texas seems to be my demographic.

But now, the cat's out of the bag, and I am leaving tomorrow. I won't have a PC for a while, but should be able to blog from work. (We'll see)

I am excited, nervous, scared and every other emotion you can think of. Tom and I will be apart for months, and he gets to keep the dog.
The good news is that I am only 5 hours away. I see a lot of driving in my future...

Randy

Saturday, June 04, 2005

So Crushable!

Have you ever had a crush on someone, ut didn't realize you did until later? I have just realized I have had a crush on Steve McQueen for most of my life.
Last night on Turner Classic Movies was the doc 'Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool.' It was incredible. I didn't know a lot about his life, but as they showed clips from his films, I realized I had seen most of them; Papillon, The Great Escape, The Sand Pebbles, The Thomas Crown Affair, Nevada Smith. After the doc was The Maginificent Seven, which I had never seen. So I started to really think about it, and the litmus test that proved it was that I hate Westerns and War movies, but I'll watch them if McQueen is in them.
Steve McQueen is not what you would call 'Pretty.' But he's rugged and manly and just damned sexy. If you watch most of these movies, there is always a shirtless scene.
Classic movie buffs of my stripe usually talk about Gloria Swanson, Bette Davis or Joan Crawford. I just wanted to take a moment to recognize an incredible actor and a damned sexy man.

Who knew?

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Wicked

(PJS is forbidden from commenting on this post.)

Wicked:The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
by Gregory Maguire
ISBN 0060987103
Having been in the book selling business for more years than I care to admit, I see a lot of books come across my desk. Most are adequate, someare dreadful, and then there are the select few that are astonishing. 'Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West' is one of those few books you can read over and over again.
Gregory Maguire has taken the Oz that we know and turned it on its ear. We do not follow the adventures of Dorothy of Kansas, lost and trying to get home. Instead, we follow the life of Elphaba, the daughter of a munchkin minister, destined to be known as The Wicked Witch of the West. Elphaba has grown up here, so her Oz is not the tourist Oz. It is a fun house mirror of our own world. There are two classes of animals in Oz, animals, who are beasts of burden, and Animals, gifted with the power of speech, and citizenship, until a not-so-wonderful wizard starts denying some of his citizens rights. It is a reflection of the Civil Rights struggles ofthe 1960's.
Elphaba is concerned with the politics of her world and strives to do something about it. It is this critique of her leaders, coupled with her unnatural green skin which enable Oz spin doctors to denounce her as evil.
With this different perspective on Oz, you begin to wonder how much point of view plays a part in history. I never thought of the Wicked Witch ofthe West as a sympathetic character, but Elphaba is. Trapped by her convictions and by circumstances she cannot control, she wonders if she has become this evil being without even realizing it.Many familiar characters decorate the landscape of this book, but in a slightly skewed fashion. Glinda the Good is Elphaba's former college roommate, who is more a society dame than a 'Good Witch.' The wizard is a maniacal despot with armed guards reminiscent of Hitler's SS. The book also touches on many social conflicts, if you know how and where to look.
Long before there was a musical, the novel 'Wicked' opened my eyes to what a good writer and a good story can do.