There are thousands of venues for book reviews, but none are as important, within the industry, as these four: Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist. Positive reviews in those pubs can convince booksellers and librarians to order your book.

So, of course, authors wait anxiously to see what those people have to say. The problem is, you can't access their web sites without a paid subscription, and the subscriptions are pretty damn pricey. I don't subscribe to any of them, though I have in the past.

The first review for Holy Moly that I'm aware of will appear in the March 15 issue of Kirkus. The review is already posted on the site. I know this because they give you a little snippet to entice you. Here's the snippet:

"A sauropod's skull could go for as much as a million dollars, according to Dr. Underwood, a paleontologist who adds that its value is considerably enhanced because dinosaur fossils have never before been found in Central Texas. That's precisely the..."

That's all I know at this point. Could be decent, could be horrible. Kirkus is notoriously hardnosed in their reviews. I know it's not a starred review, but they don't give many of those.

If it's good, you'll hear from me. If it's not, let us never speak of this again.

Here are the bunnies in their nest in our back yard. They are much smaller than they appear in this photo. Look at the oak leaves, which are just a couple of inches long, and you'll understand just how tiny the bunnies are.

My wife and I were working in the yard this weekend when Becky came across something strange. There was a ball of fuzzy gray material that seemed to be covering a hole. We picked at the material a little, and we saw some small creatures squirming around in the hole. We had no idea what we'd discovered, but we finally figured out it was a nest of baby cottontails.

We covered the nest back up and left everything pretty much as we'd found it. Then Becky went inside and did some research. The fuzzy material covering the hole is fur from the mother rabbit's coat. Since the babies were already completely covered with fur, that means they are at least a few days old, if not a week. Won't be long before they emerge from the nest.

The mother rabbit (doe) came back last night and nursed them as we watched through the windows. Pretty cool. I'll report on how it turns out.

In case you're interested in the status of my prepaid cell phone account--and how could you not be?--here's an update.

If you remember, I bought a prepaid cell phone last April with the idea of making a $100 card (1,000 minutes) last a full year. Actually, the minute count was more like 1,060, because the phone came with some minutes, and I bought the $100 card in May, so it doesn't expire until May 15.

When I first got the phone, lots of people said I'd need a lot more minutes than that, that I'd be using it all the time, that it would replace my regular phone, that I couldn't live without it, blah blah blah.

Sorry to disappoint them.

I have 382 minutes left for the final nine weeks. That means I've used about 678 minutes in 43 weeks, an average of just under 16 minutes a week. I'm going to have to up my usage if I intend to finish up the minutes.

Of course, I plan to keep the phone, and when I buy more minutes, the old minutes will roll over. But that means I'll have even more minutes to use up next year. But $100 a year ain't bad.

My only real complaint against the phone is that cell phone reception still sucks. The calls don't seem to be any better than they were 10 years ago. Other than that, I'll admit the phone has been a nice convenience. I don't have to search for pay phones anymore, which is what I used to do. I can drive down the highway, talking on the phone, weaving in my lane, oblivious to everyone else, a danger to you and your loved ones, just like every other jerk on the road.

If I'm traveling and I intend to have a long conversation, it definitely has to take place on a landline, because I don't have the patience to put up with the poor quality of a cell-phone call for long. It's not just my carrier, either. I've used friends' phones, and they all suck.

I've explored all my phone's functions--camera, video, text messaging, email, very limited access to some web sites, organizer, voice recorder, etc--and they are all pretty neat, but I don't use them. Except for the alarm clock. I use that on the road.

If you read all the way to here, you must be really bored.

I notice that an ARC of Holy Moly is for sale on eBay. I'm not happy about that, but at least it gives me a topic to talk about.

For those of you who don't know, an ARC is an advance reading copy. Several months before a book comes out, publishers print ARCs to send to reviewers, bookstore owners, and other bigwig decision-makers in the industry. They are not intended for the general public.

ARCs are paperbacks that typically say "Not for resale" somewhere on the cover. Some people sell them anyway. Or they give them to someone else who decides to sell them. If you search other authors' sites, you'll find that the sale of ARCs is a hotly debated topic. Some people contend that if an ARC is GIVEN to someone, it's theirs to do with what they want. Others say that there is an unspoken agreement between the publisher and the recipient, with the recipient agreeing not to sell the ARC.

It's like a record company giving an advance copy of an album to a radio station, so the station can get a sneak preview. You wouldn't expect a DJ or a program director to turn around and sell the album, but I guess it happens in that industry, too.

Here's the deal from an author's perspective: We don't get any royalty at all when somebody sells an ARC. That's especially painful when the ARC is sold BEFORE the hardback comes out. Theoretically, each ARC sale means one less hardback sale. (I should point out that most people who buy ARCs are unaware of these facts.)

It probably sounds like a quibble--one little ARC on eBay. Especially when you learn that the seller who is offering the ARC is a friends-of-the-library organization. Their sales benefit a particular library. But I couldn't help noticing that they have 61 items for sale at the moment, and 51 of those items are ARCs. (They obviously have a connection with a local reviewer.) They are potentially denying 51 authors of royalties. And that's just one store on eBay. I'm afraid to investigate any further.

Any thoughts on this? Am I being unreasonable?