Welcome to Dr. Ni's Notes & Nibbles--14, a gathering place of news, notes, words and wisdom bulldozing its way into your workday.

(To read the full backlog of Dr. Ni's Notes & Nibbles, go to: http://drnisnotesandnibbles.blogspot.com/)

TO MY GOOD AND PATIENT FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES AND ACQUAINTANCES: Please forgive, if you can, the glitches while I prune for the second time my growing email list of approximately 700 – 800. I very carefully went through my Apple Address Book on my eMac and put together pieces of addresses and blended records that needed to be blended …. A three-week effort. I pruned over a thousand contacts down to 680. I was so happy, so proud.

Then I imported that list into Gmail and …. Disaster. Gmail doesn’t let you automatically get rid of duplicates. I was instantly facing another three weeks of exactly the same task I had just finished.

In the middle of getting the Taylor’s events up and running. In the middle of getting a new website (very ably) designed by Steven (yay Steve!!!!) at 1 Choice 4 Your Store (recommended by Yahoo.com). In the middle of trying to get postcards out to venues so that people learn about the Taylor’s events.

I confess to …. delaying the process for a moment while I do my best to boost ticket sales for the Taylor’s events. So if you get announcements several times, or if you have begged off my list for the hundredth time and think I’m not listening—that is not true. Email me again and I will do my absolute best to get you off if that is what you want.

Otherwise, please continue to be patient. The business is just requiring a lot of me right now, and I can’t yet afford to hire office help. As soon as I can, I will, and the list WILL be pruned—all over again. Sigh!!!

I AM FIRMLY CONVINCED THAT THE FOLKS AT LULU HAVE LOST THEIR MINDS …… BUT LET’S TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEM ANYWAY! :-)

(Straight from a Lulu.com email): For a limited time only, get a FREE Lulu retail distribution package!! With a Published By Lulu Retail Distribution Package you can get your book distributed around the world and available to over 60,000 retailers. Sign up for a free Published By Lulu distribution package.

Just follow the steps below to take advantage of this free offer.
1. Login to your Lulu account
2. Go to the My Projects tab
3. Click on the "Purchase a distribution package" link next to your project

* Your work is now eligible to be sold through online retailers such as Amazon.com

* Lulu-owned ISBN, whereby Lulu is the official publisher to sell and distribute for you
o — You retain the copyright and control
o — A $99 (USD) value, now FREE* for a limited time

* We have also expanded our list of book sizes that qualify for the Published By Lulu Retail Distribution package. See our complete list of sizes.

∑ *This free offer is available for a limited time and is subject to change without notice. Published by Lulu is only valid with eligible trim sizes with Lulu published projects.

LOOK OUT FOR THE NEW WEBSITE!!!!!

Just as the Lulu.com folks seem to have lost their minds, Yahoo is not far behind. Apparently, the folks at Yahoo have decided that offering unlimited bandwidth is a good idea. I am here to tell you that it is a marketing ploy that worked. I wasn’t totally happy at Homestead, but I was doing okay until I saw that offer on the Yahoo site (my roomie has a PC and Yahoo is his homepage) and thought, hmmmm, ….. I want to have mp3 downloads for sale on my new website ……..

Here I am a couple of weeks later in seeming daily contact with a Mighty-Mouse-loving phenomenon known as Steve, the erstwhile website designer. For a mere $149, yep, only $149, he is listening to my every whim and making every dream possible come true. I had to come up with the initial text, but he is doing a huge chunk of the work. 1 Choice 4 Your Store’s system didn’t seem to like my emails at first, but we are working on that problem.

What matters to me is that the site is gorgeous and Steve is a delight to interact with. Site should be published sometime today, Friday, July 11th, so keep your browsers on www.blowingupbarriers.com for something new and interesting!

WARNING: DON’T BUY MY BOOKS FROM ONLINE RETAILERS!!!!!!!

If you want to get the right price, that is. Amazon.com has the wrong cover AND the wrong price for my novel, THE JOURNEY. Don’t buy from Amazon! No way would I ask ANYONE to pay $35 for a PAPERBACK!!!!!

I have been fighting with Lulu about correcting this, and they are taking their own sweet time. Please, if you want to pay the RIGHT PRICE for my books, buy them on my website!!! www.blowingupbarriers.com. Forewarned is forearmed!

