Square Pegs

The spammers are cutting into our nap time, and while we have endless patience for creating filters and such, we (as evidenced by today’s posts) require a bit more sleep. Thus, we are reactivating a blacklist filter. Previously, we used this without a problem, until the day it started doing weird things to the comments feature. We’ll keep our beady little eyes on the process, but, if someone encounters difficulty, please do not hesitate to complain. Loud helps. Also, if spam should happen to get through to the site, please note that we: do not advocate gambling; it bores us […]

Yes, it’s true: one of our favorite columnists and sometime-radio host has dropped the B-bomb. Yeah, sure, she’s going for humor here, but still. Honestly. Really. Isn’t there a way to insult women’s fiction without implying violence toward females? We renew our plea for new press stylebooks and journalistic creativity. With an official state dirt, a state fossil and a state tartan, we need a state bard. And as a blue state, it’s our obligation to demonstrate that airport bookstore thrillers and bodice-rippers are not the alpha and omega of literature and that just because poetry usually comes in slim

Even as we predicted the continued health of the library, we knew of one situation where that was not to be the case. The irony that libraries are shuttering in Salinas cannot be escaped, unless, we suppose, you’ve chanced to drive through the area recently. Then it might make sense, but not in a good way. There is sufficient blame for this situation to go around. Everyone has their favorite scapegoat (we certainly have ours), but the bottom line is that libraries, like hospitals and schools and parks, exist for the good of the community. In this case, the community

Yes, we’re giving ourselves points for laziness here — we’ve let someone else do the work. We think it is time for American literary commentary to raise the bar: the British have taken pretentious fiddle faddle to new heights. Next year, we want to link to a similar piece, but one compiling the works of U.S. critics. We know they can rise to the task. Literary reputations on the line: John Dugdale is amused by pomp, pretension and piffle in his annual awards

We don’t know how the New Year is celebrated in other parts of the world, but around here (the Center of the Universe), it begins in earnest in mid-December with acres of scaffolding and bleachers along a major thoroughfare. Soon, we have the March of the Mobile Homes (this will be followed by the even more interesting Exodus of the Mobile Homes). A round of celebratory parties, beginning at 4 p.m. and ending around midnight. A fly-by at the crack of dawn by U.S. military jets. And a five-mile hike to see human ingenuity at work — we can only

Let us begin with the idea that for a woman to write novels at the dawn of the format’s history, it required an act of bravery. Storytelling has been a human tradition for, oh, a long time, but the novel, such as it is, is a relatively new concept. For our purposes, let’s use Don Quixote as our starting point (1605 or thereabouts, what with leap years and calendar reform and all), though many pin the birth of the novel to the 18th century. But we like the idea of tilting at windmills, and, what the heck, it’s our rant.

It is beyond our ken at this point: why would you want to take a tour of sites mentioned in a book without having read the book in question? Other than, we suppose, the fact that sites mentioned are generally the types of places tourists would frequent anyway. It is hard for us to imagine getting worked up about something you have absolutely no context for. Yet the proprietors of the, uh, Angels and Demons tour remind you that reading the book isn’t necessary. Something tells us this is a boon of sorts. What amazes us even more is that

Frankly, we hoped The Da Vinci Code would fade quietly into the twilight on the basis of the really bad writing. Perhaps Dan Brown didn’t put the sum total of his talent into the work, we can’t say, but we do know bad when we read it (and we’ll suggest that sometimes bad can be good, but this isn’t one of those times). It never occurred to us that people would believe the so-called history underpinning the story and turn the whole enterprise into a cottage industry. As Laura Miller says: The answer is that what readers love about the

Looking for a reason to hit Seattle in mid-June (like, oh, the 9th through the 12th, 2005)? How about a writing conference? Yes, we know, we just give and give, and this is only the latest example. Besides, unless you have one of those really understanding families, there’s nothing more reassuring than spending time with People Like You. You know, the ones who hear voices in their heads…and think it’s perfectly normal. The conference is geared toward genre fiction authors, particularly women’s fiction and sci-fi/fantasy. Attendance is limited and opportunities abound. You’ll be having drinks with agents, editors, and other

Would we like to get a novel in email installments? Hard to say, but we’re still working our way through early December mail, and it’s not looking so good for January. Also, we have an annoying habit of reading email backward. That’s not to say we wouldn’t try to make it work, it’s just that we haven’t gotten into the habit. Yet. Email novels or excerpts or whatnot are not particularly innovative. They’re basically a twist on what Dickens, et al were doing back in the olden days. What would be novel is inventing a helpful technology that allows the