Self Epub Profitable? My Library Vampire Series Might Work After All

Self published ebooks on Amazon and Barnes and Noble seem to be the smartest way to sell an ebook right now.  This USA Today article tells the story of Amanda Hocking, whose self-published "Trylle Trilogy" has found itself into the top selling books list.

This makes me believe my own paranormal romance series could work.  It is about a night archives librarian who is secretly a vampire.  When he is forced to teach a class on bibliometrics, he finds love with a girl who is also in love with a werewolf reference librarian.  This is compounded when the vampire that made him, a children's librarian from Transylvania, begins working in town.  I call it "Bite Me in the Stacks."

Sue-A-Thon 2011: Sony Vs LG

In this corner, Sony in the black

In this corner, LG... also in black... Dammit..

The contenders:  Sony and LG

The conflict: two competing companies in the BluRay ring that are suing and counter-suing the pants off each other over patent rights.

The battlefield:  The courts, duh.

Why should you care:  Possible removal of some random products like cheapish Blu-ray players and the PS3, depending who wins.

Really, why should you care:  Um... I guess patents are kinda library thing, plus, it's all about media players, which could effect your patrons.

Where are you going:  To read something interesting or possibly watch TV.

This seemed interesting at the time:  Not really, unless you are a bit of a tech geek.

What's on TV:  There's a new ep of Glee... Did you see the one after the Super Bowl?  I think the Thriller mash-up thing was forced.  They should have just done straight Thriller.  I mean, come'on, they did Rocky Horror sort of straight but not freaking Thriller?  Prisoners in the Philippines did a better job.

Dude, why do you care so much about Glee:  I was just rambling on, can't think of anything interesting to say about this.

Why don't you just put up the Prisoner Thriller thing then?  Okay, hit the jump.

Prisoner's Thriller from College Humor

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Real Thriller from Youtube



And My 2nd Favorite Queen Song


Sony VS LG article here

Cat Cafes: It's a Japan Thing

Kitty, Don't Touch!  Pew Pew

An article on CNN's Travel blog states that a new trend in Japan is "Neko cafes."  These cafes are special in that they allow you to pay for the privilege to hang out with cats. ("Neko" might mean "cat."  I dunno, I nearly flunked Spanish.)  According to the article, you may not wake a sleeping cat, nor may you pick up or pet a cat unless it rubs up on you, which in my experience is every living creature in a coffee shop.  

Sure, there are times when I am sitting in a nice cafe and wonder, "I really wish there was a nice person to talk to, or a cat to ignore me," as I drink this slightly warmish coffee-colored wet stuff I could not pronounce, "Also, there is no random hair in this like there is at my grandma's house when she lets the cat sit on the coffee machine.  I should call that hippie girlfriend I had in college whose apartment reaked of cat urine, cause that's what I could go for right now."  

I do not drink much coffee anymore.

NYC Small Time Book Stores Getting Some Attention

As this NY Daily News article reports, New York City small book retailers are getting a bit of a boost while large chain bookstores are loosing money.  Why is this?  Seems the larger stores are facing stiffer competition with online stores like Amazon while the small, independent stores are places people enjoy shopping at.

I have always wanted to start a bookstore bar were regular folks could come in and we would quietly whisper their name.  Yeah, coffee's great and all, but I like to have a beer, glass of wine, or a body shot while I am reading my Tolstoy, thank you very much.  My place will be called the "STFU Bar" and everyone will know your name.

Twin Peaks Dude Making Children's Books

Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost is set to begin publishing a trilogy entitled Will West: The Epic with Random House Children's.  I will now speculate what this book will be about:

In a small town just south of the Canadian border, a small doll is found wrapped in plastic without a head near a local sandbox.  Within the playgroup, there exists many suspects, including: Kendra, the doll's owner who found the doll wanting at the last tea party she threw; the psychotic Bugs Meany, Kendra's brother with ADD issues who recently threatened to tear off the doll's head; and Sandy, Kendra's friend who was always jealous of the doll.  Only Encyclopedia Brown, an eccentric detective sent solve the case can find out.

Author Bruce Larkin Gives Buttload of Books to Schools

Bruce Larkin is set to unload tons of paper onto Pennsylvania schools.  Larkin, author of around 900 kids books, is using his publishing company Wilbooks, Inc. to donate nearly 10,000 local interest books to a school system.

I would love to be able to do that, but only if I could do it loose and at once.  "Hey, kids, it's your Uncle Banned!"  Then "Boom!," a plane lets loose a ton of books from three miles up onto the school roof.  How do I get the plane that far up with that much load dropping that accurately?  Magic.

Click here for full details about this awesome dude

Happy Birthday, Jules Verne!

Today is Jules Verne's 183 birthday!  We all know he died fighting his invisible evil half morlocks self in the future!  Wait, no.  I'm thinking of H.G. Wells.  Verne died the way of the French, in a submarine journeying to the center of the Earth dying of diabetes.  Or did he?

Yep, he did.

Check out Google's cool memorial by way of browser submarine.