Blooker Prize Blog

Cory Doctorow on Blooks and Bliterature; E-books and E-Readers

 

.©  Paula Mariel Salischiker, pausal.co.uk

 

I caught up with Cory Doctorow at a conference in London last week and chatted to him about blooks and the Blooker Prize.

Among his several claims to fame – best-selling sci-fi author, blogger, co-editor of boingboing, journalist, technology activist – Cory was, of course, also chair of the judging panel for the inaugural Blooker Prize in 2006 (won by Julie Powell’s blook, Julie and Julia).

Cory therefore was a pioneer in the world of blooks and bliterature. He remains a big fan. What attracts him to blooks, he said, is the same thing that attracts him to blogs. Blogging, blooks and self-publishing all turn the old publishing rules on their head.

“It’s the artistic satisfaction of writing what you are interested in – then attracting an audience for it, rather than finding an audience first and then having to then write for that audience.”

“What surprised me as a judge of the Blooker, was the sheer diversity of material submitted for the prize – plus the fact that blooks do a good job of showing how a small fragmented audience can be serviced online.” 

Sure, he said, for a small print-run, a traditional publisher could put 2,000 printed copies of a book on the shelves – but online, those same 2,000 copies can reach a much wider audience across the world.

Cory’s own novels are published in print form by Tor Books and HarperCollins UK and simultaneously released on the Web under Creative Commons licences.

So what drives him currently? Well he’s is passionately against what he sees as the use of copyright laws as an instrument of control.

In a keynote he delivered last week to the Internet Librarian International conference entitled Copyright, Copyleft, Privacy, Librarians and Freedom,

ustream.tv/recorded/2356216, Cory gave a rallying call to librarians from 33 countries. He urged them to join him in becoming activists against anachronistic copyright laws designed for a pre-Internet age.

Meanwhile, at a time when it seems like new e-reader devices are coming onto the market almost every week, I asked Cory for his vision of the future of the e-book.

He sees them as a sales tool: an enticement, not a replacement for the printed book. 

“Right now, there is a tremendous business to be made in giving away e-books. But that may change. If it does, we will re-invent things. The way we will re-invent things is to be at the coal-face … by seeing how people use e-books”.

Since we launched the Blooker Prize, e-books have grown vastly in importance. It seems likely that any future Blooker Prize should be open to e-books as well as print.

 

Julie and Julia: From Blook To Flook

PK-10.JPG

© 2009 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.  All rights reserved. **ALL IMAGES ARE PROPERTY OF SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT

 

If Meryl Streep wins the Oscar that many have already predicted for her portrayal of Julia Child in Julie and Julia, Nora Ephron’s terrific new movie http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/julieandjulia/site/

inspired by Julie Powell’s equally terrific blook of the same name, then we’re grown-up enough to realize that she’s unlikely to start her acceptance speech by thanking the Blooker Prize for making it all possible by naming Powell’s book its first winner back in 2006.  

And nor should she, since by the time Julie and Julia won the inaugural Blooker Prize back in 2006 it was already a bestselling blook in North America, based on Julie Powell’s hugely popular blog, chronicling her bid to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s book in her tiny apartment kitchen.

Even so, that doesn’t mean that we’re not allowed to point out that the global coverage that Julie and Julia gained on winning the first Blooker… well, at least didn’t do it any harm.

But it is thanks to Nora Ephron’s movie – already a notable success in North America, before hitting European screens this month – more than to the Blooker that Julie and Julia is not just the world’s most famous blook but also now it’s first fully-fledged “flook” – as in a film based on a blook. (We thought of calling it a “mlook”, as in a movie based on a blook, but… well, that’s a lot harder to say.)

It might be the first fully-fledged flook – at least in the English-speaking world, since there have been some in Japan – but it is not the first blook, or even the first Blooker nominee to hit the screen.

Indeed, when Julie and Julia outscored another Blooker nominee, The Intimate Adventures of A London Call Girl: Belle de Jour, to win the first Blooker, one headline declared, “Cooker Beats Hooker To Win Blooker”.

Yet, Belle de Jour, then beat Julie and Julia, to the screen, albeit the small screen of British TV, starring Billie Piper. It is now due to see its third series hit British TV screens this autumn. Meanwhile, The Washingtonienne, another Blooker entrant, is currently being made into an American TV series by HBO.

But the flook of the moment is undoubtedly Julie and Julia.

Julie Powell is still very much an active blogger at http://juliepowell.blogspot.com/ and the author of a forthcoming new book, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession – that is, when she isn’t giving TV interviews promoting the movie. See her interview on ABC’s Nightline here: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerindex?id=8254397, or another good clip of her http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7R-O5Aj6n8, courtesy of moviesandshakers.com.

But above all, see the movie of Julie and Julia. 

Keep checking the Blooker blog for news and updates on the next Blooker Prize.

Blooker winners in their own words

It been a month since the winners of the 2007 Blooker were announced, and although the flood of press coverage has subsided, interest in the winners, and the Blooker in general, remains steady. Case in point, over at the Lulu Radio Podcast, Rich Burk brings us a series of interviews with each of this year's winners. Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, or download the interviews directly using the links below.

ColbyBuzzell.mp3 (7340.0K)

AndrewLosowsky.mp3 (4438.4K)

BrianFies.mp3 (8350.6K)

The Winners of the 2007 Lulu Blooker Prize

Overall Winner and Non-Fiction Winner

My War: Killing Time In Iraq by Colby Buzzell

Publisher: Berkley/Penguin ($15.00, paperback) Buy it

The My War blog - www.cbftw.blogspot.com

"Colby Buzzell traded a dead-end future for the army--and ended up as a machine gunner in Iraq. To make sense of the absurd and frightening events surrounding him, he started writing a blog about the war--and how it differed from the government's official version. But as his blog's popularity grew, Buzzell became the embedded reporter the army couldn't control--despite its often hilarious efforts to do so."

