Besides being thrilled that the Iraqi elections have shown a huge turnout (which should really embarrass American voters who don’t appreciate the privilege), my funny bone has been tickled all day by odd little bits and pieces:
Man peed way out of avalanche: A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it. Because hey – that’s the natural response.
I sense some subconscious desires there on the part of the artist…or maybe I just have a dirty mind.
Yes, that must be it. Dirty mind all the way.
And then on her blog, Holly Black discusses this sting project by a bunch of very talented authors who wanted to test the claims of PublishAmerica, which calls itself a “traditional publisher.” They put together “the worst book ever written” which was submitted “for review” by PublishAmerica to see if “has what this book publisher is looking for.” It did. PublishAmerica offered a contract.
Here’s the thing: I read part of the book, and while it is indeed awful (which is why I could only read part of it), I’ve seen books in print from “real” publishers that aren’t much better (minus the spelling mistakes, of course). I guess, then, that bad writing – and bad storytelling – depends on your perspective, what you’re used to, and what you expect. Which means that I’m not quite certain that the manuscript those SWFA authors put together was bad enough to count as legitimate proof that PublishAmerica is a scam (though I am quite certain that it is). I mean, it might have been bad from their perspective – but I can almost guarantee that there are plenty of people in this country who would say that their combined effort just isn’t that awful.
Which is kind of scary.