13th Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture - Neil Gaiman 2015

Ok, for those who don't know I'm a huge fan of Douglas Adams, and this year Neil Gaiman gave the annual lecture for Save the Rhino International. Here's the link and the description, and if you have the time (the lecture is an hour, the Q&A 30 minutes) I highly recommend that you watch and listen ...

One of the words that most accurately describes Douglas Adams' works is "timeless". In his lecture on "Immortality and Douglas Adams", Neil Gaiman will speak about the enduring nature of Adams' vision and imagination, the impact of the internet and eBooks on storytelling as a whole, and why stories can sometimes outlive us all.

This is the 13th Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture in the series.

The Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture is held each year in honour of Save the Rhino founder patron Douglas Adams, who was a dedicated spokesperson for conservation right up until his death in 2001 at the age of 49.You can read more about Douglas and his interest in conservation here:

http://www.savetherhino.org/about/tru...

The lecture is held in aid of two charities, Save the Rhino and the Environmental Investigation Agency. You can help support these causes.

Donate today: 

Save the Rhino International: http://www.savetherhino.org/
Environmental Investigation Agency: http://eia-international.org/

Advice for young journalists

A special thank you to Lars Anderson and his sports journalism class at the University of Alabama for having me visit this week. It's always fun talking shop and they asked really good questions.

Thinking about it afterward I was reminded of a list I did for my book No Time Outs on my 12 rules of sports writing. I've never posted it before, so here goes:

1)    Read, read, read.
2)    Write, write, write.
3)    Never lie, cheat or fudge.
4)    Work hard. Then work harder.
5)    Keep it simple.
6)    Trust your instincts.
7)    Never forget your subject is a person.
8)    Don’t screw up a name in print.
9)    Always go to the top.
10) The desk is your friend.
11) Think ahead.
12) Always have higher expectations.

It's hard to believe No Time Outs was published in 2006, and since it was my second book that means 2015 is consequently my 10-year anniversary as an author. It amazes me how much the industry has changed during that time period, and I can't wait to see what happens over the next decade.

All good things ...

Thursday was my last day at Saturday Down South and I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of the readers, etc. I appreciate you more than you'll ever know. 

With nothing much going on football-wise for a while except National Signing Day I wanted to do something to hold Crimson Tide fans over, so posted a 12-part "Crunching the numbers" series. When you're ready for a little more perspective on the 2014 season and where the Alabama program's at just hit one of the following links:

Freshmen

Sims vs. McCarron 

Quarterbacks

Receivers

Rushing

Tackles

Fumbles

Sacks

Interceptions

Offense

Defense

Mistakes

As for me, I don't know what's next, and for now I'm ok with that. Similar to a coach or player at the end of a long season my wife and I are going to take a little time, catch up on sleep and figure some things out. We firmly believe that every ending is a new beginning so we're looking forward to seeing what's next. 

Thanks again and take care ... 

Rough week ...

There's a manuscript sitting on my desk, and unfortunately the picture here is all you'll probably ever see of it.

One of the things I've had in the works for a while was a championship book if Alabama won the national title. The plan was for it to go to the printer the morning after the final game in Dallas, and be available almost immediately.

Literally, the thing was done except for the semifinal game, the title game and a short sidebar on the championship game MVP. I had spent a good part of December working on the manuscript, making sure it was worthy of being a keepsake, and I was pretty proud of how it turned out.

But then Ohio State upset Alabama at the Sugar Bowl, and that was that. Actually, it turned out to be the least of my worries last week (more on that in the near future), but it's the kind of thing that I thought some of you might be interested in hearing about. Over the years I've had a few books never see the light of day, but sometimes that's just the way it goes. Back to the drawing board ...

Yeah, I'm crazy ...

So I haven't posted much lately not because there isn't anything new (FYI, I keep hearing that the book is doing really well), but because I downloaded new software that was supposed to make my computer even better, only one of the side issues is that it says that I have no access to my own blog. 

Those of you who have met me know that this is exactly the kind of thing that drives me nuts. So I got out my old computer to post this ... 

Anyway, I have two book signings coming up:

1) As previously mentioned I'll be at the Preview Gala for Mobile's Christmas Jubilee on Nov. 12 -- and I'm skipping work that day to do it so please don't tell my boss. 

