Hangovers

• Claire Light on literary maps. I also recommend visiting the Imagination Gallery B Literary Arts (Groucho’s letters!) as a whole and Book Arts.
• An excellent cenote site. (Thanks, C.)
• Fairhope, Ala.; home to eccentrics and artists?
• Agent Jenny Rappaport asks why fantasy is doing better than science fiction at the moment?
• The Happy Booker interviews Joyce Carol Oates in the WaPo.

• Two posts of interest at The Valve: early Bengali SF and thoughts inspired by the short film of Terry Bisson’s "They’re Made Out of Meat".
• Chris McLaren recommends Jeff Ford’s new short story collection.
• Justine wants to know why we want so much love in books.
• The NYT Magazine piece on talent.
• Jeff VanderMeer’s 64 favorite fictions.
• And stop by the LBC this week, where a bunch of us will be discussing Gina Frangello’s My Sister’s Continent.

Well, we’re not actually celebrating The Derby (TM), because that’s way more fun if you’re much further from it than we are. But we like Derby hats and good bourbon, so it’s not like this makes us communists. Nothing against communists (we like them too, actually). Plus, yesterday Christopher made the Best Biscuits EVER, in honor of the occasion. (Seriously, they were this spectacular mix of angel and cathead biscuits. The yum.)

Calm The Fuck Down Weekend 2006 is off to a good start. Miss Emma, Enemy of Squirrels and Manholes, and I have been for a couple of walks in la perfect weather. I’ve somewhat tidied the house. C’s still down with the virus, but if his course follows mine he should be better in an hour or so. Then we’ll go get some sort of spray for the outside of the windows, which are suddenly home to ants, and visit the wine shop before The Melissas come over to hang out.

Oh, and I finally went ahead and got my BEA plane tix. I’ll be there most of Friday, Saturday and flying out early Sunday and I want to meet you all.

A few little links.

• Henry Alford on bookselling in the NYT. (Via the excellent new The New York Observer on Alloy and Viswanathan. (This one’s worth reading; thanks, J!)
• Theresa Duncan points to an article on writing for Hollywood, but it’s only fun if you go there and follow her cue.
• An interview between Ann Patchett and Elizabeth McCracken. Rumor is there’s audio as well. (Via Babies Are Fireproof.)
• The YA Review exists over at LJ.
• I liked it better when the English were throwing things at him.
• If you’re going to mint julep, do it with Woodford Reserve. But, really, why?

• First, yes, I am going to keep subtly directing (nee harping at) you to go over to the LBC and chime in.
• The Gurgling Cod comments on and points to a fascinating discussion of an apparent Chicago-specific food norm, which is not duplicating orders with anyone else in your group when eating in a restaurant. Freaky. Chicagolanders, confirm or deny?
• Colbert at the correspondents dinner.
• Caitlin R. Kiernan walks the plank over at VanderWorld. Want Alabaster!
• Cecil responds to this wrong-headed LA Times piece about YA. It’s a fact: Generalizations suck. Updated: Justine weighs in.
• Claire Light on map tattoos.
• Who knew that John Crowley had a Kentucky connection? (And a new LJ.)
• Project Runway’s coming back July 12, coincidentally (?) my birthday.
• Pretty Pinocchio at BibliOdyssey.

• Drop by and tell Jeff Ford what you want to hear about when he’s guest blogging at the LBC a week from now.
• Theresa Duncan lauds The Silver Jews, something I entirely support.
• John Barlow on his 17th Street experience in Slate.
• The Blackheart Gang’s "The Tale of How," an animated short. (Via NeedCoffee.)
• Niall Harrison on the great news that Air has raked in the Clarke award, on its world domination tour. I agree that it does feel odd that the book is only just recently getting all this attention, but man, what a dream come true.
• Jonathan Strahan calls attention to the fact that Susanna Clarke’s first story collection The Ladies of Grace Adieu is due this fall. Whether you liked the novel or not, you should be excited about this. No one (okay, I’m sure someone, but let’s pretend) can claim that her short stories aren’t pure magic.
• If you have a few extra bucks laying around, help Steph Burgis’s brother Ben go to Clarion, won’t you?

• An excellent article in the Harvard Independent about the whole Kaavya Viswanathan controversy that deals with how YA book packaging and ghost writing works at Alloy/17th Street, with extensive comments by the Old Hag herself Lizzie Skurnick. (Via Maud.) UPDATED: Skurnick clarifies, and it’s a better read than the piece itself.
• You like spirited discussion of fiction? Drop by the LBC for this week’s discussion of Ticknor (which, in full disclosure, just didn’t do it for me).
• The Orange Prize shortlist looks to be full of some amazing books.
• Cecil Castellucci interviewed at YA & Kids Book Central.
• I forgot to mention yesterday that Hal Duncan‘s much-buzzed-about debut novel Vellum is now officially available stateside. An advance copy has been sitting patiently at the top of the TBR for awhile, woefully neglected, and I’m looking forward to reading it. Meanwhile, see Matt Cheney’s comments.
• Lestat the musical debuts to a delicious bad review in the WaPo: In other words, "Lestat’s" contribution to art and equality is demonstrating that a gay vampire with a two-octave range can be just as dull as a straight one.

