Next time I'm moving to a new house or apartment, remind me to ask whether the neighbors have a band. (I don't know what I can or should do here. It's not absurdly late, but the sound is just really annoying. In an apartment building, I'd feel fine asking them to turn it down, but I don't know what the rules are when the noise is coming from another house.)

Jilli, is it a content strategy job?

Kinda. The job title is primary technical writer, but the manager says that it's more content strategy and management.

Cool! That's what Bob does. I didn't know it was a thing until we met!

Not bad at at when it is easily repairable stuff and not serious structural issues. Sounds like a win to me.

Fighting with my son again. Have I mentioned parenting sucks? I'd like to fast forward 10 years to when he should have his act together, except for the me being 68 part.

In happier news, the younger son has 4 As and 3 Bs. Also, DH's basketball team is between 16th to 20th on the various national rankings lists, which considering the number of High Schools is pretty awesome. Just went to the regional quarter finals. Another running clock. The last several games they have had better than a 35 point spread so they let the clock run. They are really good. 4 more games this season including the state championship if we win the next 3. All games end of season now.

Great news, Jilli! Good to see they recognize quality.

How soon are you moving, Laga?

Not bad at at when it is easily repairable stuff and not serious structural issues. Sounds like a win to me.

Yes. We're still going to try to get them do some of the fixes, but we'll see what happens.

In happier news, the younger son has 4 As and 3 Bs.

Fuck yeah!

Also, DH's basketball team is between 16th to 20th on the various national rankings lists, which considering the number of High Schools is pretty awesome.

Again, I say unto thee: Fuck yeah!

Yeah, actually, that sounds like a great inspection. There was a point during our build where I was convinced the earth was going to open up and swallow our house. The SO talked me down, bless him.

Ugh, Laura. I will come down to Florida and have a come-to-Jesus talk with him. I'm pretty good at it. And I thump heads pretty hard.

And it's dank and chilly here now. Have laptop, will cluestick!

Jilli, I wish it were two weeks so you could post "I GOT THE JOB BITCHES!!!" already!

Yeah, it is generally a red flag when we hear from the author him/herself, rather than the publisher or a hired publicist.

Hmmm. I'm in the position of having to contact reviewers and talk show hosts and whatever myself. Praeger press is not generous with review copies, or with putting time into publicity (even compared to normal publishers.) And they certainly don't pay enough for me to hire my own publicist. When I contact people to offer review copies (at my own expense) how do I explain this without badmouthing Praeger. This is actually normal for academic presses. It is just that I believe my book has some value to a non-academic audience.

TB, I didn't mean to make it sound like we would never consider a book when it's the author who contacts us, or that it necessarily means the book isn't legit; all that it generally means is that the book is coming out from a press that doesn't do much publicity itself. For *us*, since we are a review publication with national distribution and readers with fairly middle-of-the-road tastes, we really tend to focus on the major publishers and the bigger of the independent houses, which means we rarely review books from academic presses, regional presses, or other companies that put out totally worthy and legitimate books. That's just us.

I don't know who you're contacting, but I wouldn't think you would need to explain why you're doing your own publicity for your book. It's not necessarily a bad thing -- it's a bit of a red flag for my publication, but might not be for others. (That said, please make sure your cover letter is scrupulously edited and proofread!)