Blog - Page 78 of 227

Like the Very First Line

Memes Upon Memes / By Gwenda / December 21, 2008

And now It's time for the end of the year meme that always makes me vow to have more interesting first sentences for the first post of each month. (Via Dave.) I'm guessing this year will be no different:

Well, that was fun. Settling in for a weekend of critical thesis work, reading, and scribbling, with a possible break in there to go see a movie or something fun. Spring is here! Yay! Locus is up to its usual April first hijincks, including teasers from America's Next Top Writer. I already love my Neo. Frey has officially dipped a toe into the waters of simultaneously banal and TMI blogging. The NYT has an interesting story about archeologists digging into the work-a-day world of ancient Egypt, as opposed to the traditional big money pyramids and the like. If you happen to be radio-friendly, I'll be on NPR's Weekend Edition tomorrow morning (about 40 minutes into the first hour of the broadcast) discussing the new Modern Library edition of Anne of Green Gables. I'm a klutz and so this means that many activities are fraught with peril, sometimes even common ones. I've been remiss in not posting a link to Vermont Public Radio's excellently creepy story about Anna, the ghost who reportedly resides in the College Hall tower at my grad school's campus. First ever Firefox extension hidden anthology?

And that concludes another year of first sentences of the month. I'd actually call it a slight improvement over last year.

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Sunday Hangovers

4 Comments / Hangovers / By Gwenda / December 21, 2008

Lilith Saintcrow offers some thoughts about why it's so easy to dismiss urban fantasy: pt. 1 and (a rebuttal to some incensed comments in) pt. 2.
Sarah Rees Brennan offers a typically excellent and insightful post about YA covers, and the different styles that have been popular in recent years.
Breaking! It's a Wonderful Life actually kind of bleak. (Also, deeply strange. I love it. C has still never seen it!)
Libba Bray compiles a treatise on and list of the worst make-out songs of all time, songs that make it impossible to smooch. Your suggestions welcome in the comments.
Tomi Ungerer's work returns to print. This piece is an excellent primer on his delightful infamy.
Michael Dirda highlights some excellent small presses (Big Mouth!) and recommends some creepy fiction.
More fascinating thoughts from Nicola, spurred by the now-developing creative coop.
David Simon made some DVD recs on Morning Edition the other day, and was thoroughly interesting and charming. Worth a listen, especially for Wire fans.
Fans of The Middleman may want to check this out.

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Bright Friday

1 Comment / Books / By Gwenda / December 19, 2008

Excuse me while I SQUEE for a moment, as I just sent in the PDF of my creative thesis (novel, abstract of critical thesis, and full bibliography) and have been informed it's all formatted appropriately. (All I have left now is the residency, and all I have left to do in preparation for that is send some emails begging for wisdom from a few people for my lecture, select a passage for my reading, and some miscellaneous stuff for various graduating student traditions. We are big on the traditions, we Vermont College types. But then, after all that, I will have mastered the fine arts!)

Anyway, earlier this week Orbit sent along a lovely advance copy of Jo Graham's The Hand of Isis, which reminded me I hadn't read Black Ships yet. So I pulled out Black Ships and, boy, this is the perfect novel to read when you're just leaving the headspace of your own contemporary mash-up with ancient Greek life and times. Graham is working with some of the same material, but staying in the period, like a modern Virgil retelling the mysteries. I'd really like to get my Persephone and Graham's young oracle Gull together in a dream.

Bonus: Like all Orbit's books, it's beautifully designed. Isn't that a gorgeous cover? Hand of Isis is equally lovely.

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Developing

4 Comments / Books / By Gwenda / December 18, 2008

The New Yorker brings on the last backhanded-swipe at YA brouhaha of the year? (We can hope.) Make sure you monitor the comments, which are excellent and on point so far.

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Tuesday Snow Day Hangovers

Hangovers / By Gwenda / December 16, 2008

The Weather Machine People have given me a snow day to work on revisions; thank you, beneficient rulers. We've already had yummy whole wheat pancakes (frozen rain made the trek to the coffee shop seem less appealing), and, yes, the dogs got their half a Mickey Mouse pancake each.
The Washington Post named their best kids' books in several areas over the weekend, and lists are very good.
The WaPo also has a piece today basically recycling Anita Silvey's SLJ essay that made the rounds in October and November, questioning whether the Newbery has gotten too downer with its selections in recent years. I still say that Laura Amy Schlitz should have won for A Drowned Maiden's Hair instead of Good Masters, Sweet Ladies, and I suspect we might not be having this conversation had that happened. Whatever the case, and I think there are some valuable points raised on all sides, the Newbery is still one of the most influential, coveted awards in all of litdom and that seems unlikely to change. (Via Sarah.)
Hardcover vs. paperback, how publishers decide. (Via Colleen.)
Speaking of Colleen, she recently hosted Max Leone, aka the kid who did that PW piece, giving some holiday book recommendations for teenage boys. He has taste.
The rediscovery of Correggio.
Elizabeth Genco visits the oldest known Tarot deck in existence, at the Morgan Library, with links to photos.
Last weekend was the Times' annual year in ideas issue.
Official Hot Topic Edward Body Glitter revealed!
An excerpt from Ted Chiang's essay, "The Problem of the Traveling Salesman," in the new LCRW. (Dear Aunt G found herself under deadlines and out of advice for this one, but shall return, kiddies.)
Jincy Willett may be running an online writing workshop, and she's looking for a couple of guinea pigs. If you haven't read her latest, The Writing Class, yet, please do so immediately.

