 Red Room Writer Profile
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Jim Malusa's Blog
September 22, 2009
- Most every book has a bit “About the Author.” But what I’d really like is to learn more about my readers, particularly those who aren’t blood relatives. This requires snooping, which means a certain measure of guilt, but not enough to stop me from discovering that many libraries keep track of their patron’s reading history. The logic is simple: you look up book X in the catalog, and ...
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June 14, 2009
- I’ve given my book talk at least 40 times, so when I received an invitation to speak at my favorite local library, Himmel Park, I thought: Time for something different. I asked the librarians what they’d like to hear. “How about something about your work as a botanist? Out in the desert. Write up a little announcement, and email it.”I got to work. As a botanist, that is, typing in field ...
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February 13, 2009
- I like all ways of moving, and like the bicycle the best. It’s not only because it’s cheap and it’s righteous. The bike keeps me alert, and makes the most ordinary excursion something more. Such are my thoughts this Arizona evening as I head out for a half-mile ride to the local store for a six-pack. It’s February, and by Tucson standards the temperature is an absolutely arctic 45 ...
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January 29, 2009
- “How’s the book doing?” The question rose above the Christmas chatter of a dozen relatives gathered round a table set with wine and cheese. The voice was Rolf’s, my sister’s husband’s father. His 90 years had taken a toll on his ears, and he leaned close for my reply. Better than nothing, I said, always the optimist. “Well, you went through the first printing, didn’t ...
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December 29, 2008
- I've posted 29 photos of the tour from Tucson to Death Valley on my Flickr webpage(see link to web pages). Reviewing the images makes me weepy. I suppose I'm sentimental.
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November 7, 2008
- Patagonia's blasted winds make it a lousy place to ride a bike, but lovely to behold; check out my photo link.
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October 2, 2008
September 17, 2008
August 12, 2008
- I've finally posted 17 of my photos from Djibouti on the Flickr page that's accessible via the linkon the right side of my Red Room home page. That makes for a total of 50 photos I've uploaded, a process greatly slowed by the tedium of scanning my slides. Prehistoric, I know, but I hate to give up my steam-powered camera from the 20th century, so long as I can still find coal to fire up the ...
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July 28, 2008
- 1) Ego. When somebody who's not related to me is willing to listen, I'm happy.2) Money. By my own accounting, book royalties pulled in an average of $7/day (before taxes, expenses, and the 15% cut to my agent).3) Visiting Faraway Friends. Christmas family portraits come alive and the children reputed to be honor roll-piano wizard-ballerinas are exposed as...pretty nice kids.4) Movement. ...
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July 4, 2008
- The shining glory of Red Room - the easy fill-in-the-blank format for creating our web site – is also its curse. We can ‘add content,’ but only under pre-determined headings like this one: Blog.I thought I would acclimate to this ugly word. Instead it reminds me of other unhappy four-letter words. My 11-year old son noticed my title for this piece, the suggested his own: “How about Poop ...
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June 10, 2008
- For my novice book tour, my co-publisher granted me a budget of $500. On the one hand, this was hardly anything; on the other hand, it was $500 more than nothing.The venues along the East Coast included REI sporting goods stores, indie bookstores, libraries, and the Big Daddy, the Barnes and Noble Powerplant store in Baltimore. Before entering I spent ten minutes searching for the right ...
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May 23, 2008
- The morning I packed up to leave on my first-ever book tour, the phone rang at 7 AM. The call was from a radio station that wanted to set up an interview the day after my arrival in Washington, DC. I was happy to oblige, and thanked my publicist, but still I wondered: why me?The usual suspects are the title of my book, the curious destinations of my travelogue, and the blurb on the cover. The ...
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May 3, 2008
- After I'd overcome my disgust of the word 'blog' and written my first entry on Red Room, I returned to my other lives (dad and botanist) and occasionally checked for an email response to appear at the address I supplied. None appeared, but that was OK. The truth was that I hadn't been reading other author's blogs, so I could hardly expect them to read mine.Then, while working on adding 'content' ...
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April 29, 2008
- Dear Reader,My agent is hounding me to get a 'real' web page, and it's now my job to prove that Red Room will work just fine. Trouble is, I've no idea.My first book was just published. My wife loves me a bit more, my kids are proud, my parents glowing, but on the commercial end the story is just beginning. The book tour will commence next week, and in looking over my schedule I see that I will ...
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