On Wisconsin

Perhaps Lindsey thinks if she stands in the rain with a toaster, she will be electrocuted and become a vampire.

Weekend

I went home to Wisconsin this weekend, which was great because I got to go to my cousin's wedding reception, hang out with my family, go to the farmer's market, hang out with my friends (which involved podcasting, watching Joan of Arcadia, eating sushi, and playing the Goosebumps board game). I returned to NYC to find that it had magically become summer in my absence. I really feel like the world has come out of a cocoon and the future seems so much brighter than it did last month.maybe sunshine makes me more ambitious.



Important things to click on

My article on How to Install Double-rod Curtains is on doityourself.com.

Update on Burbank.

Reading and brainstorming for new story.




Forward

• Possibly going to Damon Wayans book signing tomorrow?


• Acting workshop on Monday.


• Major book launch on Wednesday.


• Possibly Among the Oak and Ash concert later this month?


• BEA (Book Expo) at the end of the month.
  
  
  
  TV
  Ashes to Ashes: Just watched episode 5. Still dying to find out what happened to Sam Tyler. Surprised to see Litton of all people show up in this show (from Life on Mars). Do you know what I think really makes this season? Jim Keats. I know you're supposed to hate him, but I prefer the scenes he's in. He makes for a really great bad guy (or is he?) because he's so convincing as being kind. A well-written well-acted character.

Doctor Who: Haven't made my mind up about this season. The new actors are good, but I didn't really get into that last episode about the Daleks. I'm sure the next episode will be better though.


Unimportant things to click on

Love this: new Ricky/Steve/Karl interview.

Rhett and Link on Carson:

Let's get quantum

So I’m doing research of the writerly kind, which in this case involves reading a book on quantum mechanics called What the Bleep Do We Know? You may have heard of it as it’s based on the documentary. You don’t need to know ANYTHING about quantum mechanics to understand this book, which is good because I didn’t know anything about quantum mechanics. Because quantum mechanics asks more questions than it answers, I probably still don’t. If you’re really interested, I’m putting my notes on my writing blog. Otherwise, here are some mind-sparking highlights for my casual blog readers.

(Quantum simply means small. It’s the study of things smaller and subtler than what classical science studies. In a way, it brings spirit and science together the way it was before Descartes came along and separated them. It basically states that because there are multiple answers to every question, you can never confidently say that anyone is incorrect.)

• Probing deeper into matter, they find that matter is actually made of energy. And energy may be made of something even more subtle, such as information or consciousness.

• The brain paints the picture, not the eye. A person with a stroke lost the part of his brain that recognizes noses so he always saw what his brain thought people’s noses should look like. He wouldn’t be able to see a clown nose or if someone had a huge nose. How much of what we see is just brain interpretation and not real?

• They put kittens in a room with no vertical lines. When it grew up, they put it in a normal room and it kept running into chair legs—unable to see the vertical lines. We can’t see anything we don’t understand. Students have to be taught how to see cells in a microscope because they are blind to them before they understand what to look for.

• Brain activity is exactly the same whether you are looking at an object or imagining it.

• Are brains the tool to read memories that are stored in the universe?

• Consciousness is made of 40 ah-ha moments per second.

Burbank with a Baedeker

My fictional blog has officially launched!

http://milohtomb.blogspot.com/

Your what?
Burbank with a Baedeker is a fictional comedy travel blog about a famous author going on tour through Europe, but he's followed by his eccentric neighbor who writes the author's blog for him--from the author's point of view.

Your Job
I need help spreading the word. Tell everyone. Post links on blogs, websites, and social media outlets. Also, I'm looking for people to post comments. This is the most important element as it is what makes this novel interactive. Pretend to be a fan of Milo. Pretend to hate his books. Pretend you just stumbled onto the blog and want to know more about Milo.

Some Stats
The blog has been up since Monday. Another post will go out next Monday. In these two days, here's some statistics:

The blog has 91 hits.
20 unique vistors Monday and 15 yesterday.

Twitter: Milo has 194 followers

Facebook: Milo has 25 fans

Keep it coming. Thank you.