2) I'll be at Barnes & Noble in Tuscaloosa on Black Friday at 11 a.m. For all you early-morning shoppers when you need some coffee come on through and we'll set you up for the college football fans in your life. 

Get ready for the stretch run of the season everyone because it's going to be quite a ride. 

'They treat the writers like cow dung'

There's not much new with the book, at least that I know of, but it seems to be doing well. I've seen it for sale on the Walmart website, walked into a Barnes & Noble in Florida and found copies, and we're offering it in four different formats (trade paper, EPUB, Mobipocket and PDF) on the Triumph Books website. 

By the way, the B&N in Tuscaloosa has more than 50 copies. 

What got my attention this week was something on the journalism front from former Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan, who has a new book out: Scribe: My Life in Sports. 

I still have to figure out a way to get an autographed copy, but check out two things Bob said during a recent interview for USA Today:

On the teams’ treatment of sports journalists: “As far as writing, it’s very annoying what they’ve done to us. They treat the writers like cow dung. They care not one lick about the print press. They are so close to charging us to get in that it’s frightening. That’s a whole other matter. …They care about television. That’s it. Everything else is a bother.”

What he’d do if he were coming out of college today: “I wouldn’t want to be a beat writer. … I don’t think that’s an enjoyable way to make a living any longer. The lack of access is totally frustrating, and the conditions that I just described about how you’re treated like a total afterthought, who needs that? … What I would probably do — as much as I love to write, and I did and I do — I’d want to get into sports on the other side. I’d want to work for a team or a league and work my way through that rather than being involved in the coverage knowing what I know about what that’s like now.”

I've actually talked to Bob about some of this and I can pretty much guarantee that just about everyone in the business feels the same way. I've long said that the only way I can suggest this as a profession any more is if you can't not to do, which is sad.  

What do I have in common with U2?

In addition to Kindle and Nook, Nick Saban vs. College Football is also available on iTunes.

Considering that the book was written on an Apple Macbook Air it seems only fitting. 

From Apple: "This book is available for download with iBooks on your Mac or iOS device, and with iTunes on your computer. Books can be read with iBooks on your Mac or iOS device."

Specifically: "To view this book, you must have an iOS device with iBooks 1.3.1 or later and iOS 4.3.3 or later, or a Mac with iBooks 1.0 or later and OS X 10.9 or later."

The price is $9.99. I couldn't help but notice that 100 Things Crimson Tide Fans Should Know & Do Before they Die is also available, but for some reason it's $11.99, and the Triviology books (Packers, Steelers and Cowboys, oh my!) can also be download. 

By the way, if you buy the book they'll throw in a free copy U2's new album: Songs Of Innocence, which is a really good album to listen to while reading. 

A little nook action ...

I'm happy to announce that Nick Saban vs. College Football is now available on Nook.

It's already available on Kindle, but if you're a big Barnes and Noble fan here's the website link.

I also have to wonder, how is it that some websites were offering used copies of the book before it was even released? Yeah, I don't get it either.

A quick note of thanks ...

I've done so many signings over the years at the Bryant Museum that at this point it's more like visiting old friends than being part of a promotion. This time I even got a cup of coffee out of it right after this photo was taken. 

Thanks to everyone at the Museum and Supe Store, I greatly appreciate everything you did for me. For those who couldn't make it I left behind a number of signed copies that will remain on sale. Just think, the holidays will be here before you know it ... 

Dagnumit!

So when I was asked about doing a book signing for the Alabama Supply Store before Saturday's game I made a point to request to have it at the Bryant Museum.

My thinking was this, I signed books in the store's tent on the Quad last week (which went really well) and in case the weather isn't the greatest I wouldn't have anything to worry about. I'll be there from 10 a.m. to noon and then head over to Bryant-Denny Stadium for a full day of covering the game.

Well I've since found out who is signing books on the Quad prior to Florida at Alabama:

Lars Anderson, The Storm and the Tide, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Bobby Bowden, The Wisdom of Faith, from noon to 1:30 p.m.
Howard Schnellenberger, Passing the Torch, from 9 a.m. to 11 a..m.

.... and they're just the ones I've heard about. There could be more.

Regardless, I'd like to encourage everyone to come out and check out all the books and meet the authors as this is literally a once-in-a-lifetime lineup -- and obviously not because of me.