"Endlessly surprising…delightfully profane… an unfiltered, often ferocious expression of his boots-on-the-ground point-of-view of the Iraq war." -- Arianna Huffington

"If, in 20 years time, people want to know what it was like to fight in Iraq, they can pick up ‘My War’ and find out. It tells what it's like to be a grunt fighting in the Sunni Triangle – with more power and authority than the best ‘embedded reporter’ could manage. It is something of a triumph for blogs over traditional media." -- Nick Cohen

 

Colby Buzzell lives in Los Angeles, California. He's a blogger and freelance writer.

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Non-Fiction Runner-Up

My Secret: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren

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Fiction Winner: The Doorbells of Florence by Andrew Losowsky

Publisher: Prandial Publishing/Lulu ($27.99, paperback) Buy it

The Doorbells of Florence photo set - www.flickr.com/photos/andrewlos

"As more than 12,500 viewers (and counting) of the Flickr set can testify, The Doorbells of Florence is cult fiction at its least predictable.

This book contains 36 real Italian doorbells (including some never before seen), each one with a strange story about the people and things that may, or may not, live inside.

This first-ever volume of "flicktion" was written by Andrew Losowsky and lovingly put together by award-winning designer, Nuno Vargas as the mini coffee table book that espresso was invented for."

 

"Let it now be said: "The Doorbells of Florence" could easily become one of the most popular cult books of the decade...The book--images to prose--is absolutely outstanding. The stories are clever and each as unique as a fingerprint, from pages long to one sentence." -- POD-dy Mouth

 

Andrew Losowsky is a British blogger, journalist and photographer based in Barcelona, Spain. He is the editorial director of a small publishing company that produces online travel/entertainment guides to European cities.

Fiction Runner-Up

Monster Island: A Zombie Novel by David Wellington

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Comics Winner: Mom's Cancer by Brian Fies

Publisher: Abrams Image ($12.95, hardcover) Buy it

The Mom's Cancer blog - www.momscancer.com

"The true tale of my mother's battle with metastatic lung cancer. The story describes how a serious illness affects patient and family, both practically and emotionally, in ways that I've discovered are very common. Many readers wrote to tell me how surprised and relieved they were to learn they weren't alone.

Mom's Cancer began as a serialized Internet comic, with new installments added throughout 2004. Readership grew by word-of-mouth. People who needed the story found it and told their friends about it. In July 2005, Mom's Cancer won the comic industry's  Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic, a new category that year."

"Mom's Cancer takes web comics beyond science fiction parodies and fan boy remixes of superhero comics. The story telling is engaging. The story is important, as well as fun, surprising and rewarding to read. Well-drawn and a real winner." -- Paul Jones, Chair of the Judges

Brian Fies is a resident of Santa Rosa, California. In addition to being a cartoonist, he is a freelance writer and journalist.

Blogisms: The Good, The Bad, and The Ridiculous

It seems like every day new words are being spawned by the Internet, from the blogosphere in particular. Even here at the Lulu Blooker Prize we've been doing our small part to contribute to the evolution of the English language. Although we didn’t invent the word "blook", we’ve wholeheartedly embraced it, and, even after two years, this little portmanteau still evokes both chagrin and delight amongst bloggers, journalists, and other wordsmiths. This observation has led us to wonder the following: which of the dozens of new Internet/blogging words are the most hated, and which are the most loved?

To this end, we've put together a fun little survey—just six pairs of multiple-choice questions. Five lucky participants, selected at random from those that complete the survey, will win their choice of a free "Published by Lulu" ISBN (for a single Lulu-produced book), OR free copies of all three winning blooks from the 2007 Lulu Blooker Prize.

Click here to take survey

The 2007 Short-List

Non-Fiction

Crashing The Gate
by Jerome Armstrong  - www.MyDD.com
and Markos Moulitsas - www.dailykos.com

$12.95 (Chelsea Green) Buy it

"This book lays bare, with passion and precision, how ineffective, incompetent, and antiquated the Democratic Party establishment has become, and how it has failed to adapt and respond to new realities and challenges. The authors save their sharpest knives to go for the jugular in their critique of Republican ideologues who are now running—and ruining—our country.

Written by two of the most popular political bloggers in America, the book hails the new movement—of the netroots, the grassroots, the unorthodox labor unions, the maverick big donors—that is the antidote to old-school politics as usual. Fueled by advances in technology and a hunger for a more authentic and populist democracy, this broad-based movement is changing the way political campaigns are waged and managed.

A must-read book for anyone with an interest in the future of American democracy."

My Secret: A PostSecret Book
by Frank Warren - www.postsecret.com

$19.95 (Regan/HarperCollins) Buy it

"The sensational PostSecret project returns with a never-before-seen collection of postcards created by teens and college students from around the world. Compiled by Frank Warren, postsecret.com founder and author of the national bestseller PostSecret, the handmade cards bear compelling and personal messages that have remained secret--until now. Raw and revealing, My Secret expresses the hopes, fears, and wildest confessions of young people everywhere."

My War: Killing Time In Iraq
by Colby Buzzell - www.cbftw.blogspot.com

$15.00 (Berkeley/Penguin) Buy it

"Colby Buzzell traded a dead-end future for the army--and ended up as a machine gunner in Iraq. To make sense of the absurd and frightening events surrounding him, he started writing a blog about the war--and how it differed from the government's official version. But as his blog's popularity grew, Buzzell became the embedded reporter the army couldn't control--despite its often hilarious efforts to do so."

Small Is the New Big: and 183 other riffs, rants, and remarkable business ideas
by Seth Godin -- sethgodin.typepad.com

$25.95 (Portfolio/Penguin) -- Buy it


"Collected here for the first time are eight years of his very best blog posts, magazine columns, and e-books. On literally every page, Small Is the New Big offers ideas and stories that can change how your work, what you buy, and how you see the world."

