Learned at the last Publishers and Writers of San Diego meeting of a web site, publisherslunch.com which you may use to investigate your potential agent's recent sales and types of books sold. Don't you just love that name? I can picture a bunch of publishers around a table bragging about the deals they've pulled off. Also learned at the meeting: the term "self publishing" has morphed into "independent publishing;" a book title should be no more than three "emotive" words; and the title speaks to the heart while the subtitle speaks to the head.

An agent speaking at the Del Mar library this month told us that children's books are always in demand, especially ones written for boys.

Marx Brothers mirror scene

I thought I'd try something new to me; clipping an exerpt from youtube. What follows is the mirror scene from Duck Soup with about four minutes of the movie's set-up for the scene. The mirror scene was used (abused) in an excerpt I read today from my novel Swap. If you like the scene, youtube has many versions of it, some of which just show only the mirror portion which is about four minutes (of pure lunacy).

The Marx brothers in the movie, Duck Soup, 1933.