AND IF YOU HAVEN’T HEARD, I’M GOING TO BE AT TAYLOR’S …. AND SO ARE SOME FRIENDS!

HAPPENINGS AT TAYLOR'S AT THE OLDE MILL

Greetings! Dr. Niama L. Williams here to inform you of events taking place at the wonderfully cozy fine-dining restaurant Taylor's at the Olde Mill in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Dr. Williams' company, Blowing Up Barriers Enterprises, and Taylor's are co-sponsoring:

1. "Afternoon Tea with Dr. Ni" every second Saturday of the month from August through December of 2008. A complete schedule can be obtained from Dr. Williams; the first tea and accompanying workshop is entitled, "Over 40, Over 400, and Facing the Future Fantastically!" If you are over 40 and struggling with a weight issue, Dr. Ni can help you fantastically face the future and move into functioning fabulously. Tickets are $40 and include an American version of "high tea." This inaugural event takes place Saturday, August 9th, 2008, from 3 - 6 p.m. at Taylor's, located at 200 W. Marshall Street, Norristown, PA. For more information or to purchase tickets, please email Dr. Ni at niamapers@gmail.com or visit her website: www.blowingupbarriers.com.

2. "In the Presence of the Pen: A Literary Dinner Featuring Three Authors" every final Sunday of the month from July through December 2008. The inaugural dinner presents Hugo Award finalist sci-fi author, graduate of the Iowa Writing Workshop and of the widely acclaimed Clarion workshop as well as revolving director of the Fiction Writing Workshop at Swarthmore College Gregory Frost; 2008 Pew Awardee in Playwrighting, Stephen Sondheim and Richard Rogers awardee as well as winner of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship in Playwriting Ed Shockley, and former member of the Paul Roberts' Singers, of the City of Philadelphia Probation Department, of the ministerial staff at Zion Baptist Church in Ardmore, and current Associate Minister at Family Worship Center in Philadelphia, PA, poet Rev. Joseph William Massey. Each artist will be introduced by Dr. Ni, will read a selection from their work, entertain a few interview questions and sign books following the dinner. Join us July 27th, 2008, from 6 - 9 p.m. at Taylor's, 200 W. Marshall Street, Norristown, PA; tickets are $40 and may be obtained by email (niamapers@gmail.com) or web: www.blowingupbarriers.com.

JOIN US FOR TEA AND THE LITERARY AT TAYLOR’S!

ITUNES WELCOMES THE HOI POLLOI? POSSIBLY …….

A very helpful person in one of the iTunes help forums responded to my query with this information. I did, in fact, submit an application, and I am waiting to hear from iTunes. Given their massive reach and the ubiquitousness of iPods, I am willing to wait however long it takes.

To submit an application to have your own content added to the iTunes Store, please visit the iTunes Labels & Marketing page at:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/go/application/

Apple evaluates e

Today, I am utterly in love - with my new mobile. Lordy, but it's damn slick - or slicker than I'm used to. I've even worked out how to take pictures with it and have (yes!) done the sad one of Lord H and myself grinning like apes. I just have to work out how to upload the snaps to the computer now. I suspect that's a challenge for another day ...

Mind you, it's been confusing me too - this morning some of my previous messages I thought I'd wiped from my old phone came up again as new messages in the new one. So I was puzzled to hear Marian say she had to cancel golf. Dammit. However, a quick phone call back just to check told me she was even more confused about my call, so we did manage to hit the fairways (well, some of the time ...) in the usual way, hurrah! And I managed to play a steadier game this week as well, which was great. The highlight was getting a par on the last hole, result! Being the golf professional that I of course am, I waved my club in the air, danced around the green and screamed. I am indeed an arbiter of Golf Cool ...


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Have started the second edit of The Bones of Summer today and am now on Chapter Five. I'm actually rather excited about this read-through, and I'm tweaking for Britain. It's more fun now I've done most of the plot changes to concentrate on the text itself. I rather enjoy this stage.

And I had the first of my envelopes back from the Winchester Writers' Conference and apparently Bones was not only shortlisted in the novel competition, but Commended too. Hurrah! This time, they didn't ask to see the rest of it though, but never mind - I'm not a complete idiot and I did realise that Piatkus Press were unlikely to want a gay crime novel!...


