Booksquare

If an alien were to explore our bookshelves in an attempt to understand something about us, the likely conclusion would be multiple personality disorder. We admittedly read romance. We read science fiction. We read mystery and crime fiction. We read fantasy. We read literary fiction. We read classics. We read non-fiction. We read periodicals. We […]

Summer has finally affect the personnel departments in the publishing industry, which sure makes our weekly update easy. Nobody seemed in the mood to process paperwork, set up new phones, or update corporate phone directories. Well, nobody except Sterling Publishing — they added Julie Trelstad, late of John Wiley, as executive editor, acquisitions. Once she […]

We’re a bit addicted to Gawker’s 5×5 interviews. They’re pretty much over before we’re attention span fades. Plus, we sometimes get actual information from them. Like, did you know that a razorbill is bird? Not that we were worried one way or the other, but next time we’re at a cocktail party (and it’s looking […]

We’ve been fairly vocal in our opposition to legislation extending copyright — after all, copyright protection was established as a sort of quid pro quo. The government would protect an artist’s creation; in return, the artist would give back to society, in the form of works moving into the public domain after a certain period […]

We’re in a bit of a “let my information go free” mood this morning. It sure beats our “we hate mornings and everything they represent” mood. But, yes, it means we end up drinking far too much coffee and ranting a bit more than normal. But since interesting publishing news (and by interesting, we don’t […]

Once upon a time, we had a job. We rose every morning, drove long distances, and sat in our office, staring at the Matisse print on the wall opposite us. Yes, we were searching for the meaning of life. No, we never figured it out. In between deep thoughts, we performed our duties — those […]

Okay, maybe she does. We couldn’t write a title of this length if we tried. Tingle Alley (why use real names when the alter ego is so evocative) takes a long hard look at writing manuals and discovers the cold, hard truth. In the process, she also reveals the reason why magazines don’t cut to […]

We have a friend who shall remain nameless (no, it’s probably not you). She believes everything she’s told about writing. If someone doesn’t like something in her work, she’ll change it. No questions asked. She doesn’t trust her voice, her style, or her story. When she’s done with her novel, she will sound like her […]

So Jill calls and wants to know why we haven’t updated Booksquare since this morning. She’s been checking and checking…and our lame excuse (“work”) didn’t fly. She expects far too much from us — though she didn’t come right out and say it, we think we’re supposed to, uh, write like three chapters and send […]

As always, we are excited to present new ideas in literacy. Okay, perhaps it’s not so new — our friend Jean imported a similar (but not the same) concept from her work in Britain — but it’s a cool approach to involving kids in literature. After all, there’s nothing like a book report to suck […]