So Close: Infertile and Addicted To Hope
by Tertia Albertyn - www.tertia.org

R130.00 (Oshun) Buy it

"What happens when you start trying for a family...and trying, and trying some more? How Far do you go to achieve your dream of having children? So Close is the heart wrenching, exhilarating, devastatingly funny story of Tertia Albertyn's battle with infertility...During Tertia's journey everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Until, finally, everything goes just right."

Words in a French Life: Lessons in Love and Language From the South of France
by Kristin Espinasse - french-word-a-day.typepad.com

$18.00 (Touchstone/Simon &Schuster) -- Buy it

"A heart-winning collection from an American woman raising two very French children with her French husband in Provence, carrying on a lifelong love affair with the language."

Fiction

Albert The Third
by Slim Palmer - www.althought.com

£9.99/$15.99 (Exposure Publishing) - Buy it: UK /US

"Albert The Third sees our hero  encounter Witches, Time Travellers and Gargoyles in the further adventures of Albert 'I am NOT a snail' Aiten. The stories are based upon Albert's meetings, adventures, imagineerings and characters from his website. It is the illustrated follow up to The Albert Tales and Albert Tales Too."

BreakupBabe: A Novel
by Rebecca Agiewich - breakupbabe.blogspot.com

$13.95 (Ballantine) Buy it

"Life is sweet for Rachel. She’s living with her boyfriend of two years in Seattle and is starting a new high-paying job at the same snazzy computer company where he works. Then Rachel’s system crashes. Her supposedly adoring almost-fiancé cheats on her, lies to her, dumps her, and hooks up with someone else–specifically, her own boss’s boss’s boss. Talk about tacky.

Heartbroken, beyond depressed, and stuck in nine-to-five hell, Rachel follows a recovery regimen that features an arsenal of meds (including General Celexa: "the holy pink pill"), deliciously detailed daily entries in her newly inaugurated weblog Breakup Babe, and a string of dates–from the irresistibly bad Little Rockclimbing Spy, who proves to be full of surprises, to the high-flying ladies man Sexy Boy, who loves weed almost as much as he loves women.

With her shoulder-perched alter egos Sensible Girl and Needy Girl vying for her sanity, and a growing legion of supportive online fans threatening to snap her out of her grand funk, Rachel somehow survives, thrives, and discovers just how risky and liberating love, loss, and blogging can be."

The Doorbells of Florence
by Andrew Losowsky - www.flickr.com/photos/andrewlos

$27.99 (Prandial Publishing/Lulu) Buy it

"As more than 12,500 viewers (and counting) of the Flickr set can testify, The Doorbells of Florence is cult fiction at its least predictable.

This book contains 36 real Italian doorbells (including some never before seen), each one with a strange story about the people and things that may, or may not, live inside.

This first-ever volume of "flicktion" was written by Andrew Losowsky and lovingly put together by award-winning designer, Nuno Vargas as the mini coffee table book that espresso was invented for."

Messages from the Lost Continent
conceived and edited by Horst Prillinger - www.aardvark.at/messages

24.90EUR (Books on Demand GmbH) Buy it

"Messages from the Lost Continent is a unique and at times hilariously funny blend of thriller, science fiction and fantasy novel, which was originally published as a fiction weblog between June and December 2005.

Five agents are sent to a mysterious continent on a mission so secret that not even they are told anything about it. Their only link back to headquarters is an encrypted e-mail channel through which they receive instructions and report back the results of their investigations. Soon, they find themselves being followed by sinister adversaries who do not hesitate to eliminate them if necessary. As the agents slowly uncover the connections between an 18th century watchmaker, a number of ancient artefacts and a piece of cutting-edge modern technology, they find themselves in the middle of a massive conspiracy that could destroy the entire planet..."

Methuselah's Daughter
by J. A. Eddy and Dean Esmay - www.3500years.com

$19.96 (Lulu) Buy it

"Zsallia Marieko is a solitary immortal, very much the pagan barbarian at heart, but tempered by her centuries amongst a growing Christian influence in Western Europe. Her tale is by turns pathetic, endearing, unnerving and horrifying as the reader witnesses her climb from nameless slave to terrifying goddess, then her plunge into murderous insanity until she emerges humbled and remade- all this in just her first 1500 years. Concomitant with that tale is the modern narrative where Zsallia is forced to confront what it means to cease living outside society and join the world around her, to take up the benefits and responsibilities of living openly and asking people to simply accept who and what she is."

Monster Island: A Zombie Novel
by David Wellington - www.monsternovel.com

$13.95 (Thunder's Mouth Press/Avalon) - Buy it

"In New York City, the dead walk the streets, driven by an insatiable hunger for all things living. From the other side of the planet, a small but heavily armed group of schoolgirls-turned-soldiers comes in search of desperately needed medicine, with a former UN weapons inspector as their local guide. They think they are prepared for anything. On Monster Island they will find that there is something worse even than undeath."

Comics

Born of Nifty: Sluggy Freelance Megatome 01
by Pete Abrams - sluggy.com

$49.95 (Sluggy Freelance) Buy it

"Sluggy Freelance's First MegaTome is three books in one! It contains every single daily strip from August 25th, 1997 to May 30th, 1999, with full color Sundays. There are also over 50 pages of additional content, with original full bleed splash artwork, the Sluggy Pirate Board Game "Plund-Aaaar," a brand-new 42-page bonus story, and more (yay!)."

The Definition of Awesome: Another Joe and Monkey Collection
by Zach Miller - www.joeandmonkey.com

$10.00 (Boxcar Comics/Lulu) Buy it

"Year two of the Webcomic Joe and Monkey. Includes the illusive Nothing Nice To Say crossover with Mitch Clem. Contains the secret of happiness within its pages."