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There's an excellent essay here by Neil Gaiman on where he gets his ideas from. As well as being a terrific essay and well worth a read, it contains these words:

"writers are asked where we get our ideas from. In the beginning, I used to tell people the not very funny answers, the flip ones: 'From the Idea-of-the-Month Club,' I'd say, or 'From a little ideas shop in Bognor Regis,' ".

Which is all well and good. But, while my beloved was in the East End of London yesterday (attending her sister's graduation - go Sediment Girl, and congratulations!) she spotted, and diligently, snapped this. Maybe this fabled Idea Store is not, in fact, in Bognor Regis. Or maybe it's moved.

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Chicklish interviews Kate Cann, author of many excellent novels for teenagers.

Your books feel very current and contemporary. How do you stay so in touch with teenage culture and slang?

I love this question because it means I’ve Brought it Off! In actual fact my books aren’t really current in terms of culture and slang. I deliberately avoid all that because it shifts and changes so quickly. What your question suggests to me is that my books feel current because the things I write about – loathing and longing, love and hate, jealousy, friendship – never go out of date.

How do you decide which topics you want to write about in your books? Do you come up with characters or situations first?

A bit of both. Things will mesh in my brain. I’ll be thinking about a theme – and then I’ll meet someone at a party – and it will all evolve. Also - I do a lot of eavesdropping on public transport. That’s great for characters and ideas.

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Not a particularly unusual question, except that it wasn’t what I was expecting as the opening gambit on my first live radio interview. Cheryl and I had rehearsed for an hour or so last night, going over a few questions we thought might come up, but this was not one that we had practised.

The pressure is low because this a local Internet radio station with a tiny audience, albeit an audience who may well prove receptive to a local success story. But when Mandy, the pixie-like PA meets me at reception I tell her that I am impressed by the size of the setup. I nod at the dozens of people storming around holding clipboards and books, and the long queue stretching from the receptionist to the sliding doors.

“Oh no,” she says. “That’s the reception for Ealing Borough Council. We’re off in this side room.” She leads me into a small office with one desk and a door – open – leading to a tiny audio booth where a small, harassed middle-aged man in a tweed jacket is looking through a stack of CDs as though he has no comprehension of what they are for.

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All very quiet at work today – due to holidays, conferences, non-working days and a variety of illnesses, the only one in the office apart from the Dean is … um … me. Goodness but it’s quiet. I do think the Dean should perform some kind of song-and-dance routine to entertain the troops accordingly. Or, rather, troop. Mind you, I don’t feel so good myself actually, if you’re asking, so maybe that’s not such a clever idea. Though I did nip into Tesco on the way in this morning to stock up with the necessary medicine, so am surely already on the up. One hopes.

So, I’m taking the opportunity of arranging the whole academic year’s supply of Steering Group meetings for next year. My, everyone’s in-boxes will be bursting. It’s good to have some kind of power, you know. Even if only of the email kind. It’s such a great feeling to have the gang all sorted out up to July 2009 and, yes, I know I’m sad, but I’m nothing if not an obsessive planner. Isn’t that what the University pays me for?...


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Well, they can't take it back now, now I am up and officially a Salt Author. Wow. Big picture. Lovely cover picture, lovely. Great early birthday present! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Wow. That was a blast.

Today was really cool, my local library had arranged for two poets to visit. And as it's where I run my merry writing group I decided that we should take full advantage. And we did.

First up, this afternoon, was Cheshire's Poet Laureate from 2005, the lovely Joy Winkler, who read, and chatted about, The Language of Flowers. She also read from her two collections, Morag's Garden and On The Edge (the latter I'll be reading very soon). And it was great fun and informative and, I know, brought back a lot of memories for the group. It's funny how we associate different things with different things; the different things Joy was talking about were flowers. Marvellous

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Managed to sort out the first draft of yesterday’s Steering Group meeting and some of what I said even made sense. Possibly. On top of that, I managed at last to circulate the minutes of the month before, which have been on hold as the poor boss is snowed under and scarcely able to breathe. They like to work us hard here at the educational coal-face. Anyway, the big complaint about the previous minutes was that apparently I’d changed fonts half-way through and hadn’t noticed. Well, I like to be creative, you know – but maybe it’s time for another sight test? Really, a Secretary is utterly past it when she can’t tell the difference between Arial and Times New Roman …


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