Bookchoy pal Andrew Scott is teaching a series of graphic novel classes for teens. The classes are sponsored by the Writers' Center, and will be taught in Marion County libraries. Not many things make me wish I was eighteen again, but this definitely does. This, and the burning pain in my lower back.
----------------------------
Hachette Book Group USA (formerly Time Warner Book Group) is having their annual $1 book sale Saturday, June 10 from 9 AM to 3:30 PM. Everything is $1.
Hardcover novels, cookbooks, children's books, paperbacks, coffee table books and more. No children under 12 allowed in warehouse. NO EXCEPTIONS! (Even if your child is huge). No carts or wagons allowed (even for hauling around your huge child). They have a holding area for full boxes and staff available to assist.
CASH ONLY
322 S. Enterprise Blvd, Lebanon, IN-right off interstate 65.
Advice from a veteran:Go early! They can only allow so many people on the warehouse floor at any one time, so it is likely you will have to stand in line. Hachette employees will be on hand to help you out with your purchases (and to check ID's to make sure you are at least thirteen).
They really try to accommodate everyone and make it a pleasant experience. Boxes are provided, and there's a holding area where you can store the full ones. (A strap or rope is helpful for dragging the boxes [or for restraining your enormo-child when he becomes enraged that he can't get in.] Enjoy, and stock up! Great for Christmas and birthday presents, as well as self indulgence! Wear comfortable shoes, make sure your sense of humor is intact!)
Full disclosure: some of those parantheticals might be mine.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Girl runs private library of banned books out of locker:
Let me explain.
I go to a private school that is rather strict. Recently, the principal and school teacher council released a (very long) list of books we're not allowed to read. I was absolutely appalled, because a large number of the books were classics and others that are my favorites. One of my personal favorites, The Catcher in the Rye, was on the list, so I decided to bring it to school to see if I would really get in trouble. Well...
Click here to read the rest. The best line is near the end: "Twilight is banned also, but I don't want that polluting my library."
Let me explain.
I go to a private school that is rather strict. Recently, the principal and school teacher council released a (very long) list of books we're not allowed to read. I was absolutely appalled, because a large number of the books were classics and others that are my favorites. One of my personal favorites, The Catcher in the Rye, was on the list, so I decided to bring it to school to see if I would really get in trouble. Well...
Click here to read the rest. The best line is near the end: "Twilight is banned also, but I don't want that polluting my library."
Thursday, May 21, 2009
NPR's Dick Meyer has posted his list of the best 100 novels in English:
I am not a learned or prolific reader of novels. My taste is probably medium-brow, male and parochial in many ways. Tough. It's my list. I included two books that probably aren't novels: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Fabulous Small Jews. Lots of innovative, modern stuff didn't make it because I am not good at reading it.
Boy, I love it when people are unapologetically honest about their limits and shortcomings.
I am not a learned or prolific reader of novels. My taste is probably medium-brow, male and parochial in many ways. Tough. It's my list. I included two books that probably aren't novels: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Fabulous Small Jews. Lots of innovative, modern stuff didn't make it because I am not good at reading it.
Boy, I love it when people are unapologetically honest about their limits and shortcomings.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Here's a cut from Query Shark, where queries get posted and critiqued. I find them enormously helpful, even as they make me flinch. In a way, it's kind of like reading Mystery and Manners.
111
Aureole. This is a world where love exists – where magic flows in human blood, and Gods walk the earth.
I'm sorry but when I see Aureole, I think areola. This is not the effect you're going for (I hope). When you are world building and naming things, please remember that your audience speaks and reads this work in English. Try not to name things in a way that evokes words that mean something entirely different unless you intend us to think that.
Rain, Huldah, Grishild and Amaya were born into this world, each with a different path to walk.
Well ok, but is anyone born any other way? Don't state the obvious. Get to the substance of the story. What happens?
Rain, a secluded priestess, unwittingly kills a man after chaneling a dream bred by communion with the Gods.
