Gwenda Bond

Tuesday Hangovers

• Whoops, sorry to disappear, but I predict a return to more regular entries starting now. At least until circus edits land. In the meantime, I'm accumulating research material for a new thing and pecking away at a collaborative project with C that has been major fun so far. And soon now The Woken Gods will be dipping its myth-infused toes into the waters of People Reading It Early and so I must. stay. busy. But what easier way to dip my non-mythical toe back into the blog than the sharing of some amassed links and the closing of tabs? There isn't one, so.
• Speaking of The Woken Gods, I started a little pinboard for it, if you want a look-see.
• You may have seen this already, but I love it so here it is anyway: a photographer does a series of photos of her five-year-old daughter not as a princess but as various heroic real women.
• The cast of Better Off Dead, where are they now? (I want my two dollars!)
• Great think piece by the fabulous Anne Helen Petersen: "The Enduring Post-Feminist Dystopia of Bachelorette."
• Excerpts of letters from Italo Calvino are running at the New Yorker: "I’m a regular guy, I like well-defined outlines, I’m old-fashioned, bourgeois. My stories are full of facts, they have a beginning and an end. For that reason they will never be able to find success with the critics, nor occupy a place in contemporary literature." Good reading.
• This news story about the resurfacing of a 27-year-old CIA wig is just about perfect.
• Terrible magicians in pop culture. LOVE. (Via David.)
• An interview with Hot Key's editorial director that has some interesting insights into UK sales figures.
• Janni Simner kicks off her "Writing for the Long Haul" blog series with a wonderful piece from Cynthia Leitich Smith. (I, too, have an expensive grocery habit.)
• This post Austin points to sums up a large part of why I still keep up this blog, and probably always will, and why I don't really worry about how many of you there are (just grateful that you stop by, period). (Also, in the age of platform purchases and inevitable migrations, I believe that having a space you own becomes ever more important.)
• And, finally, two things via the Awl: Replacement similes for after all the animals go extinct ("(18) Brave as a lion = Brave as a freelancer") and the annotated wisdom of Amy Poehler ("Right now I'm singing along to books on tape. I typically pop in something like Stephen King's The Stand, and I love singing along to that kind of stuff.").

Thursday Hangovers

• Jamestown Colony cannibalism story; this has been all over, but you know how I love my early settler drama.
• The fabulous Annalee Newitz, one of the smartest people around, has a shiny new book out, Scatter, Adapt and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction. This piece at io9 is a great teaser for it. 
• How entrepreneurs come up with ideas.
• Ten steps for being a grown-up from Kelly Williams Brown. I need to get better at three.
• What does science tell us about how we'd use superpowers; good or evil?
• Loved this interview with Melina Marchetta on heroines: "Whichever way you turn, female characterisation is a minefield. Male characters tend to get away with so much more. I loved writing Jonah Griggs (from Jellicoe) but Jonah killed his father, bashes up Ben and stomps on his fingers, shoves Taylor up against the wall in rage, yet I rarely read a negative comment about him as a character. Evanjalin in FotRock, on the other hand, has been criticised many a time and called manipulative and a liar. I think we are so much tougher on our female characters." (via Sarah)
• Good piece at Vulture with some script excerpts that show why Shane Black became one of Hollywood's favorite screenwriters.
• A truly must-read post from Kelly Barnhill: "The only reviews that matter."
• Another one that's already been everywhere, but which I'm sharing in case you somehow missed it. Maureen Johnson, brilliant human, launched the #coverflip earlier this week, asking readers to reimagine covers if the author's gender was flipped. The results are a must read and see. (See also: Amanda Hocking's reaction post.)
• Photos of abandoned Tunisian Star Wars sets.

Wednesday Hangovers Of The Coins, Sloth, Etc. Variety

• The most exciting thing of today is that my dearie dearest Christopher Rowe has a brand new story, strange and marvelous, up at Tor.com. Go read "Jack of Coins." And then go check out this entry from Red Nose Studio on the behind-the-scenes of the making of that amazing illustration for it (right). But read the story first, because then you can nerd out over all the cool details in the art. Okay? Okay. (I'm told you can also get the story as an e-book single at Amazon, B&N, etc., if that's your pleasure.)
• Second most exciting thing of the day is that I finished my revision. So I'll be trying to catch up on email and other things that have gone by the wayside. And collecting all the books I need for the next projects I want to work on...because I wouldn't be me if I didn't start something new soon. That said, I'll also be having a weekend of sloth (mostly) first and envying everyone at RT. Next year, I will be at you RT.
• The Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary. Ooh. (Via Scott.)
• A fabulous profile of the 60-year-old Kim Gordon. Role model forever.
• A interesting piece on the Voynich Manuscript; the possibility it's a hoax makes it no less fascinating.
• R.I.P. E.L. Konigsburg. I loved this NYT piece in remembrance.
• I want to see the new documentary about Ricky Jay so. badly. But it's not coming anywhere nearby. Alas. *waits*
• Joe Hill interviewed at the A.V. Club: "In the first draft, at least in my case, I tend to write a lot more than I need. NOS4A2 is just about 700 pages in hardcover, and was well over 1,000 pages in manuscript form. But I cut several hundred pages out of the book, because there’s a difference between what I need to understand the characters, and what the reader needs to have a great time, and to really enjoy the story."
• The wonderful Toni McGee Causey on being brave (and an excellent demonstration of same).
• Rainbow Rowell posts about writing a Korean male lead and why in her amazing novel Eleanor & Park. I don't think I've mentioned it here, but I should've. Definitely one of my favorite books this year. Flirting over X-Men comics, two fully-realized and singular characters, gorgeous writing. Read it.
• "30 things to tell a book snob."
• Michael Shannon's dramatic reading of that sorority girl letter. Epic. You've probably already seen it, but since it's one of the best things I've seen in ages, I'm including in case you haven't.

Thursday Hangovers

• Toby Buckell did a thoughtful post about the GoodReads acquisition by Amazon, which prompted me to create a mailing list to send out the occasional newsletter with news (obvs), extras, giveaways, and chatty stuff like book recs. Sign up here; I'll even wish you a happy birthday, if you like.
• In the past couple of weeks, I've returned to yoga, by way of some excellent local classes. So I particularly love this Sara Ryan post about the idea of sitting with the discomfort and how that applies to creative work as well. (I love yoga, I do, and am so glad to be doing it again...except for the occasional ridiculous non sequitur along the lines of "unhinge your jaw." Because I am neither an eldritch horror nor a character on V. Though the idea of them being in a yoga class--especially together--is pleasing.)
• Bookish murals from around the world. Gorgeousness.
• The wonderful Nalo Hopkinson profiled by the LA Times.
• Gate to Hell found--noxious gases apparently a dead giveaway.
• 14 Words That Are Their Own Opposites.
• The news from Iain Banks is completely heartbreaking, and his statement on it has touched many of us, I know. I hope if I'm ever faced with such awful circumstances, I can handle them with such grace.
• An excellent piece by Nichole Bernier on the role of the paperback, talking cover changes and the like, at the Millions: "Here’s what I learned, after a month of talking to editors, literary agents, publishers, and other authors: A paperback isn’t just a cheaper version of the book anymore. It’s a makeover. A facelift. And for some, a second shot."
• Michael Grant offers some typically wry advice for writers at the Guardian. Snippet: "Writers often offer up helpful hints, and I've done the same in moments of weakness, but here's the truth as I see it from my own narrow and subjective perch: You can either come up with stories or you can't. You either have the ambition and work ethic to sit there typing for months on end or not. But you do it by doing it." (On his second piece of advice, of course, I disagree, because I come from the proud school of Read Everything.)
• And now for the best thing of the day: Preserved Moments of Historical Sass (Vol. 2) from Messy Nessy Chic. So many excellent photos. So. Many.

Thursday Hangovers

• Drowning, swimming, floating, all of the above. Just a few quick links, because I hate to let this place get too dusty even in the middle of Sinus Infection Deadlineville (the lesser known ghost town you pass through on the way to Complete Overloadtown). All will be well.
• One thing that gives me the happies lately? Pretending we're all going to live on this Greek island together, drinking boiled coffee, socializing, napping, writing, and living forever.
• The amazing invisible bike helmet.
• Agent Rachelle Gardner offers some thoughts on making a living as a writer and part two.
• The always fascinating Richard Nash at VQR with an essay: "What is the business of literature?"
• You all read Terri Windling's blog faithfully, right? So many days, I find just what I need there. This morning was one of them.
• Narrative structural diagrams for several different radio shows on cocktail napkins. Pretty.
• I love envelopes, especially old ones or ones with scribbled on messages. I tend to use even boring old bill envelopes as makeshift notepads. Messy Nessy Chic loves them too, and has the pictures to prove it.
• I've passed this link on to my favorite milliners already, but sharing here too. A great piece from Movie Star Makeover on Lilly Daché, old Hollywood's favorite hatter.
• And if this handful of links isn't enough for you, Big Think has a little round-up of interesting, provocative things for spring. And it is, you know, springtime. If only nature would behave that way.

Monday Hangovers

Look, when I'm working lots I take little breaks and snuffle up interesting stuff, which keeps brain overdrive from causing me to scare door-to-door pamphleteers in my bathrobe or yell at guys who let their dogs run loose to attack mine (at least, it keeps me from doing exclusively those things). Since I'm currently working nonstop, there are many links to pass on. And this is after the tumblr frenzy. I can't explain it. Only demonstrate. Herewith:

• This post just makes me insanely happy: dear friend Chris Barzak on visiting the set of Jamie Marks is Dead, the movie currently being made based on his FABULOUS first novel One for Sorrow. I hope this means a whole bunch more people read it. See also: a great process-heavy guest post he did here when the book came out.
• Austin Kleon digs up some great Steve Albini quotes about why "connections" (fake ones, hence quote marks) don't matter. He may be talking about music, but every word of it's true of every artistic business, in my opinion anyway. Especially this: "Work on music you’re passionate about and want to make for its own sake. If your music resonates with other people then your music will eventually earn you something, but if not you’re still doing something you enjoy."
• Another fab piece by Carrie Frye at the Awl, "How to Be a Monster: Life Lessons from Lord Byron": "Whatever his intentions there, the point remains that two years after he'd left Byron's employment Polidori was writing a needling story based on Byron and using the vampiric character Byron himself had created to skewer him. It was like biting him with his own teeth."
• How to look like David Bowie. IMPORTANT.
• Weird Girl Reading List from Emily Temple. (Via Leila.)
• Corn vampires!
• Malinda Lo with some excellent comments on the (gorgeous) Two Boys Kissing cover.
• Libba Bray with a breathtaking, amazing post about what haunted her at 17 at Nova Ren Suma's to celebrate the release week of Nova's new novel 17 & Gone. (I'll be doing a post here too, because I LOVELOVE Nova's writing...but it won't be anything like this one. Seriously, if you read nothing else I point to, go read this.)
• My beloved Barbara Stanwyck gets the deluxe Hairpin treatment from the fabulous Anne Helen Petersen: "She was, as they say, a “hard-boiled girl of easy virtue,” which is another way of saying that she was smart and had a good time, and that I would want to be her friend." Read the whole piece; fascinating, as ever.

Friday Randomness & Hangovers

Veronica Mars movie! My heart soars. (As those of you who remember our old Veronica Mars Talk threads of yore--which can be ferretted out in the TV goodness category--will have guessed already.)

