Shaken & Stirred

Tuesday Hangovers

• Why are network executives so infuriatingly determined to screw up anything that remotely works or has its own voice? Why? Prompted by this USA Today story about Pushing Daisies' return: The show's unabashed quirkiness was, to worried ABC officials, off-putting. When Daisies went back into production in June, some recalibration was in order. "The first part of (this) season was really tough," Fuller says. "They were like, 'Let's ground the show a little more; it can't be a cartoon. We can't have the show be weird and not get an audience.' And we were like, 'We can't have the show be boring and not get the people back we had last year.' The challenge to me was to make sure the fundamental DNA of the show didn't change." (Via Medialoper.)
• The multiple ceremony life of many of today's gay married couples. Such a sweet column.
• Lisa Yee has yet another writing computer catastrophe--this has got to be a record!She endures with such aplomb.
• Lizzie finally tackles Flowers in the Attic at Fine Lines. I've been saving this as a post-packet treat, which means I get to read it now. Yay!
• Tod Goldberg on writing tie-ins. Must watch Burn Notice, and then write obnoxious letters to Parade Magazine about it.
• A teacher advocates a more thoughtful approach to pairing teens with books teens actually like and get. What a concept. (Via Colleen.)
• This picture deserves a story. Or several.
• Karen Healey announces the Con Anti-Harrassment Project.
• Michael Chabon (yet again) on border-crossing and genre. This q and a, though, is worth a look: When I'm 7 years old and reading Batman and Fantastic Four, I'm reading Greek myths and Norse myths, and I’m finding the mighty Thor in the pages of Marvel Comics, and it's all just completely connected in my mind. It was all coming from the same place, as far as I was concerned.
• F&SF survey about online fiction and the almighty dollar. See also: Matt Ruff on same. And Chris Barzak says don't miss the current issue of F&SF, cause it's packed with good stuff.
• Cringe is a great title for an anthology with an even greater concept. Erin quotes editor Sarah Brown as saying: "The more dramatic, embarrassing or excruciating the writing, the better. A good test to determine whether or not your material is Cringe-worthy: when you read it to yourself, do you physically cringe? Then for the love of god, it needs to be in this book. Seriously. You are going to be so glad you did this. Cheaper and better than therapy."
• The lovely and fabulous Lauren McLaughlin's new YA Cycler gets Boing'd. I'm really looking forward to this one.
• Jules and Kelly's joint review of Adam Rex's Frankenstein Takes the Cake makes me resolve that this is the year we finally decorate the house right for Halloween. Also, makes me want to read it. And eat Frankenstein's cake.
• Carolyn on a cool photo concept courtesy of her cousin--neighborhoods redefined as planets. Me like.
• I've really got to get my hands on Irene Gammel's new L.M. Montgomery book, Looking for Anne of Green Gables--especially after reading Stephany's post.
• And now I will answer some e-mails. It's been so long, I'm not sure I remember how.

Thursday Hangovers

• Real posts (and e-mails answered) sometime soon. The Busy Fairy has struck again, and it's no good when she's paling around with the Revision Fairy.
• Cynthia Leitich Smith talks to A.M. Jenkins and the description of the book she's working on caught my eye: I'm finishing up a fun, fast-paced, midgrade/YA adventure that I think of as Alexandre Dumas with a manga series sensibility. That sounds FABULOUS.
• The second volume of Greg Frost's acclaimed Shadowbridge series isn't being stocked in Borders. Purchase elsewhere accordingly. I hear great things, and am very much looking forward to getting around to these. Fitcher's Brides is one of my all-time favorite novels.
• Nicola Griffith on the science of how fiction makes us better people, more or less.
• Stephany has the goods on a massive pop-up book collection being donated to the Bowdoin College Library. Aside: I loved the whole "Pop-Up Pin-Ups" bit on the Pushing Daisies episode about the scratch n' sniff-related murder.
• The Millions has a new quiz for its contributors about the first book that really engaged them with reading. The answers are fun reading.
• Debate literary fantasy. You know you wanna.

Wednesday Hangovers

• Scientist Diana Beresford-Kroeger's bioplanning concepts are intriguing.
• Ann Hornaday meditates on George Lucas's flaws as a storyteller.
• And the Nietzsche Nihilism Parody Award goes to... (Via Jenny D.)
• Speaking of Jenny D, she was recently on the Bat Segundo Show.
• Twilight trailer spoof fun.
• I remain convinced that The Dark Knight's political subtext is so muddled and accidental as to be irrelevant, but enjoyed Emily Colette Wilkinson's thoughts at the Millions anyway.
• And the current hand-wringing issue of the week: the aging of Hugo winners (and Nebula winners) over the years. See here, here and here for more.

Monday Hangovers

• Ellen Kushner circulates word that a summer employee at the Horn Book is gathering data on the intersection of fanfic and kidlit. She has a survey up at her LJ and is seeking responses.
• Meghan McCarron has a new Tumblr. Set your feeds accordingly.
• Over at Discovery News, Jennifer Viegas has an article enticingly titled, "'Dancing Plague' and Other Odd Afflictions Explained." (Via Jeff Ford.)
• Hugo winners announced. Yay, Ted! And everybody else! Rocket ships, whee!
• More quotes from John Crowley's 1975 copybook.
• A couple of interesting posts by Sherwood Smith: thoughts about popularity vs. award-winning and what makes a compelling hero.
• Benjamin Rosenbaum's new collection available FREE FREE FREE. And you can buy it too. And you should.