What? If I can't understand what you mean, it's a form rejection. If you'd sent this to me, I'd have stopped reading right here.
Although she is destined for a tragic end, her brief life sets in motion a string of events which may ultimately lead to the destruction of her world.
This is too general to be of much use in figuring out What Happens?Also, the first clause does not have a connection to the sentence that follows.
Huldah, a deprived child prodigy, and Grishild, a disabled girl loved by a lesser-God, live their lives worlds apart, yet both are intimately connected to the deceased priestess. While their lives unfold, the end of Aureole draws nearer. Brought together late in life by Amaya, a young woman who bears a striking resemblance to Rain, Grishild and Huldah struggle to save her from the Gods before time runs out. But does Amaya represent repetition, or revolution?
I'm sorry, but this literally makes no sense to me.
And so on.
111
Aureole. This is a world where love exists – where magic flows in human blood, and Gods walk the earth.
I'm sorry but when I see Aureole, I think areola. This is not the effect you're going for (I hope). When you are world building and naming things, please remember that your audience speaks and reads this work in English. Try not to name things in a way that evokes words that mean something entirely different unless you intend us to think that.
Rain, Huldah, Grishild and Amaya were born into this world, each with a different path to walk.
Well ok, but is anyone born any other way? Don't state the obvious. Get to the substance of the story. What happens?
Rain, a secluded priestess, unwittingly kills a man after chaneling a dream bred by communion with the Gods.
What? If I can't understand what you mean, it's a form rejection. If you'd sent this to me, I'd have stopped reading right here.
Although she is destined for a tragic end, her brief life sets in motion a string of events which may ultimately lead to the destruction of her world.
This is too general to be of much use in figuring out What Happens?Also, the first clause does not have a connection to the sentence that follows.
Huldah, a deprived child prodigy, and Grishild, a disabled girl loved by a lesser-God, live their lives worlds apart, yet both are intimately connected to the deceased priestess. While their lives unfold, the end of Aureole draws nearer. Brought together late in life by Amaya, a young woman who bears a striking resemblance to Rain, Grishild and Huldah struggle to save her from the Gods before time runs out. But does Amaya represent repetition, or revolution?
I'm sorry, but this literally makes no sense to me.
And so on.
Friday, May 15, 2009
A mini-interview with Robert Boswell is up on Andrew's Book Club. Boswell's The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards is one of Andrew's picks for the month. Here's a cutlet from the interview:
"My suggestion to younger writers is not necessarily to read the novels that I recommend (in the back of The Half-Known World, his book on writing), but to find the stories and novels that transport them and turn them upside down and change the way they see the world. My advice is to keep falling in love."
"My suggestion to younger writers is not necessarily to read the novels that I recommend (in the back of The Half-Known World, his book on writing), but to find the stories and novels that transport them and turn them upside down and change the way they see the world. My advice is to keep falling in love."
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Jane K. Cleland returns to The Mystery Company bookstore in Carmel to talk about and sign copies of Killer Keepsakes. Here's what Publishers Weekly has to say about this new book:
"At the start of Cleland's absorbing fourth mystery to feature New Hampshire antiques dealer Josie Prescott (after 2008's Antiques to Die For), Josie's dependable assistant, Gretchen, fails to show up for a second day and hasn't even called. When a worried Josie checks Gretchen's apartment, she discovers the bloodied body of a strange man in his early 30s on the sofa. A valuable Meissen vase missing from the apartment and a Native American belt buckle on the dead man appear to be the only clues to guide Josie in her amateur sleuthing, though Wes Smith, a local newspaperman, later unearths the suspicious fact that Gretchen's Social Security number was issued only four years earlier, at the time she started working for Josie. Ty Alverez, a Homeland Security officer who's drop-dead gorgeous, lends emotional support. A Web search for the origins of the vase leads to a frightening escape for Josie and an ingenious solution to the mystery."
