Hangovers

• Justine kicks off the new year with a thoroughly great post on rewriting. I love revision because the blind panic I feel most days while writing a first draft–is this even a book? is this the worst book ever? is this really the best I can do? is it possible I have no idea what happens next?–only rarely kicks in during it. (Although, yes, sometimes despair does show up.)
• The Cybils finalists are out. The SFF shortlists (one YA, one for middle grade and younger readers) look excellent, and I’m very excited to start reading my way through them and deliberating with the rest of the category’s jury.
• A new Jeff Ford novel, The Shadow Year, comes out in March. YAY!
• Chance discusses the book in question in this story, Marvelous Effect, which sounds, um, not so marvelicious.
• While we were traveling, I totally missed all the great posts related to how the writers in John Klima’s Logorrhea anthology chose their words.
• Philip Pullman in the Guardian on a topic near and dear: narrative voice.
• Chris McLaren has a whole bunch of good links about all sorts of stuff, including new tattoo ink, electromagnetic sense perception, disappearing doorknobs, and Joss Whedon.

• Scott and Justine are the "it" kids of YA, which is news to nobody. Also, Justine looks great in that hat.
• Hello Kitty for men. (Via.)
• Meghan McCarron’s favorite songs o’ the year.
• J.L. Bell on the similarities between Castle Waiting and the Oz books.

• Colleen has the lovely recommended reading lists of: Kelley Eskridge and Nicola Griffith.
• Paul Collins has some beautiful silly book covers.
• I have a soft spot for the duct tape bandit.
• The popularity of becoming a pet trainer.
• Buzzwords of 2007.
• Pam McNew’s excellent list of SFF short story recommendations for 2007.
• It’s never too late to give Christopher a birthday cycling gift certificate! Were one so inclined…

• Libraries paying hardball with overdue fines (at ours, it’s a dime a day and you can’t check out anything else if you hit $5 without paying it off).
• The NYT also has a very interesting piece on a growing controversy in anthropological circles over the uber-popular work of Jared Diamond: But the anthropologists had a point. As Einstein put it, explanations should be as simple as possible — but no simpler. Is it realistic to hope, as Dr. Diamond did at the end of “Guns, Germs and Steel,” that “historical studies of human societies can be pursued as scientifically as studies of dinosaurs”?
• Eric Ripert helps a housewife throw a dinner party.
• Freemasons: Can’t believe people think they’re weird.
• The fabulous Literaticat dishes out her picks for best YA of the year.
• Greg Frost offers some insight on a way to break through the "dark night of despair" phase of novel writing.
• Terri Windling on wild children, aka feral tykes.
• Maureen on cooking roast potatoes with duck fat, as yummy as her food writing always is.
• Some alums and current students in the MFA program I’m in have started a new craft-oriented group blog called Through the Tollbooth. I’m sure it will be full of immensely good stuff.
• And, in a time-saving experiment, here’s my current shared items on Google Reader:

Update: And the experiment is a failure, cause the links update automatically when you share new stuff. Now if they figure out how to keep permalinks to what was in your shared items at the particular time of posting, we’d be in business.