Blogger's note: Zach's previous "Joe and Monkey" collection, Totally Boned, was the winner of the 2006 Lulu Blooker Prize (Comics category).

Mom's Cancer
by Brian Fies - www.momscancer.com

$12.95 (Abrams Image) Buy it

"The true tale of my mother's battle with metastatic lung cancer. The story describes how a serious illness affects patient and family, both practically and emotionally, in ways that I've discovered are very common. Many readers wrote to tell me how surprised and relieved they were to learn they weren't alone.

Mom's Cancer began as a serialized Internet comic, with new installments added throughout 2004. Readership grew by word-of-mouth. People who needed the story found it and told their friends about it. In July 2005, Mom's Cancer won the comic industry's  Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic, a new category that year."

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...

For about 8 hours this morning, visitors to this blog would have seen the new Blooker short-list--the official roster of finalists for the 2007 Prize. If you were one of those intrepid early-birds, I thank you for your vigilance. However, I'm sorry to say that I jumped the gun--just a bit--and have taken that post down pending the update of the Blooker Prize homepage. As soon as that goes live, the list will be back for good.

While I'm fessing up to my mistakes, some of you have noticed that I haven't finished posting about all the entries. I still intend to, even after today's announcement of the short-list. Just because only 15 blooks made the final cut, that doesn't mean that all the rest of this year's entries don't deserve their time in the sun, and where I fell behind in February, I will make up for in March and April.

Please stay tuned...

Updated entry lists

Entry to the 2007 Blooker is officially closed, and the last few submissions are trickling in. I have replaced the Entries So Far sidebar list with updated lists broken down by category. If your blook has been removed from the list, that means that we never received the printed, bound version of it (as per the contest rules). If it's on the way (and was shipped no later than January 16), I will add it back to the list when it arrives.

The submitted blooks now go to the review committee that will select the short-list for each category. We will announce the finalists on Monday, March 12, 2007. Until then, I will continue to blog about this year's entries, so if your blook hasn't been featured in a post yet, don't worry, I will get to them all in due time.

To everyone who entered the the Blooker this year, thank you and good luck!

Deadline Extension

Due to an embarrassing oversight on our part, the entry deadline for the 2007 Blooker was scheduled on the same day as the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday--a day when the U.S. Post Office is closed.

Therefore, we will  be accepting entries that are postmarked on the 16th of January, 2007.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Truth strange enough for fiction

So far, we've given a lot of attention to our Non-Fiction entries, so it seems high time to give the floor to some of our submissions to the Fiction category--several of which are novels based on the author's non-fiction blog.

The Washingtonienne: A Novel
by Jessica Cutler - www.jessicacutleronline.com

$10.95 (Hyperion) Buy it

Blooker category: Fiction

"When Jacqueline Turner's fiance give her two days to move out of his apartment, she has no choice but to leave New York City and crash with her best friend in Washington, D.C...It's a town where a girl has to make her own excitement--and Jacqueline is just the woman for the job...Jackie's roster of paramours grows so complicated that her friends ask her to start a blog so they can keep up. But in a small town like Washington, the line between private and public blurs very easily, and Jackie quickly realizes this blog idea may be more than she bargained for...Deliciously gossipy and impossible to put down, The Washingtonienne is every bit as steamy and outrageous as the real-life exploits that inspired it."

The Banana Project
by Cat Oars Fiction Collective - forums.losangeles.craigslist.org

$8.50 (Francias/Lulu) Buy it

Blooker category: Fiction

Stories by the Cat Oars Fiction Collective--writers who post on the Craigslist Literary & Writing forum.

"What are we? Well, we're not an MFA publication. We like to think of ourselves as the garage band equivalent of a literary review or a punk rock version of the Algonquin Round Table, or an online community of outsider artists, or anything you can think of besdies an MFA review...For Banana I asked the writers to find a few words from a Velvet Underground or Lou Reed song that had some personal resonance, then blend them into a story, then write about why they picked that songs and those lyrics."

Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push
by Pip Wilson - www.wilsonsalmanac.com

$21.48 (Lulu) Buy it

Blooker category: Fiction

"'She struggled to get women the vote. Her son was Australia's most famous writer. They drove each other crazy.' Meticulously researched big Aussie historical novel that takes the lid off the world of Louisa Lawson and Henry Lawson and their circle of radical friends: revolution, poverty, love affairs, madness, drunkenness, sedition, terrorism, passionate hopes, and friendships with some of Australia's most remarkable people. Much historical info here is not in their biographies."

Diary of a Dysfunctional Flight Attendant: The Queen of Sky Blog
by Ellen Simonetti - queenofsky.net

$22.95 (Blog Based Books) Buy it

Blooker category: Fiction

"The novel is based on the controversial true story of Ellen Simonetti, whose 2004 firing from a major US airline made headlines around the world and causes an international debate about the limits of free speech. It follows the online ramblings of Queen of Sky, the alter ego of Elena Guaio, a fun-loving, light-hearted and slightly dysfunctional flight attendant for "Anonymous International Airlines." Elena's blog quickly becomes her trusted confidant, which she uses as a release and a tool to sort through the numerous ups and downs of her life...She eventually even decides to post pictures of herself on her blog--pictures in her flight attendant uniform. The result of this seemingly innocent act throws her life into complete disarray."

The Doorbells of Florence
by Andrew Losowsky - www.flickr.com/photos/andrewlos

$27.99 (Prandial Publishing/Lulu) Buy it

Blooker category: Fiction

"As more than 12,500 viewers (and counting) of the Flickr set can testify, The Doorbells of Florence is cult fiction at its least predictable.

This book contains 36 real Italian doorbells (including some never before seen), each one with a strange story about the people and things that may, or may not, live inside.