"At the start of Cleland's absorbing fourth mystery to feature New Hampshire antiques dealer Josie Prescott (after 2008's Antiques to Die For), Josie's dependable assistant, Gretchen, fails to show up for a second day and hasn't even called. When a worried Josie checks Gretchen's apartment, she discovers the bloodied body of a strange man in his early 30s on the sofa. A valuable Meissen vase missing from the apartment and a Native American belt buckle on the dead man appear to be the only clues to guide Josie in her amateur sleuthing, though Wes Smith, a local newspaperman, later unearths the suspicious fact that Gretchen's Social Security number was issued only four years earlier, at the time she started working for Josie. Ty Alverez, a Homeland Security officer who's drop-dead gorgeous, lends emotional support. A Web search for the origins of the vase leads to a frightening escape for Josie and an ingenious solution to the mystery."
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Midwest Writers Workshop Offers New Scholarship
In appreciation and support of the contributions Midwest Writers made to her writing career, MWW 2009 faculty author Dianne Despain (Drake) is sponsoring TWO scholarships to this summer's workshop. The Rylan Harris Memorial Scholarships are designated for two new/newer writers (unpublished and first-time MWW participants) to attend the Midwest Writers Workshop. The scholarships cover the cost of both Part I and Part II. The purpose of these scholarships is to provide a beginning for two people, who have not yet found their way in any writing field, by allowing them full access to everything MWW has to offer.
Applicants applying for these special scholarships must submit a letter describing their writing desires and need for the instruction MWW provides. Scholarship deadline is June 1.
Midwest Writers awards a limited number of scholarships for full participation in Part II. Awards are based on need, interest and a writing sample of five pages. Scholarship applications must be postmarked on or before June 1, 2009. Use the "scholarship" link on our web site's registration page. Print the page, and send it with a biographical letter and short writing sample. Include your name, address, phone and email in upper left of your manuscript. Include "Scholarship Entry" on your envelope. (Do not enclose payment at this time.) Applicants will be notified in time to complete registration. Our workshop fills quickly. Be sure to check the box on the enrollment form that indicates you want us to reserve an enrollment slot for you should your bid for a scholarship be unsuccessful. Participants can earn a scholarship once every five years.
Registrations are coming in and the Thursday Intensive Sessions will fill up soon. Don't wait to register!
Applicants applying for these special scholarships must submit a letter describing their writing desires and need for the instruction MWW provides. Scholarship deadline is June 1.
Midwest Writers awards a limited number of scholarships for full participation in Part II. Awards are based on need, interest and a writing sample of five pages. Scholarship applications must be postmarked on or before June 1, 2009. Use the "scholarship" link on our web site's registration page. Print the page, and send it with a biographical letter and short writing sample. Include your name, address, phone and email in upper left of your manuscript. Include "Scholarship Entry" on your envelope. (Do not enclose payment at this time.) Applicants will be notified in time to complete registration. Our workshop fills quickly. Be sure to check the box on the enrollment form that indicates you want us to reserve an enrollment slot for you should your bid for a scholarship be unsuccessful. Participants can earn a scholarship once every five years.
Registrations are coming in and the Thursday Intensive Sessions will fill up soon. Don't wait to register!
Friday, May 8, 2009
Colm Toibin, on the birth of a novel:
"A novel never begins simply, or just from a memory. It starts much more slowly and sometimes it seems to come almost by accident."
"A novel never begins simply, or just from a memory. It starts much more slowly and sometimes it seems to come almost by accident."
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Here are some cuts from an interview with Elizabeth Strout, who just won a Pulitzer for her novel Olive Kitteridge. The interviewer is annoying, so I've cut him out as much as possible, but I really like some of the things Strout says about writing and reading.
ES: I do think to myself, “What’s the point of writing,”—particularly, “Why am I writing about this older white woman from New England? What’s the point in that?” And yet my answer is: It’s always, always important to have stories. And I’m recording a time and place in history and about a particular woman from a particular heritage, and this country is changing, and in ways it’s very good.
RB: Could you do it even if you didn’t think it was important?