Otherwise, I continue to be working lotslotslots on revision as deadline approacheth. This comes with wild happiness of progress and a project coming together (finally!), leading to goofy behavior like this morning's twitter musings on the army of hotel detectives I would like to have (note: nothing to do with the book), and then swings back to the other end of stress that's just part of being a writer and always waiting on stuff and never quite knowing what comes next. Brain is cooperating on book, and so staying more toward the happy end than the stress end at the moment. Which is nice. Still, to do this job, you have to get okay with uncertainty. It's just a fact.

Also with sometimes falling behind on things like email, because your available energy is directed elsewhere. Sorry about that if I owe you something. It may be next month before I get fully caught up, especially if there's not a hard deadline. But I have collected a few little links in the meantime.

• The Morning News had with me with the headline: "The Private Lives of Cryptozoologists" (by Martin Connelly). Snippet: "The founder of this museum, the chief collector and curator of its holdings, is Loren Coleman. He is the author of an enormous stack of books, including the genre-defining Cryptozoology A to Z (written with Jerome Clark), a frequent speaker on the hidden and obscure, and a go-to interview subject for documentary makers. “I’m humbled by it,” he says of his stature in the field, and tells about a woman who came to the museum and burst into tears, she was so excited to meet him." Someday I will visit the museum, though probably not cry (but, yes, I do have the A to Z book, of course I do).
• Yale historian on Viking myth and truth. Fascinating stuff.
• "When Books Could Change Your Life" by Tim Kreider: "A girl I once caught reading Fahrenheit 451 over my shoulder on the subway confessed: "You know, I'm an English lit major, but I've never loved any books like the ones I loved when I was 12 years old." I fell slightly in love with her when she said that. It was so frank and uncool, and undeniably true." Love this piece.
• Jonathan Lethem talks book covers, an ever-fascinating topic and he's had some great ones.
• Love love this new poem by (sometime) Lexingtonian Ada Limón that was featured on Poets.org yesterday.
• 25 Great Cult TV Shows at EW.
• A must read, candid interview with Neil Pollack about his career and money. Snippet: "I was going to say instead of methodically going about my business, which is probably the smart way to go about doing things—you methodically go about your business and gradually make a little bit of money—I kept looking and waiting for that big score."
• Want to see something beautiful? "...the work of Russian chemist and photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokhudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) is a bit akin to the surprising and wonderful moment in "The Wizard of Oz" when it turns from black and white into vibrant Technicolor."

Monday Hangovers

• Maria Tatar on one of my very favorite topics: tricksters, and specifically lady tricksters, in the New Yorker.
• The Morning News Tourney of Books is up and running. The commentary after The Fault in Our Stars win is particularly worth your time. I thought this, especially, was extremely well put from Kevin Guilfoile: "You and I were socialized to believe we were too cool to do almost anything. Our generation has been paralyzed by slacker inertia. Our hero is David Letterman, whose job it is to have the greatest gig in the world and act constantly like he doesn’t want it. That has always been the Platonic ideal of success for you and me and our peers. Maybe that’s why John Green’s books make me cry. Because he reminds you that you don’t have to be like that." I think I spent my 20s unlearning this attitude. Enthusiasm and action? Trump cool every time. (Or, rather, are the beating heart of actual coolness. Even better? Stop caring about coolness at all.)
• Lev Grossman on writing a novel. Oh, god, yes, this. All of this.
• A discussion of whether urban fantasy is inherently liberal (a counterpoint to the recent 'is epic fantasy conservative?' convo) at Tor.com.
• Jane Hu on Gilmore Girls for the Awl. I love (and agree with) this whole piece SO much. Snippet: "In another way, cultural studies appears in exact keeping with "Gilmore Girls," as it tests the line between serious art and entertainment, the avant-garde and the popular. As a writer and a reader, my fantasy is to work in a world where the Harlequin romance, a NYBR classics release, and so-called academic prose all deserve re-readings—because they can all be read seriously, each one being worth serious attention." Yesss.
• Slide show: A secret history of women and tattoo.
• Really interesting piece from Grammnet's Brian Taylor (who's developing Blackwood for TV) on the role data could play in TV development at the Huffington Post.
• Feeling sleepless? This New Yorker article probably won't help, but is fascinating. (Apparently I was catching up on NYer stuff like crazy last week.)
• Linda Holmes on romantic comedies at NPR. Another great piece: "What's most profoundly wrong is the terrible, mean-spirited scripts that are getting made, that are making people feel justified in using "rom-com" as an eye-rolling insult, and we've got to stop that first. Stop saying "chick flick" like it's "pile of rotten meat," and stop saying "chick lit" and "chick book" and "chick movie" and anything else that suggests that love stories are less than war stories, or that stories that end with kissing are inherently inferior to stories that end with people getting shot. Or, if you believe they are and you want to continue believing that they are, stop pretending you're open to romantic comedies getting better."
• Kat Howard interviewed at the Rejectionist. Yay.

Monday Hangovers

I feel bad about just popping up here with a few little links once a week, but I don't see time for much more until the big deadline is vanquished. Considering an Actual Hiatus, but, in the meantime, some things I've magpied during breaks lately:

• Some interesting thoughts on Amanda Palmer's TED talk from Chuck Wendig and Justine Musk (I still have to watch it, but am enjoying all the discussions here, there, and everywhere).
• Children's literature veterans share stories from back in the day at PW. Great stuff, and as proof a snippet from George Nicholson at Sterling Lord: "Together with other young editors and friends, we moved about the city in packs, reveling in 25-cent shots of rye from the many Irish bars then along Sixth Avenue in the 40s, all called we thought The Shamrock. When the work day was done we often gathered in hotel lobbies, checked the listing for professional organization cocktail parties upstairs and found that we could easily, with our fine wardrobes, pass for members of the Westchester Medical Association or the Plumbers Union or whoever was serving free drink and food. When discovered and politely asked to leave, we thanked our hosts and said we must have gotten the wrong ballroom."
• I really want to see this documentary about famous conjoined twins The Hilton Sisters.
• Virginia Morell on the latest research on what animals are thinking and feeling: "Through experiments and close observations, researchers have discovered that at least one species of ant engages in a form of teaching; parrots likely give names to their chicks (a finding which opens the door to the possibility that they are having some form of conversations); moths remember that they were caterpillars; whales and cows have regional accents; rats dream and laugh; cheetahs may die from being heartbroken; and cats can get their owners to jump to their feet and feed them by crying like a human infant."
• Also at Slate, an enticement to read Shirley Jackson, should you need one.
• The magical properties of mercury, an article filled with wonders like this: "The vapours given off by this extraordinary element are highly toxic. In the 19th century, a process called "carroting" was used in the making of felt hats. Animal skins were dipped in a solution of mercuric nitrate which turned the fur into a matted felt. The fumes given off by this process poisoned the brains of anyone in the vicinity, causing an epidemic of psychiatric problems among workers in the hat industry, hence the phrase "as mad as a hatter." " Bonus: alchemy talk.
• Carrie Frye and Maud Newton on Thelma and Louise. I love this SO much. Favorite thing.

Monday Hangovers

Still crazy busy, swirling deadlines and revising going on, so just a few quick hangovers and then poof! I'm gone again for a bit.

• Locus has put together a cool new supplement that includes all the reviews for the books on its 2012 Recommended Reading List (including Blackwood, which is on the First Novels list). I believe this is the first time they've done this, and so I wanted to point to it, since I know plenty of librarians and booksellers drop by here from time time. You can get it from Amazon or direct from Locus as an epub or PDF for $2.99. Here's the description of the contents:

"A special supplement to the Locus 2012 Year in Review issue, the Year in Reviews features our list of recommended 2012 book titles — Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult, and First Novels, plus Collections, and Anthologies — with their respective Locus reviews or write-ups from the magazine. The supplement includes reviews of nearly 150 recommended titles, linked directly from the Recommended List, to be used as a reference for readers, book buyers, booksellers, librarians, and collectors."

• The Oscars were so awful that I stopped watching not far in. The reasons why are pretty much nailed in this NYer piece. See also: Nora Jemisin's excellent post about the enraging reaction to the young, confident, fabulous Quvenzhané Wallis. And Ms. Libba Bray breaks down the humor and how the best aims higher.
• The Town That Spent 25 Years Underwater.
• Your brain on books. (Via Stacked.)
• Austin offers some thought-provoking--as ever--ruminations on the idea of artist disclosures about how it's not always going well all the time and 'the myth of artistic genius' and etcetera. (Trust me when I tell you: It's not always going well all the time. And etcetera.)
• Ancient magma oceans on Mercury.

Thursday Hangovers

Well, hello there. I did warn you I might fall off the face of the earth. Whole worlds--well, plots, lots of plots--have been constructed since my last post. Which is to say, Mexico was lovely and productive, as always. Just being in such a gorgeous place with some of my favorite brilliant, hilariously excellent people was reviving and sanity-saving, not to mention the margaritas and chocolate cake.

Anyway, I'll probably be scarce on the ground for a bit as I'm revising novel with deadline looming. (I've been tumbling more, because quick and easy, so catch some stuff there.) But! Now! Things!

• Members of SFWA, your nominations for the Nebulas and the Norton (the YA SFF award) are due by midnight tomorrow PST. (I really can't bring myself to do a separate post about this, but Blackwood, yes, is Norton eligible. And my beloved Christopher Rowe's "The Contrary Gardener" is eligible in the Nebula novelette category. If you included either of these in your ballot, I'd be happy. But, as ever and always, nominate what you like best. /end obligatory cringe-inducingness) 
• Dogs who don't know their own size. 
• Champagne cocktails.
• Love this 1930 photo of Miss Hera Roberts and the story behind it (and her).
• Pablo Neruda to be exhumed.
• Resurfaced files raise questions about Capote's In Cold Blood. One of my favorite books when I was in high school, and a belief in its perfect veracity was never why.
• Omnivoracious made a supercute map of American love stories for today, speaking of which...
• Happy Valentine's Day! I have my issues with this holiday, but I still enjoy the years I get it together enough to send crappy drugstore valentines to friends (this was not one of those years! next year!). So virtual duct tape roses and real wishes of loveliness to you all.

Tuesday Hangovers

• Trying not to disappear, but no time for a real post either. So, some hangovers.
• Chicago's decaying movie palaces. (Via Daniel Kraus.)
• Marie Lu on the rejection all authors have to prepare for at Pub Crawl: "No agent or publisher will ever write you a rejection as blunt as some readers will write."
• The Theology of Angel at the Awl. (Also at the Awl, Carrie highlights Victoria Grayson's triumphs, er, or mishaps, as Hamptons hostess.)
• Cory Doctorow writes in very clear terms about piracy and the impacts of publishing mergers and related things.
• Fab Onion AV Club interview with Amy Sherman-Palladino (Bunheads feels like it has truly clicked in these last couple eps--and, yes, it's back). Snippet: "So it’s not that you don’t want notes as a writer. What you don’t want is: You’re given a note, and for whatever reason you do not agree with that note. But it is not taken as, “This is a creative debate. We’re debating this, and in the end what’s best for the show is going to win.” There’s a feeling in a lot of these situations where the network gives notes, the studio give the notes, and if the writer does not simply take those notes, the writer is viewed as disrespectful—and that is the problem."
• Release the Kraken. They found one. NIGHTMARES.
• Thanks to Jeffrey Scott Holland for giving me and Blackwood a shout-out over at Kentucky Forward in his latest column there.
• Daniel Defoe as the original Lemony Snicket? Or something like that. Fascinating. (Via Gabrielle Gantz.)
• R.L. LaFevers has a great new column at Writer Unboxed: Embrace the Naked.
• Katherine Langrish on the mythology of white ladies (supernatural variety): "Ghost stories often come complete with ‘explanations’ for the apparition - explanations which usually feel contrived.  Frequently they involve some sort of crime: the ghost is unable to rest because it is either the victim or the perpetrator.  White ladies are often described as murdered brides or sweethearts, or else girls who have drowned themselves for love. They are frequently associated with water."
• My agent Jennifer Laughran guest blogs for Amy Spalding and writes about...Annie! I was somewhat obsessed with the movie as a child. (Read: completely.) Snippet: "Despite the fact that I was white-blonde, afraid of dogs, a decent but not great voice, two left feet, and showed no particular signs of any other talent, when I was like 6 I became completely obsessed with some rumor I’d heard, or invented, that there was soon going to be an Annie 2, and if I could get to the audition, I would get my turn as the red-headed, dog-loving, singing, tapping star." This is my favorite thing this week. I'm calling it. Go read the whole thing, and watch the clips. (And see the commemorative plates!)