Thursday Hangovers

• Jody Rosen uncovers blatant and prodigious pilfering from other news sources at a free weekly in Texas called The Bulletin.
• Jim Emerson with some very sensible questions about the critical and cultural reaction to The Dark Knight, which I found more flawed than not (barring Ledger's indisputably amazing Joker turn and Gary Oldman's excellent take on Commissioner Gordon).
• Welcome to Clingstone, the picturesque mansion built on a rock. The slide show has some great photos, including one really striking image of two little girls dancing inside. (Via Matt Ruff.)
• Kelley Eskridge meditates on where publishing models may be headed from the writer's perspective: But what if the definition of Real Writer is changing? What if it’s expanding to include the possibility that maybe an audience will bring you a big advance a lot sooner than a big advance will bring you an audience? Or that maybe there is no big advance, there’s only big audience and the small amounts of money they’re willing to pay individually to download your work or contribute to the PayPal tip jar on your website? What if some writers develop a here you go, what do you think, should I work on this idea? relationship with their readers, so there’s some kind of push-pull between the artist and audience? Read the whole thing.
• Ekaterina Sedia writes about one of my favorite novels, Sean Stewart's Mockingbird, over at Jeff VanderMeer's. It's the third in a series about underrated novels/writers.
• World Fantasy Award nominations. Congrats to all those so honored -- this is the first year in awhile that I haven't read a sizeable chunk of the nominated stuff, and so I'm particularly intrigued.
• J.L. Bell on misdirection in magic and fiction.
• Lizzie Skurnick writes in praise of Stephenie Meyer's quartet in the Chicago Tribune.
• Roger Sutton dips a toe into the strange and miraculous world of fanfic.

Tuesday Hangovers

• Sorry to have fallen off the face of the Earth there, but PW deadlines wait for no one.
• "Hamlet (Facebook News Feed Edition)" by Sarah Schmelling at McSweeney's: Hamlet posted an event: A Play That's Totally Fictional and In No Way About My Family.
• Melissa Block on Charlotte's Web at NPR; fabulous story.
• I love it when Nicholson Baker writes book reviews: The effect of this book on me was to make me like Ammon Shea and, briefly, to hate English. What a choking, God-awful mash it is! Surely French is better.
• Something tells me Tomi Ungerer might have been in trouble if clauses like this existed during his heyday.
• John Green on rereading Catcher in the Rye.
• Stephanie Meyer's Breaking Dawn sounds to be almost universally hated. Roger Sutton is puzzling over the fan reaction, and Laini Taylor just wants a simple question answered.
• The marvelous Stephany rounds up some recent Anne of Green Gables links.
• David Ulin considers Stephen King's latest Internet experiment.

Tuesday Hangovers

• I haven't read the Stephenie Meyer books (I know), but I very much enjoyed the (spoiler heavy) Edward vs. Jacob Smackdown over at Seven Imps.
• Margo Rabb offers a list of YA titles with cross-over appeal for adults.
• Jules Feiffer interviewed at The Onion. (Via Leila.)
• The lovely and ingenious Kassia offers some insightful analysis about the demise of the LA Times Book Review (she also appeared on Jim Lehrer about the subject). I suspect she is entirely right that most book sections haven't done a good job serving their communities. See also: Carolyn comments on the oddness of it all from the vantage point of being an LAT book blogger.
• Max offers a pointer to the fabulous NYRB Children's Collection.
• Kelley Eskridge appears on the Reality Break podcast, and that's sure to be worth a listen.
• Awful studio background maps. Oh, I love this.
• Mr. McLaren gets handy around the house's exterior and mini-catastrophe ensues.
• Pretty.
• Finally: RIP Rosie.

Sunday Hangovers

• Holly posts about the narrative functions served by werewolves. Having just watched Blood & Chocolate a couple of nights ago, I can think of a couple of other nonflattering ones (and I believe all the Readercon team's were represented with the exceptions of 4 and 5). (You know, it actually wasn't as bad as I expected. Clearly nothing to do with the book, but at least they made use of the beautiful European buildings.)
• What do you know? Girls and boys have equal aptitudes for math.
• Superstar-in-waiting Ben Rosenbaum is interviewed by the Washington Post about his new collection, The Ant King and Other Stories, and acquits himself very well. Visit his blog for links to more recent press.
• Gwyneth Jones lists her top 10 science fiction novels by women in The Guardian. This is a solid list, to be sure, though some are proposing to generate a version with more recent stuff, which I also support. Any list with Sarah Canary on it is okay by me though.
• Elizabeth Bear asks if there's a generation gap in SF, in which older writers read their compatriots and vice versa. It's an interesting thought.
• Visit the Cotsen Children's Library at Princeton's Water Babies show, of water-themed children's book art, online.
• My new favorite animal, courtesy of Cherie Priest.
• Cassie is embarking on an insane research-related project of reading only novels/books produced during or about the Victorian Era. Lob her some suggestions.
• Some great opening sentences of SF. (Via Scott.)

Wednesday Hangovers

• I think the residency and Readercon following right on the heels are too big to do a round-up of either. But it was great to see youse guys who were seen at each of them. If only Readercon could be plopped down in the middle of, say, Madison, instead of one mile from a mall, it'd be giving Wiscon some relatively serious competition in my heart. Still: Korean BBQ was excellent, Thai was all right, and the mafia was as treacherous as ever (you poor trusting suckers! it's good to confirm one's devious side is still intact). Plus, Mr. McLaren secretly delivered me a delicious rumcake to the hotel, which was ingested with glee and bargain champagne in celebration of many birthdays (or at least, mine, Kelly's and Gavin's).
• Speaking of Readercon, here's an interesting write-up of a panel I didn't attend, on revision. And Matt Cheney has an excellent overall report too (that was some reading, huh? and the novel's no slouch).
• I really like today's National Geographic photo.
• There's a fabulous new Meghan McCarron story, "The Magician's House," at Strange Horizons: part one and part two.
• Justine on the first-ever brawl in the WNBA.
• Jenny D tells a research anecdote related to the sequel to The Explosionist. Great post, but more to the point: Yay, sequel! Few books demand them, but this is one.
• Bennett Madison has a typically memorable response to the furor over Margo Rabb's very sensible article in the NYT. Here here for Weetzie Bat changing lives.
• I am very, very happy to see the word spreading about how wonderful Tiptree Winner Sarah Hall's The Carhullan Army/Daughters of the North is.
• J.M. Barrie: Very bad man? (Via Leila.)
• Excellent and entertaining New Yorker piece about famous and infamous librarian Anne Carroll Moore's battle against E.B. White's Stuart Little. Of course, you can't go wrong when personalities like these are in play. Anytime you get to quote Ursula Nordstrom, it's for the win.