Angel Event and Other Things

Angel Event

Tonight I went to a book event for a book that I helped proof-read. It's a book about angels translated into English from Norwegian. Despite it's non-mainstream structure, I love the book and was excited to see the presentation. It was very interesting to hear the background of the book. He wrote the whole 600 pages in two months! AND he and the editor only spent two days editing it before they published it. Wow! He said he writes very fast because if you stop to think about it, it becomes too forced, and he's not very good at thinking anyways, he says. Ha-ha. And in fact, he hasn't read the book since he wrote it seven years ago, so when people ask him about specific moments in the book, he doesn't always remember them. I know I definitely wouldn't be able to recall event in my stories from seven years ago! The author also said that he feels ashamed about the book because of the artistic licenses he puts onto the Bible--the relationship between Cain and Abel for example. He said, "I am a writer, so what do I do? I decide to put the Bible in Norway and turn angels into seagulls. This is not a good idea for a story!" But indeed, it worked for him.

Published

Also, I had my article on the Shakespeare event published on Broadway World! Read it here. I also wrote a how-to article on double rod curtains (for money, obviously) so that should show up on the web somewhere at some point.

Party

I went to my friend's going away party in Brooklyn, which was fun. On the way there, I met and chatted with a finance journalist. At the party, I played some cards and talked with some people I didn't know. Everyone in publishing seems so unhappy or stressed out about their jobs. I actually really enjoy my job. I just wish it was full time...and closer...and had benefits. Anyway, then other people I knew showed up, and there was a total of four people from my college in Wisconsin. That's a little unlikely, isn't it? It was a good time, even if it does mean Erin's moving to Wyoming :(

Hamlet

I've discovered the entire David Tennant/Patrick Stewart Hamlet movie on YouTube. Haven't watched it yet, but as far as I can tell, it's a modern version but not to the extreme of the Leonardo DiCaprio Romeo and Juliet. Speaking of Hamlet, there was someone at the party mentioned earlier with a tattoo that said To Thine Own Self Be True, which is frequently quoted but rarely do people recognize the context in which that phrase originates. It's an ironic statement in Hamlet from Polonius, who is giving advice to his son about how to be in college. Don't make new friends, never let people know what you're thinking, use people for your own good, pretend to fit in but at the end of the day remember who you are. I mean, this is a man who gets killed because he's spying on Hamlet's mother from behind the curtains. I doubt Shakespeare wanted us to trust his empty words. I didn't say anything though.

And Just for Fun
This video is funny on its own, but funnier if you know the man singing about orange juice is an esteemed scientist.

Author Event

We had an author event for work and it went fantastically. Both the author and the guest speaker did an amazing job and really engaged the audience, which must have been a hundred people or more. For some reason 90% of them were over the age of 60.

Before the show, we stepped into the green room to have a chat and were talking about this crazy volcano. Actress Zoe Caldwell, the guest speaker, said that it was funny how we can walk on the moon and fly to mars but one little volcano messes up everything across the world.

During the interview and Q&A, Zoe had great stories to tell, always having either a punch line or some profound piece of advice, and Mary drew on all she'd learned from the variety of Shakespearean actors she interviewed for her book. I think everyone walked away knowing they got more than they bargained for coming to this event.

A lot of the audience stayed to buy books and get signatures, which is good from the publisher's point of view but also because--and I've read a lot of it from when I wrote the press release--it really is a good book even if you're not an actor.

There are more photos of this event here.



Misc.

• I'm reading a book on quantum mechanics and it's totally screwing with my perspective, but that's for another post.
• I'm visiting Madison at the end of next week. Come say hi.
• I got invited to write articles for some website for $3 an article, but I only have two days to write each one and I don't know ahead of time what the article will be on. We'll see how this pans out.
• According to Simon Pegg, the dog that played Colin in SPACED has recently "gone next door." Aww. She was 13.

Going Postal

They finally released the trailer for GOING POSTAL. This is based on a Discworld book by Terry Pratchett. I'm so excited for it. It looks really good. I'm not familiar with a lot of the cast, but Andrew Sachs and Tamsin Greig have major roles! Should go to British TV at the end of May.