Friday Nattering Et Hangovers

Helloooo! I didn't meant to go poof vanish-y, but I did. And I'm afraid the next week or two is likely to be more of the same.

However, I didn't want to miss saying that the Bluegrass Writers Studio faculty and students showed Jenn and I a fabulous time last weekend. And it was so nice having her here. If there's any agent on the planet who is more willing to answer questions and be candid and explain how this crazy business we call pub works, well, I don't know them. (And this is just one of the many reasons I feel so lucky she's my agent. And my friend. <3) We also talked about the new secret book, which I'd just sent her to read, and much of my AWOL-ness this week has been because I'm revising (spoiler alert: she likes it; whew). After a bit from Blackwood, I read a little section of it at my reading--audience choice, and in my experience, people always want to hear from the new secret thing--and burbled about it afterward and was very much relieved at how enthusiastic people were. And they sold out of copies of Blackwood after the reading, ever happy-making. My husband, the original Christopher Rowe, is in this program, and so I went back last night to see Justin Cronin read and hang out and people still wanted to talk about the new novel. This is the kind of thing that makes a writer happy.

Having Jenn in town meant I finally got to meet a couple of other local authors previously only known on the twitter machine: Andrew Shaffer and Tiffany Reisz. Not to mention, one of my favorite things in life is taking visitors to our fab local bookstores and favorite restaurants, and I got to do that too. Puck the Dog, who is famously picky and hates everyone, loooooves Jenn. So there. A great weekend.

Anyway, I'm busily trimming away bits of research loveliness that aren't strictly speaking enhancing the story (or unstrictly, let's be honest!), and doing a bazillion other things, and still trying to catch up on reading I owe people and wearing the wrong earrings together by mistake, etc. But I shall return victorious or triumphant or something or other. I also managed to take no pictures, so no pictures to share.

But I do have a few little Friday hangovers:

• The Woken Gods was included in i09's 2013 Essential Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Preview. Yay. (Also, panic. Let's be honest. That's THIS year. It's okay, though, months and months away. Breathes.)
• The Gandalf Problem-Solving Flowchart. 
• What a story does to the brain.
• Anita Silvey's daily children's literature almanac has a fascinating entry today, about Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH author Robert C. O'Brien, who never appeared in public because his contract with his employer, National Geographic, had a non-compete that forced him to write under a pseudonym and keep his identity secret--even when he won the Newbery.
• Toby Buckell kindly posted some thoughts he shared with his intern about being a writer. This is a must read. Bookmarked, to point people to.
• Chronicling teen bedrooms.
• Saladin Ahmed wrote a great piece on worldbuilding for ye olde NPR, "At Home in Fantasy's Nerd-Built Worlds."
• Pickpocket profile in the New Yorker. (Hat tip to Matt for the pointer.)
• "Exhaustion is not a status symbol"; thought-provoking WaPo piece.
• And, the post of the week without question, Jo Knowles' beautiful blog entry about living your life.

Friday Hangovers

Just a few leetle things, most of which I've already shared on twitter, but things flit by so quickly there:

• I have completed all (I think/hope/believe) my stuff for the Bluegrass Writers Studio residency, including a looong lecture, written then extensively rewritten. Oh, process, you're so adorably consistent. A reminder that even if it's cold, if you're in the Lexington area you should COME OUT to my reading Saturday night, 7:30 p.m, should you feel so inclined. I'm not saying there will be interpretive dance, but I'm not saying there won't. (Don't get your hopes up on that score. Perhaps a little punchy from finishing a novel draft, a review, a long crit, and a lecture in the last three days. Whee!)
• I think I forgot to mention the other thing I did over the holidays, which was watch every episode of Hart of Dixie to date. Sort of a cross between Northern Exposure and Gilmore Girls, but with its own voice. Great characters, highly fun. First season's on Netflix Instant.
• Laini Taylor shares a great process snapshot. When the revelation is the revelation and isn't, at the same time.
• Loved this beautiful story from Tim Wynne-Jones about a local deer hunter who wanted to use some of his family property.
• Lois Lowry profile; it's a good one. Don't know how I missed this.
• Wise post from Sara Zarr on romancing the writing, and gratitude.
• Indie bookstores had a good holiday; Shelf Awareness takes a look (including lots of comments from the fab Jamie Layton from Duck's Cottage Downtown on Roanoke Island, one of the bookstores of my heart).
• Ed Champion has made a documentary that you simply cannot miss. Behold! Shteyngart Blurbs. From Ed's description: "The doc features conversations with effusive editors, peppy pundits, cranky critics, dashing cover designers, the man who created the Tumblr devoted to Gary's blurbs, and many of the authors blurbed by Gary.  We learn the stories behind the blurbs, reveal the blurb's secret history, and consider the blurb's place in American life."
• And hey, finally, look at this happy-making little tweet from yesterday:

   

  Hey check it out! @gwenda made the @oblongbooks December bestseller list (both stores combined): #yaybookslockerz.com/s/274336581

  — jennifer laughran (@literaticat) January 3, 2013

Friday Hangovers, Quicker Than Kris Kringle Edition

• Just a few little links of note to pass on, for those of you lounging, feeling superior because you've done all your shopping, made all your plans, finished your novels, and lectures, and reading commitments... Where was I? Right. Links.
• Casey Wilson does the math on gender dominance and the NYT bestseller lists for children's and YA. Interesting findings. 
• Genevieve Valentine's next novel will be Glad Rags, out from Atria in 2014. *flapper confetti canons* Go congratulate her. 
• And speaking of friends with good news, have you congratulated Mr. Barzak on his first novel being made into a movie yet? Get to it.
• An old, but well-worth-your-time entry from Toby Buckell on piracy and being a writer. (Argh, matey.)
• Jincy Willett shares Microsoft's suggestions for spelling corrections for her new novel.
• And, finally, the top 25 zooborns of all time. For me, it's all about number 6. 
• Happy holidays or holidaze, whichever the case may be.

Tuesday Hangovers

• I feel bad that I seem to hardly ever post about what I'm reading these days, but I'll try do better next year. I do my best to update the reading list with recommendations, though I feel like my reading has suffered this year numbers-wise. Anyway, two amazing books I've finished recently about which I'll have more to say here or there (there being Locus), when I have a little more time: Bennett Madison's September Girls (Outer Banks-set, which you obviously know I love, and mermaids, which are usually a hard sell for me...but these are not the usual mermaids; a new book from Bennett is always a treat and this one is delicious) and Laini Taylor's Days of Blood & Starlight (amazingAHmazing, even better than Daughter of Smoke & Bone--wrenching, beautiful, special, and fearless).
• Seanan McGuire with a thoughtful take on the digital divide, considering e-book access and poverty.
• Kate Elliott has some interesting meditations on reviews and on our more linked-up world of readers. 
• Among the best of lists I like to keep an eye on this time of year are the romance ones. Eloisa James picks her faves of the year for NPR and I already see two of my favorite writers there--Ilona Andrews (Steel's Edge is in my stack) and Meljean Brook (whose Riveted I thought was wonderful)--so I'll have to check out the others.
• The University of Chicago's Indiana Jones mystery has been solved, but oh, what a great story it is.
• A fascinating interview with Junot Diaz at Lightspeed, where many topics are discussed, including genre hierarchies and Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day."
• Lee Child on creating suspense. (Hat tip to Kim.)
• Sara Zarr on a year of podcasting. You are checking this one out, right?
• Special mummy ray gun design flaw.
• Fancy writers are coming to guest at the Bluegrass Writer's Studio MFA program residency, complete with public readings, and the Herald-Leader reports. I am not (even anywhere close to) the fanciest, but I will be a guest and my reading is at 7:30 on Saturday, Jan. 5, at the Hilton Downtown, and--bonus--my divine agent Jennifer Laughran will also be there, as she's coming in to do a joint panel session with me earlier in the day for students. The reading is open to the public. So come, local peeps. I'll read something new. (And I'll remind you again closer to the date.)
• As many of you know, I love Miss Universe. I love the National Costume portion best of all. And it's time, friends. Genevieve has helpfully pulled out the...best...and provided commentary. Happiness.

Friday Hangovers

• The wonderful Cynthia Leitich Smith on paying it forward and supporting new voices. This is such a great post, and from someone who truly practices this. I am so grateful for all Cyn's--and everyone else's--support this crazy debut year (and throughout my writing life). It has made a world of difference. And I try to pay back that karma whenever I can. Love y'all.
• Terri Windling has a big holiday print sale going on. These make great presents--for yourself or for someone else. We have several of Terri's pieces, and looking at them never fails to make me happy.
• Justine Musk has a brilliant post on process over perfection, and the power risking imperfection can bestow.
• Gillian Berry offers a report on a recent YA panel on gender in YA fantasy. 
• Agent Michael Bourret on the changing YA/children's NYT bestseller lists.
• TCM's video tribute to movie professionals who passed away in 2012. We lost some greats this year.
• Austin Kleon's year in reading; full of interesting stuff. I just started the David Byrne book.
• Tansy Rayner Roberts rounds up some more gender and historical accuracy in fantasy-related posts.
• And over at the Midnyte Reader you can read all about Libba's and my event at Oblong Books and win signed goodies. Go forth and enter.

Friday Hangovers

• Novel draft currently sitting at 323 pages with about three or so chapters to finish, which means it will be the longest book I've written. My goal is to get the last chapters all drafted by Sunday afternoon so that I can cart my print out along for the polish and read-through pass next week, which is a flurry of travel and things, ending up with a whirlwind trip to NYC and out to Rhinebeck for the Oblong Books event (preorders available if you want a signed copy but can't make it). Anyway, I love this weird crazy book but am nervous as hell about it, and will be glad when it is complete and out of my hands for a bit. (No, this isn't The Woken Gods. This is secret book.) (NYC peeps, I hope to see some of you--will be in touch.)
• I can't remember if I've mentioned this here, but I am SO excited to have an essay (mine's called "Asking for a Friend") in the upcoming collection of essays about The Mortal Instruments series from Smart Pop Books, Shadowhunters and Downworlders. Here's the TOC and some info from Cassie, as well as a link to her introduction. Check it out.
• Malinda Lo has a couple of must-read posts this week: Heteronormativity, fantasy, and Bitterblue Pt. 1 and Pt. 2.
• "The Rise of the Backdoor Fantasy Story" by Annalee Newitz; I love these kinds of books.
• Helen Lowe talks with one of my favoritefavorite authors Elizabeth Knox at SF Signal.
• A really interesting profile of the generally delightful Tavi Gevinson. I do wish she seemed to like or read modern YA--though perhaps sentimentally, because her inspiration for Rookie was Sassy, which introduced me to the Weetzie Bat books (and many other wonders). Still: Rookie is great.
• RT rounds up some page to screen deals, including Blackwood (which makes me happy because I adore RT). 
• Fabulous keynote address text from Beth Kephart at Publishing Perspectives: "Lamp Lighters and Seed Sowers: Tomorrow's YA."
• "Derelict to Divine: Charlie Chaplin's London Water Tower Home."
• Skulls carved from books. And, on that note, happy weekending.

