GWENDA BOND

Mini-Update + Reviewed

This week is a little on the crazy side, because C is at Syc Hill and my mom is recovering from surgery in town and I am on deadline. There isn't even any time for Secret Shames (that post has some fun comments if you need ideas for truly guilty pleasure-esque things to do when the significant other is away). But the good news is this deadline means (probably) the last of revisions on Secret Project, and I'm also filling out the author questionaire for it, which all means it is closer to being revealed to you and a secret no longer. 

Yesterday was a lonnng day spent editing at the hospital while waiting to move my mom over to the rehab hospital, and then being entertained by her roommate at the new place, a woman in her eighties who reminds me of a little of Gray Gardens and a little of Maurice Sendak in prime lovable grouch mode and answers all unwanted questions with "Damned if I know" and so is clearly a genius.

Then I came home to a good surprise, in the form of a very nice first review for Girl on a Wire from the July issue of School Library Journal. Here's a little snippet:

“With a thrilling mystery, a hint of magic, and a touch of romance, Girl on a Wire takes readers into the fascinating world of circus performers. It is clear that Bond has done her research, especially with Jules’s idol, Jennadean Engleman, aka Bird Millman, a famous vaudeville tightrope and city walker.”

*beams* I just updated the buy links on its page, should you want to pre-order.

And while I'm talking reviews, a new one for Blackwood popped up on a blog maintained by UNC-Chapel Hill libraries, featuring books set in North Carolina: "Bond infuses the original legend of the Lost Colony with quite a bit of imagination. Blackwood is perfect for readers on the look-out for an intelligent young adult novel." It makes me happy to see people still discovering that book, and I'm always especially pleased when North Carolinians (and librarians!) like it.

 And I will leave you with this oldish but new to me video of the Chinese State Circus doing an incredible acrobatic version of Swan Lake (also, not really related, but I am so happy that So You Think You Can Dance is back):

 

 

(Seriously, if you haven't seen that video watch it. She goes en pointe on his shoulder!)

Now back to work.

Wednesday Hangovers

Sorry to poof out of existence again. There were page proofs for the circus book to do (lovelove the little design elements!) and then a flurry of other work and tax stuff and various deadlines large and small. And I seem to be working on a new book that came out of nowhere, but is accumulating actual words and an outline in the form of emails to myself...so I guess I'll start a file for it and hope that doesn't spook it out of existence.

But I've collected quite a few links, so in the interest of closing ye olde tabs...

• The best news of today, obviously, is that Karen Joy Fowler won the PEN/Faulkner for her brilliant We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Day made. (!!!)
• Genevieve wrote a great essay about Silence of the Lambs.
• Young Russian daredevil.
• Teens innovating a public form of privacy protection.
• A love story and its dissolution chronicled in yelp reviews.
• I cannot WAIT for Game of Thrones to be back.
• Some writers on dealing with criticism.
• Fascinating piece on whether some VR/simulation tech affects men and women differently: Is the Oculus Rift sexist?
• Books made of people. (And another.)
• 538 takes a look at the "Dollars-and-Cents Case Against Hollywood's Exclusion of Women."
• My kingdom to be in Paris and go to this party.

Friday Hangovers

• Some of the passel of links I've been collecting.
• Need to furnish your surrealist palace? Here's the cabinet made from a taxidermied sheep you've been looking for.
• The endangered art of the movie novelization.
• Recreation of a Roman gladiator school in Austria.
• Alexander Chee essays always something to read: his 100 Things About a Novel and his essay from MFA vs. NYC (or NYC vs. MFA, whichever it is!). Semi-related: I keep hoping someone will write a review of that book with the headline: Don't Bring An MFA To A Knife Fight. (And would it mean the degree or the degree holder? How about BOTH?)
• PW looks at some e-book trends in children's and YA book buying. Our kingdoms for more transparent data notes about what's in and what isn't, etc., but interesting nonetheless.
• "7 Habits of Incredibly Happy People." Sometimes these types of lists can seem like fluff, but this one strikes me as useful.
• Justine Musk on shame and beauty and Kim Novak. Loved this.
• Women's engagement on social media networks--higher on all but one.
• Ron Charles on the reviewer's conundrum, to spoil or not to spoil (note: article starts with spoilers for some recentish books--like Karen Joy Fowler's BRILLIANT and now Nebula *and* PEN/Faulkner nominated We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, so if you haven't read it yet and aren't spoiled yet Avert Your Eyes). Also, once more, kudos to WaPo for adding two new wonderfully smart women to its regular reviewing team, Sarah MacLean for romance and Nancy Hightower for SFF. YAY.
• At the Millions, a linguist discusses how "I'm all like" and the like (ahem) present a fascinating change toward nuance in how we relate stories and reflect our experiences in so doing. I can't help but wonder if the increase in present tense narration in fiction somehow ties in here.
• Want a little early taste of what to expect from the circus setting of Girl on a Wire? The one and only Beth Revis has been running a great blog series featuring three authors per post talking settings of their books for the past monthish. Check out mine alongside Leah Cypess's Death Sworn and Kami Garcia's Unbreakable.