Monday Hangovers

• A very incomplete selection of links, as I'm still wayyyy behind on ye olde feedreader and even though there's a couple of substantial(ish) posts I'd like to make, I'm not caught up enough for that yet either.
• Margo Rabb's NYT essay about how publishing as YA (when the book is cross-over and could go either YA/adult) can get you some pitiable looks in certain quarters of the literary universe is very good, I think, although I know there have already been some impassioned responses in agreement and disagreement with some of the points raised. It seems to me this is a piece written for a general readership, who may or may not care about YA, and who might--just might--be more likely to visit that section of the bookstore as a result of reading it. I definitely didn't read it as whining, but as a thoughtful consideration of her own experience and an elegant rebuttal to naysayers. Like Justine, I've rarely encountered these attitudes directly (though I have encountered them occasionally), but I still have no doubt that they exist since people love erecting borders around things and declaring them ghettos. There are still plenty of people who look askance at children's literature as literature, and who do not in any way believe that writing for young people is as important (or can be as important) as writing for adults. I'm not one of them, of course, and I do think we're seeing this change as YA continues to be a home for an ever-increasing number of astoundingly excellent books. Oh, and it's worth mentioning that Margo has an excellent blog where this discussion continues, and she's posting outtakes that didn't make the final piece.
• As someone who is also now in the midst of trying to complete that all-important creative thesis (aka The Novel) and get it approved, I send cheering thoughts in Carolyn's general direction. Nice paragraph. (Why does 'nice paragraph' strike me as vaguely dirty? Must catch up on sleep.)
• Niall has all the relevant (and some just plain maddening) links related to the great Helix blow-up. Nothing like watching a jerk prove that he's an even bigger jerk than you could ever have imagined. I understand the term professionalism played a large part in the early stages of this fiasco, which is almost too shocking to be believed.
• Save Bat Segundo!

Thursday Hangovers

• Marc Aronson on the Newbery/Caldecott speeches that are all the buzz, taking exception to one of Laura Amy Schlitz's comments on nonfiction.
• Netflix profiles staying for the win. Thank you, Corporate-DVD-Rental-Company Overlords.
• The latest Mind Meld is about whether there's a gender imbalance in SF -- I was asked to participate but events overwhelmed me and since I didn't participate my thoughts aren't coherent enough to share here. Except to say: Yes, but the fact that there's so much discussion around this topic is an indication that things are finally changing, as is the brilliant work I have no trouble encountering by very fine women writers working in the field. I'd just like to see more of it, and that means more TOCs with more brilliant work by women on them. Anyway, very interesting to read the mostly more coherent comments of those who did respond, especially everyone's "favorite" nutso whackjob John C. Wright. I would excerpt, but what to choose? Just go read the whole thing. See also: Moles on the responses.
• The new Locus is the YA-focused issue.
• King Arthur as propaganda. (Via Ed.)
• Jenny Davidson's The Explosionist came out yesterday. I enjoyed this one a great deal, and bow at the bravery of the audacious ending. Go read it!
• Another This Week in SF Kerfluffles entry is Dave Truesdale being Dave Truesdale about Ellen Datlow's excellent anthology, The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Instead of linking to The Trues, I will link to Niall Harrison's excellent discussion of Margo Lanagan's "The Goosle," which came in for the biggest dose of Truesey's scorn.
• And here I always thought hollow books were to hide murder weapons and suchlike. (Via Maud.)
• NPR expanding book coverage. This makes me very happy, as I'm usually pleased by the stuff I catch on la radio.
• A fabulous interview with Lynda Barry, whose new book I really must get immediately. (Via Austin.)
• The Cupertino Effect. I like having names and history for such things. (Via Erin.)

Wednesday Hangovers

• Sorry for the lack of posting, but I'm on schedule with my revision and thus I'm not too sorry. But there is good stuff afoot in the 'sphere, so here I am.
• Leila has the goods on Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. w00t.
• Pinky's looking for her wig.
• There's going to be a book based on Lizzie Skurnick's (aka Old Hag) Fine Lines column over at Jezebel. Whooping of joy commenced. In celebration, Maud has the Hag's recipe for Salade Nicoise.
• Speaking of le Maud, she also posted about Susan Maddux's amazing Hawaiian watercolors the other day. Gorgeous.
• My school has gained its independence. I look for only more great things to happen as a result.
• Nancy Drew love at NPR. Reminding me to Netflix that adaption from last year (yeah, I know, it was supposed to be just eh, but I wanna see it anyway).
• The tiny car page. (Via Gavin.)
• Jewelry (possibly) made from Jane Austen's hair. Don't tell Billy Bob Thornton.
• Jeff VanderMeer's favorite short fiction fantasists. Good list with lots of fabulous women writers.
• An interview with the creator of the new controversial D&D edition at Guy's Lit Wire.
• Austin on Joy Division and Control.
• J.L. Bell on American fantasy's treatment of American Indians.

Wednesday Hangovers

• Radar Online has an entertaining history of Hollywood's love affair with jingoistic villains.
• Justine on bad writing days and the effect on mood. YES.
• Matt Cheney recommends John Williams' Stoner.
• Apropos of its new excerpt policy, Ed thinks the AP should go whole hog and pay its sources, and he does the math.
• See also, Ed on the novels of Tiptree-winner Sarah Hall.
• Go read and vote in the Million Writers Award.
• Nicola is making a bunch of stuff related to her excellent, Lambda-award winning memoir And Now We Are Going to Have a Party available online. That you should check it out goes without saying.
• Glenn Beck and Ted Bell: Role models. Wait, make that DINOSAUR MORONS. (I love the transcript of Beck interviewing Stephanie Meyer that someone posted a link to in the comments of that discussion--although I'm hoping that she actually does know who Cormac McCarthy is and was just thrown off by some clown throwing non sequiturs at her. Still, hilarious.) Updated to add: Ted Bell posts a somewhat defensive (understandably) comment below and it is worth noting that this discussion is less about the book in question--which he wrote--and more about the unbelievable Glenn Beck interview, which can be viewed at the Guys Lit Wire post.
• Niall Harrison on The Happening, which I kind of want to go see mainly because the post-M. Knight rantiness is as addictive as a drug.
• Carrie's reading The Writing Class. Yay! Follow suit.

