Writers may tell you that they don’t care about reviews, but they do. Every artist does. We all remember our truly awful reviews. We remember who wrote them. And we never, ever forgive or forget. Tess Gerritsen Blog – March 21, 2005 Entry
We were scanning the long list of articles we have bookmarked, sincerely believing we will a) remember we’ve created said bookmark, b) read the articles, and c) work up the energy to write an insightful post on the article. Let us merely suggest you have been spared far more drivel than you can imagine. No thanks necessary. A surprising number of the articles dealt with reviews; there is a subset focusing on how authors respond to reviews. Not that we’re suggesting anything, but all of those were about authors who check elegance and grace at the door when they encounter
In some households, people do things like talk. For example (and this is where a vivid imagination comes in handy), a wife might say to a husband, “Look honey, George Saunders news.” The husband, a noted Saunders fan, would immediately respond with something like, “Thank you for always looking out for my particular interests.” Then some mushy stuff would happen. Around here, we just post items of interest on our blog and hope the husband follows the link. If he does, he’ll learn helpful information like this: Did you know…George Saunders can construct an extended metaphor on writing fearlessly that
When fascinating news abounds, it is difficult to pick and choose the right stories. After all, could anything be more intriguing than the fact that a group of influential authors have formally asked Oprah to reinstate her book club? Oprah, after all, has done more to introduce literature to the public than many publishers. It’s always nice to know that someone feels your pain as you develop an intense loathing for each and every character in Fall On Your Knees. As of this morning, Oprah hasn’t responded, but surely she’s feeling beyond flattered. What is it like to wield such
We are having one of our very rare WTF moments: we’re scrunched over our keyboard, brows drawn together, scrolling up and down the page as we try to make sense of what we’re reading. It’s been fifteen minutes and the score is (approximately) Text 4, Booksquare 0. This is worse than watching Ted Lilly pitch yesterday (Lilly being, of course, one of the hot young things on our fantasy team). Truly, we don’t know where to begin, meaning we’ll just leap and hope something makes sense at the end of the post. Our confusion started here: How did they do
We were fascinated by the Foetry.com concept a year ago; we are not so fascinated now. Which is sort of a shame because things have gotten really exciting over the past several weeks. Who knew there was so much intrigue in iambic pentameter (probably we should look up the spelling of that, but chances are we’ll forget)? We are committing the cardinal sin of assuming others have covered this extensively and/or understand the layers of issues involved. If poetry or foetry is your thing, well, you’re probably in the wrong place because we are here only to delight in the
According to our schedule, we will be spending the weekend cleaning out the garage. Again. The evil garage elves delight in filling empty spaces with junk we surely did not purchase in a moment of weakness. But if we can manage a believable excuse, we will ditch the never-ending project and head for UCLA for a weekend of fun and excitement. Or as it’s known in SoCal, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Lots of local celebrities will be making the scene. Hmm, that doesn’t sound right. It’s such an ordeal, living in a city filled with famous folk;
Though we are still puzzling over Kathleen O’Reilly’s assertion that chick-lit is a four letter word (darn New Math), we are willing to help with a good cause. Tomorrow (Friday, April 22): Kathleen O’Reilly will signing THE DIVA’S GUIDE TO SELLING YOUR SOUL at the Waldenbooks in Rockefeller Center, NY (concourse level) from noon to two, BUT there’s bonus prizes for those who come to play! Editor, Amy Pierpont from Pocket’s Downtown Press and agent, Kim Whalen from Trident Media will be there to give a talk on chick-lit and the industry from an editor/agent perspective. This is very informal,
We are, admittedly, lousy at math and only so-so on geography. Or maybe it’s the other way around. When one article combines both, well, we can only hope to muddle through. Let us get through the math problem first: Alas, the fans of serious—i.e., challenging—fiction are a group that figuratively fits in the palm of your hand. John O’Brien, of the Center for Book Culture, told me he thought this band may include no more than 35,000 people nationwide, and they’re concentrated largely around universities. Maybe, on a good day, up to a few hundred thousand. So the number of
Maybe we have the soul of a purist, but we feel a little uncomfortable with Nancy Drew’s breasts. Nancy, Bess, and George as manga chicks, while not quite as bad as last year’s bizarre updating of the Drew stories, seems to be messing with the spirit of the series. The only thing worse could be The Hardy Boys using hair ge–nevermind. ‘Nancy Drew’ finds clues in graphic novel