This first-ever volume of "flicktion" was written by Andrew Losowsky and lovingly put together by award-winning designer, Nuno Vargas as the mini coffee table book that espresso was invented for."

Anonymous Lawyer
by Jeremy Blachman - anonymouslawyer.blogspot.com

$25.00 (Henry Holt) Buy it

Blooker category: Fiction

"He's a hiring partner at one of the world's largest law firms. Brilliant yet ruthless, he has little patience for associates who leave the office before midnight or steal candy from the bowl on his secretary's desk. He hates holidays and paralegals. And he's just started a weblog to tell the world about what life is really like at the top of his profession...Written in the form of a blog, Anonymous Lawyer is a spectacularly entertaining debut that rips away the bland facade of corporate law and offers a telling glimpse inside a frightening world."

New Blooks for a New Year

We're back for 2007, and there are only 11 days left to enter the Lulu Blooker Prize! Remember, entries  must be POSTMARKED no later than Monday, January 15. For anyone who has already entered, and would like to advertise it on their own website, we've created this official web badge:

Download it for free

This image could even be used as a button to link back to www.lulublookerprize.com.

For today's spotlighted entries, we have six non-fiction books which represent many of the key genres of the blogosphere--such as mommy blogs, soldier blogs, and photoblogs.

The Blog of War: Front-line Dispatches from Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan
by Matthew Currier Burden - www.blackfive.net

$15.00 (Simon & Schuster) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"In The Blog of War Burden presents selections from some of the best of the military blogs, the purest account of the many voices of this war. this is the first real-time history of the war, a history written even as the war continues. It offers a glimpse into the full range of military experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, from the decision to enlist right through to homecoming. There are powerful stories of soldiers in combat, touching reflections on helping local victims of terror and war, pulse-racing accounts of medevac units and hospitals, and heartbreaking chronicles of spouses who must cope when a loved one has paid the ultimate price."

Vegan Lunch Box
by Jennifer McCann - www.veganlunchbox.com

$22.95 (Little "S" Press) Buy it

Blooker category - Non-Fiction

"If you think vegan lunchtime means peanut butter and jelly day after day, think again! From the simple to the sublimely gourmet, Vegan Lunch Box brings you an amazing array of entirely meat-free, egg-free, and dairy-free launches that will transform how you look at lunchtime forever!"

Mommy Confidential: Adventures from the Wonderbelly of Motherhood
by Melinda Roberts - www.themommyblog.net

$19.95 (Aventine Press/Lulu) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Mommy Confidential is a naked, brutally funny, endearingly honest chronicle of family life beset by disaster on many fronts. Mindy keeps her family together through catastrophic illness, four bouts of postpartum depression, financial peril, familial Waterloo, and job instability. All through it her sense of humor and her sharp, edgy, witty writing keeps her together and upright. No, really."

Blood, Sweat & Tea: Real-life Adventures in an Inner-city Ambulance
by Tom Reynolds - randomreality.blogware.com

£7.99 (The Friday Project) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Have you ever wondered what's going on inside the ambulance you see screaming past with its sirens on and blue lights flashing? Meet Tom Reynolds. Tom is an Emergency medical Technician who works for the London Ambulance Service in East London. He has kept a diary of his daily working life since 2003, first as a website called "Random Acts of Reality" and now for the first time as a no-punches-pulled book. His award-winning writing is, by turn, moving, cynical, funny, heart-rending and compassionate...the stories Tom tells give a fascinating--and at times alarming--picture of life in inner-city Britain, and the people who are paid to mop up after it."

Tana's Habitat: The Ultimate Guide to Finding, Affording, and Styling Your First Place
by Tana March - www.tanashabitat.com

$18.95 (Perigee) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"From living in a storage unit to creating art out of the everyday, Tana's been through it all, and knows how to turn trash into treasure. Now she's bringing her special brand of design savvy to you. Her popular website is a hit with people who crave her creative, environmentally friendly, do-it-yourself projects and real-world philosophies."

Fotolog.book: A Global Snapshot for the Digital Age
edited by Andrew Long, texts by Nick Currie - www.fotolog.com

$34.95 (Thames & Hudson) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"With digital cameras and camera phones, millions of people are obsessively documenting their daily lives. The fotolog™ phenomenon transcends national borders, language barriers, and age gaps. From hotblooded (and sometimes hot-headed) teenagers in Brazil to cool silver surfers in Iceland, doctors, lawyers, dentists, mothers-to-be, and great-grandfathers, all these people have one thing in common: they communicate with images.

Organized into themes with quotes and commentaries, this book guides us to the best of the millions of images and multitudes of words found in the fotolog™ archives.

fotolog™.book shows us how we see our world, rather than images that newspapers deem newsworthy, images that marketers hope will be money-making or galleries judge to be Art with a capital A. It shows us what the fresh eyes of hundreds of ordinary men and women find beautiful, funny, moving, or extraordinary. Over 1000 color illustrations."

Not a Shot was Fired - a Blooker Christmas card

For the last post before Christmas (as well as the last post of 2006), I thought it would be appropriate to spotlight a particular entry directly tied to the Holiday season.

Not a Shot was Fired: Letters from the Christmas Truce 1914
By Alan Cleaver and Lesley Park - www.christmastruce.co.uk

$21.78 (Lulu) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Hidden away in the archives of local newspapers throughout the UK (and abroad) are first-hand accounts of one of the most remarkable events in history: the Christmas Truce of 1914. Warring soldiers lay down their arms and walked across no-man's land to shake hands and wish their "enemy" a Merry Christmas. Thankfully, the soldiers wrote home about their experiences and those letters were published in their local papers, preserving them for future generations.

But there those letters may have stayed in the archives were it not for the efforts of volunteers recruited by the www.christmastruce.co.uk website. Those volunteers gave up many hours of their leisure time to go through the back issues, find the letters and transcribe them for the website. Some of the letters are now reprinted--for the first time in nearly a century--in this book."

