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Sunday Hangovers

1 Comment / Hangovers / By Gwenda / July 19, 2009

A few links to close some tabs. Things will calm down soon and I'll make book posts–have been reading some amazing stuff lately. But for now links and back to some other projects that should be finished this weekend.
Majorie Liu's Left Behind and Loving It series of writing process and related posts are worth a look. That latest ones are on leaving behind fear and f inding inspiration.
Katherine at Bunch of Grapes has an excellent post about why shopping discounters for books isn't really cheaper: "Actually, I'd say it costs more." (Via Meghan over on Twitter, I think?)
The Washington Post covers RWA, and the reporter clearly had fun with the piece.
Ursula Le Guin takes on three oft-cited rules of writing.
Elizabeth Genco on Barron Storey.
Janni points out one of the things I love best about a particular set of myths.
You gave your dog what kind of haircut?
Tansy has a great post on the thorny issues of boys and reading and what girls read, and the whole etc.

I Love That Song

1 Comment / Effing Genius / By Gwenda / July 11, 2009

Best early birthday present ever? Dana, aka D.E. Rasso, from the late, lamented Number One Hit Song has a new blog. Raise a glass in celebration if you're a sentient being and go add her to your feed reader (or bookmark, if you're hardcore old school).

And if you're in NYC, you should also check out her reading this Sunday, July 12, at 8 p.m. at The Slipper Room (167 Orchard at Stanton). She'll be the featured author for the NYC stop of the Dollar Store Super Summer Tour. Be there or be a square.

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Llamas On The Lam

Miscellany / By Gwenda / July 10, 2009

Escaped llamas named Felicity and Prism–I love this story:

Two llamas escaped from a farm near the Louisville Zoo early Friday, causing police and animal services to track them through the surrounding neighborhoods.

One llama, named Felicity, made it pretty far, eventually getting stopped on Harvard Drive near Bardstown Road in the Douglass Loop. A second one, Prism, was located on the west side of Newburg Road, not far from the farm where she lives.

Nefarious beer bottle activity suspected as the cause, even.

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Watching

4 Comments / Moving Pictures / By Gwenda / July 9, 2009

I usually skim the Washington Post capsule reviews on DVD releases to prioritize new stuff into my Netflix queue. Imagine my surprise to see a science fiction movie I'd never even heard of, Push, being released on DVD this week and having gotten a recommendation.

Perhaps I enjoyed this so much because it's completely my kind of story (involving several of my bulletproof kinks, as it were*). The kind with interesting world-building and lots of cool powers and fighty fights and it's set in Hong Kong. And, in fact, it feels like a Hong Kong action movie in all the good ways. Dakota Fanning is a little revelation in this one. Most science fiction movies are really bad, if you haven't noticed, and this one isn't.

Checking out the Rotten Tomatoes (22 percent fresh, ouch!), the complaints about this seem to be that people didn't get it, felt it was too convoluted to follow, etc. Some said it was silly, but I'd go with fun. And we wonder why smarter science fiction movies don't get made, or don't get much of a sell. Anyway, we liked it a whole bunch. And the concept would make a great young adult series too.

*dystopian, secret one-name sinister organization, awesome and evocatively named powers, fights that have brains behind their choreography

Updated: Charlie Jane likes it too–so there!

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Sunday Hangovers

Hangovers / By Gwenda / July 5, 2009

Margo Lanagan provides an example of how to respond to crazy reviews, if you're going to respond. Of course, she does have the advantage of being a genius.
Tamagotchi graveyards! (via Jenny D.)
Betsy recommends new picture book The Secret Circus, which sounds AMAZING.
In honor of the now ended #yaauthorfeud that broke out on twitter over the weekend, a few links: Rachel Donadio writing about literary feuds in 2006; the Guardian book blog on same in 2007; and there's always Anthony Arthur's Literary Feuds: A Century of Celebrated Quarrels–From Mark Twain to Tom Wolfe.
Glen David Gold interview in the Times.
Back later this week with some thoughts on Sarah Rees Brennan's marvelous new novel, The Demon's Lexicon (Indiebound|Amazon).

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Monday Hangovers

3 Comments / Hangovers / By Gwenda / June 29, 2009

Save Ohio Libraries.
John Green ponders different possibilities for advance and royalty structures.
Villains gloat.
Teens still watch plenty of TV.
Michael Chabon has a dead interesting essay in the New York Review of Books: "Manhood for Amateurs: The Wilderness of Childhood."
Another Boston Globe review may have been more talked about over the weekend, but Liz Rosenberg's consideration of some new paranormal titles for teens makes some intriguing assertions about why teenagers dig the supernatural. Arguments, comments, etc.?
Sarah Dunant on historical fiction, and the Guardian on upstart historians.
Laurel Snyder wonders about the differences between (and is looking for examples of) episodic rather than epic fantasy. Some of you more theory-oriented types can undoubtedly shine the light here.
A discussion at the Enchanted Inkpot about fantasy tropes and whether they can be escaped.

