A recent comment left on one of my sites:

Hey

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And a excess aver to Admin, move this post to suited matter!

Thanks as a replacement for your heed!

Falk-School

This is the sort of book I DREAM of finding and which comes my way rarely: a science primer for kids written by someone who is utterly unqualified for the job.

http://oddbooks.co.uk/oddbooks/properties-and-powers-every-day-matters

Originally posted by darkspirited1 at SIGNAL BOOST: SAY YES TO GAY YA

This comes from an article by rachelmanija entitled, Say Yes to Gay YA.
(click the link for the full article)

Our novel Stranger has five viewpoint characters; one, Yuki Nakamura, is
gay and has a boyfriend. Yuki's romance, like the heterosexual ones in
the novel, involves nothing more explicit than kissing.

An agent from a major agency, one which represents a bestselling YA novel in the same genre as ours, called us.

The agent offered to sign us on the condition that we make the gay
character straight, or else remove his viewpoint and all references to
his sexual orientation.

This isn't about that specific agent; we'd gotten other rewrite requests before this one. Previous agents had also offered to take a second look if we did rewrites… including cutting the viewpoint of Yuki, the gay character.

It's time to stand up and demand change. Spread the word everywhere if you are just as angry and outraged by this.

Review up now: http://oddbooks.co.uk/oddbooks/other-side-coin

The Other Side of the Coin is a less than compelling defence of the apartheid-era South Africa by Patience Strong, who I knew only for the queasy Christian sentimental verses she'd written for women's magazines like those my mother favoured.

Strong turns out not only to be a fan of Mary Whitehouse and Enoch Powell; anti-immigration, anti-EU and anti-UN; but also a devotee of that conglomeration of wingnut notions, British-Israelism.

Her South Africa is a land of good Christian white folks and smiling pickaninnies all living happy parallel lives. Opponents of the regime are terrorists.

One of the charming qualities of her writing is its tendency to digress into trivia. She spends several paragraphs expounding the merits of the folding upright calendar, for example, with the same zeal she applies to the myths of apartheid.

[I only found this today and I am about halfway through, so more to follow...]

With such a title, you might conceivably expect this to be a bit exciting. But it isn't, not by normal standards. It is a collection of newsletters sent by a supplier to funeral directors during the Second World War, explaing why coffin prices are going up and similar matters. Why they thought this material was worth reissuing in book form is a beautiful mystery.

This book has been with me for ages but I finally got round to writing about it, and the result amuses me, if no one else. (Please tell me you laffed, though, he begged needily).

http://oddbooks.co.uk/oddbooks/why-must-husbands-be-so-dumb

Hello dear lazyweb,

I got rid of my old hi-fi separates because they took up too much room. I was going to shed my vinyl collection as well for much the same reason, but I am reconsidering. Has anyone had any experience of any of these modern compact vinyl players? Recommendations?

Sound quality is a factor, but I am not anal about it.

Cheers!

Lessons in Acting is now a proper book you can buy from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Acting-Alfred-Armstrong/dp/1446117979
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lessons-Acting-Alfred-Armstrong/dp/1446117979

So please do!

Yes, as a weekend break from working on websites, I worked on a website.

http://lessons-in-acting.com/

I must be CRAZY.

Date:	2011-01-30 19:39
Subject:	For atommickbrane etc etc
Security:	Public

Knit one, purl one! You will obey!

Lessons in Acting passed its final proof-reading test (which probably means there's a horrendous typo in it somewhere). It's got its own page on Odd Books and Facebook.

rmarsden has read an early proof and described it as "brilliant" on Twitter this morning.

I'd like to say this has translated into massive sales, but um. Oh well, maybe once Amazon lists it.

A tin peened reindeer
Metallically hoofed on glass
Scorched cotton snowmen edged the corners
Flesh colored powder mountains
Yellow lights melts cobwebbed articles
Vague wire tunnels resembling
Peeled flesh caterpillars
Housing very tiny Christmas tree lights
The Nativity scene
Re-enacted in Ivory soap
A bone shade from age complete
With tiny straw manger
The Christ child its face replaced by an elephant's head
Intricate lace cups each ear and bands the trunk



Don Van Vliet, 1941-2010.

http://oddbooks.co.uk/oddbooks/loves-liberace

In which the young goth may confirm their view that they'd be MUCH better off dead. Free Ice Cream!

http://oddbooks.co.uk/oddbooks/spiritual-truth-young

I have babbled on previously here about the brilliance of my mates Ed and Andy, and nobody took any notice. Well, now look you: Mark Kermode and practically every other reviewer in the land has given Skeletons, the film they star in, a ginormous thumbs up. So go and see it, people.

More here on the Skeletons Facebook page.

Charles W Littlefield, MD, saw some remarkable things down his microscope, including a live octopus and a giant human oasis:

http://oddbooks.co.uk/oddbooks/man-minerals-and-masters

Yes, the 1950s were different times indeed, when Liberace of all people could be promoted as a model of heterosexuality. Click to see more bigly.

You know all those funny old antiquities in the museums? Spaceships! Yeah, all of 'em!

http://oddbooks.co.uk/oddbooks/alien-influence-world-art-volume-1