Friday Hangovers

• Brain was too tired to blog much this week, because copy edits take All The Focus. (But YAY copy edits = one step closer to BOOK. I bought shoes to celebrate.) Next week should be better. She said, from within the growing shadow of an approaching (but still one month out, so ages ahaha) deadline. At any rate, it's definitely time for a new I Heart post, because I have things to recommend. And I think we're ordering a lightbox, so that should be like magical happy-times. Winter, man. This year it is not fun. (But I content myself knowing that come summer, there will be a nice stretch of time in LISBON in a supercute apartment.)
• Leila makes a shocking discovery.
• On character morality and Maslow's heirarchy of needs. (Via Cyn.)
• Agent and wonderful human Barry Goldblatt created the Angela Johnson Scholarship for New Students of Color or Ethnic Minority at my MFA alma mater, the Vermont College of Fine Arts' program in writing for children and young adults. The deadline to apply is April 30; please spread the word to eligible writers you know who might be interested.
• My dear pal Laurel Snyder has a new middle grade novel out this week titled Seven Stories Up. I highly recommend it to all people of good taste, and also that you follow up with her Bigger Than a Breadbox afterward. She also wrote a great post about the book and how her own grandmother became part of it. Snippet: "I tell kids all the time: you only need one friend. And I believe this, deeply. In my own childhood this was absolutely true. As a kid I could handle any amount of bullying, aloneness, or family drama, because I had one real best friend. One person who thought I was the most awesome person in the world. Even if my jeans were cheap and I was no good at kickball."
• And speaking of fab books about to enter the world, Jeff VanderMeer's Annilation, the first in his Southern Reach trilogy (the entire thing will be out this year!), is out next week. You want this book. I have long been a fan of Jeff's work, and I can tell you, this is his best work yet. A great read.
• Hobo glossaries. Per this:

My new hobo name is Old Miso Soup Sweater, because I just spilled miso soup all over my sweater.

— Gwenda Bond (@Gwenda) January 31, 2014

• A whole mad hobo twitter convo ensued. I love twitter. Have a great weekend, my Weary Willies, and try to stay out of boodle jail. Unless it's warmer there.

Wednesday Hangovers

• Circus daredevil book copy edits to do and second half of secret project to write and etcetera, oh my! A busy week here, so some links, and hopefully a real entry later on this week--probably about how our first couple weeks of VB6 have been going. 
• First up is a cool promotion that Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry is doing with Total Film magazine this month, highlighting some of their books that were optioned for TV and movies. Snag a copy of the print magazine or pick up an electronic copy and find out how to download free e-books of mine own Blackwood, Ramez Naam's Nexus, and Richard Parker's Scare Me. Details at the SC blog or just go buy the magazine here.
• Courtney Milan writing smartly as usual about the book business, this time taking on print sales for historical romances. Lots here applicable to other genres as well.
• Merrill Markoe's "How I Stopped Procrastinating" in the NYT: "Here’s what I learned: First thing in the morning, before I have drowned myself in coffee, while I still have that sleepy brain I used to believe was useless — that is the best brain for creative writing. Words come pouring out easily while my head still feels as if it is full of ground fog, wrapped in flannel and gauze, and surrounded by a hive of humming, velvety sleep bees." I have found this to be a surefire cure if I'm having trouble, and my best first draft groove.
• The expanded universe as gateway at io9.
• I love it when Austin Kleon posts a good old-fashioned blog entry: "A good spaceship for time travel."
• Kevin Brockmeier's "Dead Last Is a Kind of Second Place" at the Georgia Review.
• The classic paintings come alive thing is utterly. magical.
• Chuck Wendig guest posts on why he doesn't guest post much. Sensible! Because, if you have to do a lot, as is frequently asked of authors: It. Is. So. Time. Consuming. I think my new policy is going to be that I'll only do interviews and actual essays that I feel would be worth people's time to read, in places that make sense. Most of the blogs I read regularly--with the exception of Chuck's, Scalzi's, and a couple of others--aren't that heavy on guest posts either, and it's mainly for the reason he says. I read most of the blogs I read for the voice of the owner/author/operator (a recent case in point: Leila Roy blogs her read of V.C. Andrews' Petals on the Wind; you will to laugh). With exceptions, of course. And I do have a soft spot for the ugly word blog. So antiquated you kind of have to love it. Like one of those crazy ugly dogs that somehow goes full circle and becomes adorable.
• Colleen Mondor just totally sold me on this book, Miss Me When I'm Gone.
• The hazards of sitting. Something I wish I wasn't thinking about, but after looking at this illustration can't stop thinking about. Must be better about yoga.

Friday Hangovers

• Just a quick links post for today--heading into three-day working weekend on Secret Project.
• Still overwhelmed by everyone's reaction to the sexism and self-promo piece. An author who doesn't know where to get started on this whole promotion thing? The wonderful Saundra Mitchell has re-posted a series of incredibly helpful links on just that.
• There's another great Jennifer Weiner interview at the Huffington Post, by the way.
• The New York Times rounds up the latest sleep research in fascinating fashion. Get your winks, or have a dirty brain.
• Really interesting, smart piece from Ruthie Knox at Wonk-o-mance on "Writing Reality" in romance: "Also, and more to the point, there is a way in which we tell ourselves — we, as romance readers and writers and editors, pretend among ourselves — that this kind of policing is not harmful, when it is, actually. It’s harmful to our culture, our social fabric, to perpetuate a narrow idea of who is and isn’t allowed to be sexy, what is and is not sexually okay, what can and cannot be permitted romantically."
• Yael Goldstein Love asks Should 'Women's Fiction' Have Its Own Category at the WSJ in a thoughtful piece: "To the extent that we care about good fiction getting written and provoking the pleasure it warrants, the consequences of viewing literature as male by default are getting in our way. For a writer to travel as far as her talent can take her, she must have the sense that she owns her art. And for a reader to be able to travel that full length along with her, he, too, must not doubt her right of full ownership."
• Tess Monaghan writes about disappearing older women at Open Ticket: "Marie Weinberg, C’est Moi."
• New Meghan McCarron story! "Terrible Lizards" at The Collagist. Get it into your brain.
• Genevieve watches the new Flowers In The Attic movie for the AV Club: "The 1987 feature film was a diluted fumble—incest is replaced by a few chaste clinches—but it doubled down on camp, letting the Dollanganger kids publicly punish mom and giving Cathy two separate opportunities to look to the sky and scream, “Noooo!” Lifetime refrains from either of those over-the-top flourishes. But restraint is probably this new production’s biggest problem."
• Christopher put his one and only published poem up online. You should go read it.
• And, lastly, a couple of nice new blog reviews of The Woken Gods this week, at the Summer Reading Project and from Beth Kemp at Thoughts from the Hearthfire. Kemp writes: "Fabulous use of mythologies to create a world where the gods of various pantheons are alive and well and seriously dangerous. I found Kyra’s quest gripping and was quickly invested emotionally." And I beam madly.
• Have a nice weekend, everyone!

