Reviews

So now that Einstein A to Z is available online, readers may leave their personal reviews up for others to read. Authors often stack such things, trying to encourage as many people as they know to put up something interesting. . . and so I am used to getting all sorts of 5-star reviews from people on the Amazon web page.

In this case, one of my first reviews was a 3-star review. (His comment was that, while well-written, the book didn't break out any new information on Einstein -- which is a fair comment. We really weren't looking to put out all new information, just trying to put it together in an interesting way. I would argue that the format is quite new, and a particularly good way to be introduced to Einstein for people who aren't well-versed in his science and life -- which is actually the bulk of readers, not just students, but nonetheless the reviewer's comment is fair.)

Here's the point: while it would have been great if it wasn't a 3-star review, I am so incredibly thrilled that someone random wrote a review for me, that it entirely makes up for it. It's just SO exciting.

Searching Through Trash

So, it's 10:30 on a Thursday, and my book club just left my home after dinner (we read Santa Evita -- go read it -- it's awesome) and I quickly logged on to my e-mail to find a note that someone had seen a "blurb" about me in today's Washington Post Express -- the free paper the Post hands out to metro riders.

I don't know what "blurb" this could be -- whether it's a review of Einstein A to Z specifically, or a mention of our reading at Politics and Prose this weekend or what -- but I figured what the hell, the Woodley Park metro is only a block away, why don't I walk down and see if there are any papers left.

There are no papers left.

So I decide, well, it can't hurt to just maybe take a glance in the trash cans to see if someone tossed one aside. As it happens the trash cans have been fairly recently replaced with new garbage bags which is good news in that the cans are reasonably clean and I am not so grossed out by this "vague glancing" I'm doing, but bad news in that there's not much in them.

Since I'm having no luck outside the station, I decide to take the 5-minute escalator down into the station to see if there are any tossed newspapers there. Once down-- hallelujah! -- I see the paper I'm looking for sandwiched underneath the clear plastic garbage bag and the can itself. I glance around, make sure no one is looking, rip a hole in the garbage bag, hold my breath while reaching in, and snag a perfectly clean lovely copy of the paper.

I couldn't believe that I had just a) gone searching through trash bins or b) actually found a clean version of what I was looking for.

I was half way up the escalator before I realized I had snagged last thursday's paper.

(Conveniently -- they listed their website, and I found the mention. . . Scroll down to page 18!)

Query Writing

OK, I just e-mailed off a parapraph query that literally ended with the sentences: "Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!"

And the editor wrote back within an hour and said he loved the idea.

I swear casual -- good and interesting of course, but comfortably casual -- writing makes all the difference.

(Since he still has to check with other editors, I'm not going to jinx myself by telling what the story is yet, but I have my fingers crossed, 'cause it's a story I've wanted to do for awhile. . . )

Einstein A to Z is Out!

The e-mail I just sent out to my 600 closest friends:

Einstein: A to Z -- the book I've been working on for much of the last two years with my friend and co-author Aries Keck -- was just released today. It's made of (fun, enjoyable, eloquent) encyclopedia entries from "absentmindedness" to "Zionism," with stops at such things as cosmology, God, relativity, women, and wormholes in between. You should, of course, buy it. . . or, well, do anything you can to promote it.

And not just because I say so! Previous reviews of my writing have said things like:

--"[The Big Bang Theory is] a first rate book , having a permanent place in my library and I look forward to reading future work by the author."

and

--"Karen Fox has the freshest of writing styles and a complete grasp of her subject. Her voice is, at once, playful and intimate."

Ok, the second one was written by a friend of mine on Amazon, but the first was said OUT LOUD on BBC radio in May of 2002 by someone I have never ever met.

So, for those of you who would like to do what they can to help this budding writer along in her career, here are a handful of ideas.

1) Buying the book never hurt.

2) Telling your friends to buy the book and forwarding this message to anyone you know -- also good.

3) Write a glowing review of the book on Amazon or Barnes and Noble, dealer's choice.

4) Make one of those lists on Amazon that says things like "the only way to be erudite in the modern world is to have read these 5 books" and then list this book as your first one.

5) Go to your local book store and
--ask them to order three copies of the book if they do not have it in stock. You may then buy any of them or not. (You can do this in other cities too -- a friend of mine does this when he's on vacation. He never goes back for the books he's ordered, but they will be put on the shelf if you don't return and that's a win-win situation.)
--take a page from my friend Catherine Cooke's mom who always puts my books out front of other books whenever she goes to a book store.
--tell them you know the author and ask them if they'd like me to come read. Since I'll be driving myself there, and then staying at your house, because this is a strictly self-funded book tour, it's an extra bonus since I'll get to see you!

6) Let me know if you are in a position to review the book in any way in print or online (blog? do you have a blog??) and I will make sure you get a FREE copy. (Many of you probably have copies on your desk already. . . )

7) Get your university library to order a copy for their general library and for their science library.

8) Come to Politics and Prose (5015 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. WDC) at 5 PM, Sunday July 25 to listen to Aries and me speak.

Aries and I had a lot of fun writing this, and I really think it came out well -- I hope you enjoy it too!

-- Karen

Drinks

So I'm sitting at my favorite coffee bar -- which, OK, is also a BAR bar -- and the guy sitting next to me brazenly ordered at 1 o'clock a Maker's Mark. A Maker's Mark!

It was like a challenge I couldn't turn down. I couldn't stop staring at his drink, I was so tempted. I mean aren't fiction writers supposed to drink? I'm a fiction writer, right? Didn't Hemingway do this all the time? There was no reason for me not to order a drink.

So I did.

The bad news is that it didn't help my writing. The good news is that it didn't hurt it either. Hmmm. . . this may lead to far more interesting afternoons. . .

The Maker's Mark guy on the other hand is curled up on the couch almost asleep, barely able to work. Amateur!

E-mail, Take Two

. . . And what's up with those people who don't HAVE easily accessible e-mail addresses that I can search for and find on the web? Who are these people who are making me CALL them??? Mean, mean, mean.