I'm annoyed my embedding code didn't work. For the full trailer, click here. But if you want to watch the shorter version, here it is:

PS.
My review of Will Grayson, Will Grayson: http://j-leigh-nelson.livejournal.com/46741.html

Doctor Who Launch Party

I just got back from the Official US Doctor Who Season 5 Launch Party. I wasn't planning on going, but my boss let me take a half day today and half tomorrow, so I figured why not. I like Doctor who and it's free. The only thing is it meant sitting in line outside for 5 and a half hours because it's free and on a first come first serve basis. So I got there at 1:30 and was about 108th in line. Eventually I was like 200th in line because people naturally let their friends in by them as the day goes on, which I expected. There were only 370 seats and about a 1000 people, so a lot of people got turned away. I did make friends in line though, which is cool.
picture: interviewer, Matt in Baker scarf, Karen, Steven

The event itself was just under 2 hours. First we watched the season premier, which is actually a good episode for once. Usually the first episode of the season sucks, but Steven Moffat is the new head writer this season (instead of RTD) so things will be different (Moffat wrote Blink, Silence in the Library, Girl in the Fireplace, and basically all the good episodes). I did get a very Girl in the Fireplace feel from the beginning of the episode, actually.

Everyone seemed very supportive of Matt Smith as the new doctor. He had big boots to fill, but people seem to agree that he's filled them well. There was a question and answer with Matt Smith (the new Doctor), Karen Gillan (the new companion), and Steven Moffat. First an interviewer asked them some questions and it got a little awkward at one point when she asked prying questions like "What is the relationship between the Doctor and Amy going to bud into" and Moffat said "Why don't you watch the show and find out?"

The audience Q&A was pretty good. They let kids ask questions which was cute. They're better at it than the adults. One guy seriously asked Gillan on a date to the sushi restaurant down the street afterward. And another person asked would Moffat please write in where the chameleon circuit gets fixed (which means no more blue box) and everyone started booing. Moffat said definitely not--the blue box will always be the blue box.

picture: some random guy dressed as David Tennant

Unrelated, Among the Oak and Ash is having a concert in Brooklyn in May that I might go to. They also announced they are releasing a new album and put three new songs on their facebook page. I haven't had time to digest them yet, but so far they sound really good.

Podcasts and misc other things

First off...
I forgot to mention in my last post that John Green was taping the audience several times during the interview, so if the lighting is all right, I might be in one of his videos. If so, I'll post it when it comes up.

Podcasts
I've have been investigating the wonderful world of free podcasts on iTunes. Now that it's nice out and I need to walk 15 blocks to the nearest library, things to listen to on my iPod are good. Can I say that the last (6th) episode of Robin Ince's Show and Tell (season 1) is my favorite out of all the Show and Tells and Utter Shambles? Marvelous.

There's also this very long interview with Karl Pilkington and this woman who makes Karl look like a genius. She annoyingly tried to convince Karl to subscribe to her podcast and then invent a helmet to wear for when Ricky squeezes his head. She also said that Robin Ince should stay off the beach when Ricky is around, which made me laugh. She really annoyed me when she said that what Ricky said about how art is lies that make you see the truth is a saying that sounds pretty but that no one understands. Really? Come on. Don't read Tim O'Brien, then, if you don't get that concept.

There was also an interview with Among the Oak and Ash which was good because it included music as well.

There was an interview with Dylan Moran, who sounds almost depressed despite the fact that he continues to be witty.

I will post my last piece of my own podcast at some point. I will probably do a teaser or two because it's taking so long to animate. I'm nearly done with the bit about the flying whales. It's a very intellectual podcast if you haven't heard it before (werenotjohn.blogspot.com).


TV
Thank you to the BBC for making me shove my fist into my mouth to try not to laugh and wake up all the kids when I saw the first scene of episode 2 (season 3) of Ashes to Ashes (after the previously bit). Every TV show should start with a musical dream sequence (pretty much the same exacct concept as Tongue Tied in Red Dwarf).



