Square Pegs

We have a dirty secret: sometimes, with close friends, we use shorthand and acronyms and such. We don’t (always) write clear and concise email to certain people. However (and pardon us while we preen), we do work hard to make our professional communication clear and concise. Despite the fact that our effort is often unappreciated. Woe is us. We’ve disagreed in the past with William Safire (he did not offer us the courtesy of a rebuttal) on the elasticity of the English language. Language should grow and change, but that does not excuse ignorance. Think of grammar like a huge […]

As it turns out, the Internet is good for artists (it also turns out that the folks at Pew have bought into Wired’s decision to make the I lowercase; we have not yet made that leap). Artists use the online world for networking, reaching the general public, research, and inspiration (not the same thing as stealing). On the other hand, artists are concerned about free and easy sharing of art. And they should be. Ignorance is not bliss. Not surprisingly, many artists feel copyright laws benefit distributors over artists. Hmm, does this surprise anyone? The results of the survey are

We don’t ask much from our online news — frequent updates, intriguing stories, and good headlines. We don’t care that a man is planning to sell his collection of inscribed books, presumably it’s the first sign of incipient madness. They have fairly decent health care in Canada; he should be fine (though why he simply doesn’t get a larger home intrigues us). What people do in their personal lives is not our concern. Now, what they do with free review copies, that makes us blink and think. In our past, we reviewed books with very official looking language about the

As all good authors know, those first few books are ripe with growing pains. You don’t leap into the game fully formed. What seems so profound, so beautifully written, often comes off as painful upon later reading. There’s a reason first books go under the bed, hide in closets, and generally shun the light of day. Truman Capote realized this. He chose not to finish a book (and, as we all know, having a draft or so is not finished; the book is done when the author says it’s done…or deadline time arrives). We understand the need for history and

As Awards Season enters its middle period, we begin to see one of its most fascinating manifestations: the year-end lists. Humans love lists. Unlike most species, we spend a lot of time ranking and re-ranking the things we love (or hate) most. But it’s not enough to create a list — one must share said list with the entire world. This may be why the humble shopping list doesn’t get the respect it deserves — it’s hard to create hierarchical structure when face with meat, dairy, bread, and fruits and vegetables. Yes, as it so happens, we did find an

We have seen the future, and it is exactly as you suspect. Yes, too much traffic, too little time, and far too much Internet for anyone to ever read. Also, in the future, there will be more writers than ever before. Hopefully, unlike our evil spammers (still stupid), they will all know that there is no “d” in interesting. For those looking for a thumbnail review of the future, we can help: it is Cory Doctorow. Hmm, somehow that’s not as comforting as it should be. Paid Content, 2048: How do writers get paid for their work in the (very

We failed. We started strong, wrote regularly, felt confident, and, despite best intentions, fell prey to the most evil of holidays: the long weekend. It started with a sojourn in the kitchen to cook. Then we drove long hours to the mother’s house. Wherein we supervised such important activities as mashing potatoes (this requires much input and suggestion, not to mention intense debate between the butter and salt people). Then there were more long hours in returning home. One cannot write while negotiating heavy traffic. Okay, that’s not necessarily true — but we were also dealing with a full moon.

Sarah has an interesting post (and subsequent discussion) at the Idiosyncratic Mind on the effects of globalization when it comes to breaking into new international markets. She starts with a message from Lindsey Davis, who has lost her U.S.-based published. Davis indicates it’s due to sales via Amazon.com UK that resulted in her publisher’s reluctance to continue distributing her; Sarah builds on this idea while backbloggers look at other reasons behind a publisher dropping an author. As always, we fall firmly in the wishy-washy crowd. Fans who buy the UK version of Davis’s book via Amazon rather than waiting for

This past weekend, we engaged in the most painful of tasks (no, not trying to fit into our jeans after overindulging)…the semi-annual book purge. We have spent years trying to add more elasticity to the walls so they’ll expand as more stuff enters the house. As it turns out, wood is not much on expanding on command, and plaster simply scoffs at the idea of working any harder than it has to. So it is that the books must go — we believe there is real science to be done in determining how we can be on a book diet