Friday Hangovers

I promised more posting, so here I am. And while I have an actual suggested topic or two, I'm going to save them for next week...because I stayed up way too late last night hanging out with bad influence friends:

I am keeping @larazontally because snow and we have gained an @maureenmcq and @christopherrowe. pic.twitter.com/mbxlXKzx1q

— Gwenda Bond (@Gwenda) January 3, 2014

I regret nothing. But you get hangovers, some of which are very old. But maybe you didn't see them the first time around.

• That fascinating Atlantic piece on how Netflix's weird category system works. Don't miss it. A favorite quote: "Let me get philosophical for a minute. In a human world, life is made interesting by serendipity," Yellin told me. "The more complexity you add to a machine world, you're adding serendipity that you couldn't imagine. Perry Mason is going to happen. These ghosts in the machine are always going to be a by-product of the complexity. And sometimes we call it a bug and sometimes we call it a feature."
• Salon's most underrated albums of 2013.
• I forgot to show this one to Christopher: Sesame Street parodies LOTR.
• Bad client criticism as posters. Cringe-worthy anti-brilliance.
• Why we need more than three genders, at NPR.
• I'm obsessed with Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. (Give to me season two! Never let it end!) If you haven't tried it yet, get streaming (on Netflix currently).
• Alice Kim's fabu Buzzfeed piece, about Philip K. Dick and so many other things.
• Welcome news for the writers in the bar.
• I know this is full of Salon stuff, but hey, I couldn't leave out Michele Filgate's excellent piece on how to avoid literary self-loathing.
• The PEN 10 featuring Alexander Chee: "I still like a train best for this kind of thing. I wish Amtrak had residencies for writers. And after trains, libraries at night, especially empty ones." World's best idea.
• An essay about why you should be watching The Good Wife and Scandal, two of my never-miss shows.
• Ramez Naam brings some welcome optimism about the future.
• The most incredible historical discoveries of 2013.
• Got Ted?
• And hey, one more gratuitous time (for now!): GIRL ON A WIRE has a pre-order page. (More info and/or add it on goodreads here.)

Monday Hangovers

• How about some little pointers to interesting things for a Monday, since I need to close some tabs? I took the weekend off (gasp) (bliss), and we finally went to see Thor: The Dark World. I loved it. If you like beautiful men, well-written women, and superhero movies that aren't afraid to be funny, go see it.
• Justine Musk did a TedxWomen's talk that is a must read, about women owning their confidence and the art of the deep yes.
• Rick Riordan has an incredibly smart post about publishing and why connections matter little, ultimately.
• The Someday My Printz Will Come blog over at SLJ is heating up as we approach ALA Midwinter and the awards announcements. While I don't always agree with the assessments of this book or that book, the posts and discussion are always thoughtful and well worth checking out. The Eleanor & Park post is a good place to start. (Love that book. Looove it--and I am in the Yes, this is definitely award-worthy camp.)
• The Story of the Lost Paleozoic Museum.
• A look at the daily routines of various creatives and the commonalities therein.
• Men and women's brains inherently different? Not so fast; individual differences are greater.
• Heather Havrilevsky writes about Nora Ephron as influential writer of new journalism, constrasting her with Joan Didion: "When life gave Ephron lemons, in other words, she made a giant vat of really good vodka-spiked lemonade and invited all of her friends and her friends’ friends over to share it, and gossip, and play charades."
• Over on twitter, Laura Miller linked to this fabulous interview she did in 2011 with editor Robert Gottlieb, which is funny and filled with great stuff.
• And, finally, Jenny Crusie being crazytastic smart as usual, this time on when character deaths work and when they don't. Yes, yes, yes. When I first read this post, I got it completely, and also understood immediately why so many animal deaths in books just make readers angry (including this one)--because they are only emotionally resonant, but don't matter to the story. Yes.

Wednesday Hangovers

• Yes, yes, I still owe you an extra; tomorrow, my pretties. Today, let's clean out some hangovers. I'll try to get back on a regular schedule of posting at least a couple of times a week, but it's busy times so that may not always happen. I definitely owe an I Heart post soon as well.
• Foz Meadows' brilliant Mainstream YA Article Bingo Card.
• Daniel Menaker's hilarious insider account of the loopy nature of the biz we call pub. Snippet: "Publishing is an often incredibly frustrating culture. If you want to buy a project—let’s say a nonfiction proposal for a book about the history of Sicily—some of your colleagues will say, “The proposal is too dry” or “Cletis Trebuchet did a book for Grendel Books five years ago about Sardinia and it sold, like, eight copies,” or, airily, “I don’t think many people want to read about little islands.” When Seabiscuit first came up for discussion at an editorial meeting at Random House, some skeptic muttered, “Talk about beating a dead horse!” "
• Speaking of which, Alison Cherry has a post worth your time "Nine Things I Wish I'd Known About Publishing." I managed to avoid the depression, but certainly there are the pre- and release-month (and other sporadic) publishing crazies nonetheless, and it's impossible to avoid those. (It probably did not hurt that I had watched so many people go through it, and there's also my patented philosophy of always expecting the worst. Because: Usually reality is better. Plus, writing really is the best. Hard, but so worth it.)
• A great piece about Terri Windling, where she says lots of smart things about fairy tales: “The original fairy tales were far more violent than the ones we know today, and the bits of darkness that still linger in them comes from that time,” Windling said. “But I think kids like the darkness — I know I did. Particularly if you are a child that comes in any way from a battled household, or are being bullied at school, to read about the fact that there is hardship in the world but that if you’re plucky and brave, you can overcome it, I think that’s an important thing for kids to read about.”
• Jennifer Lawrence: Kick-ass Kentuckian, and Class Act.
• A great interview with Patrick Ness: "My advice about writing is always, Write with joy. People might not be able to tell that that's the thing they're responding to, but I believe that if you write with joy every day, that rubs off. It's an intangible thing, but if you do something joyously, it's going to attract other people like mad."
• Nicola Griffith at Tor.com on whether Hild is fantasy, but really on the overlap between historical fiction and fantasy. Fascinating stuff.
• R.I.P. Charlotte Zolotow. Loved this brief remembrance by Roger Sutton at the Horn Book. And Laurel's.
• Lev Grossman talks to Suzanne Collins and the director Catching Fire for Time, in installments.
• Also, always necessary: pygmy hippo baby.