For more information on the origins of this fascinating and inspiring blook, episode #16 of the Lulu Radio podcast features an interview with co-author Alan Cleaver.

So, for those who celeberate it, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Blooker Prize and Lulu.com. See you in 2007!

One month left to enter the 2007 Blooker!

Today begins the final month of entry for the 2007 Lulu Blooker Prize. To be considered for the Prize, all entries must be postmarked by Monday, January 15, 2007. That's the physical blook we're talking about, not just submitting an entry on the Blooker website.

I will also take this opportunity to review the eligibility requirements:

• Only printed, bound books are eligible. Self-published books are just as valid as those that come from a traditional publisher; however, e-books are not accepted. (Neither are print-outs of screen-captures of your blog for that matter.)
• The content of your book must have been developed in a significant way online. This can range anywhere from an archive of your blog posts, reproduced verbatim, to general themes, research, or characters. Note: just having your book available for sale online does not make it a blook!
• Your blook must be written in English (although it can be sent from anywhere in the world). For those of you who blog/write in a language other than English, we'll have big news for you in the coming year--Watch This Space!
• If you sent your blook in last year, you can't enter it again. However, if you never actually got around to submitting your blook, you've got a second chance!

Please also refer to the Official Rules for the complete list of eligibility requirements.

If you want to enter the Blooker, but are afraid that there's not enough time, there are a several ways to quickly blookify your blog.

LJBook - convert your blog into a PDF, which can then be uploaded to Lulu.com (or similar service)and made available as a print-on-demand blook.

• Supported Platforms: LiveJournal, DeadJournal, AboutMyLife
• Cost: Free to make PDF, printing costs at Lulu start at $4.53 + $0.02/page (pricing example)
• Turn-around Time: 3-4 minutes to produce PDF + 3-5 business days to print book through Lulu.

Blurb - download and install the BookSmart(TM) software that will "slurp" the contents of your blog. The software is also necessary for design/layout/editing.

• Supported Platforms: TypePad, WordPress.com
• Cost: software is free to download, books start at $18.95 (full pricing chart)
• Turn-around Time: 5-6 business days

Blogprinting - Web-based service that prints blooks through Qoop.com

• Supported Platforms: TypePad, WordPress, Movable Type
• Cost: books start at $7.50 (first 28 pages) + $0.04/additional page
• Turn-around Time: 3-5 business days

Politics and Baseball (Not to mention Religion, Grammar, and Travel)

Three days, three posts...as the kids say, OMG!

Today we continue Operation: Making Up For Lost Time with a sextet of Non-Fiction entries.

Crashing The Gate
by Jerome Armstrong  - www.MyDD.com
and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga - www.dailykos.com

$12.95 (Chelsea Green) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"This book lays bare, with passion and precision, how ineffective, incompetent, and antiquated the Democratic Party establishment has become, and how it has failed to adapt and respond to new realities and challenges. The authors save their sharpest knives to go for the jugular in their critique of Republican ideologues who are now running—and ruining—our country.

Written by two of the most popular political bloggers in America, the book hails the new movement—of the netroots, the grassroots, the unorthodox labor unions, the maverick big donors—that is the antidote to old-school politics as usual. Fueled by advances in technology and a hunger for a more authentic and populist democracy, this broad-based movement is changing the way political campaigns are waged and managed.

A must-read book for anyone with an interest in the future of American democracy."

Bleeding Red: A Red Sox Fan's Diary of the 2004 Season
by Derek Catsam - www.ephblog.com

$16.00 (Vellum) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"On October 27, 2004 the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, capping an improbable postseason run that saw the team exorcise demons and send its fans into paroxysms of joy. Although Bleeding Red chronicles in great depth much of the 2004 season, it is truly a memoir about identity, unrequited love, and almost inexplicable loyalty to a team, to an idea. Even knowing the results, one cannot help but be caught in Catsam's emotions, a blend of humor and passion."

Missing Pieces of the Bible: Lost Books Fill-in the Blanks
by D.M. Wessel - sacred-texts.com

$10.13 (Lulu) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"There are a lot of unanswered questions in the Bible like: Why was Adam created 'on the earth' and God later moved him to a special garden? Who are the ‘sons of God’ in Genesis Chapter Six who cohabited with women and produced ‘giants’ who were on the earth at various times past and will be again in the end times? Whatever happened to Enoch and the prophecy he wrote which the book of Jude speaks of? Who is the man with the writer's inkhorn in Ezekiel Chapter Nine? Who were the wise men in the Book of Matthew in the N.T. who presented Jesus with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh? Is the number 666 really the correct interpretation of the mark of the beast of Revelation? The Bible mentions these things but doesn't seem to provide any real answers, however, there are other writings - books which were lost but which answer these questions and more..."

Catholic Analysis 2006
by Oswald Sobrino - catholicanalysis.blogspot.com

$7.94 (Lulu) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"This book contains selected 2006 essays from the Catholic Analysis blog (www.catholicanalysis.blogspot.com). The essays cover these timely topics: selected biblical insights from St. Paul's letters, authority and primacy in the Church, the Charismatic dimension of the Church, Catholic heroes for freedom in China and Cuba, Christian character traits, and rebuking various heresies. The author embraces the teaching authority of the Catholic Church as set forth in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and its Compendium. An E-book version is also available at Lulu.com. Author Oswald Sobrino, M.A. (Econ.), J.D., is a Catholic writer trained as an attorney and economist. He is a lay graduate student in Biblical Studies at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit. He writes the Catholic Analysis web column at www.CatholicAnalysis.blogspot.com and produces a podcast at www.CatholicAnalysis.libsyn.com. He is also the author of Unpopular Catholic Truths available at Amazon.com."