• Interview with Margo Lanagan at Forbidden Planet International.
• Kevin Wignall on rich authors in the UK.
• Ten things Toni knows about writing.
• Jim Hanas reveals the real reason celebrities pick odd names for their children.
• Maureen McHugh on Capote: But as a portrait of how writers love and use the people around them, it is quite good. I don’t know any Truman Capotes, and I’d like to think I’m not one, but all of us, at least in some small way, take advantage of the people around us.
• Max at the Millions on a floating library, more controversial than you might think.
• The Written Nerd loves David Mitchell. (I know someone who’ll like this one. Psst, Shana.)
• The Watcher on the news that ASP and DP aren’t going to be running Gilmore Girls next season (and likely its final). I just hope they get it together the rest of this season and don’t go out on the a note like it will be if they don’t.
• WaPo piece on Mark Cline’s art: "It’s my gift," he says. "I don’t know where it comes from. I’m not going to tell you it comes from God or the Devil or Alpha Centauri. But I have been given this amazing gift and I have to use it. I have to."

• The good news is out about Generation Loss, Liz Hand’s next novel, which is being published jointly by Harvest and Small Beer. Sayeth the blurb at Liz’s site: "The Small Beer hardcover is tentatively scheduled for Spring 2007, to be followed by the Harvest paperback in Spring 2008." This makes me very happy.
• Colleen Mondor has a gorgeous new site. Update blogrolls and bookmarks accordingly.
• Hannah and Chance just sold stories to Fantasy magazine — another yay for the ladies. And now I have to subscribe.
• Stupidest bad review ever. (Via Words, Words, Words.)
• Keeping up with La Gringa’s titling on Bloglines this week has been like a game.
• Alan DeNiro already long-listed for big deal award for his bad-ass forthcoming collection. I’ve been reading the galley this week and, yes, it is the awesome.
• Cecil Castellucci will be reading as part of the Swink-Vermin Tag Team at Vermin on the Mount on 4/29. Be there LA-ites.
• Started the week linking to Tod Goldberg, and why not end it there to?

• Slate tests out bike locks. Bottom line: You have to shell out for a really good one.
• Best American Fantasy anthology series announced with the ever-excellent Matt Cheney as series editor and Jeff & Ann VanderMeer as the first year’s guest editors. Congratulations, guys! You’ll be able to rec stories at that site.
• Scalzi and Mrissa in an interesting exchange about the difficulty of writing YA. To which I add: Yes, hard.
• Ed Park on Black Swan Green.
• Lauren Cerand’s "Seven Songs That Will Change The Way You Think About Publicity."
• Farah Mendlesohn reviews James Morrow’s The Last Witchfinder for Strange Horizons. And Morrow names his top 10 witch persecution books in The Guardian. Want to read.
• There’s a new issue of failbetter magazine, which among other things includes "Our Missing Airman" by the fabulous Colleen Mondor. Read it! (And go check out her guest review of Princes Amongst Men at Moorish Girl — I’m reading the book right now.)
• Austin Kleon on Lynda Barry at Oberlin.

• Emails; I owe a few (million). (And the cat is biting my toes as I type this. And halfway under my chair batting at the wheels.)
• That Jeff Ford is funny. (And psst, I’ll be posting about a certain book by Mr. Ford over at the LBC on Wednesday, so plan to drop in.)
• Kameron Hurley reads the infamous VC and takes it apart beautifully.
• More awesomeness from Rebecca Skloot, this time on tissues. The kind in your body, not the kind you blow your nose in.
• I love Liza Palmer on certain TV shows: "Jade’s going to self-destruct any minute now — not every episode is going to focus on your ability to twirl, bitch."
• Sara Gran on one of the worst fictional sins: "More sarcasm: whenever you describe a person of color in a novel, they absolutely must be described as having skin the color of a type of coffee, a type of chocolate, or some combination thereof; mocha frappacino, bittersweet cafe au lait, cocoa with a dab of espresso–as long as you don’t stray from these two food groups, you’re good."
• Meghan with another lovely rant on feminism. Also, an interesting little post from Paul Collins on how Caitlin Flanagan’s book now differs from the galley; he refers to her as "future footnote."
• Book Nerd weighs in with an excellent post on the Tournament of Books. Parental advisory: Snark is discussed frankly and honestly.
• You do not know how upset I am to discover that our UPN affiliate (WWOR out of New York) is showing a BASKETBALL GAME Tuesday night and won’t air Veronica Mars until Wednesday. Grrowl. If it were a WNBA game, maybe I could forgive.
• Muriel Spark is dead: Read Jenny and Maud.
• Hop on over to the LBC for the opening festivities of the spring round; as mentioned, I nominated a book this time (beat by a nose, as was nearly everything up; it was close this time). We’re doing some things differently not for this round, but the next one — the nominees for summer are already up at the site to give other people time to read along if they so choose. And there’ll be more of Ed’s mad podcast skillz.