2010 - Page 12 of 13 - Gwenda Bond

Saturday Hangovers

Hangovers / By Gwenda / January 30, 2010

Brought to you by my annual winter sinus infection. Boo.
In what appears to be a game of giant corporate chicken, Amazon has apparently yanked all Macmillan books off its site because of an e-book pricing dispute (meaning the publisher wants the ability to set more favorable pricing, just as it will have in the new iBookstore). See: Scalzi's spot-on commentary and more from Carolyn at Jacket Copy. I think we all remember from such classic films as Footloose and Grease that chicken played because of desperation/iPad rage/bullying never ends well for the instigator. Also, anyone know how much of Amazon's pie even comes from books these days?
Liz Hand on Patti Smith's new memoir Just Kids at the Wash Post.
Real time blogging from the SCBWI conference taking place this weekend, full of great tidbits.
More reminders about why the ocean is a terrifying place full of MONSTERS. (We should really explore that place–we barely even know what's down there.) (MORE MONSTERS.) (Although ghost shrimp is pretty cute.)
Via Leila some news about the third Monster Blood Tattoo book, along with the news that the series is being renamed and repackaged here in the states (sifting through the fan site, I believe the new overall title is Tales from the Half-Continent). These are wonderful books, and I hope it works. There was a small discussion about repackaging on twitter awhile back centered on Derek Landy's also wonderful Skulduggery Pleasant books, which haven't found as large an audience here yet as they have in the UK. (And which were part of a pricey deal.) Anyway, what I began to wonder is: Does this same kind of rebranding effort ever happen with fairly recent releases in adult books? Or if an adult book/series doesn't do as well as the publisher hoped do they automatically just write it off as a flop and then give it a new cover and smaller run in paperback or not put it in paperback at all? I couldn't think of any adult book examples of this type of repackaging off the top of my head. Which actually says good things about children's lit as a marketplace to me, as it indicates less of a willingness to bolt and a greater confidence in the material. But perhaps I'm being naive (and yes, I know that some books just get written off as flops in kid lit too, but I'm glad to see at least two series I love getting the extra effort). Also, wonder if these repackages ever make a big difference? Your comments and conspiracy theories welcome.

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Friday Hangovers

10 Comments / Hangovers / By Gwenda / January 29, 2010

R.I.P. J.D. Salinger, and here's a few Salinger links: Sarah Weinman at Daily Finance on what might happen in terms of publication of his later work now, and with some additional thoughts at her own site; David Levithan talks at the WSJ about Catcher's influence on the development of the YA genre (undeniably huge); the Washington Post has a piece on the last publishing deal Salinger ever entered into (but which didn't come to fruition, obvs); and, finally, Jo Knowles served the man coffee at a charity dinner. There are lots more interesting things out there to read, of course; nothing like a recluse to generate stories and press. (I couldn't help but think during the NPR commentary where various writers talked about his influence on American letters and Rick Moody summoned up Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield as quite possibly the two hugest influences on American authors, with Nick Carraway as the third, where our famous girl character voices are in that continuum? What would they be?)
HarperTeen launches Inkpop, a new social networking-style site for teens to post their own writing.
Justine on the phenomenons of mansplaining and whitesplaining.
And, finally, the FABULOUS Stephany Aulenback and her brother collaborate on "Things Dorothy Parker Might Have Said, Had She Been a Mother" over at McSweeney's.

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Thursday Hangovers

Hangovers / By Gwenda / January 28, 2010

At this point, I'm just trying to see if I can actually post every day for a week. (Tentatively optimistic.) Am beginning to make progress with ye olde inbox, too.
R.I.P. Howard Zinn, one of the good guys.
Janni Simner offers some basic ground rules for writers on balancing online time and presence.
Karen Healey has a most excellent post discussing the recent cover contretemps and the development of the Australian/New Zealand cover for her first novel (CAN'T WAIT) Guardian of the Dead, which releases in April.
How did I forget to mention this yesterday? Huzzah and congratulations to Jedediah Berry for winning the Crawford Award (given annually to a debut fantasy novel) for The Manual of Detection, which is also out now in paperback. It is one of the best books I read last year. You will love it. Trust me.
Leila points to some truly wonderful cover art on a new Ellen Potter book. I have not read Potter, but will be checking this one out.
If this story doesn't make you cry or at least tear up, well, why not?
YAY YAY YAY: Small Beer Press is bringing (with a lovely new cover) Ted Chiang's AWESOME collection Stories of Your Life and Others back into print. Preorder today.