Thursday Hangovers

• Just a reminder, I'm in Asheville at Malaprop's tonight at 7 p.m. with Megan Shepherd (The Madman's Daughter), Meagan Spooner (Shadowlark), April Tucholke (Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea). I'm sure the store would be glad to get you a signed book, even if you can't make it. Annnd now for all those many hangovers I promised you.
• Anne Ursu speaking eloquently about middle grade and getting heavy.
• Laurie Anderson on her relationship with Lou Reed in Rolling Stone. See also: Patti Smith in the New Yorker.
• Another wonderful column from the divine Lauren Cerand.
• The Atlantic talks to several YA authors about how they approach their work.
• Also at The Atlantic, Robin Wasserman talks about the impact of Stephen King's work on her.
• Mette Harrison with some typically smart observations about writing and publishing.
• Why Are Thousands Of People Dreaming About This Man?
• Two of my favoritest people in the world, Kelly Link and Meghan McCarron, talking about the Vampire Diaries and narrative.
• Eliot Schrefer's fabulous New York Times piece about writing for kids and teens, in case you missed it: "When I turned in my first officially young adult novel, my editor didn’t cut for content. He didn’t strike a single moment of sexual desire or brooding or bad language. What he did was set a pretension barometer twice as strict as adult fiction’s and started deleting every time the arrow ticked over."
• Justine Larbalestier talks about romance and YA, including many smart thoughts from some of my favorite adult romance authors.
• Why I have to get back to yoga.
• Maud Newton's introduction to her conversation with Donna Tartt.
• The most important YA posts you'll read this week: Kelly Jensen at Stacked on gender and the New York Times' bestseller list: part one and part two.
• Bejeweled skeletons.
• And, last but never least, Genevieve Valentine reveals the madcap awesomeness of this year's Miss Universe national costume competition. My kingdom for them to put this back in the televised program.

Thursday Hangovers + Signing Hijinks

• Busybusybusy = links and then some photographicals from last weekend's event at the Morris Book Shop. I have every intention of catching up on emails within the next few days, so if I owe you one: it is coming.
• Like the movie Clue? Me too. This Buzzfeed piece is for you.
• First mechanical gear found in a living creature.
• The HuffPo's guide to the "tangled web of teen fandoms."
• I don't think I could love Allison Janey more. Make this woman the star of a movie / TV show / whatever-she-wants.
• A love letter to Lexington, our city, which we generally adore.

A few nice reviews:

• At My Library in the Making: "All the interconnecting conspiracies made The Woken Gods a true thriller, but it still had a twisted sense of humor that perfectly fit this twisted book. It was truly unpredictable, and there was a well-developed and swoon-worthy romance to boot. Despite a few slow moments, I was never bored. To sum this up, The Woken Gods is a freaking awesome book that I would definitely recommend to Rick Riordan fans, and oh, who do I have to beg for a sequel?" *beam*
• At Much-Loved Books: "The synopsis gives a good idea about what The Woken Gods is about, but it's not until I began reading that I really got to see the world Gwenda has created, full of mythology, secrets, mysteries, and some pretty scary monsters." *beam again*
• At Badass Book Reviews: "My favorite had to be the god Anzu, who was assigned to protect Kyra. Anzu was a flying lion griffin-like god and he was very protective of Kyra, especially after she helped him out." I include this because Anzu seems to be everyone's favorite!
• And some nice words for Blackwood (and other Strange Chemistry books!) on e-book sale at YA Yeah Yeah: "Electric chemistry between the two, a truly chilling villain, and one of the best endings of the year make this a must read." *beam the final*
• Updated list of all The Woken Gods promo stops so far, including the real-world imaginary tour ones. Remember: Reading and spreading the word makes kittens happy.

I often talk about how my local bookstore cup runneth over. We are so lucky, and I know it, to have such a vibrant literary scene and such great bookstores. I already posted about the launch day signing event at Joseph-Beth, but wanted to thank the fabulous Morris Book Shop, aka MoBoSho, for hosting me last weekend. Should you want signed copies, both have plenty (and personalizations can be arranged).

There were delicious cupcakes:

 

 

And a bookstore-owner with a chainsaw (because don't all bookstores have people come in on Saturday night to return a chainsaw borrowed from the staff?):

 

 

 And my pal Alison saying nice things that I can't quite believe are true:

 

 

Christopher's adorable nephew William, who assured me he was not listening during the scary parts of my reading (and thanks to Christopher for playing the mermaid in our bonus reading from the collaboration we've been working on--once again a show-stealer!):

  

 

And then we went out for dinner and drinks and such, but not before goofily clutching the sign:

 

 

Upcoming stuff! Next weekend, Christopher and I will be reading (and signing anything put before us) at Straight Shot Coffee in Middletown, Ohio, at 2 p.m. And next month I'll be at Mysterious Galaxy Redondo Beach, on Oct. 13 at 2:30 p.m., and then at Malaprops in Asheville (with several other authors) on Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. Details on the events page, and reminders closers to.