Far From The Madding Gerund and other dispatches from Language Log
by Mark Liberman and Geoffrey K. Pullum - itre.cis.upennn.edu/~myl/languagelog

$22.00 (William, James & Co) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"What do linguistic professors do for fun? Savage the SAT, defend "Bushisms," trash Dan Brown, and show why we must split infinitives--all in witty little essays meant not for specialists, but for everyone interested in how English works. Like Language Log, the site that inspired it, Far From The Madding Gerund is exuberant, tart, and totally addictive."--Jan Freeman, language columnist, The Boston Globe

Surviving Paradise
by Michael C. Perkins - www.survivingparadisehawaii.com

$19.95 (Quidnunc Press/Lulu) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Hawaii has rightly been called the most idyllic paradise in the world. But every paradise has its perils. The same natural wonders that make Hawaii beautiful--the lava, the ocean, the tropical environment--also make it more dangerous than most tourist destinations.

Many of Hawaii's dangers are hidden: the locals may know about them, but visitors almost never do. Every year, innocent tourists die in Hawaii because they didn't have the vital information that could have prevented a tragedy, or helped them survive one. Now they do."

Five from Lulu

As we get nearer and nearer to the entry deadline (January 15th, for those of you who haven't been paying attention), more and more entries will be arriving here at Blooker HQ. The problem is, there are still a lot of submissions that have already come in that I haven't blogged about yet. So, let's see if I can't manage to close the gap a little bit...

Adventures in Whopperland
by Bill Sanders - sanderscartoon.blogspot.com

$8.62 (Lulu) Buy it

Blooker category - Non-Fiction

"A satirical look at the Bush administration with essays, opinions and political cartoons" by a retired political cartoonist for the Milwaukee Journal and King Features Syndicate.

Don't Read This! And Other Advice I Recommend That You Take
by Tony Pearson - blogs.delphiforums.com

$6.35 (Lulu) Buy it

Blooker category: Fiction

"People can be so weird sometimes, can’t they? Not you. I’m sure you’re lovely, but some people can just be insufferable. One afternoon, I was on my way to the grocery store with my Aunt Edna (she wasn’t really my aunt...actually, it was my parole office, but he liked to be called "aunt". Okay, he hated it, but I'm needy right now. Happy?)...and when we get to the store, this old lady grabs the shopping cart I was going for. To be fair, her stuff was already in it, including her baby, but I did have my eye on it the day before when I came in...and I think "dibs" have actual legal effect. It was *my* cart. I was going to spit at her, but my mouth was all dry. Don't you hate that? I mean, I was completely parched. Ah, well. The nasty look I gave to the back of her head probably did the trick. The guy who saw me do it looked frightened, that's for sure. The way he moved away from me so quickly is proof of that."

Reflekshins: Inspirational and Contemplative Imagery
by Shane E. Gilreath - shanegilreath.blogspot.com

$25.97 (Lulu) Buy it

Blooker category: Fiction

"Inspired by his blog, "Reflekshins," Shane Gilreath takes readers on a visual journey of inspirational, thought provoking and whimsical imagery. This full-color interior soft-cover book is beautifully composed -- a fantastic collection of inspirational and contemplative images accompanied by haiku minimalist poetry."

The Littlest Collection

by Sean Martin - www.joey-aristophanes.com

$29.99 (JA Press/Lulu) Buy it

Blooker category: Fiction

"Vignettes of the "little people" we encounter every day, from the overworked (and under-appreciated) office adminstrator to the wizard whose powers are confined to a few streets and the local economy. Based on the long-running online series THE LITTLES, The Littlest Collection brings together 40 fan favourites into one lavishly illustrated volume."

Goats Eat Cans
by Steven Novak - stevenovak.blogspot.com

$15.99 (Lulu) Buy it

Blooker category: Fiction

"Remember that weird kid with the greasy hair and the weird smell, who never talked to anyone, and sat alone at lunch? The kid who drew weird little pictures? The one who you caught picking his nose and wiping his boogers on his pants? You know, the kid everyone hated. Well, this is his story. In "Goats Eat Cans" Steven Novak recounts though short stories, the moments that have made his life as a dorky loser, extremely annoying, incredibly painful, totally idiotic, and absolutely hilarious. "Goats Eat Cans" is 430 pages, 70 stories, 70 illustrations, and a butt load of surprises that will have you chuckling, laughing, or maybe even rolling around on the floor, holding your stomach and bleeding internally.* Without a doubt, it will make you appreciate your life a little bit more, because, if nothing else, at least you aren't him. *Mr. Novak accepts no responsibility for internal bleeding, or any other injury that may occur as a result of reading...so don't try to sue him...douche bag."

It's no secret...blooks get noticed by The New York Times

The Blooker, and blooks in general, got a nice mention in the New York Times this week - Blogs Into 'Blooks': The Cranky and the Chaste. The article (from the Fashion & Style section) focuses on two recently published blooks, one of which has just been submitted to the Blooker.

My Secret: A PostSecret Book
by Frank Warren - www.postsecret.com

$19.95 (Regan/HarperCollins) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"The sensational PostSecret project returns with a never-before-seen collection of postcards created by teens and college students from around the world. Compiled by Frank Warren, postsecret.com founder and author of the national bestseller PostSecret, the handmade cards bear compelling and personal messages that have remained secret--until now. Raw and revealing, My Secret expresses the hopes, fears, and wildest confessions of young people everywhere." Also, it comes with stickers!

For the record, he other blook mentioned in the article, one that has not been entered for the Blooker yet, is The Thrill of the Chaste ($13.99, W Publishing Company) by Dawn Eden--based on her blog The Dawn Patrol.

