X-Rated Blood Suckers by Mario Acevedo

This is the second book in the Felix Gomez series, but for some reason, I didn’t find it quite as entertaining as the first. A lot of the ridiculousness of some of the situations, that I found so amusing in the first book, were missing from this second book.

In similar vein to book 1, Felix Gomez, still a private eye, has now been called to Los Angeles to investigate the death of porn star Roxy Bronze. Upon arriving in LA however, he finds that the person who visited his office only the day before to hire him, one Ms. Katz Meow, has joined the ranks of the missing herself. But Felix has been given a secondary, and perhaps even more important, assignment while in LA. The Araneum, the governing force of the Vampires, has asked him to look into suspected collusion between vampires and humans, since it’s forbidden for the vampires to reveal their true identity to any human other than those who provide them blood, conveniently called chalices.

I definitely liked this book enough to want to read the 3rd in the series, The Undead Kama Sutra, which was just released this past March. I only hope that this series doesn’t begin to take the “sequel spiral”. I’d prefer to see it get better instead.

BookCrossing journal page for this book

Evacuation Plan: A Novel from the Hospice

Joe O’Connell is an author and journalist who writes film columns for both the Dallas Morning News and The Austin Chronicle.In O’Connell’s new book, Evacuation Plan: A Novel from the Hospice, Matt, a fledgling screenwriter, volunteers to work with the terminally ill in exchange for a good plot for his next script. He meets the people who work, die, and mourn in this world of last moments. In the novel-in-stories style of Tim O’Brien’s July July and Charles Baxter’s The Feast of Love, O’Connell’s characters in Evacuation Plan reveal themselves in poignantly unfolding stories: the gambler who played a risky game involving his wife and his ex-con father; the mortician who was an unwed father-to-be; the daughter whose dying father has no clue about the night her world spun out of control; the nurse who lived among aging neighbors and struggled to hold her own family in place; the drunk who magically encountered himself as a boy. Forgiveness, joy, making the final leap. Evacuation Plan is the story of a world in which the clock ticks off the final moments for all of us and makes of those moments a lifetime.This is a User-Sponsored Podcast

IBS Bookmaster: The Publishing Industry Supply Chain Solution

International Business Systems is one of the leading international suppliers of business application software and professional consulting services for supply chain execution.

In the publishing industry, they are most widely known for their IBS Bookmaster product. IBS Bookmaster software caters to the special requirements of academic, trade, specialized, niche and subscriptions based publishers and distributors. It incorporates a variety of specialized modules and features required by many publishers, such as royalties, returns management, subscriptions, editorial and book production, direct mail, academic sales, title management, title restrictions, dealing with buying groups and much more.

In this episode, we speak with April Berryman, IBS Marketing Communications Specialist, about Bookmaster and the other products IBS offers to the publishing industry.

Thomas Friedman Brings Message of Climate Change to BEA

Thomas L. Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, is a New York Times columnist and author of such books as From Beirut to Jerusalem and the no. 1 bestseller The World Is Flat.

The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see globalization in a new way. Now Friedman brings a fresh outlook to the crises of destabilizing climate change and rising competition for energy with his new book Hot, Flat, and Crowded.

Playing Life to Win with Dr. Taylor Hartman

Dr. Taylor Hartman is the critically acclaimed author of The Color Code: A New Way to See Yourself, Your Relationships, and Life (and creator of The Color Code Personality Profile).

With a Ph.D. in Human Behavior and Leadership, Dr. Hartman has been teaching the world for over thirty years one basic truth: All life is about relationships. Dr. Hartman is currently a full-time business consultant and CEO of Hartman Communications. He leads the company and his consulting practice with the single purpose of educating people from all walks of life about themselves and how they can most effectively enhance their personal relationships and professional performance.

Dr. Hartman has written a new book, Playing Life to Win. Playing Life to Win teaches the four things you must do to live a legitimate life, making your life more meaningful to you and those around you.

BEA Boss Lance Fensterman Avoids Work with Author Dan Pink

Daniel H. Pink is the author of a trio of provocative books on the changing world of work.