• Max’s Year in Reading series has been outstanding on the whole, but I am absolutely delighted by today’s installment: Freddy Krueger.
• J.L. Bell has begun a series of thoughtful posts in reaction to the New Yorker’s "Twilight of the Books" article. So far, there are two: "Next Slide Please" and "Twilight of the Bard?"
• Erin’s Year of Links.
• Covetable wallpaper.
• The pleasures of fantasy languages. I wish my mind worked that way.
• Laini Taylor on The Golden Compass movie vs. book and her disappointment with the adaptation (which is worth reading regardless of your feelings for her typically fabulous write porn commentary). I must confess–and I realize this completely jettisons my credibility on a number of levels–that I hadn’t read the Pullman trilogy and waited to do so until after seeing the movie on purpose. Not having read the book(s), the movie worked pretty well for me–and, yes, I immediately read it. And loved it.* (Now I’m reading The Subtle Knife. And Peter Cameron’s excellent Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You.) Anyway, the thing I think is made so clear in contrasting the film and the book with each other is the difference between novel logic and movie logic. Movie logic is never going to truly work for a story as complex as The Golden Compass, because that’s not its nature. So, they have to simplify things–little things, big things, almost EVERYTHING–and there’s a lot that’s lost with a story like this, in that simplification. But GREAT eye candy and I enjoyed the hell out of it while watching (and wasn’t confused by it at all). I want an armored bear!
• Steve Erickson interviewed at Bookslut.
• Matt Cheney has a question for the hive mind about kids and reading that I think you guys can help him out on: A couple of parents asked me for recommendations of places where their kids could find out about books they might like. No answer came to mind, because I’ve never looked at the sorts of websites or resources that kids might look at, and I honestly wouldn’t even know where to begin. … I’d particularly love to know if there are any teen-oriented blogs out there that ever talk about books, particularly blogs by teens themselves. If you were (or are) a teenager, what sorts of resources would help you discover books you might like?
• Glowing kitties! (Via Maud.)
• I’m feeling antsy and too plugged in lately, so I have no idea what the future holds for this space. It’ll probably pass though, so, likely, more of the same.

*On our flight into Austin there was this really awkward moment where the incredibly blond, incredibly tidy flight attendant–who had already been supermean to the poor guy next to me when he wanted more ice–leaned over and said, "What do you think of the book? Let me see how far you’re in." I showed her. "Oh, you’re almost done. So, what do you think about all the things people are saying about it?" I couldn’t tell where she was going, but was deadly afraid it was the whole anti-religion thing. "Um, I think it’s a cracking good fantasy adventure story," I said, and yes, it’s more, but I was walking the fine line here. "Exactly! I loved all three and they are wonderful fantasies. That’s what I’ve been telling all the parents on my flights–let your kids make up their own minds!" Sometimes, humanity still has the capacity to surprise in the good way.

To close tabs… And as someone who just sent 90 incredibly rough pages of fiction, two essays, an annotated bibliography and a letter via the e-mail to close out the semester, I can truly say: Boy, my arms are tired and I need a drink. This MFA stuff is not for wimps, I’m telling you. (And, please, for the love of all that exists, don’t start about how much harder real physical labor is. Please. That’s a different kind of hard.) And now we go to a workshop! (But there’s an after-party!)

• The Rake summarizes the low points–as only he can–of responses regarding litblogs from NBCC members in a recent survey on ethics in book reviewing. If that’s not enough, here’s more crankypantsing.
• The Beast of Bolivia, N.C. (Via Jenny.)
• I am beginning to love Numb3rs, despite inconsistent writing, for the sheer geek-love exhibited by this show. Not to mention the continued casting of just about everyone who has ever been on The Wire in a character role. Also, they cast the bad guy from Real Genius and the inventor of the flux capacitor in back-to-back episodes.
• Bill Clinton vs. George Saunders. (Via Erin.)
• The idea issue of NYT Magazine.
• John Kessel’s new collection=makes me happy even when my brain is fried!

• Lots of good stuff in the LA Times book coverage this week: Ed Park’s favorite SF titles of 2007, Sonja Bolle’s favorite kids titles (I so want that NYReview reprint of Uncle), and Denise Hamilton on the magic of Beverly Cleary and Klickitat Street (those books do hold up so, so well).
• Scott sets the record straight on the lies circulating about the His Dark Materials book; he’s a smartie pants.
• Liz Hand points out some great books from 2007 you may have missed in the Village Voice.
• Jenny D points to Atul Gawande’s New Yorker piece on the value of checklists in preventing medical errors; I recently finished Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance and highly recommend it.
• Uma Krishnaswami on writing with children in Delhi.
• My MFA program — the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults — has just revamped its Web site.
• Terry Teachout attends an advance screening of Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd and gives me hope that it will be excellent.
• Finally, the must-read Nobel speech of Doris Lessing. Seriously, read it: We have a treasure-house of literature, going back to the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans. It is all there, this wealth of literature, to be discovered again and again by whoever is lucky enough to come up on it. Suppose it did not exist. How impoverished, how empty we would be.

