2011 September

Entries from September 26th, 2011

Piling-on pundits piss off prospective paper purchasers

September 26th, 2011 · Comments Off · Blog

It’s not the media’s job to cheerlead for the local sports franchise. Newspapers are not PR departments. We don’t need or expect them to include a pair of rose-colored spectacles on our front porch bundled with the morning paper. (Or use a rose-colored font for those who get all their news online.) If our team [...]

Orioles “diss” their $2 million man

September 22nd, 2011 · 1 Comment · Baseball, Blog

The most decorated player to come out of the 2006 draft went 10th overall, to the Giants. San Francisco, looking to rebuild after its first losing season in nearly a decade, signed righthander Tim Lincecum to a $2,025,000 deal and he shot through the system, reaching the big leagues less than a year later. “The [...]

Novel writing not nearly as painful as a marathon

September 20th, 2011 · Comments Off · Blog, Writing

Rah-rah writing coaches are fond of equating writing a novel to running a marathon. The two are alike in only the loosest metaphorical sense. Both require commitment and discipline, but one can be done from the comfort of an office chair and the other demands hundreds of hours of grueling training. This is where the [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:marathon·novel·roadtrip·running·writing

Nothing beats a great pair of legs, until they’re on the cover of your book

September 16th, 2011 · Comments Off · Writing

A deal with one of the “big six” publishers is what most writers dream of. Accepted by the gatekeepers and destined for prominent placement in every major bookstore (okay, every Barnes & Noble now that no one else is left), yeah, sign me up. This is what all those query letters were all about. But [...]

Superstars aren’t the only ones we remember

September 9th, 2011 · 5 Comments · Baseball

Bus Leagues Baseball was soliciting input from their readers recently on why they loved minor league baseball. One of the questions on their short survey was about the first game you remember attending. Mine wasn’t technically a minor league game, though given the level of play of the 1978 Seattle Mariners, the line there is [...]

Marketing for dummies

September 2nd, 2011 · Comments Off · Blog

I’m beginning to think I should work a cartoon rabbit into my next book. Some kind of mascot or buddy the kids can all trust. As marketing ploys go, make-believe spokesmen are at the top of the totem pole. My son, closing in rapidly on 22 months, loves to ride in the car. So much [...]