His newest work is The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need, the first business book for a western audience in the Japanese comic format known as manga. Before that, he wrote A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, a long-running New York Times and BusinessWeek bestseller that has been translated into 16 languages. His first book was Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working For Yourself, which Publishers Weekly says “has become a cornerstone of employee-management relations.”

BEA Director Lance Fensterman recently spoke with Pink about the long road to finding your chosen profession, the work world in general, and Pink’s writings.

Pink will be at BEA 2008 participating in a pair of Upfront and Unscripted sessions on Saturday, May 31. From 10:00AM to 10:30AM.

Impelsys: Solutions to Bring Electronic Publishing to the Masses

In this episode, we speak with David Saracco, Vice President of e-Publishing at Impelsys.

Impelsys helps its clients manage technology and electronic content delivery in a cost effective and resource efficient manner. This is done by leveraging global locations and publishing technology experts, as well as by using Impelsys’ software products that help in delivering electronic content into multiple electronic mediums.

At BEA 2008, Impelsys will be building on its already impressive offerings, which features products such as iPlatform and Virtual Pages. Their new platform solution, iNspire, offers publishers an easy and economical way to bring content online.

From Comic Book to Film – Iron Man

What happens when you are the owner of the world’s most famous weapons manufacturer and one of the most brilliant minds in the field of engineering? Well, when your name is Tony Stark, you take utter advantage of your name and power. That is until Stark is abducted by a militant group in the wilds of Afghanistan while giving a demonstration on his newest weapon. To make matters worse, the militant are using weapons from Stark Technologies. Gravely injured in the attack Stark must find a way to escape and return home to set things within his company right.

Iron Man is probably one of the best comic-to-film adaptations to be released in years. Even with the updates to the story and a few minor tweaks to the history, the film manages to hit the right balance of humor, action and dramatic angst. The occasional moral questions of power and corruption feel natural and honest, not forced or contrived. I highly recommend seeing this film. It is rated PG-13 for action, violence and suggestive content. Younger or more sensitive moviegoers should be cautious; some of the violence may be too intense.

The Warren Adler Short Story Contest

Suggested by the recent publication of Warren Adler’s latest novel, FUNNY BOYS, the theme for the Summer 2008 Warren Adler Short Story Contest is humor. We’re looking for humorous stories in all their varied forms. From satire to farce, from the whimsical to the uproarious, all writers looking to get a laugh (in a good way!) should enter. We are looking for the subtle and the pungent, the black and dark, the sporty, the salty, the waggish, or whatever can spark a knowing smile, a sly chuckle, or a hysterical belly laugh. In other words, anything goes, just as long as it falls into this category, however one stretches its elastic boundaries.

Entries must not exceed 2,500 words, and there is a minimum length of 1,000 words. As in the previous contests, all stories will be judged on the basis of character authenticity, plotting, narrative drive, and the skillful manipulation of the short story literary form.

Submissions will be accepted from May 1st to August 15th. Entry fee up until August 1st is $15. After August 1st, a late entry fee is $20.

Five cash prizes will be awarded.

The winning story will be awarded the $1,000 grand prize and a personalized first edition of FUNNY BOYS. Mr. Adler will also choose his top five for a People’s Choice award that will also be awarded personalized first editions.

Although Mr. Adler will have already chosen the winner, five finalists’ stories will be posted on the Warren Adler website on September 1st and the People’s Choice winner will be determined by public voting. Warren Adler’s top choice, along with the People’s Choice winner, will be announced 15 September. Prizes will be as follows:

• 1st Prize: $1,000
• People’s Choice Prize $500
• Remaining finalists receive $150 each

2008 Stanford Publishing Course to Focus on Digital Media

Geared to professionals in book and magazine publishing, and taught by top U.S. media experts, Stanford’s 2008 Professional Publishing Course, July 12-19, focuses on the digital wave that’s radically altering the media world. Now in its 31st year, the Stanford Publishing Course attracts participants from both the United States and from 30 countries abroad. Typical participants are editors and publishers, marketing and sales managers, art directors, photographers, and digital media specialists. In this episode Holly Brady, director of the Stanford Professional Publishing Course, discusses the sweeping changes that are happening throughout the publishing industry and which skills and strategies are needed for what lies ahead. For more information about Stanford Professional Publishing Courses, please click here.This is a User-Sponsored Podcast

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