Friday Hangovers

• You know you want it.
• The debate about Keith Gessen's mental state continues apace.
• EW catalogues the territory memoirs have already covered.
• Building a mysterious home (nice to have the millions, huh?).
• A columnist in the Times of India says don't buy books: The point that one is trying to make is that buying a book isn't such a great idea for a committed reader. In fact, one could go further and say that nothing kills the appetite for a book more than its easy availability. Eh, I'm perfectly capable of checking out a library book over and over too.

Thursday Hangovers

• A few teensy links...
• J.L. Bell pulls out some less depressing facts from the latest children & reading study.
• We loved the last act of this episode of This American Life, given over to alternate versions of William Carlos Williams' poem "This is Just to Say." (Via Austin.)
• Maud's award-winning essay "Conversations You Have at Twenty" is up at Narrative.
• Interesting contrarian thoughts on Cory Doctorow's Little Brother at Vector (contrarian compared to most of the other reviews I've seen around, anyway). Spoilers abound, so be forewarned.
• Dana waxes brilliant on Keith Gessen, proving that there actually is a purpose to his existence after all.
• Jules reviews Kathi Appelt's wonderful (see books sidebar for my take) The Underneath. If you have kids that will still let you read aloud to them, buy this immediately. If not and they're in the middle grade range, buy it and let them read it themselves.
• The Alantropa Project at strange maps.

Monday Hangovers

• Charlie Jane Anders on the tyranny of the overused "grimly" in science fiction over at i09.
• Daniel Pinkwater discusses bears and children's books on NPR.
• An elephant funeral. (Via Dave.)
• Found in books.
• Kassia with a reminder that reading is fun. Well said, chica.
• Laini puts our neighborhood issues in perspective. Wowza. Backyard fight club: Anyway, primary renter guy is back for the summer, and his first act, apparently, is fight club. Jim said to me last night after taking Leroy out into the yard: "I think they built a boxing ring in the backyard." It hardly seemed plausible, though it did indeed look like nothing but a boxing ring. I thought it was probably too much to hope they were staking out a vegetable garden! And this morning, the usual posse of friends assembled and started to grow. And grow. And grow. And then the boxing gloves came out. And the hitting. And the cheering, and the dinging of bells. Goth chicks with mohawks and neck braces on the porch cheering. Beer.
• The book a year cycle: "There's pressure to treat authors like Coca Cola," said California thriller writer Brad Meltzer, who was asked to publish once a year but refused. "Every time you get a bunch of writers together, this is all they complain about. The trend is, 'How many books can you put out?' From building your reputation to get on the best-seller list, it's gone to trying to get to the tippy-top of the list. It's not worth it to me."
• Good article on urban fantasy at School Library Journal. (Via.)
• "The Rise of Fan Fiction and Comic Book Culture."
• I love it when Justine posts about sports. Here she is offering some thoughts on the WNBA's Becky Hammon playing for Russia in the Olympics.

Friday Hangovers

• Orson Scott Card and the appeal of Ender's Game discussed yet again. (Via Ypulse.) I still say more people should read John Kessel's excellent, provocative analysis of its appeal, and the problem with the underlying morality in the book. Or, alternately, just read John's collection and skip Card altogether.
• William Gibson is coming to our local bookstore in support of the paperback release of Spook Country next week. The local books columnist has a post about it, including some interview snippets wherein he recommends books by Junot Diaz and Charles Stross. I like this: Gibson says he only wants to read "science fiction that couldn’t have been written 10 years ago."
• Niall Harrison thoughtfully reviews Dave Schwartz's Superpowers -- just out in the U.K, and soon in the U.S. My recent interview with Dave is here.
• Justine Musk has a great quote about writers from Brian McDonald's Last Call at Elaine's, but I'll send you there to read it. See also: Her recent post about meeting Coldplay and selling another book; her blog is always a fun read.
• Justine says don't hate the famous. I don't even care about the famous. I reserve my hatred for evil politicos, and my affection (mostly) for people I know.
• Sarah Rees Brennan has a great, hilarious post about finding the science fiction she could grok, and requesting suggestions for more like that.
• The lost rivers of London.
• Colleen on a shady-seeming new paid book blog tour site.

Monday Hangovers

• Tom Waits interviewed. (Via Meghan.)
• A couple of Wiscon panel write-ups: Coffee and Ink has the goods on the ending panel and Merovingian chronicles the world-building hijincks panel.
• YA authors seeking 7 figure advances for adult novels.
• Is there an opposite to absolute zero? (Via Matt.)
• I want The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway based on this post; is it coming out here anytime soon? Aha, September.
• Ann Hornaday on classic movies about women in the city making their way.
• Gone Baby Gone is a really good movie. No link, I'm just saying.
• Cecil from BEA; Carolyn and others from BEA at Jacket Copy.
• Alas, carnivals dying out.
• Erin's back! Sorta.
• Guys Lit Wire is live. GO THERE IMMEDIATELY. (Seriously.) Also, here's Colleen's post about the making of the site. (In short, there will be lots of content from a host of regular posters aimed at getting teen boys to books they'll want to read; I'll be contributing occasionally too. I strongly suspect that this site will be a good read even if you're not a teenage boy and don't care if they read. Plus, so pretty. Read it, link it!)

