The Most Isolated Man on the Planet

Thanks to Greg Frost (frostokovich; who got it from Pam Sargent) for this fascinating story; it's really worth following up the link for the full version. Not so long ago, Brazil had governments that were rightly reviled -- you know, the ones that refused to do anything about the gangs of serial killers slaughtering kids in Brasilia. That was back when South America was a hellhole of nightmare regimes supported by Uncle Ronnie. Things have obviously changed.

The Most Isolated Man on the Planet
He's alone in the Brazilian Amazon, but for how long?
By Monte Reel
Posted Friday, Aug. 20, 2010, at 7:08 AM ET

The most isolated man on the planet will spend tonight inside a leafy palm-thatch hut in the Brazilian Amazon. As always, insects will darn the air. Spider monkeys will patrol the treetops. Wild pigs will root in the undergrowth. And the man will remain a quietly anonymous fixture of the landscape, camouflaged to the point of near invisibility.

That description relies on a few unknowable assumptions, obviously, but they're relatively safe. The man's isolation has been so well-established—and is so mind-bendingly extreme—that portraying him silently enduring another moment of utter solitude is a practical guarantee of reportorial accuracy.

He's an Indian, and Brazilian officials have concluded that he's the last survivor of an uncontacted tribe. They first became aware of his existence nearly 15 years ago and for a decade launched numerous expeditions to track him, to ensure his safety, and to try to establish peaceful contact with him. In 2007, with ranching and logging closing in quickly on all sides, government officials declared a 31-square-mile area around him off-limits to trespassing and development.

It's meant to be a safe zone. He's still in there. Alone.

been that, done there

Gary Robson currently has an article on the Writers' Weekly site that amuses me a lot, because the points he makes are true and at one time or another I've seen all the disasters he describes being instituted by people whose motivations could not have been more sincere. I'm certain I've made at least some of the mistakes myself. Here's the start of Robson's piece:

How to Design a Book Cover That Annoys Booksellers

As both an author and the owner of a (very) independent bookstore, I have a different perspective on book covers. Despite the old saying, "don't judge a book by its cover," people have done exactly that since the first bookshoppe opened its doors centuries ago. Whether browsing the shelves of their neighborhood bookstore or paging through search results online, our customers' eyes are drawn to book covers, and they make snap judgments based on those covers.

Good covers sell. Bad covers not only don't attract customers, but can actively annoy the very people you count on to hand-sell your books. Authors who self-publish or go through a Print on Demand (POD) house often think that brick-and-mortar bookstores won't sell their books. Granted, it takes some work to get in the door, but there are some POD books that sell well in my store. Sometimes, though, a mere look at the cover is enough to make me not want to carry a book -- even a book from a large traditional publishing house.

Are you looking for ways to annoy booksellers and encourage them not to sell your book? I hope not, but if you are, here is a list of some of the ways you can do it: