Celebrate @yourfriend

[m o l l y]

Happy Birthday, Dummy!!!

I love Claire very much and would also love very much to eat a matter based taco all together to celebrate her. Clink tacos and have a bite. To Claire, who I assume is the Earthly link we all share!

I also wanted to share this Christopher Walken SNL video with you all in honor of Clag.

https://youtu.be/zc7qJE9Nzo8

[RCH]

Clam good... I love Clam!

[yourfriendclaire]

I love you both very much!

[alexshred420]

Happy birthday gum!

[meadows]

happy birthday, classy claire!
remember that time we went to oysterville with @rch and ate oysters in the mist? that was a cool time!
<3

[yourfriendclaire]

That was such a cool time. And place! Fun to think of the thousands of memories we all collectively share, a wealth to draw from in these dark days.

[meadows]

truly

[RCH]

As the great Willard Espy wrote: "When you write, you can hide behind your words. When you talk, you are up front, like the clown in the midway booth; and passersby can bean you with a ball."

[alexshred420]

I bought the book "Blockchain Chicken Farm" from @gary last week and lo and behold there's a jacket quote from @yourfriendclaire on the back!

[yourfriendclaire]

I am a prolific blurber, it is for me one of the great pleasures of being a professional author!

[yourfriendclaire]

PS - that book is so good!

[alex]

How does blurbing work, what goes on behind the scenes

[yourfriendclaire]

It’s pretty lo-tech! Either the author or the publisher gets in touch and asks. Speaking as an author, it’s the most embarrassing part of the process because you basically have to email the most famous person you know and ask them for a considerable favor, which is to read your entire book and then publicly say something nice about it. It was torturous for me. Which is why I try to blurb everyone who asks me now—and I try to offer it proactively to any authors who are like “eep hello I finished my book, can I send you a copy?” A good blurb is three sentences tops, and contains both heavy praise and some useful, shorthand description of what the book is about—something the author themselves would never say, but is actually useful for someone who’s browsing and trying to figure out if they want to buy a book.

[m o l l y]

Sounds fun even?

[yourfriendclaire]

For sure! You get to read a book before it’s published!

[yourfriendclaire]

I also recently blurbed Joanne McNeil's wonderful internet history, "Lurking," which I highly recommend to everyone on this board as it goes deep into user-centric online communities like our very own Dismantle Message Board.

[infopetal]

Lurking is one of my impulse pandemic book purchases now languishing in my to-read pile! bought it after listening to Joanne's interview on Theory of Everything.

but most importantly, a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY dear Claire! appropriately I missed it because I was traipsing in the woods looking at mushrooms, lichen, and moss (pics forthcoming)—as I hope was also how you celebrated the day. I'm so grateful for all your affable board hosting, on-point book/movie/TV recs, fermentation pep talks, @w0lf birthday present scheming, etc. what an unexpected delight to be connected this way amidst a largely otherwise dark year. <3

[yourfriendclaire]

thank you @infopetal, you're the sweetest! I'm so happy you're part of our little board community & Planet Earth to boot.

[nicholastg]

happy belated!