Now this is quite exciting.

For me at least where this is a first (and dare I suspect last?).

You may recall me blathering on about writing a book chapter last July (28th)
http://doosouth.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html
(does Blogger really not let me have a URL to just that post?)

I mentioned we got one free copy of the book between us but my colleague, quite fairly as the lead author, wants to keep it. So I thought I'd spend pretty much all the money I'm being paid on a second copy of the book.

Amazon have just delivered it and I can hold it in my hands for the first time. Very weird - very satisfying. Not only is there our chapter but there are two short paragraphs on 'future of ebooks' and a 'top tip' that appear later in the book. We're in a section that contains two other chapters and of course our chapter is 'introduced' with the others. But we also get a mention in the chapter before ours. (Fittingly, from the folk whose presentation I went to and who started the ball rolling for us).

I have actually read a chapter already and intend to read more. It's not

just going on my brag shelf! But what's a real relief is that my effort at looking ten years into the future isn't out of place with the other snippets. Because we had to submit that in a vacuum I had no idea if it would hold up to other contributions. But I think it works well. Ten years is a long time in the ebook world though, so I'm not expecting to be very accurate timewise!

Nearly forgot to write about the two things that cheered up my dank Tuesday earlier in the week.

Firstly, the book chapter a colleague and I wrote a while back (surely I blogged about that) was published. It's in print only ironically given its about ebooks but you can see the contents page online. Looking forward to seeing it for real. My first professional book chapter. And I believe we get paid not a lot, but not nothing. $150 won't go far between the two of us.

Second thing was weird and fun.
Apparently it was International Hug a Librarian Day. Who makes this stuff up? Not that it was much in evidence where I was where there wasn't a hug to be had. However, a 100 miles down the road I saw a tweet from someone I've met once at a conference and she was after a hug too. I could only send a virtual one but a little later it occurred to me that I knew an educational technologist at the same university. And as I know her and family little better, thought she might be up for translating the virtual into real. And she was. Took them a day to meet up - but job done!