duckandafly: 2008

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

End of 2008 been a great year

Wow what a crazy year I publish a book and we get pretty good press Jean got interviewed by the New York times we where on ABC NEWS Now twice 1st 2nd Met some great people at Microsoft's in the know event in New york city and to cap it all off I got a story submission posted on slashdot and it happened to be by the same person who interviewed Jean
(I just thought it was a cool story jean was the one who pointed out the connection)
Well I hope we sell some books and it helps some people as that was the main reason we wrote it

I would like to wish every one a Happy new year!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Facebook

So this morning I got to work early and there was an e-mail waiting from Steve an old friend from high school with a very cool photo of his brother from the early days of DC punk so looked through the whole set and was bummed that DC Space is a Starbucks now but it was a cool set. I never really played much with all the different things on facebook but I clicked on the link People you may know see all and wow crazy stuff I found another friend from high school and then a few more but one really stood out as she seemed to chronicle so much of her life on line with photos from around the world to the daily comings and goings of life. Jean calls this going down the rabbit hole of the internet you find one cool link that lead to another and before you know it 4 hours have gone by and your head is spinning. So check out her blog

Thursday, September 11, 2008

New Book it is coming

So we just got the final proof of our new book Digitally Daunted it will be coming out soon for more info on all that stuff see www.DigitallyDaunted.com

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Recommended reads

Beware of God by Shalom Auslander--This collection of stories provoke,, attack, confound, entertain and humble you as you read his profane text. Brilliant.
Chaos by James Gleick--An intro to fractals and the beauty of randomness and unseen patterns. As a liberal arts type, a beautiful handholding entree to science writing that opened the door to reading volumes of contemporary science writing.
Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson
Eureka Street by Robert McLiam Wilson-- A novel of Northern Ireland like no other. This is an amazing achievement. Intelligent, sanguine, hilarious and almost physically arresting. What writing is meant to be.
Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald. My dream is to be able to write like she does. A family drama that explores a child's perception of truth and the pain that is packaged in some familial love.
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling---The first chapter of the first book is a singular achievement. The books grow in complexity and deftness as Harry and his mates work their way through their Hogwarts years.
His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman. The fantasy alone is worth the hours reading the full trilogy, but his ideas regarding the nature of conciousness, quantum worlds, the relatedness of humans and their universe with that beyond make this trilogy more than the excellent fantasy series it is.
Idoru by William Gibson
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. A wonderful world super-imposed on Napoleonic era England. Classic storytelling, in grand epic style. You find yourself at the end believing in the permeation of magick and looking around your own world for evidence. Expertly drawn characters and deft wordplay. An achievement.
Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo. I think this is his best book, but perhaps because it hits so close to my own life experience. One of those novels that you know the author had to get out of his system before he could be free to write something else. Painful and filled with disappointment, it is also an excellent comic novel.
Pobby and Dingan by Ben Rice. I recommended this novella to a good friend/bookstore customer of mine and he came back the next week to chew me out. I thought its tragedy was beautiful--he thought it was exploitive. I am right.
Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson
So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away by Richard Braugtigan. A novella with a chorus., 'dust, American, dust.' Shelve your Kerouac and Kesey, this is a truer depiction of the turning of American history in the 60s.
Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor. Once again, grand and tragic--just how I like them. Very victorian meets modernist (Dickens plus Carver??). Set on a ship, on the sea--between two worlds.
The Belgariad by David Eddings
The Bunny Suicides by Andy Riley. Absolutely frickin brilliant. With the salvo that I gave to my daughter, "Don't worry honey, these bunnies have already made up their minds to kill themselves, there is nothing we could do. But see, how they do it is very funny!"