ES: I would have to. I love writing.
RB: You know there’s no obligation for people to do things—
ES: Someone recently was reminding me of that. No, I do it because I love it. I love it.
RB: Do you read a lot?
ES: I read a lot, yes. . . I think it's the other half of my job. I mean, it’s directly related to writing, I think that one can write as well as one reads. I have to be careful that there are good sentences that are going into my head because I’m very—hopefully you can tell by the work—I’m very interested in how sentences sound. To me, that’s part of the experience of reading, how the sentences fall on the ear, and so I have to be careful when I’m reading that I read things—you know it’s like eating good food and making sure that the right stuff enters [laughs].
RB: Do you think there are some small, finite, predictable conversations when one says they’re a writer?
ES: I think so, yes. There’s the first response, “Well, I’ve always wished that I had the time to be a writer,” and that’s sort of like, OK… and then the second response is, “What have you published?” and the third response, which has always sort of appalled me, is that people will say, “Well, you know that very few people are ever successful at that.” And so it carries a lot of negativity.
The fourth response: "Do you have an agent?"
The fifth response: "Have you written anything I might have read/heard of?"
The sixth response: "Oh, I'm going to do that, too, when I retire."
The seventh response: "So you think you're going to be the next Stephen King, huh?"
On the other hand, what are people supposed to say? What I say to people about their vocations is probably just as annoying. A while ago, someone taught me how to ask my children about their artwork. Instead of pointing at a fingerpainting and saying "What is that?" – which is basically like saying, what you have made is so incomprehensible that I don't even know how to start talking about it – you can say, "Oh, tell me about this."
So that's what I do now when I talk to anyone about what they do. You train manatees? What's that like? Tell me about it. No one expects a question that broad. If nothing else, it throws people off their game a bit.
ES: I do think to myself, “What’s the point of writing,”—particularly, “Why am I writing about this older white woman from New England? What’s the point in that?” And yet my answer is: It’s always, always important to have stories. And I’m recording a time and place in history and about a particular woman from a particular heritage, and this country is changing, and in ways it’s very good.
RB: Could you do it even if you didn’t think it was important?
ES: I would have to. I love writing.
RB: You know there’s no obligation for people to do things—
ES: Someone recently was reminding me of that. No, I do it because I love it. I love it.
RB: Do you read a lot?
ES: I read a lot, yes. . . I think it's the other half of my job. I mean, it’s directly related to writing, I think that one can write as well as one reads. I have to be careful that there are good sentences that are going into my head because I’m very—hopefully you can tell by the work—I’m very interested in how sentences sound. To me, that’s part of the experience of reading, how the sentences fall on the ear, and so I have to be careful when I’m reading that I read things—you know it’s like eating good food and making sure that the right stuff enters [laughs].
RB: Do you think there are some small, finite, predictable conversations when one says they’re a writer?
ES: I think so, yes. There’s the first response, “Well, I’ve always wished that I had the time to be a writer,” and that’s sort of like, OK… and then the second response is, “What have you published?” and the third response, which has always sort of appalled me, is that people will say, “Well, you know that very few people are ever successful at that.” And so it carries a lot of negativity.
The fourth response: "Do you have an agent?"
The fifth response: "Have you written anything I might have read/heard of?"
The sixth response: "Oh, I'm going to do that, too, when I retire."
The seventh response: "So you think you're going to be the next Stephen King, huh?"
On the other hand, what are people supposed to say? What I say to people about their vocations is probably just as annoying. A while ago, someone taught me how to ask my children about their artwork. Instead of pointing at a fingerpainting and saying "What is that?" – which is basically like saying, what you have made is so incomprehensible that I don't even know how to start talking about it – you can say, "Oh, tell me about this."