Friday Hangovers

• The NYT recently profiled video game legend Shigeru Miyamoto (he likes bluegrass): Mr. Miyamoto’s work is evolving from a reliance on invented characters and fanciful, outlandish settings like Mario’s Mushroom Kingdom or Zelda’s mythical Hyrule. With games like Nintendogs (inspired by his pet Shetland sheepdog), Wii Sports, Wii Fit and coming next, Wii Music, Mr. Miyamoto is gravitating toward everyday hobbies: pets, bowling, yoga, Hula-Hoop, music. It is as if an artist who had mastered the abstract had finally moved into realism.
• Salman Rushdie on NPR on The Enchantress of Florence and the dangers of being perceived as ponderous: "The threat against me was arcane and theological and unfunny. There's an assumption that I must be arcane and theological and unfunny," Rushdie says. "And I think it puts people off. When I go around lecturing at colleges and so on, every single time I do it somebody comes up to me and says 'Who knew that you'd be funny?' People have this expectation of a very dark, serious kind of burdened person. I'm just trying to burst back into Technicolor."
• John Crowley considers an age-old question of terminology: Is there a term in SF -- not "robot,"  not "cyborg." not "android" -- for the Ironman concept -- a man-shaped thng, suit or suit of armor, inside which a human sits, manipulating it?
• Photos of one of the last uncontacted native tribes in Brazil. (Thanks, C!)
• The sophisticated stray dogs of Moscow. They ride the metro! This is one of the most fascinating articles I've read in ages: Now, old factories are being transformed into shopping centers and apartment blocks, so strays have become more avid and skillful beggars. They have developed innovative strategies, zoologists say, such as a come-from-behind ambush technique: A big dog pads up silently behind a man eating on the street and barks. The startled man drops his food. The dog eats it. (Via a migratory Ed.)
• Adrienne Martini writes an excellent, smart-as-hell review of Karen Joy Fowler's Wit's End for the Baltimore City Paper: With Wit's End, you can feel the echoes of these books as Fowler pushes her story beyond all that she's made before. She stacks each cup on top of the other, with sure and steady hands. And then she knocks them down herself, with a broad grin, because watching them fall is just too much fun. I can't wait to see what her tower looks like next time. 
• Seven Imps turns the spotlight on Barry Moser.
• Austin on maps of fictional worlds.
• Dana on Chicago. (Please approach with a sense of humor.)

(So) Hangovers

• So we're still clear of the stomach bug, but both seem to have colds and general yuckiness. Blech. I do actually want to make a little post about a couple of Wiscon-related things, mostly to say how excellent it was to get to participate in such fabulous discussions about The Carhullan Army/Daughters of the North and the rest of the Tiptree list, and natter about a panel or so. (The best part, as always, was hanging with peeps new and old.) But that will not be happening today, not until I've managed some serious couch time. In the meantime, some links, mostly to obvious stuff...
• Emily Gould's confessional piece about the dangers of internet celebrity and oversharing (sometimes I really hate things online being open to comments).
• Saint Death in Chi-town: For decades Santa Muerte has been present in the tough neighborhoods of Mexico City, where prostitutes and drug traffickers worshiped her mostly in secret. Last month, a group devoted to the icon made her over, giving the figure long, brown hair and a rose to hold in an attempt to change her image and win Mexican government recognition.
• Of female fantasy writers and double standards. Over at the Horn Book Blog, many people are wishing the writer in question had chosen an example other than Rowling to make the case.
• The Salon piece about The Death of Literary Criticism that has some people talking. Yawn.
• Jeannette Winterson opens the Sydney Writers' Festival. (Via Jeff.)
• Stephany Aulenback is compiling an interesting list of books for adults about childhood. I'd add Jeff Ford's latest, The Shadow Year.
• Salman Rushdie returns to the fantastic, and the fantastically real: As the eight page bibliography in the back of the book reminds, much of this story is actually factually true - and not the parts one might think. "The people of this time were more interested in magic than in religion because they thought of it as real," Rushdie said. And then there's the history itself. "At one point, I had to research what the Turks were up to, and they were going to war with Dracula!"

Thursday Hangovers

• Art by Sophie Blackall on sale. (Via.)
• Thoughts on women and the lack thereof in science.
• Top 10 challenged books 2007.
• Justine on fashion.
• Ninety-year-old debut author of Bowl of Cherries Millard Kaufman gets profiled in the WashPost: "There are curious curlicues in the many lives of Millard Kaufman. For example, he once ingested cobra venom -- experimentally-- and awoke to find himself playing golf in the nude."
• Alberto Manguel on his 30,000 volume library: "My library is not a single beast but a composite of many others, a fantastic animal made up of the several libraries built and then abandoned, over and over again, throughout my life. I can’t remember a time in which I didn’t have a library of some sort. The present one is a sort of multilayered autobiography, each book holding the moment in which I opened it for the first time."
• Pinky recommends some campaign-related reading.
• The Web Habits of Highly Effective People seem to involve a suspicious-amount of NYT-home paging. (Via trend-bucker Maud.)
• J.L. Bell is having a very amusing punctuation week over at Oz and Ends. The first entry highlights underused punctuation terms.

Monday Hangovers

• I've added some little book recommendations over in the sidebar (thank you, Typepad support people) and will add a couple more as soon as they roll out the bug fix that was causing them not to show up (supposedly this week).
• Also, I'm almost caught up on just about everything. So, if I owe you something, you'll get it soon.
• New Scientist thinks these five movies get the science right (or, at least, rightish). (Via.)
• I'll be reading both of these: "Both Lerer and Marcus emphasize that these works -- from picture books marinated in biblical ethics to, yes, the Harry Potter novels -- were created by human beings with diverse and often contradictory motives. What a story these authors tell, of piratical moralists stealing each other's ethical axioms and presenting them as their own, of librarians shouting that Nancy Drew mysteries were bad for education and morality. Despite this cacophony, writers have managed to produce such cherished feats of imagination as Alice and Huckleberry Finn, Charlotte's Web and Little Women, a magical train station that rescues an orphaned boy and a secret garden in which a girl learns what it means to grow up. These new books remind us that children's literature, which at the moment is flourishing and hugely influential, grows from as rich and ancient a heritage as any strand of world culture."
• Colleen points out that horse racing isn't the only sport with animal casualties, taking a look at the current plight of sled dogs.
• Stephany Aulenback is not a baby eater: "Like a recovering addict, I recognize the beast within myself. Sometimes, though, I can get carried away with my adultetarian zeal. For instance, I have found that my personal ban on eating babies now seems to extend to miniature versions of foods, as well. Baby carrots and baby lettuce have recently joined baby potatoes on my list. Many otherwise innocuous h’ors d’oeuvres have also become off-limits – I can no longer eat mini-pizza, mini-quiches, or tiny pigs in blankets. I know intellectually that those tiny guinea hens are full-grown adults but when one is placed in front of me at a banquet my visceral reaction is a desperate attraction – my hands literally quiver over my fork and knife -- followed by intense revulsion. I usually have to excuse myself in order to go throw up in the ladies room." Read the whole thing.