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Wednesday Hangovers

6 Comments / Hangovers / By Gwenda / January 27, 2010

The BBC and the British Museum partner on a new serialized radio program "A History of the World in 100 Objects."
An interview with Kristin Cashore over at the Enchanted Inkpot, and video of the author trapezing at ALA. (It looks like soooo much fun. Want to do.)
Tiffany has some thoughts about antagonists.
A list of unsung YA titles.
Zora Neale Hurston's manuscripts were almost burned as garbage. (Via @andevers.)
The Gratzs uncover the existence of Bond Girl Barbies.
Margaret Ronald stops in at the Big Idea on the occasion of her second Evie Scelan novel, an urban fantasy series I wholeheartedly recommend.
Yep, they named it the iPad. Part of me still wants one.

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Don’t Sneeze!

Science Project / By Gwenda / January 26, 2010

Aliens may already be among us! Britain's Royal Society is on the case:

One astrobiologist says the best place to look for aliens may be right here on Earth. Paul Davies of Arizona State University said Tuesday that extraterrestrial life may have found its way to this planet at several different times.

If so, Davies says, the aliens could be "right under or noses — or even in our noses."

Boy, how much do you think they hate that this story is on the wire*? Will no one take the nose ETs seriously?!

*Suspected conversation: "Why do we keep inviting Yanks to our events?" "Because they know how to say crazy enough things to ensure a wire story?"

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Tuesday Hangovers

Hangovers / By Gwenda / January 26, 2010

I still haven't begun the Great E-mail Catch-Up Project. But soon, soon.
A couple of features worth your time over at the Millions this week: Patrick Brown's "Nobody Wants to Go Home: A Unified Theory of Reality Television," examining The Real World and its influence on shaping the genre, and Max Magee's "Confessions of a Book Pirate," in which Max interviews said pirate and inspires convos all over the place.
One of my favorite Holly Black stories, "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown," is up at the BSC Review as promotion for her forthcoming collection from Small Beer, The Poison Eaters. I can't wait to nab it and read the shiny new stories.
Speaking of Holly, Justine mulls the Omnivoracious list of most influential YA writers of the decade, and suggests she'd be a fine addition (which I wholeheartedly agree with). Go leave your own additions at J's place.
A list of cheery things at the Guardian, including the fact that yesterday was officially the most depressing day of the year–mathematically speaking. (Via Liz Hand.)
Cherie Priest on what is and isn't in the author's control.
A good interview with crime novelist Derek Nikitas. (Via @roncharles.)
Dungeons & Dragons play BANNED at Wisconsin prison for promoting gang activity. The jokes write themselves. (Via @snurri.)

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Monday Hangovers

1 Comment / Hangovers / By Gwenda / January 25, 2010

We've yet to give Damages a try (The Good Wife is just so, well, good), but this NYT piece makes it sound worth a DVR.
Some great bits over at Larissa's World from the recent SCBWI Florida Conference, particularly from the brilliant Kathleen Duey.
A.L. Kennedy on the trials of starting a new novel: "Falling asleep in my special typing chair after a couple of pages at the start of a book is, in fact, often an excellent sign. This is because writing prose is exhausting. Not in the way that coal mining is exhausting, or dragging the body of your frozen companion over an icy Alpine pass is exhausting, but it's demanding, nonetheless. By the end of the novel, things will be easier." Related: "How writing a novel is like running a marathon."
Also at the Guardian is a piece on the current brand of bleak in post-apocalyptic fiction, which would have been much more interesting if it also engaged with the dystopian and post-apocalyptic stuff going on in YA.
Some more excellent posts on the cover race and representation topic: N.K. Jemisin has a knock-out post on her problems with the concept of a boycott (read the comments too, and also a reminder to check out her first novel next month); Editorial Anonymous on the realities of expecting authors to comment when this stuff happens; the Book Smugglers announce a new "Cover Matters" regular feature; and, finally, check out Color Online & co.'s new Readers Against WhiteWashing campaign.
There's a new blog offering writers advice on How To Kill Your Imaginary Friends in ways that don't defy medical logic.
I want one of these to stand on my desk too.

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The Lazybones of El Dorado

1 Comment / Books, Nattering / By Gwenda / January 24, 2010

Yesterday I did something I haven't in ages–I took a guilt-free day off, in which to do nothing productive. (Or, at least, nothing intentionally productive.)

I slept in late late late, watched this week's Supernatural, then spent most of the day reading David Grann's The Lost City of Z. With time off for an omelet and a biscuit and a scandalous nap. (Duddiness is the new exciting!)

Anyway, I've been having fits and starts with every novel I picked up this week, so I thought I'd do a spate of nonfiction. And Z turns out to be very nearly the perfect book for me–there are echoes of two of my favorite nonfiction books contained within it, Redmond O'Hanlon's In Trouble Again: A Journey Between the Orinoco and the Amazon (really, all his books are among my favorite travel narratives) and Miles Harvey's The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime (this book's writer becomes similarly obsessed with the target of his investigations, criminal Gilbert Bland). And then you lay on top of that the truly fascinating material of lost explorers and the Royal Geographic Society–I am an extremely happy reader.

