Because I blogged yesterday for the first time in my life, this is what happened to my site stats:
I never got that much traffic before. I hope I can keep this up. I figure that if nothing happens that's worth blogging about, then I'll talk about books (so that I'll appear smart) or maybe cooking-related (so that I'll sound like an all-around wholesome homemaker). I've been up and about all day, work-related stuffs and non-work issues, usually there's no difference between the two. I wrote for the dayjob and wrote for my other writing life -- the one that's fun, the one that will lead to my eventual poverty.
The first nice word from an unbiased source regarding my Insomnia chapbook is here at the bottom. I see what Rise, the book blogger, reads in Goodreads. His reviews make me run for cover. Rise is clearly addicted to how-on-earth-can-I-keep-up Bolaño. I don't even get the hype about Murakami. But he liked Insomnia, luckily, and I am relieved.
Today, I also bought some genre digital lovelies and a book from The Book Depository. There's this stupid rule I follow on book/magazine buying. It is stupid, vindictive, and pointless, but I've stuck to it for many months now and have amassed a lot of very good books in the process (Matt Bell's, Michael Kimball's, Fictionwise/Weightless Books/Smashwords items, etc.). My rule of thumb is to prioritize buying the books written by people (or published by presses) who follow me back on Twitter. I feel that if a certain writer/publisher does not find me worth following back, then why bother. My money is certainly limited so I have to cut corners somewhere. I will miss out on potentially great stuffs, but I'll take my chances. So today, I scrolled down the followers list and bought these:
The first nice word from an unbiased source regarding my Insomnia chapbook is here at the bottom. I see what Rise, the book blogger, reads in Goodreads. His reviews make me run for cover. Rise is clearly addicted to how-on-earth-can-I-keep-up Bolaño. I don't even get the hype about Murakami. But he liked Insomnia, luckily, and I am relieved.
Today, I also bought some genre digital lovelies and a book from The Book Depository. There's this stupid rule I follow on book/magazine buying. It is stupid, vindictive, and pointless, but I've stuck to it for many months now and have amassed a lot of very good books in the process (Matt Bell's, Michael Kimball's, Fictionwise/Weightless Books/Smashwords items, etc.). My rule of thumb is to prioritize buying the books written by people (or published by presses) who follow me back on Twitter. I feel that if a certain writer/publisher does not find me worth following back, then why bother. My money is certainly limited so I have to cut corners somewhere. I will miss out on potentially great stuffs, but I'll take my chances. So today, I scrolled down the followers list and bought these:
Rhys Hughes, Flash in the Pantheon. I love the stories of Rhys Hughes. His stories have this witty and wise-assy (new word for the day) vibe that doesn't sound contrived. I first encountered his work in an old print pulp magazine that accepted an early story of mine. I've been a fan eversince.
John Everson, Vigilantes of Love. I've read some of the sickest, most disturbing stories from this Stoker winner. This is an old book of his. (Yeah, I'm always behind on my reading.)
Lucy A. Snyder, Chimeric Machines. This book won the Bram Stoker Award. I know it is good. Plus, she's married to Gary A. Braunbeck, the American version of Clive Barker. Talk about a power couple.
Paul Jessup, Dead Stay Dead. Gifted writer, this Mistuh Jessup. His novella, Open Your Eyes, began with a beautifully sequenced orgasm. Even "Call me Ishmael" famous first line pales in comparison to that. But this story was what turned me into a big Jessup fan.
Mark Samuels, The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales. The Chômu Press titles are certainly worth buying in print. Bought from The Book Depository because Amazon.com will accelerate the process of me becoming very, very broke.
Alternative Alamat, edited by Paolo Chikiamco. Bought this from the Flipreads site and I cannot open it. Their customer service gave me instructions, but I can't figure it out and I don't want to tweak anymore. I must have re-entered the wrong password twice or whatever for the Adobe Digital Editions software that I need to activate first, and now it's not letting me activate anything. I hope it's just a simple buy and auto-download.
I've had a full day. I will stay up late tonight. I'll wait for the ghost. He/she/it did not show up last night.