Ciao.

Wednesday Hangovers

• There should be one more stop coming on the real-life imaginary places tour sometime this week, and I have the aforementioned convo with Kim to post here, but today links. Because time is short.
• I was ecstatic to find The Woken Gods in truly marvelous company on io9's Most Essential SFF of September list yesterday. Yay. And a gentle request to please spread the word if you're reading and enjoying the book: word of mouth is a beautiful thing.
• Quick reminder for local folks that I will be at Morris Book Shop at 6 p.m. on Saturday to read and chat and sign--and I'll be bringing cupcakes. So. Be there! It should be a fun time.
• I absolutely love Paolo's Big Idea essay for Zombie Baseball Beatdown, a book which sounds like it will be as much a blast to read as it was to write. I've mentioned here before that Christopher and I have been writing a book together this summer, and it has been just this kind of invigorating in creative terms. This spring, I was feeling pretty burnt out after finishing The Woken Gods at a fever pitch and entering the time of waiting for it to come out. But circumstances conspired to give us an idea that came at just the right time, with a few months where I (and C) could play around without worrying about imminent deadlines or dropping the ball on something else. It's so easy to lose that sense of play. Now I remember why it's important not to. Collaborating has been a great experience, and it's a little odd now that I've also been working on something new solo again (and soon circus edits!). Anyway. Go read Paolo's essay.
• J.L. Bell on narrative momentum.
• Katherine Langrish on witches in children's literature.
• Charlie Jane Anders has a brief but potent new story in Tin House, "The Skunk," which is odd and funny and a little sad and well worth your time.
• I loved this account by Diane Zahler of her publishing journey. That is commitment.
• A great post you've probably already seen by Madeline Ashby, but pointing to it here in case you missed it. Snippet: "YA is what Clayton Christensen would call a “disruptive innovation,” a product that addresses the needs of a neglected customer segment not being served by the dominant incumbents in power. That some of the fiction isn’t terribly innovative doesn’t matter. What was innovative was treating teens like the serious market demographic that they are: a tightly-connected, actively social group in possession of disposable income who want books about the characters that nervous agents and major publishers won’t touch, like queer characters, non-white characters, and girls." Go read it all.
• Speaking of which, Malinda Lo considers why adults read YA from a slightly different vantage than the usual.
• Drunk History's Dolly Parton segment. I heart Dolly. Forever.

Thursday Hangovers

• Real posts soon, promise, but for now some links.
• Golden Retriever Festival in Scotland. These photos are my new happy place.
• Great piece by Michael Erard at The Morning News, "Rumors of Tribes": "I collected high school names using Twitter and Survey Monkey and came across “crumbsters,” a label for the popular kids, and the “queer cult,” for the semi-populars, though if awards were given out for creative crowd labels, the kids at one New Jersey high school in the mid-2000s might win for naming their popular crowd in the aftermath of a food fight that happened in ninth grade, when one of the most popular girls shrieked and generally overreacted after she was hit in the face with a flying chicken patty. The popular kids became known as “chicken patties.” "
• The super-fancy Robin Wasserman interviewed Ann Patty, the editor who pulled V.C. Andrews from the slush pile. See also: an essay from Patty and a piece by Sara Gran and Megan Abbott in the Believer.
• The fab Kelly Braffet wrote a great piece about persevering in the face of naysayers: "After school, I drove to the mall. Soon enough, as always, I found myself in the bookstore. There, surrounded by all of those lovely shelves, row upon row of lovely books, I realized: They hadn’t written themselves. People had written them. Clearly, writing books was not impossible. I was a person; therefore I could write books. And also, Mrs. Smith could go to hell."
• A micro-lesson on the importance of varying sentence lengths.
• Stephen Blackmoore and Chuck Wendig tackle the kinds of questions that usually get posed only to ladies, over at Whack! The results are hilarious.

The Woken Gods release day continues its approach:

• Quick reminder that today's the last day to send the preoder proof if you want a relic typed up and sent to you via the mail. I'm really looking forward to doing these. *twirls fingers evilly*
• A happy-making new review at SF Signal by Paul Weimer. Snippet: "In addition to Kyra as a character, the other feature of Woken Gods that really stands out to the reader is its creative use of mythology. Before reading it, I had expected the usual suspects of Greco-Roman mythology, or perhaps, if I was fortunate, a Norse Goddess or two thrown into the mix. ... To my surprise and delight, the Gods we see in the Woken Gods are none of the usual suspects."

And a new pretty image et quote:

 

More soon!

Thursday Hangovers Et Things

• Could the moonshine cake be my new bourbon chocolates? I'm always looking for good regional cuisine mailing gifts for thank yous. (Via Cherie Priest.)
• There have been lots of smart thoughts bopping around tumblr re:movies based on YA novels and movies featuring teen girls, generated by an excellent post by Ally Carter. One of my favorite responses so far is this one from Cassie: "What Twilight, City of Bones, the Hunger Games, and Divergent have in common is that they are about teenage girls, and to people who know about YA, about fiction, even just about stories, that’s really not that much, or even a notable similarity." Go read the whole thing, and go see City of Bones, obvs, because it is going to be AWESOME.
• Would you like Boris Karloff's guacamole recipe? I would.
• The delightful Myra McEntire speaks the truth about the importance of writer friends.
• Genevieve did a wonderful post about eight notable silent films, focusing on the actresses at the heart of them. A great primer if you want to know more about the ladies of the silent era. I swooned. I love them so.
• 15 million-year-old whale skull found on banks of the Potomac. (You say whale, I say ancient god who looks like a whale. *g*)
• The science of champers at Smithsonian: "The collapse of bubbles at the surface is Liger-Belair’s favorite thing about champagne. “Bubbles collapsing close to each other produce unexpected lovely flower-shaped structures unfortunately completely invisible by the naked eye,” he says. “This is a fantastic example of the beauty hidden right under our nose.” "
• Photos of Shanghai 26 years apart. Astounding.
• If you're into SoundCloud, you can get the whole first season of Radio Unbound here (including the ep with me reading from Blackwood).

