- Nora Jemisin on magic not always needing to be rigidly codified, since it's, y'know, magic. Snippet: "Magic is the mysteries, into which not everyone is so lucky, or unlucky, as to be initiated. It can be affected by belief, the whims of the unseen, harsh language. And it is not. Supposed. To make. Sense. In fact, I think it’s coolest when it doesn’t."
- Holly Black on the write faster project's early results. Also: I bookmarked the recipe for red wine pasta, which sounds delish.
- A goodreads case study of book discovery.
- In praise of a good literary slap. (Via Leila.)
- NPR wants your nominations for best YA novels.
- G. Willow Wilson does a Book Notes for Alif the Unseen, one of my favorite novels of 2012 thus far, and a great one to pair with Matt Ruff's fabulous thriller The Mirage. (I also did a short interview with her about Alif for PW earlier this year.)
- Revision tips from Kristin Cashore.
- The one and only Ursula Le Guin on literature vs. genre. Snippet: "Anybody who reads a lot is, if you like, an addict. The people who put their initials on the fly-leaf of a library copy of a mystery so that they won’t keep checking the same book out over and over are story addicts. So is the ten-year-old with his nose in The Hobbit, oblivious to dinnertime or cataclysm. So is the old woman rereading War and Peace for the eighth time. So is the scholar who studies the Odyssey for forty years. The very quality of story is to hold, to fascinate. Ask the Wedding Guest to stop listening once the Ancient Mariner gets going. He can’t. He’s hooked. Sometimes you get hooked on mere plot, sometimes on mere familiarity and predictability, sometimes you get hooked on great stuff."