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The Glove Is Off

1 Comment / Goodbyes / By Gwenda / June 25, 2009

Some of you who've been reading this blog so long you recall its previous homes on blogspot and journalscape might also remember a great number of "Glove Monster" posts during a certain time period. I find it hard to mourn such a problematic personality, but I certainly mourn the kid who gave us some great music, and then grew up too damaged and famous to quite be a whole person.

Here's the longest post I ever did about MJ (that I can remember) from 2003, oddly and creepily about how he'd never believe he could die*, and here's my favorite related video:

R.I.P., kid.

*Yes, I know. I used to be a much better blogger type. If only there'd been tags back then, it'd be a lot easier to find old posts.

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Wednesday Hangovers

Books / By Gwenda / June 24, 2009

Actual posts on hold until draft is finished. In the meantime:
Some chatter about first-person, present tense. I do love some point of view chatter.
Andrea Seigel got a truck, and it's way fancier than Janet Reno's.
"The Lie that is Bookscan."
Alan's fantasy world-building guide: "7. Are feelings considered to be insects or mammals?"
Colleen's latest "What a Girl Wants" finds several authors considering the girl detective. Well worth a read.
Maud posts some delightful snippets of her exchange with Alexander Chee about Ford Maddox Ford and Jean Rhys' blood-letting in print after their affair.
Laura Miller makes some recommendations for Buffy fans in need of a fix from the current urban fantasy explosion. It's nice to see someone outside the field write about the newer iteration of the urban fantasy subgenre without bashing it, and noting some of its most interesting characteristics–the coupling of contemporary fantasy with the hard-boiled PI voice and the prevalence of blue collar heroines in it, for instance. Particularly happy to see the Kate Daniels' series get namechecked.

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Thursday Hangovers

Hangovers / By Gwenda / June 18, 2009

I'm sure you've seen this elsewhere, but just in case–Jeff VanderMeer has tons of good stuff up about the Shared Worlds summer camp for teens to learn about writing SFF. Jeff also asked some Shared Worlds faculty about real cities they think have a fantasy/SF quality. Great program, great read.
Steve Berman of Lethe Press fame wrote with an exciting announcement, the launch of a new quarterly magazine called Icarus bringing together his two great literary loves, speculative fiction and gay-themed stories. The first issue is now available.
Speaking of gay issues, YA author Sara Ryan has a great post about cynical optimism in an age where teens are still getting beat up for admitting they're gay, but are also organizing amazing things like the Anti-Prom too.
Midori offers a strong recommendation for Téa Obreht's debut story, "The Tiger's Wife," in the fiction ish of the New Yorker (June 8).
An update on the Library of Congress project that's digitizing newspapers from circa the 1900s–the project has surpassed a million pages. Great research treasure trove for those of you working on historical projects (Scott, Justine). (Via Ron Charles on twitter.)
Speaking of Scott, here's a thorough report about the panel on alternate history in YA that he, Holly and Cassie did at BEA.
Brandon Sanderson on "The YA Invasion." He makes an interesting suggestion about how the popularity of SFF YA might have influenced the epic or high fantasy section of the field: "I think it made the genre better. I think we've had to look at our sluggish beginnings in epic, and realize that two hundred pages of wandering around a castle before conflict appears may not be the best way to begin a story. We've had to become more creative in our worldbuilding, partially (I think) to compete with the elegance of YA competition. Probably, most epic authors don't even think about this, though I bet many of them have read Potter and the others. You can't help but react to, incorporate, and learn from what you read." (Hat tip to Stacy Whitman, also on twitter.)
Roger Sutton has been posting on lots of hot topics of late, resulting in some very interesting discussions in the comments section. See "Blogs and Buzz," "Publishers and Bloggers," and "The fanboys can be merciless," for starters.
Free Arts and Crafts label music sampler on Amazon. Some good stuff on there. (Via largehearted boy.)
Finally, early reports on Salinger vs. Colting seem to indicate that the judge is thinking along the same lines as Chris Barzak. You should still read what Chris has to say, though, as an author who wrote a book in direct conversation with Catcher.

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Oversaturated With Meaning

6 Comments / Miscellany / By Gwenda / June 18, 2009

Errol Morris responds to some of the letters he received about his characteristically excellent seven-part piece "Bamboozling Ourselves" (scroll to the bottom to start at the beginning), about the Vermeer forgeries of Han van Meegeren during the World War II era. The whole thing is full of provocative ideas and well worth your time, but this caught my eye:

I was standing in the Mauritshuis on a visit to The Hague. And there it is, hanging on the wall, one of the most famous paintings in the world, "The Girl with the Pearl Earring." O.K. It was something of a letdown. (I had a similar response to the Mona Lisa and the Botticelli Venus.) It was actually – at least for me – impossible to look at the painting as a painting. Clearly, it has been singled out for a reason, but I am no longer sure of what that reason might be. It is such an iconic image – reproduced hundreds of thousands, if not millions of times – that it is unclear what I am responding to. Is it its transcendent fame; its ubiquity – to the point of kitschiness; its real or imagined value, $100 million, $200 million? Or its provenance? The feeling that I am in the presence of Vermeer. But one thing I know for sure: it is impossible to respond to it as just another painting.

Who hasn't had this reaction before one famous piece of art or another?

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