The bookshelf beckons

Took another little break from manuscript “surgery” to remind myself how wonderful it is to be surrounded by books, books, books!

Public Affairs

It’s not brain surgery. It’s not rocket science. But the results of not proofreading – or even “spell-checking” can be just as devastating. The Lyndon B. Johnson School of … at the University of Texas learned the hard way. Read the sordid details.

In SPINE of myself

Like everyone, I don’t have time to “play” online.

I have too much on my plate – or in this case, too much on my bookshelf.

But then I think, what harm could it do to take 5 minutes and create another piece of spine poetry?

in-SPINE-ering

More midnight meanderings in the bookshelf. 

Spineless!

It was so much fun creating “spine poetry” yesterday that I just had to do it again. And I will probably keep doing it, so that when my husband says, “Why do you keep all these book?” I’ll have a really good reason.

(Not that I need one.)

Spine-tingling

I recently discovered “spine poetry” through a reposting from Brain Pickings by my friend and Stephens Press publisher, Carolyn Uber. It seems that for many years Artist Nina Katchadourian has been enjoying and sharing books in a whole new way. Her ongoing Sorted Books project constructs irreverent, humorous and witty sentences from strategically arranging the titles displayed on the books’ spines.

So clever that I tried it myself. I think this just might become a new segment of Redpengirl posts…

Social Media: Can’t live without it but …

… not much “living” with it!

The pressure’s on to promote ourselves on Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, MySpace,  Twitter, and YouTube; to creat a blog for our musings and meanderings; to notify everyone where the party is (and we are) on Foursquare; to share our photos on Flickr and our interests on Pinterest.

It’s a full-time job.

So when do we really have time to do our real jobs? When do we have time to get out and live if we’re so busy posting the events of our lives?

I’ve decided to make networking and social media work for me now, rather than the other way ’round. Since one of my real jobs is posting/updating information on social networks for a publisher, and since I don’t seem to have time to keep my own blog updated, I’m taking this opportunity to shamelessly use this site to merge my daily business tasks with my redpengirl ruminations. (I’m sure this is not a new concept to many of you, though quite an aha! moment for me!)

First up, a book about a pioneer woman with a modern spirit, a book that I had the pleasure of editing for Stephens Press. Helen J. Stewart, First Lady of Las Vegas chronicles the life of this amazing woman whose legacy can still be seen and felt in Las Vegas today.

I can only imagine how many “friends” she would have made!