And some The Woken Gods things:

• The preorder contest is still going, of course, so watch video or read post! Then buy! Email! Get a postcard with a relic! Spread the word! Yay! (I'm really looking forward to writing these, and thanks SO MUCH to everyone who has already entered and who's signal boosted. Every book sold helps feed dogs et cat, so they thank you too.)
• And soon I will be all everywhere guest posting and doing interviews and etc.; if you want to be a part of that, get in touch with me or the fabulous Caroline Lambe at Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry, and we'll do our best to accomodate.
• Los Angeles area lovelies, I'm coming your way! My first-ever west coast event will be Oct. 13 at 2:30 p.m. at Mysterious Galaxy Redondo Beach. Calendarize and come out. And speaking of events, my Lexington ones for The Woken Gods are also now confirmed on the events page--so Kentucky peeps, come one and all.
• A couple more happy-making advance reviews this week, including this lovely one from Torre de Babel, which you can read in English at GoodReads: "Behind an amazing cover lurks a well-crafted divine drama. If you like alternate realities and mythology turned true, you're guaranteed a heck of a good reading." Plus, Kyra and Anzu love. Yay.
• Another nice one at the The Founding Fields: “A great, fast paced and fun novel that puts a new spin on the 'Gods Are Real' storyline that fans of the Percy Jackson series and other similar titles will love. ... Kyra’s character is strong and awesome, and when this book hits shelves next month, you should certainly pick it up if you can. Young Adult readers will love this one.”
• And Daphne at Winged Reviews put me among 'I'm seriously not worthy' company on her Tuesday top ten books she wants sequels to. *beam*

Thursday Hangovers

It's August 1! My reaction to this news over at Facebook. *bats eyelashes while semi-panicking*

And now some hangovers; several of these are old, but hey, I stockpiled them for some reason and maybe you missed them. Closing ye olde tabs.

• Chuck Wendig drops some truth about the season of crazy that goes with a book release.
• The New Yorker on the decline and fall of the book cover.
• I loved loved Linda Holmes' letter to the oddball kids we desperately need to make the future interesting: "The fact that nobody is doing what you imagine doing is the beginning of your idea, not the end. People want to read things that haven't been written, see things that haven't been made, and hear things that don't yet exist. Don't be discouraged when you don't see yourself reflected in what's being shown to you, let alone what's being heavily marketed to you." Good advice for all of us. Really, the whole piece is fab--and the distinction between criticism and feedback is particularly useful.
• A wonderful interview at the Guardian with the divine Eduardo Galeano. Snippet: "Galeano talks like this a lot – not in riddles, exactly, but enigmatically and playfully, using time as his foil. When I ask him whether he is optimistic about the state of the world, he says: "It depends on when you ask me during the day. From 8am until noon I am pessimistic. Then from 1pm until 4 I feel optimistic." I met him in a hotel lobby in downtown Chicago at 5pm, sitting with a large glass of wine, looking quite happy."
• Stephen King on openings (aka the toughest part for me, always and forever). Smart stuff, as always: "An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this."
• This piece by Stephen Roxburgh on working with Roald Dahl on The Witches is a fabulous close-up look at the editing process: “This is not a cliché to children, it is a situation they will enjoy. I must keep reminding you that this is a book for children and I don’t give a bugger what grown-ups think about it. This has always been my attitude.”
• Don't like talking in front of people? This might help, or in my parlance: Pretend to be a spy. It works, for nearly anything you hate doing--reading in front of people, giving a speech, talking on the phone.
• Good stuff in this discussion about pirating and how it's lesser known authors it hurts the most. The sigh I make when a new pirate link turns up in google alerts or someone emails me about is one of the heaviest sighs I am capable of. Authors need you to buy their books or get them through legitimate means, as Sarah says--borrow from a friend or the library--in order to keep writing books. It's that simple.
• A typically smart craft piece from Charlie Jane on tone: "You're trying to draw your reader into a particular mood, and if the reader isn't getting into it or feels like it's all over the map, then it's probably a good time to think about whether you're in control of your tone."
• Loved this open letter to new writers from James Smythe about sales and receptions and etc. etc. 
• Also loved this piece from Kim Curran at SF Signal about how no one ever told her women aren't supposed to write SF, and her experience doing so. Snippet: "Society has tried, in various, pernicious ways, to divide the genders. To place men in the blue corner and women in the pink corner, and keep us fighting. But we’re starting to see through their schemes. To refuse to play by their rules. Women and men are joining forces to try and make SF a healthier place for everyone. It may take us time, but we’ll get there."
• Lazy sloth being hilarious.

Monday Hangovers

• The murky world of literary libel. (Glad I prefer making up characters...)
• I love a good dialect and geography piece.
• These writing tips from children's book editors at the Guardian contain some gems.
• An excellent post from Cassie about the love triangle in The Infernal Devices series and problematic reactions to girls and women characters. Snippet: "We’ve got to stop seeing women as rewards for men, as trophies to be handed to the best man, as important only in how they emotionally affect men, as nothing but useless clutter in a story that’s really about men, or that should be about men. We have to stop thinking of women as not deserving what they ‘get’—especially if what they get is to be in the center of the narrative, to have the special powers, to be the ones who live forever, to be the ones who love more than once."
• How the pilcrow (or paragraph symbol) came to be and then mostly died out.
• Ancient underwater Cypress forest found off the Alabama coast.
• Smart Bitches examines some weird dudes on romance covers and asks the question: why so weird, dudes on romance covers?
• Emma Straub and Laura Moriarty talk old Hollywood with Anne Helen Petersen.
• The definitive Sharknado interview.

