Welcome to BenWoods.com

We're having a blood drive at work today. I unfortunately will not be participating today, or ever again, because the American Red Cross refuses to stop calling me.

This is a strange predicament for me because I've been a fairly loyal donor for about 15 years. But due to the Red Cross' refusal to remove me from its calling list, I'm really not that interested in donating again.

Here are two recent releases to check out the next time you're in the need of a new book.

"Love Betrayed" is a nonfiction novel by author Karen Hinton. It's a book for traumatized wives who find themselves reinventing their lives after dedicating decades to their husbands.

I haven't had a chance to post much on my blog lately. I think most people know why I haven't ... baby on the way, new house, a bunch of new websites and a new book. Anyway, I don't want to quit on the blog completely, but I'll probably consider a new format at some point, especially since I will be contributing to the Spumoni Press blog as well. Until then, be sure to check out spumonipress.com, as well as my latest post - First year = crazy year.

I had expected this note would give you an exact date, preferably in December, to announce the launch of "Corporate Ties." Unfortunately, it will have to wait a bit longer. I've been slightly busier this fall than anticipated … we purchased a house, we're preparing for a baby in March, among other things. The good news is that once I have a decent block of time to devote to the book, I should be able to finish it.

Until then, here's a new excerpt from the book.

Fellow Baltimore writer Spencer Compton will be sharing commentary from his new book, "Get Real" at 7pm tonight (Oct. 26) at Red Emma's Bookstore and Coffee House.

Scotland will be a hot place to be this week, as the The Group of Eight (G-8) leaders of the world's most industrialized countries will meet to discuss important international items, including global warming. So far, the U.S. is the country not currently backing the proposed ideas, which is somewhat similar to the Kyoto Protocol, which was ratified by 141 countries as of February, but not the United States.

I have a subscription to Harper's Magazine, and I try to read it as regularly as possible (although that's tough when we're all in similar boats with a million things going on). In this year's February edition, I came across a pretty good article titled "Sick in the head: Why America won't get the health-care system it needs" by Luke Mitchell.

QUESTION

Is it OK to email someone you are interested in dating, even if that person didn't give you his/her address personally?

AMANDA: NO

My opinion is no, unless you want to look like a stalker. The obvious response to the email will be, "So, how did you get my address?" And what will the reply to that be? "Oh, I decided to look at member directories at every email service I could think of to try to find out how to contact you." Talk about scaring someone off!

The Developers can now be purchased at Carmichael's Bookstore, Louisville's oldest independent bookstore. The store has two locations: 2720 Frankfort Avenue and 1295 Bardstown Road.

And I thought Hypercolor shirts were high-tech.

Philips Research recently touted its new and improved production-ready Lumalive textile garments at the Berlin IFA consumer electronic trade fair. This essentially means that in the near future, you will start seeing people walking around with logos lit up, flashing and/or moving right across an ordinary t-shirt, jacket or sofa.

Just so you follow, let's start from the beginning.