And also, Ricky and Steve on Graham Norton. They somehow convince Steve, who is 6 foot 7, to do a cartwheel on stage while trying to pick up a banana.

Remembering to be Awesome

Okay, let's first get this out of the way: I just met John Green and David Levithan.



Book Club

For Symphony Space's Book Club, John Green and David Levithan (who co-wrote the recent book Will Grayson, Will Grayson) did a workshop it uptown Manhattan today.
I don't know much about David because I haven't read Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, etc., but I have read all of John's novels and watch his vlogs religiously.
I knew it was going to be a little weird b/c they write YA fiction so most of the fans are high school students, but there were a lot of parents there too.

First, John and David came on stage and each read a section of the new book (they wrote alternating chapters). This was followed by a discussion about the book between them. Then they gave us a writing challenge to write a scene where two people with the same name meet.
Then people read their scenes into the mic. Then there was a Q and A. And finally a book signing.

It is interesting to think about meeting someone w/ the same name because you can see a little piece of yourself in someone so different, which is what I think the book is about.

My favorite moment was when John mentioned that he has a 10 week old son, and people started clapping. John said, "I didn't really do much. Congratulate my wife next time you see her." To which someone shouted "We never see your wife!" This is an injoke because everyone, including John, calls his wife the Yetti b/c she never shows up on camera (she's not in the vlogs). Ah it's good to be in the incrowd.

Afterward, I stood in line for close to 45 minutes to get my book signed. We were all bummed we couldn't take photos with them. Aw. But I told John that in college they used his vlogs as course material (in adolescent lit we watched them to learn how to engage your students in books). He said "Really? What college?" And I said "Well, University of WI La Crosee." And he laughed and said "Hey, that's a legitimate college!"

My autograph. (DFTBA = Don't forget to be awesome)

Here's a video of John reading from Will Grayson, Will Grayson:

Writers Group

I just joined a writers group. It's really cool and laid back. We had 21 people show up this time. It changes location, day of the week, and time every week so there's always an opportunity to show up even if you can't make it every week. We sit and write for an hour, take turns reading if you want, and offer a little feedback. I hope to get some serious critiques at some point though. Check out the awesome photo above. I'm in green on the left.

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Allergic to New York

I had pink eye two weeks ago. I got some super strong drops from the doc. And now my vision's blurry. Today I consulted an eye doctor who said that I don't have an infection now, if I ever did, and the eye drops are too strong but probably didn't mess anything up. He says I have allergies. Allergies! I've never been allergic to anything in my life! Also, despite my claim that things in the distance are blurry, he says I have 20-20 and healthy eyes. So they'll get a little red during allergy season. At least I'm not going blind.


Speaking of infections, I finished reading THE STRAIN. You can read my review of it over on my writing blog. You can also see the book trailers on its website. The writer is the director of Pan's Labyrinth so he actually filmed the book trailer like a movie trailer. It's really creepy.

I'm working on a new story (because Burbank is wrapping up and Pluto doesn't take much writing effort) which needs a lot of research because it's got a lot to do with science and religion. I just went to the library and read a sign that says it's closed for the next FIVE MONTHS! How rubbish is that?!

Angels

I'm kind of annoyed that angels are beginning to out-trend vampires. This is something I suspected about a month back, but the publishing houses are confirming it. I started writing my angel book in 2007--ahead of the curve! Granted it was inspired by previous angel works such as Murder Mysteries. On the plus side, there might be a lot of cool books and movies coming out that I will want to see. Angelology looks pretty good. Though I hope they aren't all angels with guns like Legion. Maybe they'll even finally make that Good Omens movie we've all been waiting for.

Speaking of angel books, it looks like I will be going to the launch of A Time for Everything, which is a unique angel book that you should try out if you're patient enough for a long novel. I'm looking forward to that at the end of the month.

I digress to other upcoming events:

This weekend:

JOHN GREEN! WHOOO!

Writers group in Brooklyn

Next weekend:

Doctor Who premier

Writers group if the first one was good

The following week:

Shakepeare book signing

Rubbish

I used to use a paper bag for a trash can, but when it collapsed and got full of pink eye juice, I bought a trash can for 3.99 plus the cost of markers. I'd like all my furniture made of white cheap plastic and wood so I could draw on everything.