This Times piece follows another recent article on the blook phenomenon--this time from the Wall Street Journal: How Demon Wife Became a Media Star And Other Tales of the 'Blook' in Japan. The WSJ piece focuses on the smash success in Japan of Demon Wife Diaries, by a blogger known by the pen name "Kazuma," and the spreading popularity of blooks in the Japanese market.

Coming in from the cold

O, November, where did you go?

You put your head down to work on some other projects and you loose an entire month! Fortunately, this blogger's negligence can't do much to slow the progress of the runaway boulder that is the Lulu Blooker Prize, and we are approaching the bottom of the hill--much to the horror of the doomed townsfolk below.

OK, maybe I took that metaphor a little too far...

Annnnyway...now that I'm back, you might be wondering (if there is anyone out there who hasn't given up on ever seeing a new post here again) what's going on with the Blooker? Entries are still coming in at a good clip. I've updated the Entry list over on the right, and we are currently at about 95 or so--which , of course means it is time for me to repeat the Blooker mantra: SEND IN YOUR BLOOKS! Lots of submissions have already arrived (in fact they are piling up like snow drifts around my desk), but there are several still outstanding. Remember, to be considered for the Prize, a physical copy of your blook must be sent us postmarked by January 15!

A quick spin around the Technorati blog search reveals much public musing all across the blogosphere about the thought of entering the Blooker. All I can say is...

What are you waiting for!?!

War: Past and Present

War is the common theme of today's featured entries. Covering three different conflicts from three different decades, these blooks provide a wide range of views and experiences directly from people who were on the front lines.

Heroes Among Us
by Hal Terrell - www.realheroesamongus.com

$26.50 (Trafford) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Tells the story of twenty-two boys who grew up in a small western Colorado town during The Great Depression and how they dealt with their circumstances. It also delves into each individual's WWII experiences and what each one did after WWII to help build America into what it is today. Each chapter is loaded with emotions and humor. How many other young men from other small towns across America have shared similar experiences? This book will appeal to all veterans as well as our young people and the public in general."

Mission Saddam
by Herb Eash - www.herbeash.com

$20.00 (Lulu) - Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Mission Saddam is about severe atrocities from an over-zealous dictator who caused a stir that brought in the Calvary! A soldiers’ daily survival in a time of war and wait. The effects of war on both this soldier and his beloved spouse. By reading Mission Saddam you learn more about (GWI) Gulf War Illness which is plaguing thousands of Soldiers who served in the Middle East during a time of War to save the Kuwaiti people from Saddam's Tyranny. Includes a Gulf War Timeline from the start in 1990 to the end in 1991."

My War: Killing Time In Iraq
by Colby Buzzell - www.cbftw.blogspot.com

$15.00 (Berkeley/Penguin) Buy it

Blooker category: Non-Fiction

"Colby Buzzell traded a dead-end future for the army--and ended up as a machine gunner in Iraq. To make sense of the absurd and frightening events surrounding him, he started writing a blog about the war--and how it differed from the government's official version. But as his blog's popularity grew, Buzzell became the embedded reporter the army couldn't control--despite its often hilarious efforts to do so."

My dinner with Julie

It turns out that spending a week at North Carolina's Outer Banks, while unbelievably relaxing, isn't particularly conducive to keeping a blog updated...so...what's been going on?

Several new entries have been added to the list, and a few of those have already been sent in. In fact, the stack of blooks that are waiting for me to blog about them is steadily growing, and I fear things will get completely out of control if I don't get back on that soon! There has also been some interesting media and blog coverage of the Blooker, and blooks in general. However, the first order of business is, as the title of this post indicates, to tell you all about my dinner with Julie Powell.

On September 29, Julie had a reading/signing at the Regulator Bookshop in Durham, NC. The Regulator is a great store, and one of several independents that we're lucky to have in our area. The event was very well attended, and I was particularly pleased to see that they were handing out the "Cooker Beats Hooker" shirts we sent! Julie read a few passages from Julie & Julia and answered a lot of questions, all in her frank and funny style. Paul Jones, this year's Chair of the Judges, was also there, and after the signing we all went out for dinner at Chapel Hill's famous Crook's Corner--described by The New York Times as "sacred ground for Southern foodies." We all ordered the restaurant's delicious signature dish, shrimp and grits, and the conversation focused, as you might expect, on food. Well, food and blooks, of course. It was a lovely evening, and I'm glad I had a chance to get to meet Julie and spend some time with her and Paul over top-notch Southern cuisine.

"Julie & Julia" on tour

Yesterday (September 21, 2006) was the first day of Julie Powell's tour for the paperback edition of Julie & Julia. This edition has a new cover design and new subtitle--"My Year of Living Dangerously." Her first stop was at Olsson's Book and Records in Washington, DC, and the tour will take her to many venues all across the country.

Tuesday, September 26	The Tattered Cover (Colfax, Ave)	Denver, CO
Wednesday, September 27	Left Bank Books	St. Louis, MO
Thursday, September 28	Davis Kidd Booksellers	Nashville, TN
Friday, September 29	The Regulator Bookshop	Durham, NC
Saturday, September 30	Books & Books	Miami, FL
Thursday, October 12	Texas Conference for Women	Austin, TX
Saturday, October 14	Twin Cities Book Festival	Minneapolis, MN
Tuesday, November 14	Spoken Interludes	Harrison, NY
Thursday, November 16	Woodstock Opera House Speakers Series	Chicago, IL

There is at least one other reading that's not on the above list--Sunday, October 22 in Branford, CT. However, I don't know were the reading will be held. If I find this out, or the dates and locations of any additional Julie Powell events, I will post them here.

Since the hardback edition won the inaugural Lulu Blooker Prize, and Julie is one of the judges for the 2007 Prize, we commissioned a special tour t-shirt to be handed out at each venue. We have also provided Blooker buttons, stickers, and informational brochures (I know that last one is exciting!). However, quantities are limited, so if you want some Blooker swag, you should get there early!