Again, With The Libraries

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Pardon us if we muddle our history a bit (we’ve barely made a dent in our coffee), but one of the hallmarks of the Dark Ages was that a small elite determined what information should be possessed by the masses and then dispersed said information with no regard to human ability to think and analyze. While we’ve come a long way, there continue to be pockets of people who feel their knowledge should be the only knowledge, and they are trying to push this agenda — yes, agenda — through increasing challenges to libraries. Just as we believe parents should […]

Square Pegs

And The World Adds Another Literary Agency

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After spending the week hiding from us (someone knew we were in a whiny mood), Jill surfaces to shares the fruits of her early morning work. Agent Nadia Cornier is leaving Creative Media Agency to form Firebrand Literary. Firebrand will represent approximately 70/fiction, 30/nf (popculture and narrative). In fiction, I’m going to focus a large bit on young adult & children’s literature (primarily from 12-21) and I’m also going to be looking for adult fiction — while I don’t plan on acquiring any more Sf/F at the moment (I’m happy with my list in that respect), I’d love to see

Agents

We Get Mail, You Suffer, Or, How Not To Be Reviewed Nor Interviewed

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Booksquare has not been in a good mood this week (ask our neighbors, though, in our defense, if you weren’t shouting, you weren’t paying attention), and when we’re unhappy, you’re unhappy. So why not spend some time dissecting mail we received this week? We thought you’d feel that way. Episode One — Meet The Clueless In this episode, we receive an interview request. For your reading pleasure, we have reproduced it — almost exactly as received. We trust you’ll figure out what has been changed to protect the innocent: My name is [Person You’ve Never Heard Of]. I write erotica

Square Pegs

Not So Much Innovative As Obvious

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As was inevitable, we have reached the nexus of book and podcast (and we don’t mean LitPods). Of course the podcast technology is ideal for delivering audio books — it’s doing just great with other type of audio delivery (the video seems a bit stalled, but we’re sure that’s just a blip on the technology meter; and, yeah, we know). The real story is that we, the world, have yet another potentially copyright violating technology to wring our hands over. Whatever will we do? How can we stop the madness? Can innovation just take a nap until the traditional processes

Square Pegs

Ah, To Be 25 And Have A Plan. Or To Just Have A Plan.

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Before we begin, we must say something of rather major importance: ouch. Jason Pinter is 25. Is that even legal drinking age? Driving age? Shouldn’t he be off backpacking through mountains or finding himself or something? Or has that golden age passed? We feel so out of touch sometimes. That being said, he knows what he likes: But when I turned the first page, all of a sudden it was four hours later, I’d forgotten about lunch, finished the book, and was yelling to anyone within shouting distance that it was the best novel I’d ever read on submission. We

Publishers and Editors

Blood: The Other Donation

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We see that many bloggers and others are urging donations of time, money, and goods to various relief organizations. And we strongly encourage those who can give to do so. But there’s another great need in this nation — not just the Gulf Coast region — and that is for blood. Not only does the need for donated blood rise in disaster areas, but the need across the United States has not abated either, and there is less blood entering the system right now. And almost everyone can give blood. Giving blood is easy. Sure, it takes a little time

Square Pegs

Ian Fleming, Dead; Avarice, Just Fine

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It can be argued that death shouldn’t be an impediment, yet for so many of us, drawing that last breath heralds the end of our creativity. But should our greatest achievements suffer for our mortality. No, says Ian Fleming Publications, that’s just wrong. Long live Bond and all that. Oh sure, it’s not like 007 ever went away — he’s had a storied movie career and does quite well in the soundtrack department. But that’s not the same as a novel. Then again, one could suggest that the success of a character is a whole function of the author. Change

Books/Mags/Blogs

In Which We Display, Yet Again, Our Ignorance

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Here is a real-life problem: say you are cruising through your morning reading, coffee at the exact right temperature. Suddenly, you encounter a lead sentence that gives you pause. Not the good, thoughtful kind of pause. The kind of pause that makes you swallow said exactly right temperatured coffee the wrong way. The kind of pause that can only be caused by an intellectual lament of dubiously obscure value: Why, oh why, did Salman Rushdie, in his new novel, “Shalimar the Clown” (Random House; $25.95), call one of his major characters Maximilian Ophuls? Max Ophuls is a highly distinctive name,

Books/Mags/Blogs

Note To Authors Who Might Eventually Become Beloved Enough To Be Taught To High School Freshmen: Leave Detailed, Well-Annotated Paper Trail. Also Back-Ups on USB Drives.

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Don’t get us wrong — we understand obsession. There is something. . .time sucking about worrying a matter to death. It’s almost as if the entire human psyche was constructed to use obsession to avoid reality. It sure beats paying the bills. For absolute proof of our theory, one needs look no further than the annual “Who was Shakespeare. Really.” round of articles. Just in time for the back to school crowd, scholars worry their pretty little heads about the man behind the plays and sonnets and whatnot. After all, the person who they think did the work couldn’t have

Square Pegs
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