So that's what I do now when I talk to anyone about what they do. You train manatees? What's that like? Tell me about it. No one expects a question that broad. If nothing else, it throws people off their game a bit.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Yesterday we were told that Kindle sales are being driven by . . . older folks. Like so many forms of technology. Yeah. Here's a breakdown:
Per John Makinson's quip at an LBF panel, over half of reporting Kindle owners are 50 or older, and 70 percent are 40 or older. Here is the full age bracket distribution:
0 - 19: 5%
20 - 29: 10%
30 - 39: 15%
40 - 49: 19.5%
50 - 59: 23%
60 - 69: 19.5%
70 - 79: 6%
80+: 2%
First of all, let me say that I do not consider forty to be old. And not just because I'm slouching toward that number, either -- sub-saharan Africa and the internet are the only places where forty is considered an advanced age. The writer of the article throws out the theory that Kindle users may have arthritis or visual impairments. While that might be true for some in the upper age brackets, my theory is that most of these folks are afflicted with another condition of the middle-aged: money to burn. Kids aren't buying Kindles, in part, because they're broke from buying Macbooks and Iphones. Also, Grandma just bought a Kindle, so how cool could it be?
__________________________________________
The May selections for Andrew's Book Club are books by well-loved story writers, Robert Boswell and Bonnie Jo Campbell.
Be sure to visit the site throughout the month, as Andrew will post mini-interviews with this month's authors.
___________________________________________
At the Paper Cuts blog, Zak Smith writes a paragraph with the kind of broad, confident strokes I like:
People in difficulty in America are often in serious need of a good movie, a good book, good music. They often have an inkling that the culture coming out of the tap isn’t doing the trick: it isn’t telling them what they need to know in a way they can believe. I also noticed, writing my book, that pretty much everyone in America is in difficulty sooner or later.
Then he offers some music to help keep you sane.
Per John Makinson's quip at an LBF panel, over half of reporting Kindle owners are 50 or older, and 70 percent are 40 or older. Here is the full age bracket distribution:
0 - 19: 5%
20 - 29: 10%
30 - 39: 15%
40 - 49: 19.5%
50 - 59: 23%
60 - 69: 19.5%
70 - 79: 6%
80+: 2%
First of all, let me say that I do not consider forty to be old. And not just because I'm slouching toward that number, either -- sub-saharan Africa and the internet are the only places where forty is considered an advanced age. The writer of the article throws out the theory that Kindle users may have arthritis or visual impairments. While that might be true for some in the upper age brackets, my theory is that most of these folks are afflicted with another condition of the middle-aged: money to burn. Kids aren't buying Kindles, in part, because they're broke from buying Macbooks and Iphones. Also, Grandma just bought a Kindle, so how cool could it be?
__________________________________________
The May selections for Andrew's Book Club are books by well-loved story writers, Robert Boswell and Bonnie Jo Campbell.
Be sure to visit the site throughout the month, as Andrew will post mini-interviews with this month's authors.
___________________________________________
At the Paper Cuts blog, Zak Smith writes a paragraph with the kind of broad, confident strokes I like:
People in difficulty in America are often in serious need of a good movie, a good book, good music. They often have an inkling that the culture coming out of the tap isn’t doing the trick: it isn’t telling them what they need to know in a way they can believe. I also noticed, writing my book, that pretty much everyone in America is in difficulty sooner or later.
Then he offers some music to help keep you sane.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
First, from Publisher's Lunch, the new Kindle:
It's for Newspapers; It's for Textbooks; It's SuperKindle
Yes we're jumping ahead to name the new oversized Kindle that everyone is presuming Amazon will introduce at tomorrow morning's press conference, but I already like our name better than the "Kindle DX" moniker that Engadget floats.
Sources for the two accounts agree that Princeton, Reed College, part of the University of Virginia, Arizona State University and Case Western Reserve will participate in a SuperKindle pilot program (expialadocious) this fall. Chief information officer at Case Lev Gonick does the unforgivable and confirms to the WSJ that selected students "will be given large-screen Kindles with textbooks for chemistry, computer science and a freshman seminar already installed." Their experiences will be compared to that of students using regular textbooks. "Amazon has worked out a deal with several textbook publishers to make their materials available for the device, Mr. Gonick added."