Tuesday Hangovers

• Time for a visit to link land, and the closing of tabs. In the offline world, it's all middle grade revision (fun!) around these environs at the moment, with a little time off to enjoy the out of doors, try to get back into yoga, and think about what's next and promoting the gods book.
• Speaking of which... I know a lot of people were vacationing or off the grid at the end of last week for the holiday, so for you fancy types who get advance copies of things--reviewers/bloggers, booksellers, librarians--there are ARCs floating around of The Woken Gods as of the end of last week. You can request on Netgalley or contact Strange Chemistry about print ARCs. This is, again, not a sequel to Blackwood, but entirely different. And I am entirely nervous! (For everyone else, it's out Sept. 3, and my plottings and plannings for release and some fun things are kicking into gear accordingly. If you have an interview or event request or want to ask for a guest post or the like, let me or Angry Robot's PR doyenne know.) 
• And a hearty thanks to Mieneke at A Fantastical Librarian for including The Woken Gods on her list of books she's most looking forward to the rest of the year (such company!), and to everyone who's Waiting on Wednesdayed or said kind things about being excited elsewhere. That you're excited makes me excited. <3
• Two great posts for writers, at any stage of their career, really: Julianna Baggott at Writer Unboxed on you not being your sales and Chuck Wendig on the fact nobody knows what sells so write what excites you. Obviously, we all want great sales, because we all want our work to reach as many readers as possible. But the work has to come first or, whether it's sooner or later, you're doomed. I really believe that. It's the only thing you can control, and it makes enduring the things you can't control worth it. Every time.
• I'm definitely hoping to get to New York while Leonard Marcus's "The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter" exhibit is running at the NYPL, but I'm grateful for all the people writing about it anyway.
• Megan Frampton's list of 10 Must-Read Romance Novels. Some are not my thing, but a solid starting point nevertheless (and it includes several books I love).
• Ava Gardner dishes the dirt.
• Walter Potter's taxidermic art of "Victorian whimsy."
•  John Scalzi's new convention harassment policy. Very glad to see the enthusiastic and positive reaction to this. There's no excuse for a convention not to have one after all the discussions that have taken place of late (though there really wasn't before, either). Also: What Mary Robinette Kowal said.
• "I was a manic pixie dream girl."
• The Gift of Doubt by Malcom Gladwell in the New Yorker. Interesting stuff.
• You guys have been checking out the new YA Writers sub-Reddit that the amazing Beth Revis helps moderate, haven't you? I'm a newb to Reddit and have only been able to dip in a toe a couple of times thus far, but it looks like it's going to be full of helpful discussions. Some interesting recent threads as a starting point: Saundra Mitchell gives excellent low time-investment marketing advice, Discussion: High Concept, and A Six-Figure YA Book Deal Broken Down. This could become the place to procrastinate. (Okay, probably not while twitter exists, but it is definitely starting to look like one of them.)

Friday Hangovers

• A proper post or two next week, but for now closing some tabs. Also, Christopher and I will be bopping around the exhibits hall and the general festivities at ALA in Chicago next weekend. So say hi!
• Joss Whedon offers some good advice for being productive.
• Coffee might not always be the best for creativity? WHAT. Flawed study. *pretends never saw this*
• Cheryl Klein has a post on terms to help in discussing endings.
• An interesting take on the Miss Utah answer flub at the WaPo from Alexandra Petri: "Besides, only at the Miss USA pageant would you ask a woman, teetering in heels and an evening gown, who had just strutted her stuff in a swim suit on national television in a competition redolent of the Atlantic City beach in the 1920s, to explain the question of pay inequality coherently in a minute or less. That’s the bizarre double standard, in a nutshell. It’s a microcosm of what women have to deal with, in various less ludicrous forms, everywhere they go."
• Genevieve on Dealing With It. (Must read. Also, for the record, my RT of this post is the first time I've ever had to block someone for responding with sexist nonsense on twitter. So, there you go.)
• Charlie Jane has a fascinating piece on research on empathy and how we might create more of it.
• I have been semi-shocked to learn that Bennett Madison's new novel September Girls--which I have made no secret of my admiration for (I also adored Blonde of the Joke)--has apparently gotten tons of flack from being construed as misogynist. Which it is NOT. Here's an interview where Bennett discusses his intentions and the layers of a book that I very much do consider feminist, and also one of my favorites of the year. I particularly loved this point: "To me it’s better to try to say something and fail to say it in a way that everyone will understand than it is to avoid saying that same thing because I’m assuming my audience isn’t sophisticated enough for it. Pandering to an imagined audience of people who will get the “wrong” message is more than just an insult to my readers– it’s ignoring my responsibilities as a writer." This.
• Tanita Davis gives some straight talk on diversity and the lack thereof in children's books: "This matters. Not because I am a person of color. Not because I don’t feel “comfortable” reading books that don’t feature people of color. But because the longer we tell young adults and children that they are invisible from their own imagination, the more we’re allowing them to disappear from the world’s stories. The more we’re encouraging them to be audience instead of actor, observer instead of participant." Go read the whole post.
• Andrew Shaffer creates a quiz using "breathless physical descriptions" of authors from NYT profiles. FUN.
• Stephen Colbert's tribute to his mother; prepare to cry.