Tuesday Hangovers

• Still. working. on. it.  (Though going well, on track I think, etc.) In the meantime, a few links.
• At the First Second blog, some reasons titles get changed. 
• Writing fight scenes, advice from some experts: "The most common mistake is probably the one that cannot really be corrected. Most fight scenes with weapons go on too long. The saying in the Filipino arts that I do is there are only three good stick fights: thud; click, thud; click, click, thud. Anything else means you don’t really know how to fight. Since most of the time, stories are about extraordinary people with extreme skills, fights that last minutes–even a minute–are unrealistic."
• A profile of the divine Liz Hand.
• PW covers a panel on the YA blockbuster.
• I do love a missing (or imaginary) island.
• Fantasy heroines from the 1980s in art nouveau renderings; love these.
• Daniel Handler interviewed in the NYT: "You have to wonder if dictators muse about how scary they are to certain young generations. Nowadays, with social networking, you could actually just name somebody. That would be terrifying if you were a dictator and you said, “There’s no one I hate more than such and such,” an 11-year-old in Lincoln, Neb."
• Midori Snyder pulls out some of the Voynich Manuscript's most lovely pages. 
• A nice Blackwood shout-out in Heroes & Heartbreaker's recent look at some YA and romance novels being adapted for the screen. (If you haven't seen the gorgeous first teaser trailer for the City of Bones movie, then what are you waiting for? It's also at that link. I. cannot. wait.)
• And another one among these recommendations from Suzanna Hermans of Oblong Books on WAMC--the one and only Libba Bray and I will be at Oblong at 4 p.m. on December 9. Come out if you can. (I'll also be in NYC briefly before and after.) 
• With that, I'm back to work.

Monday Hangovers (Some Links & Big News Redux)

My hugest thanks to you guys for the congratulations and excitement here, there, and everywhere about the Blackwood TV deal. I promise I will try not to be obnoxious about the BIG news, but because it was announced late Friday and many people spend the weekend away from the computron (freaks! I kid...because I'm a shut-in--at least until I finish this new manuscript):

Here's the Deadline story and my post about it from Friday night (see also: io9). It's wonderful to be able to share this news with all of you and stop being coy, and I hope you'll keep your fingers crossed for the project as it proceeds. I am obviously THRILLED.

And now a few other links:

• Locus put up my review of David Levithan's fabulous Every Day from this month's issue.
• "The Myth of the Fake Geek Girl" by Rachel Edidin (an Associate Editor at Dark Horse Comics) at io9.
• Most writers who know Holly Black also know that she is a book whisperer. Mette Harrison shares some of the magic after listening to the master at work at World Fantasy: part one and part two.
• A great interview with the delightful William Alexander at Publishers Weekly, following his wonderful middle grade debut Goblin Secrets' win at the National Book Awards in the young readers category. YAY.
• "The Dudes of YA, a 'Lit-Erotic' Photospread."
• Finally, monkeys riding a capybara. (Via Jenny D.)

Tuesday Hangovers

• Let's get this link party started with a fantastic kickstarter I urge you to support. John Picacio--who's been nominated for or won every fantasy/SF art award under the sun, and deservedly so--is launching a new business. First up is the 2013 John Picacio Calendar, filled with amazing art and which you can snag exclusively via his kickstarter (plus other bonus goodies, depending on your contribution level). I've known John for years, and I suspect his world domination is nigh. And it couldn't happen to a more talented, nicer, or harder-working guy.
• Alexander McCall Smith on the allure of lady detectives in fiction, celebrating a new edition of the book featuring the very first fictional woman sleuth.
• Pyromaniac fun with candles just in time for Thanksgiving.
• Fairy wrens and secret passwords.
• The nine circles of Dante's Hell...in lego. 
• I found this comparison of women's magazine covers when they launched and now fascinating. (That first Glamour cover!)
• Laini Taylor on independent bookstores, e-reading, and more. So much of this resonated with me. Yes.
• An editor's perspective on editorial letters at Pub Crawl.
• Truly excellent interview with Philip Pullman--I was surprised by his superstitions. Snippet: "This is the value for me of writing books that children read. Children aren't interested in the least about your appalling self-consciousness. They want to know what happens next. They force you to tell a story." Also: A His Dark Materials TV show really could be amazing.
• This post by Kathy at Stellar Four about YA novels where male and female characters work together as equals made me very happy, not least because it includes my Phillips and Miranda in its list of couples.
• And last, my KidLit Cares auction item ends tonight at 10 p.m. EST. I'm offering a 50 page SFF critique, with bonus spitballing or pitch help via phone or email if the writer so chooses.
• And now it's back to work. End in sight, deadlines swirling, etcetera.

Wednesday Hangovers

• Happy Wednesday, because yes, yes, it is one. To celebrate, a collection of many links...
• An excellent Vulture interview with Callie Khouri about Nashville et things. Snippet: "We’re constantly looking for songs that we love, and then we write towards them. We go, “Here’s where we’re starting, story-wise,” and then as we go along, we get a bunch of songs that we know we want to record, and we record a block of them. Then we just start folding them into story at various points." (You are watching this show, right? RIGHT?)
• I've been remiss in not pointing to the indiegogo to help revitalize legendary and amazing children's/YA bookstore Books of Wonder. Go here for more info and to pitch in; they've got two weeks left and are less than halfway to their goal.
• The entire archive of Omni magazine is online.
• Also via io9: freaky dancing pig.
• The New York Times hit Kentucky's doughnut trail. Combine it withthe bourbon one, and you know you want to come visit.
• Getting ready to entertain for the holidays or need a great cookbook for a gift? I can't believe I haven't mentioned the FABULOUS Kim O'Donnel's brand-new cookbook, The Meat Lover's Meatless Celebrations, the follow-up to her The Meat Lover's Meatless Cookbook, which is a stand-by in our house. Here's a great review of the new one. (I believe we test-kitchened at least one recipe in here and it was AMAZEBALLS. Must get a copy and try the rest, stat.)
• The cat cafe culture of Tokyo at Messy Nessy Chic.
• Fascinating Slate look at the National Book Awards intrigue in 1962, the year Walker Percy's The Moviegoer won. (Semi-related: In Nancy Pearl's recent Locus magazine interview, she said The Moviegoer didn't hold up for her when she went back for a reread. Which has now made me afraid to read it again, since I loved it the first time around. Ah, here's a post from Pearl about her disappointing revisit.)
• Why Authors Are Crazy tumblr. (Hat tip to Malinda Lo for the pointer.)
• The most excellent Carrie Ryan has a brand-new book out, the second in the  Infinity Ring series, Divide and Conquer.
• PW covered the KidLit Cares auction.
• Great post on showing and telling from Zoë Marriott.
• The always super-smart Beth Revis on why sometimes you have to delete to move ahead with a project...and why that is winning.
• Tie-in dolls from Twilight, LOTR, The Vampire Diaries, and others repainted to insanely realistic results.

Thursday Hangovers

My thoughts and sympathies are with everyone hit so hard by Hurricane Sandy and her downward spiral into destruction this week. My agent sister Kate Messner (who is generally amazing) has started the KidLit Cares auction to raise funds for relief efforts. I'm currently trying to decide what to donate, but will post here once my contribution goes up in case anyone's interested in bidding.

And Happy NaNoWriMo to those participating! I'm not doing it, but I am finishing this revision this month, hell or high water, as they say, and plan to suck all that novel-y energy that's in the air right in. Annd another member of the household just might be officially word counting in order to novel finish, not novel start. (If you're hoping it's Emma the Dog, well, you'll have to wait a while longer for her opus, I'm afraid. She has no thumbs.)

Some links:

• For the NaNo-ers, a helpful post from Sarah MacLean.
• How old is that bourbon? Why it probably doesn't matter, and may even be better younger.
• Famous writer maladies revealed! (My favorite book like this is the excellently titled Boswell's Clap and Other Essays.)
• Creepy Wikipedia entries.
• Real-life Island of the Blue Dolphins cave found?
• The delightful Sarah Rees Brennan talks cliffhangers.
• A great post from Robin LaFevers on creating character, which invokes Michael Hauge's theory of identity vs. essence, and other really helpful things.
• I loved Robin Wasserman's post about what scares her. Yesss, amorphous evil. My favorite kind.
• The one and only Beth Revis is running an ENORMOUS giveaway, a library of about fifty signed books from everyone she's done an event with this year, to celebrate the upcoming release of the last book in the Across the Universe trilogy. 

Thursday Hangovers

• I haven't actually gotten a chance to read all today's links yet, but I had too many open tabs...so I'm stashing them here to read later. In fact, I fear I'm going to have to mostly disappear for a couple/few weeks, because I really, really, really want to get this draft in shape sooner rather than later, but it's scary and so I need to get rid of Time Frittery. Filed under, the dangers of fragmented attention and shiny (or matte) distractions when inhabiting draftville. (And I'll break out of revision jail if SECRET NEWS becomes share-able, of course.)
• Chuck Wendig did a MARVELOUS interview with Margaret Atwood yesterday. Let's make mauve happen, mauve it. 
• R.L. LaFevers on "The Seven Stages of Publishing Grief (or Hello Darkness, My Old Friend) at Writer Unboxed. Along the same lines, Rachel Gardner on "Big Dreams vs. Realistic Expectations." (This BondGirl confesses that she usually expects the worst and then is pleasantly surprised.)
• The Top 10 Essays Since 1950.
• Dutch museum art heist. I can never resist a heist story.
• Two of my favorite io9 pieces this week: "7 Scientific Facts That Will Ruin Movies for You" and "How to Stop Nightmares from Destroying Your Sleep."
• Study finds that young blood can reverse some signs of aging. A dystopian in the making...
• A new and excellently creepy Genevieve Valentine story at Nightmare, "Good Fences" (which I can vouch is excellent because Christopher read it on her behalf at WorldCon).
• The portal fantasy discussion.
• Six tests of a solid story premise.
• Amy Rose Capetta on theme.
• Nashville! Please watch this show--it's by far my favorite of the new ones and looks like it could be truly wonderful if it gets the chance to live. Even if you don't like country music, if you like good writing, complicated situations, and well-drawn, interesting characters, check it out. /TV PSA
• And, last, on Saturday I'll be at the Kentucky Reading Association's annual conference as a guest at the author luncheon. (At which I'll finally get to meet the fabulous Saundra Mitchell and fellow Kentucky author Bethany Griffin in real-live personhood, as they're also guests.) I'm very much looking forward to meeting the educators, librarians, and others there (book people, I love you), and if any of you out there reading this happen to be going, then please do come and say hello.