Thursday Hangovers

• Interesting slideshow at Slate: "The mismatch of technology and picture books."
• This must be the week for ouchie reviews; Peter Bergen on Morgan Spurlock's new book/docu: "Spurlock's musings read like the interminable blog of a pampered college kid on an all-expenses-paid trip around the Middle East and South Asia. The documentary is even worse, as Spurlock is constantly on camera delivering the same platitudes, a supersized display of narcissism that makes Michael Moore's on-screen preenings look like those of a Trappist monk."
• Also, in the WaPo, this fascinating story on the National Security Archive: "Blanton loves government documents. It's an acquired taste that has also been acquired by his colleagues at the archive. Over the past 23 years, they have filed more than 35,000 FOIA requests and collected more than 5 million pages of government documents. Some of the documents are mind-numbingly boring, of course, but others are nothing short of astonishing..."
• 2007 Believer Book Award short list -- excellent to see Liz Hand's Generation Loss on there.
• Feeling very steampunk.
• The people are demanding bicycle novels. (Ahem.)
• Pretty pictures.

Tuesday Hangovers

• You would not believe the heartache involved in obtaining new patio furniture. Target: I hate you.
• Vote for Chris Barzak in the NewNextNow Awards!
• Controversial fiction (check out the comments). See also.
• Carrie Jones begins a discussion on dialogue and class.
• Two ladies crack me up. Someone get started on the Iron Man/Spiderman/Wonder Boys mash-up stat.
• China's Pop Fiction in the NYT. Between the lines, it sounds like YA's big there too.
• The Million Writers Awards notable stories list 2007.
• Beautiful original jewelry inspired by the stories in the Interfictions anthology is being auctioned off.
• Mr. McLaren on the wonders of the hobo.
• Alan Cheuse recommends Ursula Le Guin's Lavinia, Jeanette Winterson's Stone Gods, and Joyce Carol Oates Wild Nights! (which sounds like sooo much fun) -- I only wish Sarah Hall's The Carhullan Army/Daughters of the North would have worked its way in there somehow. Speaking of which, it's available in the U.S. now.
• For those times when only feeling ridiculous will do, the Nubrella.

Friday Hangovers

• I already love my Neo.
• Publishers Weekly hosts an interesting panel on what YA is. See also: Scalzi on the fact that YA (and I'd add middle grade to that) is where SF/F is really jumping. (And a reminder for the intrigued, that I recently made a bunch of recommendations over at Omnivoracious. And, yes, I'm very much looking forward to Little Brother and also pray for its wild success so no one will be afraid to touch the also-intensely-political book I'm presently finishing up.)
• Panda video!
• The one, the only Daniel Pinkwater is serializing his latest novel. Quoting his fabulous agent, Literaticat, who this link is via: "The Yggyssey is an epic tale of Hollywood hijinks, and the follow-up to 2007's Neddiad. The Yggyssey will not be available in stores until 2009, but thanks to the fine folks at Houghton Mifflin, the book will be released for free online, a chapter a week until the day of the official book release."
• Pinky posts bookish dog photos. This makes me insanely happy.
• Happy Derby, y'all.

Sunday Hangovers

• I'd read John Crowley's dream journal in a hot minute: "Northrop Frye says that one of the components of what he calls romance (along with dark journeys to underworlds, brothers and sisters parted in youth, and pirates, is talking animals, and intense human/animal relations.  Dreams are fiction, or the reverse, or both."
• We're in the market for a writing-and-nothing-else portable tippety-typer: Dana or Quickpad? (Or another option I don't know about?) We went with the Neo.
• In which Pinky represents the rise of the machines. I'm betting on her for the win.
• Japanese crepe paper fairy tales.
• Jeff's new design = excellent.
• Mr. McLaren on the unfair world of midlist authors taking on pseudonyms in order to keep publishing, and the difficulties of keeping track of who's writing as who: "However, when authors are forced by the midlist computer-ordering death spiral to take on a pseudonym to keep writing in their chosen genre, that annoys me. It annoys me because it shouldn’t happen, and the fact that it does is the publishing industry putting a patch on a serious problem."
• Men who explain things. In science fiction, we consider this a primary pick-up strategy. (Are you hitting on me or just sharing a factoid about aardvarks in space?)
• Maud has a nice assembly of writing quotes.
• Erin on marketing and fiction: "At any rate...whether you get a bigass check from a luxury car company or not, marketability is interesting to think about from a fiction perspective. Would this story go better with Buddig ham? IKEA furniture? Pabst Blue Ribbon? A Volkswagen? Depends undergarments?" Funny, but I don't remember anyone being upset when BMW financed those short films by major directors. I'm just surprised that Lexus thinks this will be an effective strategy.

Linkzilla

Back, busy, etc. A couple of links for now...

Roger Sutton is funny when he's cranky:

I just picked up Katherine Applegate's Beach Blondes: A Summer Novel (Simon Pulse) and boy are my arms tired. This sucker is 721 paperback pages long, and first in a series to boot. I'm guessing it's so fat for some strategic marketing reason, or perhaps I just haven't yet gotten to the chapter "This Is Summer Speaking," in which the heroine stops the motor of the world in order to expound for fifty-seven pages on the virtues of Vera Bradley bags.

Seriously, what is it with the Vera Bradley thing? I don't get it.

And Ben Rosenbaum* waxes smart on schedulizing:

One thing related to that: there are many sub-agencies in my consciousness. Some want to lie on the couch. Some want to write fiction for the fun of it, others in order to be praised. Some want to go hang out with friends. Others want to be left the fsck alone. My task, I have found, is not to impose the will of the more "good, productive, noble" ones on the slacker ones, but rather to broker a compromise so that they are not constantly sabotaging each other. I find this actually increases even traditionally-measured productivity. If I try to only ever write, I find myself cheating on writing time in order to read and play. If I make it my goal to have time to write, to read, and to play, the agencies tend to respect each other much more.

