It was his 1st time. He loved Nemo (clown fish). :D

(We were supposed to take a picture together, but he decided to stand up and block most of his mommy. I had to hold him so he didn't lose his balance and fall since the small wooden ledge around the tank was about 4 feet off the floor.)

I'm finally getting around to posting a few pics from Korea.

So here's the 1st one — Kyobo Books. I went to the main one in the basement of the Kyobo Building. This particular bookstore has over 2.3 million books.

Kyobo building — it's a big building, though the one that's even bigger (the bluish one) is owned by Dong-Ah News (newspaper company).

Entrance:

Kyobo ereader display —

Closeup of Kyobo ereaders —

Kyobo v. Kindle —

Kyobo keyboard — its keys are so small, I don't know if I can really use it

Kyobo ereader screen — it's not bad, but I didn't find the display good enough for Korean text (I do read Korean pretty well)

Kyobo book displays — BTW, there are lots of this kind of displays to showcase select titles.

Kyobo display of JKR's Harry Potter series —

Kyobo book slip to help you find any title you want — it tells you exactly how many copies are in the store, plus the exact location in the store plus a small map so you can find it easily (sorry it's wrinkly b/c it got crushed in my bag)

Kyobo has one of the most amazing inventory tracking system. I bought two books entitled The Woman Who Made a King.

I'll post more photos of downtown Seoul later. :)

From “The Amazon Effect” written by Steve Wasserman:

But as Amazon's six other publishing imprints (Montlake Romance, AmazonCrossing, Thomas & Mercer, 47North, Amazon Encore, The Domino Project) have discovered, in certain genres (romance, science fiction and fantasy) formerly relegated to the moribund mass-market paperback, readers care not a whit about cover design or even good writing, and have no attachment at all to the book as object. Like addicts, they just want their fix at the lowest possible price, and Amazon is happy to be their online dealer.

As a romance writer, I find the comment offensive.

As a reader of romance, fantasy and SF, I find the assertion that I don't care about cover or writing at all doubly offensive. What am I? A drug addict desperate for the cheapest dope I can find regardless of the quality?

I really hope it reflects the personal belief of Steve Wasserman, not other publishing professionals he's interviewed for the article. Otherwise, publishing's in trouble, not because of Amazon, but because they don't respect their readers.

• Read more.
• Write / revise more.
• Exercise more.

Sleep is overrated.

I must start this month's note by saying I'm sorry for missing last month's update. May was just too hectic. The Boy got bronchitis at the end of April, and with our trip to Korea and all, he had to basically stay out of daycare until May 18th, while we were planning our trip and getting our paperwork, etc. ready. Meanwhile Hero Material was really sick — high fever and so on — and there just wasn't any time for me to do everything I needed to do.

By the time we returned from the trip, it was too late to post an update. So that's how I ended up with nothing for May.

Now you may be wondering, “Why did you go to Korea, Nadia? Isn't your baby a little too young for an international trip?”

The Boy was exactly 11 months old when we flew out. So he was a bit young, and to be honest, Hero Material and I were not planning to travel overseas until The Boy was at least 3 years old. But my younger brother was getting married, so we had to go. And we are so glad we went. The wedding was stunning, and it was great to see my family and relatives. The Boy was a superstar; he did very well on the plane and at the wedding. And he got hugged by everyone, which he adored. :) I posted a few pictures of The Boy in Korea here if you want to see.

On the writing front — I finally sent off a new novel to Agent. It's a futuristic romance set (mostly) in Tokyo. I like the project, and I hope Agent likes it too.

As for the sequel to The Last Slayer — I'm doing another revision, which is about 75% done. Once I hit the 100% mark, I plan to send it off to a pair of fresh eyes for input. The plot and basic structure probably won't change at this point unless people tell me I messed up something really bad.

With the Boy back in daycare and my having recovered somewhat from the trip, I'm hoping that June will be more productive (and less sleep-deprived). I hope all of you have a lovely month. :)

P.S. Don't forget — A Happily Ever After of Her Own and Carnal Secrets are still on sale on Amazon, BN and All Romance eBooks!

Brilliant!