Friday Hangovers

• So I blogged almost every day this week AND I've gotten a lot of writing and other things done. Mercury must be in whatever the opposite of retrograde is. (Though I'm still a leetle behind on email; tends to happen when the writing is going well. Feel free to ping me again if it's something you need a response on right away.)
• This weekend I'm getting around to packaging up Blackwood bookmarks for those who requested them. This is the last call (for now, at least) for booksellers, librarians or teachers who want some. Just get in touch and let me know how many you'd like sometime before Sunday. More details here.
• Speaking of bookmarks, the fabulous Megan Miranda has some available for her forthcoming Hysteria if you're interested.
• Two wonderful Lois Lowry-related links: the one and only Robin Wasserman has a great review of Son in this weekend's NYTBR (fancy!) and the singular Kate Milford wrote a fantastic post about Lowry and the importance of dark stories (prepare to tear up).
• A reminder that Christopher has a brand-new story up at Eclipse Online, "The Contrary Gardener," featuring some of my favorite robots in recent memory and a trip to the Derby of the future. Perfect weekend reading.
• I know you've heard all about the Humble Bundle already, but here's another pointer to it. 
• The Atlantic looks at the fascinating things Coliloquy is doing with reader-directed stories, including many comments from the lovely Holly McDowell and Heidi Kling.
• Worried about your Amazon author rank? Worry no more! Instead take a look at Annalee Newitz's "7 Signs We Are Heading for a Mass Extinction." Now that's something to worry about. (See also: Scalzi being sensible about the rankings.)
• The Smithsonian has a must-read piece about "The Dark Side of Thomas Jefferson." (Via Colleen.)
• Jason Pinter on why books don't have to earn out for publishers to make money, particularly with big deals like Lena Dunham's.
• A typically wonderful and wise piece from Alexander Chee, this time for the Awl on lies writers tell themselves.
• The Awl also had a nice look at Ursula Nordstrom and Maurice Sendak's editorial relationship this week.
• And one last reminder, I'll be in Louisville for the Writer's Block Festival tomorrow for a YA panel at 1 p.m. featuring Katrina Kittle (Reasons to Be Happy) and Kelly Creagh (the Nevermore series) and moderated by Matt Jaeger, and around to sign afterward. Hope to see some of you there. 

Thursday Hangovers

• I did not fall down a well, but I did fall smack dab into being assailed by allergens. I kept thinking the cold of last week was coming back, then realized* (prepare to be amazed by my deductive powers) that I felt fuzzy-headed after my walk each day... Aha! Allergies. (I'm a regular girl detective.) You can't put one over on me, not now that I take an extra zyrtec in the afternoon anyway.
• I forgot to tell y'all that there's a little excerpt from Blackwood in the newest issue of Lightspeed magazine for subscribers who get the whole thing e-lectronically. 
• "What The Vampire Diaries Has Taught Me About Plotting" by Becca Weston. Good stuff; I'm an especially big fan of #1.
• Jane Friedman being sensible on a usually non-sensible topic with "The Stephen King Guide to Marketing."
• Check out these black spidery bits on Mars. Absolutely fascinating speculation about what they are, accompanied by gorgeous photos. (Via Kate Elliott.)
• My lovely pub sister Kim Curran wrote an excellent post earlier this week about "10 Things Not To Do To Get A Book Deal--And Beyond."
  
• "The Vampire Hunt in Lincoln Park, 1888"--Adam Selzer is on the case.
• Eclipse Online is coming next week, starting with one Christopher Rowe's fabulous novelette "The Contrary Gardener." Love, love. But don't take my word for it; there's an early review at that link.

*Also hoping this revelation means that starting tomorrow I will get the kind of revision progress in that I need to be getting, which I haven't this week thus far. Lots of thinking, but not enough writing fixety. Also hoping--tentatively--that the next week might bring resolution on a front that has taken seemingly forever to resolve but could be exciting. *is intentionally mysterious* Keep your fingers crossed. (You know, when they're not busy with other things.) Ciao for now.

Monday Hangovers (Lots & Lots Of Things!)

I'm almost in sight of being caught up--except for finishing the new novel revision, but working on it. Unbelievable! Or, rather, in honor of The Princess Bride movie's recent anniversary: Inconceivable! So...if I owe you a response or a guest post or something like that it should show up in the next few days.

There are many links today, so let's get to it:

• There's a New Voice interview with me up at Cynthia Leitich Smith's, which is a dream come true all its own since I've been following Cyn's blog devotedly for years. It's also quite possibly the most confessional interview I've done and I talk candidly about my publishing journey and its detours (by way of saying, a little nervous about this one, but you are all kind sorts, right?). Also, there's a deluxe giveaway featuring a signed copy of the book, a handmade duct tape rose pen, bookmarks and the LAST Blackwood T-shirt. 
• Emilie's Book World Blackwood review: "Gwenda Bond's Blackwood was a fantastic debut both from the author and new publisher, Strange Chemisty. It was exactly the kind of book I hoped it would be and it made me turn page after page." (*beams*)
• I loved this video about how David Bowie twirls those crystal balls so effortlessly in Labyrinth.
• TV maven Kate Linnea Welsh's "Why I Love Fringe." Oh, the new ep of this (alas) final season was SO good. Even at its bleakest, this is a show with love and hope in its heart. And willing to take risks.
• Interesting stuff about time travel in this article about Looper.
• Great interview with Libba Bray. Snippet: "I just read this great quote by Junot Diaz. He was talking about true intimacy, and he was saying that it was the willingness to be vulnerable and to be found out. I loved that phrase, that you were willing to be found out. That’s what I felt that YA did."
• Kimberly Hirsh will be posting about all lit dark and wondrous at Quaint and Curious. Add it to your reader/blogroll/etc.
• Congratulations to Betsy Bird and all the other organizers of KidLitCon this past weekend. It sounds as if it went swimmingly--and I enjoyed following along on twitter (next year must go back!) and am very much looking forward to the posts that follow this week.
• Speaking of conferences, my editor Amanda Rutter is exploring the possibility of throwing a YA-specific conference in the UK. If you have thoughts, stash them here.
• Baby pudu.
• It's October 1, which means that Cybils nominations are OPEN! There are a few rules changes this year. Go here for all the skinny.
• Last, but not least: October 1 also means that the Ballou Sr. High Book Fair is IN PROGRESS. You can read all about it at Guys Lit Wire. This is truly a labor of love and great organization by the wonderful Colleen Mondor and I urge you to go check out the post and see the evidence of what the previous fairs have done for this school-in-need. Then go scope out the Powell's list and get donating.

Tuesday Hangovers & Nattering & You Want Some Bookmarks?

We had a lovely weekend with the Small Beer Press contingent--Kelly, Gavin and Ursula--and Karen Joy Fowler in town for the Kentucky Women Writers Conference. Topics discussed included: should we be the first to cosplay or start a tribute band based on The Casual Vacancy (related: I adore J.K. Rowling; she comes across as the smartest and classiest in every interview she does*), socialist credentials, and ice cream. It was LOVELY.

A few links of note:

• Holly Black answered a couple of Tumblr questions on writing, plot and originality, well worth your time.
• C.J. Redwine offers some smart advice for writers on dealing with inaccurate or mean reviews.
• Digital Book World piece on book discovery in a fragmented landscape.
• "The Measure Of What Is Possible" by Molly McArdle at The Rumpus.
• Libba Bray's Top 10 Horror Movies. 

Fabulous books I have read lately: Meljean Brook's Riveted (another excellent steampunk romance), Sarah Rees Brennan's Unspoken (gothic banter, ftw), and David Levithan's Every Day (just gorgeous).

A few Blackwood things, including free-to-a-good-home bookmarks:

• Nova Ren Suma is running a big international giveaway where you can win a featured debut of your choice, including Blackwood.
• A Fantastical Librarian review: "It turns out I was right to be excited, but I ended up loving the book for completely different reasons than I'd expected. For it wasn't the historical elements that drew me in or the theatrical aspects of the story; no, I got completely taken in by the story's female lead and titular character, Miranda Blackwood."
• Serendipity Reviews review: "I was totally hooked throughout the book. I really love how the author has interpreted this piece of history. An excellent debut where the author has taken a true story and completely made it her own by adding elements of magic and paranormal activity."
• Also, a little reminder that if you've recently read the book, you might be interested in my photoset from our Roanoke Island trip and/or my pinterest board for Blackwood.
• We're almost a month out from release now (ack! hard to believe!). It's a complete thrill when people get in touch to say they enjoyed the book, so please do if you're so inclined, and tell a friend, your favorite teen, a review site of your choice, etc. It is all much appreciated. We live in a complicated bookish world, and the best way to sell books is still through word of mouth. Thanks for any of that you do, and for reading the book. I hope I get to write lots more of them.
• AND, finally, I still have quite a lot of bookmarks, and it seems silly to keep them in the box behind my desk. If you're a librarian, teacher or bookseller (or similar) who'd like 50-100 (or some other number), get in touch. (And if you know same who you think would be interested, please pass this on to them.) They are lovely--this photo doesn't even really show how lovely (Christopher designed them); in reality they are glossy and beauteous and fine, fine bookmarks.

And now back to my previously scheduled cold and trying to catch up on All The Things.

Updated to add: I've seen some buzz about the part about unicorns in this New Yorker interview--it seems like a joke to me? Frankly, I find the need to comment on her make-up and the pop psychology moments and intellectual snarberry (snark meets snobbery) as far more worth getting mad over.

Thursday Hangovers

A few hangovers for today, little magpie links here and yon:

• A good piece at Time debunking the "Moonlighting curse" and fingers crossed that Castle pulls crossing the great relationship divide off and puts that fiction to bed. Ahem.
• Clear Eyes, Full Shelves on the Bowker study about YA buying habits. This is a really smart take, and I'm glad to see someone discussing the actual findings (that we can see without the full report; the misleading headline on the initial story did no one any favors). Scott Westerfeld was the first to point out (that I saw) that the study found adults are 55% of buyers, but accounting for 28% of YA sales. So teens are still buying the most YA books. The just-as-notable part of the study to me is the contention that adults are the ones largely driving e-book sales in YA. This makes sense. I'd also be very curious if when the summary mentions the early adoption of devices among these adults as being similar to the numbers among mystery and romance readers whether a lot of the adults probably *are* those genre readers, picking up a YA title here or there on their e-reader. I see all of this as good news, personally.
• "The Internet, Fan Culture, and Creators: A Blessing We Shouldn’t Turn Into a Curse."
• Laura Miller digs into some new research on the differences in the brain when pleasure reading or being analytical. Good stuff.
• The Brave Tart (congratulations to Stella on her book deal as well! you will want this cookbook, people) on the reality of art as job, speaking specifically to people who want to cook professionally but very applicable for lots of disciplines: "The critics themselves, in kitchen memoirs or reality shows, frame the issue in romantic language as if they can taste the passion, or lack thereof, in a chef’s work. The chefs too fall back on this trope, “well, I’m certainly not doing it for the money…” On and on we hear, you’ve gotta do what you love. Put your heart in it. Love what you do. But however much you love it, let’s be clear: this career will never love you back. It can’t. It’s not a person or a puppy, it’s a job."
• I love it when Jeff Ford cuts through the b.s. Snippet: "Fiction writing isn't about getting up on your soap box and lecturing the world about the way things should be. Fiction writing is first and foremost about describing experience. If you want to relay a big idea to readers, write an essay. If you want to write fiction, concentrate on what happens next. The secret to writing effective fiction is not to exert more control as you might want to in driving a car, but instead to exert less control, to take your hands off the wheel and let the characters and their stories lead you." Read the whole thing.

And a few of me-and-Blackwood-related things, but first thanks to everybody for the lovely feedback on yesterday's post:

• I'm over at Narratively Speaking (thanks for hosting!) describing a day in my writing life: "Get up, have breakfast, coffee. If a really good day, exert enough willpower to avoid looking at email or twitter until after morning writing session. If a less chipper one, check these things and hopefully not lose too much time to them, then start writing. Note: I always regret checking, and yet I still sometimes do it. Especially if there’s a chance of news. The flesh is weak." Go there for the rest.
• Jen Robinson's Book Page review: "Blackwood is an excellent choice for anyone looking for paranormal YA, mystery, or just something a little bit different. Unlike a number of other recent YA titles, the romantic elements are fairly low-key. I think this makes Blackwood particularly boy-friendly, and also a good crossover title for adult readers. Recommended for anyone who has ever wondered "what if" (13 and up)." (*BEAMS* Happy-making.)
• Feeling Fictional review: "Overall I have to say that Blackwood is a great debut and one that has me excited to see what Gwenda Bond will come up with next. If you're looking for a story that brings history to life and then puts a supernatural spin on it, a story that will keep you gripped and make you desperate to uncover the mystery then look no further." (Thank you!)