Well said.

*Whose forthcoming collection is hotly anticipated--is this the year of the awesome short story collection or what**?

**Plus, Maureen's awesome-tastic collection Mothers and Other Monsters is now available for download!

Monday Hangovers

• Annalee Newitz offers an insightful review of Karen Joy Fowler's Wit's End at io9: "Karen Joy Fowler's unsettling, wistful new novel Wit's End offers us a present-day world that is science fictional in the same way William Gibson's recent present-day novels are: Her characters' lives are so deeply bound up with technology that it's hard to tell where human connection ends and internet connectivity begins." See also: Reuters q&a.
• CSI as science fiction. (Via Jenny D.)
• An excellent review of Sarah Hall's The Carhullan Army/Daughters of the North. (Via Niall.)
• Fall in: The Fraenkel Gallery. (Via Sara Ryan.)
• Liz Hand on Toby Barlow's Sharp Teeth in the WashPost.
• Midori has some good links about Ursula Le Guin's Lavinia.
• Travel books without the travel?
• Evil Monkey's Guide to Kosher Imaginary Animals.

Sunday Hangovers (Updated)

• Trashing teachers (and others) on MySpace.
• Time Out asks a bunch of publishing types about the industry, and how books get to readers--or not: "First of all, there are no prime movers in the publishing world, but rather a nexus of agents, editors and publicists who collaborate in the attempt to push a book toward the tipping point. Second, almost every person I spoke with—a mere sliver of a massive industry, I’ll admit—contradicted someone else. The interesting thing about this latter fact was that no one seemed wrong, exactly. Instead, the contradictions emphasized that while there are identifiable forces that might drive a book to success (most notably the twin peaks of an author’s talent and a publisher’s marketing skills), the industry remains a constantly shifting game of chance."
• The Great All Right/Alright Debate of 2008: Scalzi vs. Cheney. Updated: Escalation has occurred: Hamster vs. Cthulhu Dick Cheney Threatening a Hamster!
• A crown of sonnets written just for Poetry Friday (cheers!).
• Various SF discussions referenced at Niall's.
• Lee Siegel pity reaches critical mass.
• The 2008 Locus Poll closes on April 15th.
• Nicola on the mysteries--and sweat--of writing.
• "Gender Inequity in Whoville."
• The transformation of CBGB into a shop for expensive clothes.
• Ann Hornaday on the tenured professor in cinema: "It's a cinematic archetype as reliable as the fish out of water and the blonde in distress: the disheveled, misanthropic college professor, in the throes of writer's block (or some other form of publish-or-perish anxiety), living in book-lined solitude as a result of divorce, death or free-floating disgust with humanity."

Tuesday Hangovers

• As anyone who's read Brian Francis Slattery's Spaceman Blues knows, it's always a good thing when he writes about music.
• Three members of the King clan--Stephen, Tabitha, and Owen--do a talk about writing for D.C. area high schoolers at the Library of Congress and the Washington Post writes about the family's literary life. Some excellent little moments, like this one:
  

  There is a widespread notion that "if you sell a lot of books, you've got to be peddling crap," she adds, and the problem is, it's sometimes true. There are big-name authors who "can't write and they can't plot."

  "But we won't mention any names. Like James Patterson," Stephen says.

• Jane Smiley stirs up some dust with her snobby review of Jennifer Weiner's latest. Frank Wilson at Books Inq says he wouldn't have editedpulled the review either; spirited discussion in the comments.
• Y tu, mattresses? Is everything we touch now polluted with vile substances? Don't answer.
• The fabulous Kevin Brockmeier will be the next guest editor for Best American Fantasy. (Congratulations, Matt!) Want a reminder what his taste is like? Some time ago, I posted the list of his 50 favorite books.
• See The Pixies documentary loudQUIETloud online free for a week.
• SAT = troubled test.
• Jessa Crispin on reader's block. I'm all about regressing to the Christopher Pike stage.
• Ypulse reminds me to read the Magic in the Mirrorstone anthology.
• Kelley Eskridge on story and mirror neurons.

Friday Hangovers

• Clearing out the bookmarks. Let's go.
• The peace symbol turns 50.
• Where is John Hughes?
• Libba Bray waxes funny on the movie biz and a possible adaptation of her Gemma Doyle trilogy.
• Liz Hand reviews Jeff Ford's The Shadow Year for F&SF: ""Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies," wrote the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay; "Nobody that matters, that is." Jeffrey Ford's beautiful new novel, The Shadow Year, is an account of childhood's kingdom under siege, a book so achingly lovely and, yes, profound, that one longs to call it a masterpiece. Only it seems a bit unfair to burden an author at mid-career with such a weight." (The other day Niall was asking somewhere in one of the reviewing conversations about who people's favorite critics are; Liz Hand is definitely one of mine.) See also: Midori Snyder on book the same: "... contains a number of my favorite literary themes: a child's perspective of the mysterious (and often ambiguous) world of adults; the intuitive fantasy world of children; and the echo of fairy tale rites-of-passage through dark and dangerous woods."
• Slap a pink cover on it, and it's chick lit? Not really.
• Eric Alterman on the "death and life of the American newspaper."
• Karen Joy Fowler's got a brand-new website, and she's currently on tour supporting Wit's End. Catch her if you can.
• The science behind some fairy tales.
• Markus Zusak interviewed in the Guardian:
  

  What advice would you give to new writers?
  Don't be afraid to fail. I fail every day. I failed thousands of times writing The Book Thief, and that book now means everything to me. Of course, I have many doubts and fears about that book, too, but some of what I feel are the best ideas in it came to me when I was working away for apparently no result. Failure has been my best friend as a writer. It tests you, to see if you have what it takes to see it through.

  Is there a secret to writing?
  The best ideas come to you when you're sitting down, working. That's when most of the breakthroughs occur - simply by doing the work. If someone wanted to be a runner, you don't tell them to think about running, you tell them to run. And the same simple idea applies to writing, I hope.