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FSG RIP?

2 Comments / No News Like Bad News / By Gwenda / December 15, 2008

Only one song seems appropriate, as reports of big bad doings at Macmillan circulate. I offer you "Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Sea of Tears)"* live, from the appropriately named band, Destroyer.** Enjoy.

*I do, in fact, love this song.

**Also known as Dan Bejar's other band.

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Whine!

5 Comments / Cat and Dog Theater, MFA Rock / By Gwenda / December 15, 2008

Emma Explorador Pt 2
Originally uploaded by gwenda

I have completed hours and hours and hours of admin paperwork and gathering and such for the stuff that has to be mailed in at the end of one's final MFA semester… and my brain feels mushy. Also, hurty. (Evaluations, a complete bibliography of everything read for the last two years, miscellaneous forms, a title page to be signed by faculty honcho types and abstracts of creative thesis. Etc.! MLA format is Eeevil.)

The rest of the week will be spent fluffing and pruning my novel, which thankfully goes in electronically on Friday. And I'm sure the formatting of said submission will cause more head aching.

So, alas, for today, I'm afraid I'm only good for this ferocious holiday pic of Emma the Dog Girl.

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Best Typo of the Day’s Revision*

2 Comments / Write Talk / By Gwenda / December 14, 2008

Undead for dead. Whole different book, that way.

*So far.

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Fragile Permanence

Nattering / By Gwenda / December 12, 2008

I had completely forgotten about the existence of Arts and Letters Daily until Christopher mentioned he'd seen an article there the other day.

A&L was my faithful first stop online for quite awhile back in the dark ages of the early 2000s, and I don't remember when or why I stopped looking. An easy guess is that it was around the time the number of blogs I followed picked up. Anyway, I thought it didn't exist anymore, or at least I never thought of it anymore and so it felt like it didn't exist.

But it does! And it looks exactly, and more than a little comfortingly, the same.

Have a good weekend everybody, in the snow, or the cold, or the sun. I'll be revising away, and working on my last set of things that have to be completed and compiled for grad school. Veritas odit moras, as they say.

Updated: And, via the old standby, comes a link to this worthy piece about James Wood's criticism, discussing both its virtues and flaws. (I'm more convinced by the discussion of problems related to his bias against nonrealist fiction than of any innate issue with his use of angled modifiers.)

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Wednesday Hangovers

4 Comments / Hangovers / By Gwenda / December 10, 2008

The NYT has just posted a piece by Paul Greenberg that will appear in next week's Book Review, and asks why not a bail out for writers: What would such a bailout consist of? In the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt started the Federal Writers’ Project, under which some 6,000 out-of-work writers were hired over a period of several years to write guidebooks, oral histories, ethnographies and the like, and in the process "describe America to Americans." Unfortunately this potentially interesting philosophical exercise quickly devolves into the standard bemoaning that there are too many writers, too many MFAs, etc. etc., and the answer is to reduce them. Riiiiiight.
By the by, I recently accepted Brad Listi's kind invitation to post at The Nervous Breakdown, and I'll probably have my first post up there today or tomorrow.
Eamonn McCabe's photographs of writers rooms are lovely. (Via Erin.)
A piece on Thomas Merton on the 40th anniversary of his death.
Dueling cheap drinks pieces from the NYT and the WaPo: champagne vs. wine. We'll stick with our latest frugal-ish addiction, the French table wine our local Wine + Market shop imports and has boxed. It's a riotous blend of grapes, and delicious.
Fabulous writer and VCFA graduate Marianna Baer discusses sex scenes in YA novels over at agent Sara Crowe's blog. Check it out.
Speaking of sex and YA, Judy Blume's in the house over at Seven Imps.
Also, Colleen's been making great recommendations for the holidays for many days now.
Andrew Wheeler is monitoring the progress of the Grim Reaper through publishing, so you don't have to.
Christopher's put up some photos showing the recent revision of our front two rooms, complete with notations (I am not a trash bug!). No living room or guest room photos yet, but they're done too. I don't understand how he managed to take that picture of his feet. I didn't take it. Emma and Puck don't have thumbs. WAIT. Hemingway does. I'm frightened. Update: Now with 100 percent more annotated writer space.

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