Square Pegs

Let us all be honest for a moment: writing contests are often fundraisers. While you, the writer, might get a critique and maybe your work will make its way to an editor or agent’s desk, the contests are often a way for organizations to make money. No shame in that, by the way, but those who enter contests need to recall this. They probably won’t, of course. Writers are notoriously willfully blind when it comes to the business of writing. One must have a certain level of hubris to submit work to agents and editors, it’s true, but one must […]

This past weekend, we were reminded that, well, oh how to say this?, that while the Internet as we know it is an unruly teenager — no, Yahoo!, you can’t borrow the car, Google? You’re far too young to know about those things. Netscape? It’s great that you’ve decided what you want to be when you grow up, but you still have to clean your room! — and many folks out there are puzzled about this magical world. Thus we going to do some basic training. Very basic. This will be a sometimes, when the mood strikes us series.

The recent demise of yet another Harlequin line, this time the kick-butt heroine line Bombshell, got me to thinking, which, as anyone who knows me will tell you is always a dangerous thing. I heard from a number of readers who were surprised by the closing, because they had friends who just “loved that line!” I’ve also heard things like this: “I can’t believe they closed that line. I loved that line. I read those books every month at my library.” Before I go any farther with this discussion, I have to offer up a disclaimer. I love libraries. Especially

The current war in Hollywood about reality shows and writers will not be the stuff of legend…unless you happen to believe that reality shows are off-the-cuff and spontaneous and, well, real. In that case, you’re going to have more than a few illusions shattered. Sorry. There is scripting on those shows, and the writers are seeking union representation under the auspices of the Writers Guild of America. This action will lead to increased production costs for the shows. Right now, they are management darlings because, relatively speaking, they are cheap to produce. Fair wages and benefits have a nasty habit

Maybe it’s because the BS husband has been practicing to be old since he discovered that old people can say whatever they want and get away with it, but we find Otto Penzler’s brand of crotchety sort of cute, in a “huh?” sort of way. See, Penzler hates chicklit for its cynicism — but his argument is, hmm, peculiar at best. He chides Jennifer Weiner for her realistic (realistic not necessarily being the the same thing as cynical) attitude toward the publishing industry; he lauds Mickey Spillane for writing blatantly commercial work and referring to his readers as “customers”. Penzler

Against the will of its occupants, Chez Booksquare has decided to voluntarily participate in a series of rolling blackouts. We will try to eke out a Daily Square between outages, but do not have high hopes for much more than that. We’re then heading for the glorious city of Atlanta, where we understand the temperatures are balmy and the humidity is mild…at least compared to what we’ve been been suffering. Posting will be light to strange, depending on what we encounter in the State of Georgia.

Yesterday, an associate noted that people often use a lot of words when they are trying to make themselves look smart. People also adopt stultifying, faux high-brow tones when trying to make themselves look smart. Nothing says, “I’m an intellectual and I’m okay” like cardboard toast writing. For those of you who have been wondering how long we would have lasted in the world of academia, you have your answer.

We have been alternately amused and saddened by the Lev Grossman article in Time magazine — he is desperately seeking the voice of a generation. First off, let us make one thing absolutely clear: forty is the new thirty. Therefore, authors who are in their forties are really like authors of a previous generation in their thirties. That being said, it is rare that a young author has sufficient life experience, awareness, to transcend youth and create a work that lasts. There are exceptions — Zadie Smith appears capable of longevity. A voice of a generation needs longevity because it’s

We have been amused by the rash of articles touting the the future of e-books. Everyone seems to be focused on the technology — all we need, they suggest, is the perfect reader, and the future it ours! — while nobody seems to realize that e-books are being purchased every day in grand numbers. It struck us that the industry is focusing on the wrong issue when the BS mother-in-law, not the world’s most technologically adept person (but not the world’s least technologically adept person either), purchased, downloaded, and read an e-book. The book had the information she needed for

Forgive us, but we’re feeling a bit ranty this morning. We have long decried the lack of creativity in the news media. We realize that it’s not always the fault of the reporters, but we have to wonder why the press cannot be bothered to do a smidgen of research before writing “This Just In: Romance Novels Have Sex” stories. Let us all take a trip back to approximately 1984. That was when the first official release the now-defunct Harlequin Temptation imprint hit the shelves. Temptation was notable for a lot of reasons — creative storylines, for example — but