Because a girl this addicted to the ‘net can’t go cold turkey.

• The Guardian solicits fairy tales for the 21st century from Hilary Mantel, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Audrey Niffenegger. (Which sort of ignores that fairy tales are for Every Century, but, oh well…)
• Niall weighs in on the current state of Heroes (buried in the middle amid more serious topics).
• John Freeman and Nicole Aragi apparently have a very jealous-making library.
• Monkeys! (Via Mr Cavin, who I owe long-overdue email, especially considering his hat is on our coatrack while he is in Vietnam.)
• How Manga Conquered the US.
• Wendy McClure on children’s book publishing.
• Toni Causey’s remarkable post on the writer’s strike and why it’s important. Doris Egan on same.

• Things are busy, busy, but the Winter Blog Blast Tour and its amazing author interviews are coming veryyyyyy soon. As in, next week. Here I’ll be featuring Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple in a joint interview, Elizabeth Knox, Christopher Barzak and Micol Ostow. The full schedule will be circulating later on this week and I’ll keep you posted.
• Tonight, we will not costume, but we will be busy busy. First, drinks for the neighbor’s birthday, then full-on trivia madness as we serve on trivia checkpoint duty for crazed, costumed Alleycat bike racers. Photos if I can get the crappy digital camera to function properly.
• The lovely Carrie Frye hosts Kelly and Gavin at About Last Night, each with five scary (or, er, non-scary in Gavin’s case) book picks.
• Meanwhile, the also-lovely Kassia Kroszer hosts Matt Cheney, Jeff and Ann VanderMeer talking about the first Best American Fantasy.
• A new ish of LCRW wings its way to World Fantasy Con. I burned the midnight elbow grease with this edition of Dear Aunt G, which had lots of fun questions (oh, Haddayr).
• Nic Clarke has a fine review of Ellen Kushner’s The Privilege of the Sword over at Strange Horizons — I finally got around to reading this one last month and keep failing to mention how much I loved it. A marvelous book that anyone of taste will enjoy.
• Christmas wish list: My So-Called Life boxed set.
• Jules and Eisha with a great Halloween post on the famous Bell Witch.
• Superagent Ginger Clark guests on Nathan Bransford’s blog discussing the etiquette of handling an offer of representation. Ginger = smart cookie.
• Slate does the "what haven’t you read survey?" with a bunch of interesting author-types (note to Christopher, of late absorbed in the first book in the Aegypt cycle: this includes John Crowley, p. 2).
• Carolyn has pushed the button and a new issue of Hot Metal Bridge has magically appeared. Get your hot little eyes on it.
• Ted Chiang on Paul Linebarger (aka Cordwainer Smith) over at WithBoots.
• J.L. Bell on Dumbledore and gay characters in children’s fantasy generally; good post, but be sure to check out the conversation in the comments between M.T. Anderson and Bell.
• And tomorrow Endicott Studio is relaunching the Journal of Mythic Arts in a format that will allow the posting of fresh content year-round and not just quarterly. Can’t wait to see the new, sweet style.

• The way we learn extreme balance.
• Colleen has (what I consider to be) the last word on the Kincaid/The Wild Girls dust-up.
• Dave Schwartz points out that Kate Bernheimer’s Brothers and Beasts anthology of men writing about fairy tales is out, and shares some of his own contribution.
• Karen Joy Fowler hobnobs with stahs.
• And it had never before occurred to me to try and camouflage myself as a vending machine — still, for those solo dog walks, I bet it would cut down on the rude comments from passing rednecks in giant automobiles.
• Link above via Chris Barzak, whose One for Sorrow got a helluva review in the Washington Post over the weekend. Yay! I really have to get around to this one, since I have no idea why I haven’t yet.
• The Cybils SF and F noms — more, more, more!
• Carolyn reviews the new Tom Perrotta.
• The Ladies of Seven Imps are joined by Roger Sutton for a tri-review of Perry Moore’s Hero that’s definitely worth your time.