Brilliant!

The Boy enjoying his formula. :)

The Boy checking out his in-flight bassinet. (Strangely Asiana didn't provide it on our return flight, saying that he's suddenly too big for it. O_o)

Doesn't this look like he's playing poker?

The Boy at his uncle's wedding. (It was beautiful BTW.)

The Boy at a restaurant.

The Boy with two young women in hanbok (Korean traditional dress).

Today, I have a special guest Alina Adams, discussing self-publishing her backlist titles.

Two summers ago, I was on a panel at Comic-Con in San Diego, talking about writing tie-in books (in my case to a pair of soap operas, As the World Turns and Guiding Light).

The moderator asked a question about future projects, and I mentioned that I was taking my series of Figure Skating Murder Mysteries, originally published as paperbacks by Berkley Prime Crime, and turning them into enhanced e-books, where not only did you get all the text of the original but, in partnership with The Ice Theatre of New York, I was adding professional skating videos to represent my fictional characters.

Afterwards, a fellow writer from the panel came up and told me she too had been thinking of doing a multimedia book, but she'd priced out the necessary technical services, and “Those IT guys are just so expensive.”

I pointed to my husband, standing nearby, and explained, “I sleep with my IT guy.”

“Oh!” She exclaimed. “That's so much cheaper!”

Indeed. I highly recommended it. (Not that there aren't many wonderful companies out there that could get the job done for you. Many of them even charge reasonable prices. But, even a reasonable price is an expenditure I'd rather avoid.)

When I first decided, in 2011, to get the rights back to not only my previously published figure skating series, but to my romance titles, as well, and turn them into enhanced e-books, it was only because I knew my husband had the technical know-how to physically build them.

And if he didn't have the technical know-how, he'd educate himself until he did. Or deal with my complaining about it. (And no one wants that.)

When it came to my romance novel, When a Man Loves a Woman, originally published by DELL in 2000, he literally ripped the book at the spine, then sat up several nights in a row, scanning each page by hand while he watched TV (and I went to bed).

I proofed it, compiled it, added a name to each chapter that corresponded to a popular song that could comment and compliment the action, found the songs on-line, created links to them, and handed the whole thing back to my husband. Who spent many more late nights formatting the book according to Amazon specs, and testing and retesting it in a variety of machines, according to the way he'd been taught at MIT. (Nuclear engineering… Building enhanced e-books… Practically the same thing, no?)

With my figure skating mysteries, Murder on Ice, On Thin Ice, Axel of Evil, Death Drop, and Skate Crime, he taught himself how to transfer videos from DVD into a format compatible with both mobi (for Amazon) and ePub (for Nook). He also figured out how to build the table of contents the platform required, not to mention indent, bold, italicize, and double-space. (Sounds simple. I gather it is not.)

We've been married for almost fourteen years. My romance writing career actually predates our meeting.

Back then, when I wrote about romantic heroes, they were either witty, urbane, Regency-era Marquis, or dashing fighter pilots, or sensitive, sexy surgeons.

Little did I know at the time, that the most romantic thing a man can do is sit up for hours tediously scanning pages torn from a tattered book, then spend hours pouring through coding specs in tiny font, followed by going back and redoing a day's worth of work because I found a misplaced comma and really, really need it fixed. Now.

My latest enhanced e-book is Counterpoint: An Interactive Family Saga. It is a romantic serial where, at the end of Volume One, I ask readers to tell me what they'd like to see happen in Volume Two. I incorporate their suggestions into Volume Two, and ask them for input regarding Volume Three. And so on.

I am really looking forward to what my readers come up with.

But, if I may offer a bit of friendly advice based on life experience, if you truly want a Happily Ever After – go for the IT guy.

You won't regret it.

Alina Adams is the New York Times' best selling author of soap opera tie-ins, figure skating mysteries, and romances, including Annie's Wild Ride and When a Man Loves a Woman. Her latest project is Counterpoint: An Interactive Family Saga. In addition to turning her own backlist into enhanced e-books, she has produced enhanced e-books for others, including Dan Elish, whose middle-grade fantasy novel, The Worldwide Dessert Contest, now includes its own original musical score. Learn more at http://www.AlinaAdamsMedia.com

2012 seems to be the year of strange weather in Japan. We had the freakiest storm in April, plus snow up north, and so on. Thankfully where I am is relatively warm and not as stormy. Yesterday, I saw that the cherry blossom trees along the river had bloomed. Finally!

On the technology front, I changed my site layout, so that it changes its width, etc. depending on the screen size of your gadget. I've been meaning to optimize my site for smart phones and tablets, but just hadn't gotten around to it until now. If you see anything that's broken on your browser, please let me know via a comment. :)

As for my writing, I'm still working on the revision for the sequel to The Last Slayer. The opening and the middle didn't really work, and I was trying to save them somehow. Except…they just aren't going to work in the current form. When I get restless reading my own writing, I know it's not fair to subject others to it. But it's getting there, slowly, and I actually like how the manuscript's shaping up.

Though I never made any big new year's resolutions for 2012, I joined the gym this month to get back in shape. I was shocked to learn that I actually weigh about 10 lbs less than my pre-pregnancy weight. This doesn't mean I get to slack off because I'm in terrible shape — often out of breath after doing even the most basic physical activities (like, um, walking). Also, I want to look more toned for my brother's wedding in May and be in better physical shape for The Boy, who's becoming more and more mobile. And quick!!!

I hope your April is lovely and productive. :)

NY appeals court concludes a jury may have to decide if YouTube violated Viacom copyrights

NEW YORK — A federal appeals court reinstated a copyright case against YouTube on Thursday, finding that a jury could conclude that the online video service knew it was infringing rights when it allowed the distribution of videos of popular television shows and other programs.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided the case after hearing lawyers several months ago debate whether the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act shields a company like YouTube from broad copyright claims. Google bought YouTube for $1.76 billion in 2006.

I love how everyone's “pleased” with the outcome. O_o

Nonetheless, wonder what this will eventually mean for many file sharing websites and piracy forums, etc.