Wednesday Hangovers

Hey, look at this, a blog post about Other Things. Have I mentioned how much calmer I feel after just three days back into the routine of early morning writing? I LOVE the book I'm working on (though also heart-clenching terror I won't be able to do it justice, etc., as per usual). So all to the good. But now closing some tabs:

• I know I'm constantly saying what a great literary culture Lexington has--and particularly how fortunate we are in terms of bookstores and booksellers--but now I have proof I can point you to. Author Holly Goddard Jones is doing some interviews with some of our most fabulous bookstore people about what makes Lexington so special, as well as their experience in terms of events, the importance of handselling, etc. So far she's talked with Brooke Raby from Joseph-Beth Booksellers and Wyn Morris from Morris Book Shop. I adore them both. (Next up is Crystal Wilkinson from the Wild Fig--who's not only a bookstore owner, but an amazing writer.) These interviews are must-reads for authors, I think, or anyone who cares about books, really. I would have told you, pre-book coming out how important I thought booksellers are in the whole literary continuum, and that would have been EXTREMELY...but now having had a book come out, even still in the early stages, I realize they are Even More Important Than That. All the love for you, booksellers.
• If you haven't checked out Sara Zarr's podcast on and called The Creative Life, well, why not? Also, give her a nice ranking while you're at it. She'd like to expand to include artists and creative peeps from other disciplines, but she needs to establish a bigger following first.
• Andrew Karre saying very smart things--as usual--about the YA boom from an editorial perspective over at Mitali Perkins' blog. Snippet: "For me, genres are campfires around which artists gather, not ways of understanding an audience for art or entertainment."
• io9 covers The Great Geek Sexism Debate. Nora Jemisin also has a fantastic post. See also: Genevieve gives an important update on the fallout post-Readercon harassment; I am so proud this woman is my friend. She rocks.
• Catherine Linka on the importance of hooks. In stories, not clothing, natch.
• A tour de force piece of fashion writing from Movie Star Makeover on the pencil skirt. I loved this.
• Flying Parisian Houses at Messy Nessy Chic.

On The Road Hangovers

Clearing out tabs annnnd go:

• A conversation with Cassie Clare and her dad Richard Rumelt; a fun read, and one with important takeaways about thinking strategically.
• Cynthia Leitich Smith has great tips for public speaking and panels.
• Katherine Ashe with a great guest post on the literary merit of romance.
• Cheryl Klein with a smart writing tip from the creators of South Park.
• Photos from the 1970s country music scene (Dolly!).
• My Bookish Ways top 25 most anticipated releases for September (which kindly includes Blackwood).

And a couple more Blackwood reviews--both from UK bloggers--that made me radioactively pleased:

• From Cara at the Tattooed Book (and Waterstones bookseller): "Blackwood is excellent, intelligent, YA aimed fantasy. For anyone struggling to keep a teenager engrossed in reading, or maybe even tempt them back after they've had a break, this is the kind of story that will reel them right back in!" (Yay!)
• And from Beth Kemp at Thoughts from the Hearthfire: "I picked the book up to have a quick flick through the beginning and rapidly found myself deep enough in to need to finish it (ahead of other review books that had arrived sooner - argh!). Thank goodness books don't feel jealousy!" (I would marry this review if I could! It describes exactly the book I wanted to write.)

Aside: I really love all the UK blogs I've discovered this year, and these two are both fab.

Okay, off to Chicago for things! Launch day nigh!

Monday Hangovers

• It's been too me-me-me around here lately (okay, so this is my place, but STILL), so first off some links to elseplaces I've been collecting. (And then another me-me-me post. SORRY. It's book launch time. *runs around with hair on fire*)
• A fascinating map of Europe's "typogeography"  circa 1901.
• The most excellent Austin Kleon at PW on how his book tour made him fall in love with independent bookstores: "It took me going on this tour and discovering what independent bookstores have to offer to learn this lesson: the best salespeople are the ones who are in love. Whether they’re yours or not, if you love books, you can’t help selling them."
• And via Austin's tumblr, an interesting collection of "15 Rules for Success by Creative Industry Insiders." Good stuff there.
• Zoë Marriott with a typically great post on writing, this time tackling "rules" about pacing and other things that may lead to watered-down--rather than good--writing.
• "Everything is Fiction" by Keith Ridgway at the New Yorker: "I need to care about what I’m writing—whether about the characters, or about what they’re getting up to, or about the way they feel or experience their world. I know that my job is to create a perspective. And to impose it on the reader. And I know that in order to do that with any success at all I must in some mysterious way risk everything. If I don’t break my own heart in the writing of a book then I know I’ve done it wrong. I’m not entirely sure what that means. But I know what it feels like."
• Sara Zarr continues to share her journey in admirably open, honest fashion.
• Two links about Angry Robot's Clonefiles experiment, partnering with an independent bookstore in England to offer customers who buy Angry Robot physical copies a free digital copy, and the results: at FutureBook and the Digital Reader. I was particularly struck by the comments from the bookseller perspective, from Mark Thornton:"Suddenly indies are able to take their traditional strengths - edited and curated choice, personal service and recommends - and stick a 'plus digital' on the end. It is genuinely a game-changer. ... But Clonefiles has been much more important than that. It has allowed us to engage with customers and break the 'ereader taboo' with people coming into the shop." If you care about these things, well worth reading the whole pieces.
• And some good advice, as usual, from Gretchen Rubin:

Wednesday Hangovers

• Four more Margaret Mahy tributes that are not to be missed: from Elizabeth Knox (who also did a long-form documentary interview with Mahy a few years back);  from Kristin Cashore; from Karen Healey; and from Jolisa Gracewood. Alarmingly, I've seen several people say various brilliant works by Mahy are out of print here. U.S. publishers, get cracking.
• Love this cartoon advice at the Guardian from Tom Gauld on how to cope in these tough times.
• New Katherine Mansfield manuscript discovered.

And a few promo-type things:

• I started a pinterest board for Blackwood, if you're interested in seeing some of the history and real-world haunts therein. It will grow a bit more, and I'm going to make ones for the main characters--Phillips and Miranda--as well, over the next month. Pinning is a little bit addictive, but guessing you already knew that.
• Also, I'm SUPEREXCITED that I'm going to be heading down to Roanoke Island for a Blackwood pre-release signing on August 16 at Duck's Cottage Downtown Books in Manteo. The exact times are still being nailed down, but I'm hoping to be hanging out there most of the day, and there's an art festival going on too--so if you're nearby, day trip! Come and say hi and get an early copy of the book. There may be some other events added to the calendar soon. And I plan to pick up some excellent swag for a few extra-special release giveaways. *rubs hands together*
• And speaking of Strange Chemistry...since not everyone can make it to the August 23 official launch at the British Library (fancy, right?), they're running an online launch competition. You can get the details at this post, but basically all you have to do to enter is review, highlight, interview, etcetera, etcetera someone or something to do with the first batch of SC books and add the link to the Mister Linky. The winner will get their choice of a kindle or 12 months of free Strange Chemistry titles. You can't beat that.

Tuesday Hangovers

• Haven't watched the new Bunheads yet, but this week's discussion thread is here.
• "The mysterious coffins of Arthur's Seat."
• Lauren DeStefano on giving the kindness of respect.
• Erin Bowman on different types of cliffhangers and the purposes they can serve.
• Mette Harrison collects some pieces of wisdom from WIFYR 2012. All good stuff, and several bits of pure genius from Cynthia Leitich Smith, including: "Remember when Jennifer Grey fixed her nose and became as good-looking as every other actress? Don't take all the flaws out of a manuscript."
• Mary Robinette Kowal guests on the SFWA blog with a smart piece about outlining.
• An interesting post on metadata. (Via Sarah Rettger.)
• Matt Cheney serves up a brilliant setdown to Dwight Allen on that obnoxious piece about Stephen King with "Re: Your Stephen King Problem."
• Myra McEntire has put her fabulous UtopYA keynote address up: "That’s what writing is really about. You, and the page.  What you can produce, what you have the imagination to create, and what you have the dedication to perfect." Read the whole thing.
• Leila has started making a list of YA featuring alchemy; a topic near and dear to my heart, obviously. Go Team Alchemy.
• Serendipity Reviews profiles Strange Chemistry, including comments from editor Amanda Rutter and a bunch of us Strange Chemists on how much we love our robot/chemist overlords.
• For now, I leave you with Biodome Lynx Kitty.

Thursday Hangovers

Another crazy week, another crop of quick links.

• "25 Bone-Chilling Photos of Abandoned Places." (via Dave Schwartz, I think.)
• Want to age well? Letting go of regrets may be the key: "Perhaps it might be better for us to feel the pain of such missed opportunities when we are younger so that we learn from them and make better choices in the future.  But when we are older, the future gets smaller, and so do the opportunities to correct previous missteps.  So, as we age a more effective strategy is to let go of the things we’ll have little opportunity to fix."
• Oh, Nora Ephron, your wit and heart and writing will be missed. The NYT obituary (now that's a life) and some of her writing from the New Yorker. She was a big part of my discovering old movies when I was younger; I still remember staying up late to watch An Affair to Remember after seeing Sleepless in Seattle. And I love so many of her movies. Sadness, but, again, what a life.
• An interview with the ever-fascinating Junot Diaz. 
• Kelly posts at Stacked about ALA and ARCs, sparking a raging discussion in the comments and on twitter. Well worth following, though I'm sad the tone seems to be taking a turn for the dismaying.
• Sarah Maas makes a compelling Pinterest argument. Anyone got an invite to scoot my way? *makes productive procrastination-y eyes*
• An analysis of how starred reviews tally among Printz winners and honors, and how often the stars align with each other. Charts! Math! Very interesting.

Tuesday Hangovers

• Nora Jemisin on magic not always needing to be rigidly codified, since it's, y'know, magic. Snippet: "Magic is the mysteries, into which not everyone is so lucky, or unlucky, as to be initiated. It can be affected by belief, the whims of the unseen, harsh language. And it is not. Supposed. To make. Sense. In fact, I think it’s coolest when it doesn’t."
• Holly Black on the write faster project's early results. Also: I bookmarked the recipe for red wine pasta, which sounds delish.
• A goodreads case study of book discovery.
• In praise of a good literary slap. (Via Leila.)
• NPR wants your nominations for best YA novels.
• G. Willow Wilson does a Book Notes for Alif the Unseen, one of my favorite novels of 2012 thus far, and a great one to pair with Matt Ruff's fabulous thriller The Mirage. (I also did a short interview with her about Alif for PW earlier this year.)
• Revision tips from Kristin Cashore.
• The one and only Ursula Le Guin on literature vs. genre. Snippet: "Anybody who reads a lot is, if you like, an addict. The people who put their initials on the fly-leaf of a library copy of a mystery so that they won’t keep checking the same book out over and over are story addicts. So is the ten-year-old with his nose in The Hobbit, oblivious to dinnertime or cataclysm. So is the old woman rereading War and Peace for the eighth time. So is the scholar who studies the Odyssey for forty years. The very quality of story is to hold, to fascinate. Ask the Wedding Guest to stop listening once the Ancient Mariner gets going. He can’t. He’s hooked. Sometimes you get hooked on mere plot, sometimes on mere familiarity and predictability, sometimes you get hooked on great stuff."