• The next Shaun Tan book we have to look forward to is Tales from Outer Suburbia, due in October. (Via Jonathan Strahan.)
• Robots!
• Profit sharing instead of advances? Kassia has some thoughts.
• A buffalo mozzarella crisis? Now this is serious.
• The differences between comic books and picture books.
• Finally: Don't f with Maud. She can call you all sorts of things.

Monday Hangovers

• Operation Teen Book Drop is coming up on April 17. Get details on how to participate.
• Greg Frost and John Kessel are up to all sorts of audio shenanigans, apparently--for starters, check out Frost reading the inimitable JK's "Every Angel is Terrifying." If Kessel's new collection, The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories, isn't on your radar, where have you been? It's an April Booksense pick and everything.
• Michaelangelo = brainiac art. (Via the well-reviewed Jeff Ford. I'm finally reading The Shadow Year, which makes me very happy.)
• Margaret Atwood on Anne of Green Gables.
• Everybody's talking about reviewing again. Mostly? Yawn.
• Giving names to the Does of the world.
• Colleen Lindsay offers some rules of thumb on target word counts for various genres.
• And in news of the excellent variety, I've recently discovered that both Kelley Eskridge and Nicola Griffith now have blogs. RSSed.

Friday Hangovers

• Karen Joy Fowler's latest, Wit's End, gets some love from Faye Jones at the Nashville Scene: "Wit’s End may not have the built-in audience that The Jane Austen Book Club did, but it’s the kind of novel that Austen herself just might have enjoyed." I adored it too, and will be devoting a post to it here very soon. (I do have a mini-review over in the Read Read sidebar already though.)
• Quantum mechanics and Super Mario. (Apologies, but I can't remember where I first spotted this link.)
• John and Hank Green have created a new toy: Visit the Omnictionary to play.
• My old pal Michaelangelo Matos reviews Galaxie 500/Luna frontman Dean Wareham's new memoir, Black Postcards: A Rock and Roll Romance, for the Baltimore City Paper: "But Black Postcards is notably hard-nosed even for what is lately a crowded field, the '90s alt-rock musician memoir. With it, Wareham joins the ranks of Petal Pusher, by Laurie Lindeen of Minneapolis rockers Zuzu's Petals; Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be, by Boston singer/songwriter Jen Trynin; and Semisonic drummer Jacob Slichter's So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star. And just as Luna towered over the other authors' bands, Wareham's book is the best of this crop." Must get. Michaelangelo and I originally met and bonded over our shared Luna love. If he likes it, it's worth reading.
• Maud defends big ideas in fiction. I couldn't agree more. This is one of the reasons I love children's literature and YA (especially the SF).
• CAAF says it all about the welcome cancellation of The Return of Jezebel James. Miss Guided, still rocking. Last night, there was even a Breakfast Club homage.
• Finally: MAS is such an art star. Check out the digital version of her currently-showing, kick-ass, graduating exhibition. The Jersey Shore images will get obsessively stuck in your brain. Trust me. The landscapes are also completely awesome, and the sex offender compositions disturbing. I only wish you could all see them as MAS intended.

Friday Hangovers

• This snippet of (typically excellent critic) Ron Charles' review of Tony Earley's The Blue Star, a follow-up to Jim the Boy, triggered my spit-take reflex: At the time, I remember consulting with several reviewers around the country about how to categorize Jim the Boy. The problem concerned us because we cared so much. Was it a YA book? The juvenile jacket cover -- retained, unfortunately, for this sequel -- seemed aimed at middle-schoolers, but we worried about scaring off adult readers with that label, and we suspected it was too slow for teens anyhow (no rape, school shooting or bone cancer -- the unholy trinity of YA lit). Wow, what an outdated view of realistic YA based seemingly on the idea of the "problem novel." Hey, reviewers, why not just review the book at hand instead of offering aside commentary on a genre you aren't overly familiar with? And if you do offer up said views, why not couch them in less condescending terms? Just a thought.
• Lois Lowry rocks.
• The Millions has the relevant links involving the most controversial round of this year's Tourney of Books so far. Whether you consider the booth commentary on Mark's decision appropriate or inappropriate, it's tough to deny that it provides enough fodder for several interesting discussions.
• Weep not for the LBC. (It's been gone for a few months now, and no one even really noticed. A worthy effort dead of several causes, mostly lack of participation. The next generation efforts are where it's at now.)

Thursday Hangovers

• Colleen Lindsay on this week's YA query cliches: "Vampire spelled Vampyre, Wompyre, Vompyre, or any other way." Hee. (See also, unrelated, her remembrance of Sir Arthur Clarke, R.I.P. Matt Cheney has a good post too.)
• Jeff Ford compiles a soundtrack for The Shadow Year over at largehearted boy. (Via Jeff.)
• Kassia plugs books I love on the radio. Yay! And she also has a typically great, thoughtful post about how teenagers interact with the Web and how publishers are sucking at using new media.
• Justine had a great post about the writing biz and luck the other day, which reminded me of a great old Wordplay column by Frank Darabont where he talks about making your own luck. The Happiness Project has a timely post on the very same subject.
• Colleen has a nice post following on Barack Obama's AMAZING speech about race.
• An interview with Adam Rex, of the fabulous, Cybils-winning The True Meaning of Smekday.
• Austin Kleon went to a q and a session with David Simon and did a great write-up. But this resulting cartoon is why Austin's a mad genius:

  

Tuesday Hangovers

• Erik Sofge questions the moral universe at the heart of Dungeons and Dragons. I can't speak to his main point, but I will say that the whole Focus on Killing Stuff thing is a big part of why I find so many video games disappointing.
• Perhaps less controversially, Charlie Stross roles up D&D characters for the presidential contenders.
• Pub owner bans "Danny Boy" for the month. Good move!
• An interesting take on the literary fraud phenomenon. And Liz B has one too, coining the apt term "Mary Sue Memoirs."
• Justine Musk has a good post on some reasons why Hollywood produces so much retread crap.