Monday Hangovers

• Molly Templeton searches out the best Game of Thrones fanfic and reports back. More GoT-ness: The Banshee of the O'Neills (tertiary, but fascinating) and a dad tries to name all the characters in one sitting.
• Did you know Alfred Bester wrote Green Lantern's oath? That and more SF trivia over at Kirkus blogs.
• A typewriter redone to create visual art. This is really lovely.
• So is this poem.
• Austin highlights a few portions of Oliver Burkeman's The Antidote.
• What might humans look like in 100,000 years?
• Annalee Newitz on the late Devonian period at The Atlantic. Started Scatter, Adapt, and Remember over the weekend, and so enjoying it. 
• One-star reviews for classic novels.
• I usually cringe at business theory type stuff, but this Fast Company piece on motivational tricks seems applicable to writer types. 
• Sign up for the new Lizzie Skurnick line's newsletter. You know you want to.
• An underwater fashion show in 1947. With ping pong and everything.
• I don't want Google Reader to go. 
• GO CONGRATULATE LEILA. So happy for you, and for your town.

Tuesday Hangovers

• Nine amazing abandoned mansions at io9. Love.
• Nora Jemisin's exceptional guest of honor speech from Continuum.
• The unsavory history of European cannibalism.
• Genevieve lays out a cracking case that the Fast & Furious franchise is our time's Three Musketeers corollary. 
• One of the most charming interviews ever, in which Jamie (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) conference calls in Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) to hilarious result.
• An important post about sexism in publishing from author Delilah Dawson.
• Speaking of sexism, see also this smackdown delivered by Phyllis Richman 52 years after Harvard asked her a personal question before it would admit her.
• Sarah Dessen and her editor Regina Hayes in conversation at Slate.
• Have you seen Neil Patrick Harris's opening number from the Tonys? Pure happiness.

Friday Hangovers

• Yeah, yeah, I know! I disappeared again. But Christopher and I are finishing the first draft of our (sorta secret, except if you follow either of us on twitter or are facebook friends you know we're doing one) collaborative middle grade book today. Yep, we wrote a book together. In a month. And it was fun. Now we do some fixing, and show it to people, and I will definitely do a post about what I've learned from this process. Useful stuff I hope to take back to my solo work...especially since I'll be starting something new SOON.
• Other excitment in the works: I do believe you will get to see The Woken Gods cover (eek!!!) next week. Again: !!! And I imagine ARCs will be floating around soon as well, and of course, the book itself will be out in September. I'll just be over here breathing into a paper bag. Anyway, hope you like it--cover, book, the whole shebang. And now some links!
• Let's start with the ancient tales of a shapeshifting Jesus. Dan Brown, start your engines. (Via the estimable Colleen Lindsay.)
• "Ancient Egyptian relics were made of iron from space."
• And one more ancient things link--"Lost Egyptian City Revealed After 1200 Years Under the Sea."
• Author Jennifer Lynne Barnes has written two amazingly smart, incredibly fascinating posts following up on the "what makes a big book?" discussion that John Green touched off with his post about TFiOS' success and what he believes factored into it. These are MUST READS if you're an author or in publishing or just talk about books in real life or online (especially the second one). Post the first and post the second.
• A crazy crazy vendetta story at Salon involving Ringling Bros./Barnum & Bailey. As I've already said elsewhere, some of the things mentioned in here are why I created my own circus for Girl on a Wire...so I could have the kind of circus I wanted to write about. Because after all the reading I've done, I do find the revelations in that piece shocking, but not surprising (if that makes any sense). But hey, we've got AGES before you get to read that book, so I'll say no more.
• A lovely profile of the wonderful Karen Berger in the NYT. She will be missed in the comics world; that's for sure.
• Veronica Roth's BEA speech is well worth your time. Snippet: "People say that writing is an isolated activity, but good writing requires company. Company that you ultimately love and cherish and value, and this perspective towards criticism, ultimate improvement requires humility."
• Baked Avocado Bacon and Eggs. This little piece of heaven came from the fab Beth Revis and I will be making it this weekend. YUM.
• The long-lost (and apparently terrible) ET game for Atari might be unearthed from a landfill? Snippet: "A Canadian studio has confirmed to the BBC it will search a former landfill site in New Mexico where Atari's much-criticised ET game may be buried."
• Best news: Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is this weekend's COVER REVIEW (by Barbara Kingsolver, who raves!) of the NYTBR. Read it! Yay! Great things happening to a great book by a great person. My favorite.

Wednesday Hangovers

• A real post soon, maybe about what I'm learning (so far) from mine and C's secret project collaborative lark...as we hit the halfway point in it today. (Wow, that was fast. Double typing fingers means double word counts. And it is also proving an excellent distraction from The Nerves kicking in about The Woken Gods, now that it's more or less done and beginning to be read by some people...and even more people soon. Like, out in three months soon. Ack.)
• But first I'm just going to close some tabs--many of them bookish.
• I always love a peek at other people's processes, and the delightful Rachael Herron obliges with how she sets her target word count and keeps perspective on a project. 
• Scientific American confirms the Internet is a giant black hole of time-suckage. Best part is new term: email apnea. This modern life, I tell you.
• The singular and amazing Chuck Wendig recently did a great two part interview over at Fantasy Faction. Go read it, then buy his new book The Blue Blazes, why don't you?
• Skeleton Lake in India. One of those rare stories where the photos and content are equally fascinating.
• Nicola Griffith talks with her editor about her forthcoming book Hild, definitely one of the books I'm most looking forward to this year.
• John Green offers his own opinion on the wild success of TFiOS for publishing nerds.
• Ron Charles gives a thumbs up to one of this year's books that's already a favorite of mine: Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Animal person? An adult who loved The One and Only Ivan? You must read this. Starred reviews, and so much love already. And it's out tomorrow!

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.