Anyone have any similarly excellent nonfiction suggestions? I was thinking I might track down The Sisters of Sinai next, but would be willing to depart the Victorian era too…

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Three Ripping Reads

3 Comments / Books / By Gwenda / January 22, 2010

Some long promised recommendations from the recent reading stacks, in the hope of getting back in the habit of regular posts like this. I'm too tired to manage full raving reviews for these, so capsules it is.

Ash, Malinda Lo (Amazon | Indiebound)

I knew I'd love this book when I saw two writers whose opinions I greatly respect express their love for it: Nicola Griffith (definitely go read her review, I'll wait) and Melissa Moorer (Oct. 15 entry–"Although it has elements that will remind you of other fairy tales, it departs from it/them in a way that is wonderfully satisfying"). An interpretation of Cinderella, Lo skillfully evokes the entire fairy tale milieu while reworking and reinventing it at will. Her language masterfully conjures everything I want in the voice of a fairy tale without ever feeling stale, and Ash's relationship with Kaisa the huntress is gripping and beautiful. Cinderella is at heart a story about grief and loss, love and redemption. So is this one.

Flash Burnout, L.K. Madigan (Amazon | Indiebound)

As the newly-minted Morris Award winner for debut YA (which Ash was also in contention for), this book hardly needs my love. But I can't help myself, because I just flat-out adored it. We do a lot of talking in the kid lit world about authentic boy voices, and books that teen boys will respond to. I can't remember encountering a more convincing teen boy than Blake–a budding photographer whose romantic entanglements get complicated when he begins helping a classmate with a meth addict mother. Girls and adult readers will find much to love here too. This book bursts with heart and humor; it made me howl and it made me cry. Getting both from the same book is a rare gift. My beloved Sassy magazine used to have an appendage it would bestow from time to time on books, movies, etc.–Teenagers As They Really Are. This book is Teenagers As They Really Are.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Amazon | Indiebound)

Check out the starred reviews on this thoroughly buzzed-about and buzz-worthy debut, due out in February. I read this on our New York oddyssey and a month later am still thinking about it and wishing the second installment of The Inheritance Trilogy was here NOW. Jemisin conjures a richly imagined world and then populates it with fascinating characters–like the pragmatic and engaging protagonist Yeine, a lost heir born to a disgraced mother who is forced to return to the city of Sky and compete for the throne, a competition that will almost certainly cause her death. Yeine had me in chapter one, with the following aside: "(This is not a digression.)" But with invented gods, a political tapestry to kill for, and thrilling language, what's not to love? Check out the first couple of chapters and see for yourself. This fantasy will appeal to anyone who loves the genre and is also frequently bored by it. (Note: This book is being pubbed for adults, though smart, well-read teens will also dig it, I predict.)

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Friday Hangovers

4 Comments / Hangovers / By Gwenda / January 22, 2010

Go AWOL for a week and miss posting about the latest cover issue altogether–that'll teach me. But, of course, the fight to prevent this from happening again continues. So I'll just throw out a couple of links, in case you have been in a coma: Justine's a good place to start (as always, because she has pointers to good posts too) and Liz has a thoughtful new post just up today (again with lots of great links included).
May I offer a recommendation? The ever fabulous Monica Edinger had a review of Rita Williams-Garcia's BRILLIANT new novel One Crazy Summer in the NYT. Read it, then nab the book. Rita, despite her NBA nod for Jumped, is still criminally underappreciated.
Awards season is wrapping up, with the release of the Best Books for YA lists. Congratulations to all those included. Many of these are among my favorites of the year, and others are still on my TBR list. And you might also be interested in the Alex Awards list, which selects adult books of particular interest to teens.
Life Unexpected earning comparisons to Gilmore Girls–the pilot didn't quite have the Amy Sherman-Palladino brilliance to me, but it had tons of heart and a charming cast. I'll keep watching.
The divine Stephany Aulenback has been posting regularly again, and recently about the book Charmed Bracelets and the difficulty of developing one of her own. I heart charm bracelets; in fact, I still own my mother's from high school, back when they had fancy silver charms. And I believe I still have my horrendous plastic version from elementary school somewhere. Must, dig, out.
Werner Herzog reads Curious George. Colonialist monkeys for everyone!
An interesting convo about regional literature at The Nervous Breakdown (which I'm working on an overdue post for). I suspect we would find the sales figures for some successful regional titles shocking in a head to head comparison with some "national bestsellers."
Next up: books post!

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