Monday Hangovers

• Happy Monday! As you can see (unless you're reading this in a feed reader), I did a little simplification makeover on the site over the weekend. This is because I'm all caught up on everything, have nothing to do...or the opposite of that, really. At some point I probably need to undertake a more elaborate spruce, but for now: Voila!
•  Haven't seen Prometheus yet, but very much enjoyed Chuck Wendig's analysis of its story lessons. 
• Stephanie Perkins with links to all the best commencement addresses. Motivational fuel.
• If you're in the Seattle area this June and July, you'll want to catch the Clarion West reading series. Here's the full schedule, featuring Connie Willis, GRRM, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant, and others.
• I suspect everyone has already seen the divine Beth Revis's wonderful, smart post on responding to negative reviews, but just in case. Snippet: "If there are people in the world who hate puppies, Harry Potter, chocolate, and/or bacon, then there are people in the world who hate your book. Put in that perspective, things aren't so bad, huh?"
• The fascinating story of Dorothy Parker's ashes at the Rumpus.
• My editor pointed me to this little primer post on Roanoke (and other mysterious things) at The History Girls, "Lost Colonies and Phantom Towns," inspired by the recent finding in one of John White's maps. I continue to be nerdily happy about that. (I'm telling you, people, alchemy is next.)
• And, finally, the Summer Blog Blast Tour author interview bonanza is just kicking off. I'm putting the full schedule behind the cut. Check them out or be sorry.

Tuesday Hangovers

• A nice piece in the Courier-Press about Ursula Nordstrom and Maurice Sendak's editorial relationship.
• A book a year is slacking? (*cries quietly*)
• A great post by Coe Booth over at the VCFA faculty blog, about the "fragile stage" when a project is new. (Via Cynthia Leitich Smith on twitter.)
• New study suggests readers engage in "experience-taking": "Kaufman and his co-author Lisa Libby of Ohio State University suspected that when people read a fictional story they vicariously experience their favorite character’s emotions, thoughts and beliefs in a process that’s been dubbed “experience-taking.” Now they're researching how long and profound that effect may be.
• Could I love Tim Gunn anymore? No. But this post from Janet Reid just confirmed that again.
• Robin LaFevers on the process of going deeper as a writer.
• Gavin sends out an alert that the very funny UK TV show, The Book Group (which we actually only saw originally because he and Kelly showed it to us, bless them) is now on hulu. Go watch.
• A great feature on Lexington's plethora of great used bookstores. 
• Baby rhino.

(*crawls slowly back into writer cave* Behind on email, but hoping to catch up soon!)

Friday Hangovers

Let's close some tabs, shall we?

• Jerry Seinfeld's productivity secret: "Don't break the chain." (This seems psychologically akin to keeping a word count diary to me--something I actually do find useful, particularly when I'm struggling with a project. Much less easy to goof off and not work for no good reason--other than that it's not going well, or is at a harder stage than usual, which are not good reasons--when I have to write down on that day "goofed off and didn't work for no good reason.")
• At NPR, the fascination with white horses: "But as rare as white horses are — fewer than 8 percent — it is amazing how they have fascinated virtually every culture. White horses are chosen to stand for good and for bad. One of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse rides a pale horse, but the unicorn — which is invariably depicted as white — stands for purity. Only virgins can capture unicorns. But contrariwise, in some cultures white horses represent fertility."
• At the Horn Book an interesting (and typically contrarian) look at trends in YA, looking at numbers of books published in various categories and etc. pre- and post-Harry Potter.
• One of my favorite contrarians, Laurel Snyder, on her love of picture books and their (at least sometime) rejection of classic story structure.
• How about that Vampire Diaries finale? A spoiler-riddled interview with Exec Producer Julie Plec at EW.
• Publishers Weekly: The Deals You Don't See at The Intern.
• "Happiness without a good work ethic is pretty impossible." Hugh MacLeod interviewed at the Happiness Project.
• Stephanie Perkins pulls some fabulous advice out of John Waters' Rookie interview.
• I absolutely love this gallery of supermoon photos. Inspirational planetscapes. Here's one at the Temple of Poseidon in Athens (taken by AP photographer Dimitri Messinis):

Happy weekend, everybody.

Wednesday Hangovers

• Not enough time at the moment for an Actual Post, so links! Turns out that taking off a week to confab with amazing writers is seriously inspirational, and I'm deep into the fictional swamp at this point...and playing catch-up on other work that piled up while off in the bat cave. But, wow, wow, I will attempt to make a little post at some point, if for no other reason than as an excuse to point you to the work of said writers. It was truly an honor to workshop and talk craft and biz (and indulge in silliness of the highest and lowest orders, of course) with each and every one of them. And thanks again to everyone who came out to the utterly fabulous Malaprop's, despite a drizzly evening.
• My delightful publisher has been doing more cover reveals. You can check out all the first four on this pinterest board. I heart them all, not least for the fact that each one is sooo very distinctive. Also, this morning Editor Amanda tweeted a picture of real-life, printed Blackwood and Shift ARCs--I'll bet my release month sister Kim heard my morning yelp all the way across the ocean. I'm pretty sure I heard hers. (Unrelated: Should I be on this pinterest business? Probably not, but am weak and tempted.)
• Locus Award finalists! Congratzies to everyone!
• Tayari Jones offers a procrastination-avoidance tip that I think is truly smart--preparing your space the night before.
• Laura Miller on the new book Hit Lit, bringing her usual insightful take to this analysis of the components common to blockbuster bestsellers. I think this is my favorite snippet: "While “Hit Lit” may seem, to many readers, like the literary equivalent of instructions on how to boil water, the sad truth is that plenty of those who speak contemptuously of Dan Brown’s prose are writers who could not get a child interested in a fairy tale."
• Malinda Lo on writing about kissing. I have to admit, I used to find such scenes painfully hard, but now I kind of love writing them (despite the fact they're still really hard to get right--but, you know, what isn't?).
• Love this visual summer resolution from Ralph Waldo Emerson via Lauren Cerand's pinterest board, via Stephany Aulenback:
  
• Finally, go listen to my dearie dearest Christopher Rowe's wonderful, World Fantasy-nominated short story "Another Word For Map Is Faith" on podcastle.

Monday Hangovers

• Sorry didn't mean to disappear there, but went on a bit of a writing binge last week. Now playing catch-up--but first links! all of them! (Well, a lot of them.) OH, and hello, visitors by way of the fabulous Gretchen Rubin and the Happiness Project. So nice to have you.
• Don't miss this truly great post by Robin LaFevers at WriterUnboxed about the ways in which the writer's life is full of second chances. Snippet: "But there is a freedom that comes with failure—even if it is just perceived failure. There is a sense that we can’t get any lower, so we might as well jettison everything but the most important stuff. If my writing was going to have to go back to being a hobby rather than a full-time career, I might as well work on something that totally lit every one of my own personal tilt buttons on fire." Related: I can't wait to read Grave Mercy; it is very near the top of the TBR.
• Two fun news of the weird type stories: "Vatican Accused of Cover-Up Over Teenage Girl's Mysterious Disappearance" and "New Jersey Couple Sues Claiming Rented House is Haunted."
• Find the John Cleese creativity video and watcheth it.
• Related: Katie Ryder's Salon interview with Tom Bissell about creating art, among other things. I remember his great Harper's article about the bizarre phenom around the movie The Room, and apparently that's now part of his new book Magic Hours. I do quibble with this, however: "Well, the thing I would say is that luck is the single most important quality – even more important than talent." Sure, luck is an undeniable factor in success and a random factor (for the most part), but it seems to me that perseverance is the other key part of the equation, more important than either talent or luck. Luck is more likely to find you, like inspiration, when you're working, right? I think so. In fairness, Bissell ultimately seems to agree with this, but is coming at it from a more roundabout direction.
• It's time for the Ballou High School Book Fair -- help stock up a library that badly needs it.
• The requisite links on the DOJ suit: good piece in the NYT, sort of a side story about knock-off bestsellers on Amazon (this reminds me of the people who made/make a brisk trade in misspelled goods on ebay), and the inimitable Chuck Wendig bringing some sense to these matters as always.
• I wrote the LGBT publishing feature for this week's issue of PW, which includes an interview with John Irving. Good times.
• Strange Chemistry is running an open door period for unagented YA writers for the next two weeks.
• And a couple of Blackwood things. My editor is at the London Book Fair this week and tweeted this lovely snap of the Strange Chemistry catalogue, with Steven Wood's gorgeous Blackwood cover art on the front:
  
  
  Pretty cool, huh? And there's this lovely early blog review just posted by Shelley Watters. I'm going to post sometime this week about the surreal and overwhelming oddness of ARCs being out in the world--exciting and nerve-wracking all at once. But, in short, to everyone who's requested eARCs so far and to those reading and/or reviewing e- or paper galleys: Thank you a million times over for being interested enough to spend your valuable reading time on my book. (And, of course, I really hope you like it! I love hearing from you!)

Friday Hangovers

• Feeling lucky? You can still go comment at the Book Smugglers to win a shiny Blackwood ARC until tomorrow night at 11:59 p.m. Central; open to everyone, regardless of home country.
• Speaking of the Smugglers, they also have a fabulous interview with Barry Lyga (and giveaway) up today. I cannot wait to read I Hunt Killers.
• Ann VanderMeer just announced the TOC for the Steampunk Revolutions reprint anthology she's editing and, boy, is it awesome--and I'm not just saying that because Christopher's "Nowhere Fast" from Steampunk! is one of the stories.
• At the Awl, Jim Behrle on How to Write the Great American Novel: "The desire of adults who are not YA authors to place themselves inside the lives of kids to make a more-perfect and more beautiful version of themselves in youth: Puking sound. YA authors are actually performing a vital service: Please continue doing that, YA authors! There’s nothing self-conscious and plodding about what you’re up to." The whole thing is hilarious.
• The delightful Gabrielle Gantz has a great interview with Michael Ian Black at the Rumpus.
• Robin Wasserman has a fancy new website design. And soon her super-fancy new book, The Book of Blood and Shadow, will be out. You really, really want to read this one. I LOVED it. And not just for the alchemical mystery at the heart of it (though obviously that is one of my favoritest favorite of things), but because of everything.
• A super post from the wonderful Elizabeth Bluemle of The Flying Pig bookstore: "He Won't Read Books About Girls."
• Gavin Grant, Small Beer Press magnate, interviewed!
• Art installation of 28,000 potted flowers at an abandoned mental health center. Gorgeous. (Via Kat Howard.)
• Have a good Friday, y'all. Get it? *wink*

Tuesday Hangovers

I'm beginning to hit the point in the new book where I usually disappear from the blog, but will attempt not to go poof entirely.

• "Elephant rescued from 36-foot pit after three days."
• Jodi Meadows on fighting The Doubts.
• Best sandwich idea ever. Seriously.
• "Apparently I am a failure at success" comic at Hyperbole and a Half. (Via Erin Morgenstern.)
• USA Today talks to Pam Spengler-Jaffee and Nancy Berland about publicity. I don't know Berland, but Pam is one of the best publicists in the business.
• Oldie but goodie: (The now NYT bestselling author! yay!) Austin Kleon's post about The Gift by Lewis Hyde. I love that book so. (And Trickster Makes This World is kind of the bible of my new project.)
• Julie James on the art of research interviews.
• I can't remember where I first saw these, but gorgeous long-exposure photographs.

