- 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.