The web browser is supposed to actually work in the new version (older Kindles browse with the power and speed of 1985 desktop on dial-up) and it will sport a "higher-resolution screen and improved ability to handle notation such as mathematical formulas." Still in black-and-white, though, potentially leaving it at a significant disadvantage to other electronic versions of textbooks that students already use on their computers. Gartner media analyst Mike McGuire underscores the potential difficulty in getting students to pay extra for a device that does nothing but read textbooks: "With a user base that already has a laptop and a mobile phone, asking Mom and Dad to shell out a few hundred extra dollars is a hurdle."
And there is the age hurdle as well. We got a lot of pick-up on our recent analysis of user age data reported by Kindle owners on an Amazon forum, in which people under 20 comprised the single smallest slice. (At 5 percent of those reporting, smaller than the 8 percent of owners who are 70 or over.) Looked at one way, it's the demographic Amazon needs to win over the most to make Kindle more than a brief, transitional fad--and/or it's the hardest group to win over to such an inherently conservative device.
And now, the Kindle-Killer:
According to two anonymous sources speaking to Business Week, Apple and Verizon may release two new Verizon-exclusive iPhone-like products as early as this summer.
Sources tell Business Week that the device will be smaller than the Kindle 2, but with a larger touchscreen, paving the way for more speculation about Apple slinking into the eBook market.
This might be the Apple Tablet everybody has been talking about.
"The media pad category might go to Verizon," a witness told Business Week. "We are talking about a device where people will say, 'Damn, why didn't we do this?' Apple is probably going to define the damn category."
It's for Newspapers; It's for Textbooks; It's SuperKindle
Yes we're jumping ahead to name the new oversized Kindle that everyone is presuming Amazon will introduce at tomorrow morning's press conference, but I already like our name better than the "Kindle DX" moniker that Engadget floats.
Sources for the two accounts agree that Princeton, Reed College, part of the University of Virginia, Arizona State University and Case Western Reserve will participate in a SuperKindle pilot program (expialadocious) this fall. Chief information officer at Case Lev Gonick does the unforgivable and confirms to the WSJ that selected students "will be given large-screen Kindles with textbooks for chemistry, computer science and a freshman seminar already installed." Their experiences will be compared to that of students using regular textbooks. "Amazon has worked out a deal with several textbook publishers to make their materials available for the device, Mr. Gonick added."
The web browser is supposed to actually work in the new version (older Kindles browse with the power and speed of 1985 desktop on dial-up) and it will sport a "higher-resolution screen and improved ability to handle notation such as mathematical formulas." Still in black-and-white, though, potentially leaving it at a significant disadvantage to other electronic versions of textbooks that students already use on their computers. Gartner media analyst Mike McGuire underscores the potential difficulty in getting students to pay extra for a device that does nothing but read textbooks: "With a user base that already has a laptop and a mobile phone, asking Mom and Dad to shell out a few hundred extra dollars is a hurdle."
And there is the age hurdle as well. We got a lot of pick-up on our recent analysis of user age data reported by Kindle owners on an Amazon forum, in which people under 20 comprised the single smallest slice. (At 5 percent of those reporting, smaller than the 8 percent of owners who are 70 or over.) Looked at one way, it's the demographic Amazon needs to win over the most to make Kindle more than a brief, transitional fad--and/or it's the hardest group to win over to such an inherently conservative device.
And now, the Kindle-Killer:
According to two anonymous sources speaking to Business Week, Apple and Verizon may release two new Verizon-exclusive iPhone-like products as early as this summer.
Sources tell Business Week that the device will be smaller than the Kindle 2, but with a larger touchscreen, paving the way for more speculation about Apple slinking into the eBook market.
This might be the Apple Tablet everybody has been talking about.
"The media pad category might go to Verizon," a witness told Business Week. "We are talking about a device where people will say, 'Damn, why didn't we do this?' Apple is probably going to define the damn category."
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