Wednesday Hangovers

• Amalie Noether, little-known mathematical genius: "For her part, Noether left little record of how she felt about the difficulties she faced as a woman, or of her personal and emotional life generally. She never married, and if she had love affairs she didn’t trumpet them. After meeting the young Czech math star Olga Taussky in 1930, Noether told friends how happy she was that women were finally gaining acceptance in the field, but she herself had so few female students that her many devoted pupils were known around town as Noether’s boys."
• A new story by the fabulous Nancy Hightower, "Evangelical Wonderland."
• Every time I hear more about The Diviners, I seriously can't wait. Libba Bray interviewed at Booklist online: "Coming very soon is The Diviners (September 18th, 2012), the first book in a four-book, supernatural series set in 1920’s New York City. This one has jazz babies, speakeasies, shadowy conspiracy, a creepy museum, ghosts, Follies showgirls, rakish pickpockets, political intrigue and all manner of things that go bump in the neon-drenched night." Yes, please.
• Jane Friedman talks to Avery Monsen and Jory John about book publicity.
• Justine's delightful "I'll know I've made it as a writer when..." is, well, delightful. And so true. Oh, our neuroses, they contain multitudes.
• Lev Grossman on public speaking. 
• E. Lockhart saves The Sisters Brothers. Yay! A very entertaining decision to read, plus bonus excellent conversation from the commentators, joined by Max and Carolyn, who talk about what makes a book jump out of the reviewer stack. (I so agree--it's the promise of surprise, something (at least a bit) different than the rest.)
• I certainly hope this is true too (for *cough* Blackwood's sake *cough* since it's both).
• Holly posts her daily word counts from the writing of the new middle grade novel she just finished, Doll Bones. I love these posts so much. In fact, I love the whole idea so much I just started keeping a daily word count file for the new book I'm writing. Hard to cheat or live in denial when you have to look at it every day and explain why if it's lower than it should be.

Tuesday Hangovers

• The Printz prediction blog is making some changes as they get ready to embark upon this year's reading.
• Kat Howard with a great entry on realizing the essential help other writers can provide: "I don't know where I got the idea that being a good writer meant being able to write by myself. I mean, I'm one of those people who always reads the dedication and acknowledgements. I'm not sure what I thought those people being thanked had done - provided moral support and sandwiches, maybe? But I'm very glad that I've been able to recognize this false idea for the insanity it is."
• Edan Lepucki at the Millions on finding inspiration and a story skeleton exercise she put a recent class through.
• That article from the New York Times about how fiction works in the brain. I knew we were all secretly adventurers.
• David Coe shares some things that surprised him about the business of writing; Carrie Ryan responds in turn with things that surprised her about the business of writing YA.
• Received a pointer recently to an interesting-looking new site, Book Lamp, which did a recent computational post about average book length and most common POV by genre--with handy dandy charts even. 
• A 'Where Are They Now?' on the cast of Buffy (ended in 2003! doesn't seem possible;still miss it). (Via editor Amanda.)
• You are following the 12 Days of Monsters at the Weird Fiction Review, right? It is filled with wonders. (I contributed a response to a question for a whole bunch of people about their favorite monsters that will run at some point, btw.) And it's in honor of ICFA. ICFA = can't wait.
• Cheap tips for relieving back and neck pain, aka the writer's lament.
• This story about a whale with a 19th century weapon embedded in its skin is a marvel; sadness for the weapon, fascinating for the sheer age of the whale.
• Laura Bogart's essay about Katniss Everdeen and how the character speaks to her at the Nervous Breakdown is one of my favorite pieces of writing on the internet in a long, long time. An absolute must read: "Every time I spilled the milk, slammed the door, or looked at him the wrong way, I was as noble as Katniss ascending that stage. The Hunger Games has gifted me with a new way of perceiving the lowest moments of my life. I am not just the girl whose skin burns from the sting of leather; I am the girl on fire." Must. Read.

Monday Hangovers & Etc.

Whoopsie, disappeared again there, but lo! I am back.

The final version of Blackwood has been turned in after a last round of changes and copy edits, and I wrote my dedication and acknowledgements--or Ded & Acks as I titled the file, noting that it would be an excellent name for a band. I got a little teary. We also clobbered tax prep over the weekend (commence the waiting and hoping it's not too painful). And, best of all, I now have approval to proceed on the new book. (I am SO excited about this book.) Anyway: whew! And it's only Monday.

Oh, and I have a looong feature in this week's issue of PW. If you're a subscriber and interested in the state of parenting and child care books, there you go. And now a few little links.

• Laini Taylor says John Carter is good and that's more than enough for me to go see it. (I've actually heard lots of positive stuff, and am looking forward to it. The other night when I asked C if he wanted to go see it, he at first acted as if I was trying to trick him...which I'm assuming can be credited to the negative pre-movie chatter Laini talks about.) (While not a quid pro quo, I did use the opportunity to make him agree to see Hunger Games. Mwahaha!)
• Treasure trove of lost Hollywood jewelry discovered; pictures to swoon for. And not just any jewels--behold an entire drawer of bejeweled daggers!

 

 

• In less happy news, YA legend Francesca Lia Block is having some major struggles with Bank of America to stay in her home, after being trapped in a bad mortgage. She's asking for help spreading the word. (Via Dave Elzey.) Her influence on the field can't be overstated. I hope she gets the resolution she clearly deserves.
• This gorgeous edition of Kelly Link's "Stone Animals" illustrated by many authors and artists is just, well, gorgeous.
• Betsy reviews Katherine Applegate's new middle grade book, The One and Only Ivan, which I loved. My review's in this month's Locus.
• It's time for the DABWAHA, aka the online book tourney coordinated by Sarah Wendell and Jane Litte that always expands my TBR by a metric ton.

Monday Hangovers

Don't worry, I'm not planning a return to all-links-all-the-time, promise. But I got waylaid by a little cold last week (which meant missing AWP--boo), and then had to deal with a deadline that needed vanquishing (vanquished!), and so today I'm closing some open tabs and playing catch up.

Also: thanks to everyone who checked in with us after the terrible storms that hit here late Friday. Both we and our families escaped unscathed. Others were not so lucky, and many of the hardest hit areas of the state are the ones least financially able to recover from such losses; here's a simple way to donate to the Red Cross's Kentucky-specific efforts, if you're so inclined.

• Banksy on advertising: "Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head." Updated to add: Apparently Banksy ripped this off without attribution. Here's the info on the real source.
  
• The GORGEOUS book art of Brian Dettmer.
• Young women are pioneers of language: “If women do something like uptalk or vocal fry, it’s immediately interpreted as insecure, emotional or even stupid,” said Carmen Fought, a professor of linguistics at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif. “The truth is this: Young women take linguistic features and use them as power tools for building relationships.” (Via Scott Westerfeld.)
• Headline of the week: Teen Exorcists Shopping Reality Show Can't Possibly Be Faking. (Via Robin Wasserman.)
• Tansy Rayner Roberts has a great post about why editing stresses her out (and why that's what she needs in order to do it). I love reading about other people's processes like this. (Don't most of us? Makes us feel less weird/crazy/alone.)
• The divine Sara Zarr has started a new podcast, The Creative Life, and hosts Tara Altebrando for the first episode.
• Five unsung heroes who changed modern life at Brainpicker.
• How to name your first novel at NPR.
• Kate Messner is officially a rock star; see this post about her TED talk last week. Can't wait until the full recording is available.
• China Miéville on apocalyptic London in the NYT.
• A must-read post from Megan Crewe (it's an older post recently unlocked; looking forward to her new book): "Very few journeys are smooth or straightforward."
• Speaking of things I can't wait to read: I hear wonderful things about the fabulous William Alexander's debut middle grade novel Goblin Secrets, which is out tomorrow. Just look at that cover: swoon! Pick it up. Check it out. Etcetera.
• Somebody in Dublin has St. Laurence O'Toole's heart. No, really. They stole it. (Via Kat Howard.)

Tuesday Hangovers

• Chuck Wendig offers some of his inimitable wisdom about fixing a broken (or just sprained) book. Lots of good stuff there.
• Everybody dance now: There's a new story by Genevieve up at Lightspeed, "The Gravedigger of Konstan Spring."
• Stephanie Anderson (aka Bookavore) offers some recommended books that she keeps in her back pocket for special moments. 
• Anindita has two fascinating entries: the first about being caught by chance at the twitter intersection between a friend who wrote a (pretty snarky) NYT review and author Matthew Pearl and the happy follow-up about a nice exchange with Pearl after her first post. Lots of excellent points and questions raised about this miniscule world we're all inhabiting.
• William Gibson on personal microculture: "We [are] shaped as writers, I believe, not much by who our favorite writers are as by our general experience of fiction. Learning to write fiction, we learn to listen for our own acquired sense of what feels right, based on the totality of the pleasure (or its lack) that fiction has provided us. Not direct emulation, but rather a matter of a personal micro-culture."
• Interesting PW piece about whether teens are embracing e-books.
• A roundtable with the ladies of Community (via Dave).

Monday Hangovers

• A few quick links to close tabs.
• I always love Jennifer Crusie's writing chats with her friends--the latest one is about the difficulty of writing sex scenes in first person.
• Lisa Lutz in the Wall Street Journal on (the breaking of) writing rules: "Readers are a curious lot; they want answers. Give them a really good question and they'll keep turning the page."
• Deborah Biancotti on writing 80,000 words in a month...don't try this at home, unless you want to. If so, she has provided helpful tips.
• A great obituary of John Fairfax in the NYT: "At 9, he settled a dispute with a pistol. At 13, he lit out for the Amazon jungle. At 20, he attempted suicide-by-jaguar. Afterward he was apprenticed to a pirate. To please his mother, who did not take kindly to his being a pirate, he briefly managed a mink farm, one of the few truly dull entries on his otherwise crackling résumé, which lately included a career as a professional gambler."
• Editor Amanda posts about the process of reading manuscripts over at the Strange Chemistry blog: "Because here’s the thing: we have to pick the novels that we are prepared to champion to the hilt. We can’t waver in our belief of them. These are novels that we will be closely working with for the foreseeable future – we will have to read them a number of times, to a great depth of detail, and we will have to shout about them to the whole world. We can’t take on a novel that we have any uncertainty about, because we can’t then do the best job for the author and their book. But another publisher might – what you’re uncertain about, another editor will have read and gone into raptures over. It’s all subjective." Good stuff.
  
• A friend just sent me a pointer to Scape, a YA SFF-focused webzine now on its third issue. It's a truly gorgeous site, and I look forward to checking out the stories. We need more YA short fiction markets.
• And last but most! exciting! of! all! What a great Nebula and Norton ballet this year. Congratulations to all the nominees--so excited to see many people (and works by those people!) that I adore on the ballot.

Tuesday Hangovers, aka A Few Little Links

• Laura Miller and Maud Newton are combining forces at The Chimerist. Color me intrigued.
• The stories behind the animal logos for various publishers. (Love. Via Sarah Weinman.)
• Charles Tan interviews Delia Sherman about The Freedom Maze: "Now I come to think about it, probably one of the main reasons I needed to write this book was because I’ve never been comfortable with talking about politics.  I think the arguments of racism are stupid and short-sighted, that the justifications of the prejudiced are irrational, that oppression of any kind rots the souls of the oppressors, and that people are much stronger when they work together than when they work against each other.  But I don’t often say so, not in so many words.  I don’t actually say any of that in The Freedom Maze.  But I try to show it in every way I could think of."
• Sherman Alexie and Neko Case talking in The Believer. So much fabulous.
• An interesting post from Jordyn at Ten Cent Notes about book appeal, aka what makes her pick something up. I always find such discussions fascinating.
• Writing rules from various luminaries--Henry Miller's are far more charming than I expected.
• A look at Myrna Loy's career.