Media

I just saw the season premier of Ashes to Ashes season 3. This season looks like it's going to uncover the mystery of why Sam Tyler died! And it seems that Gene Hunt might be behind it. Dundundun.

I like Robin Ince's podcast, but they only have season 2 on iTunes, but the company has released all the episodes, including season 1 on ComedyCentral. Season 1 includes an accordion player.

I started watching the other episodes of The Ricky Gervais Show. I think the reason just listening to it is funnier is because your imagination is better than whatever animators come up with. But it's still interesting to see what they come up with.

I just re-invented the book

Foursquare is a location-based social media platform. It works with your phone. You go to a place, click "check in" on Foursquare, and it uses the phone's GPS to confirm that you are where you say you are (say, a particular store). It then tells your friends where you are and awards you with badges and sometimes discounts. It's the hottest new social networking tool, in case you haven't heard of it. So now social media is physical, in the real world, when before it was taking us out of the real world by having people communicate only digitally. At the same time, books are moving toward the digital sphere and even social media sphere. They're becoming interactive--plugging into Twitter (with characters), etc. Now, what if that digital side of books combined with the physical side of social media. That is, Foursquare meets ebooks or something like that. Books could be scheduled for certain times in certain cities. In order to read the book, you have to experience it by going to the places suggested on a site like Foursquare. The publishing company might have a page (on Foursquare) of places to go to in a certain order on a given day. You go to the first place, and there the first sentence of the book is chalked on the wall. The second place, actors (who seem to be real people) are acting out a scene (something that can be replicated over and over so it doesn't matter if you get there late -- maybe it's a dead body, for example). Maybe you got a clue in one place and check in at a store and give the password and get the next page of the book in some format. Or just checking into a certain location via Foursquare allows you to get the next page uploaded to your mobile device. Interact with characters and more. And the coolest part, you could be doing this with tons of other people if it's in a big place like New York where everyone's wandering around following the clues. You can steal this idea. I don't have the power to make this happen, but someone should.

Fool's

Happy April Fool's Day, everyone (and happy birthday, Nicole). I'm not going to play any pranks on you. I'm just not that clever right now. I have been working every single day this week, so it's been hard to get on the computer. But the good news is, we should have a router by the end of next week, which means ta-da: internet in my room.

Neat stuff I put on Facebook
If you're interested, I've put some neat things on our work facebook pages. The interview video I shot a couple weeks ago is now here on the tab Backbeat Backstage. You have to click Become a Fan (and be logged into FB) to see it.
Similarily, there are L. Bernstein photos on the Fan Club page of this imprint.
And I also run three other imprints here, here, and here. Become a fan. Make comments, posts, and likes.


Kids' Book
I finished writing the first half of the first draft of the children's book that I'm doing with Alison. Don't really know what I'm doing, but it's fun. Anyone who knows about children's literature want to offer some advice. Alison is working on the first sketches this week. Hopefully I will get the chance to do some more writing this weekend.


Burbank
It's getting near launching point for my interactive novel project. The first post will be April 26th. I will need everyone's help to spread the word. You'll be hearing a lot about this experiment in the months ahead. In the meantime, start circulating some links:

http://s1.webstarts.com/milohtomb/
http://milohtomb.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/milohtomb



Robin Ince stuff to watch
Sorry, I'm still just excited about having met Robin Ince. Apparently he is/was still in New York, (because he tweeted about The Strand yesterday) and he tweeted this:
walking to Borders-a textlook behind you-I keep walking-turns out gervais is behind me in a car from Letterman
I would have so loved to have been there to see that. Anyway, here's some videos you should watch:

Revenge for being bullied standup

Book Club "If"

Kidnapped

History of Creationist Thought: probably his most famous video. Non-atheists often get offended, but I still think it's funny.


Ricky bothering Robin:

Living with Ricky documentary (part 1 of 4)

Ricky Gervais wrote a diary for Robin (audio only) Part 1

Ricky singing to Robin