Hangovers

• Still. working. on. it.  (Though going well, on track I think, etc.) In the meantime, a few links.
• At the First Second blog, some reasons titles get changed. 
• Writing fight scenes, advice from some experts: "The most common mistake is probably the one that cannot really be corrected. Most fight scenes with weapons go on too long. The saying in the Filipino arts that I do is there are only three good stick fights: thud; click, thud; click, click, thud. Anything else means you don’t really know how to fight. Since most of the time, stories are about extraordinary people with extreme skills, fights that last minutes–even a minute–are unrealistic."
• A profile of the divine Liz Hand.
• PW covers a panel on the YA blockbuster.
• I do love a missing (or imaginary) island.
• Fantasy heroines from the 1980s in art nouveau renderings; love these.
• Daniel Handler interviewed in the NYT: "You have to wonder if dictators muse about how scary they are to certain young generations. Nowadays, with social networking, you could actually just name somebody. That would be terrifying if you were a dictator and you said, “There’s no one I hate more than such and such,” an 11-year-old in Lincoln, Neb."
• Midori Snyder pulls out some of the Voynich Manuscript's most lovely pages. 
• A nice Blackwood shout-out in Heroes & Heartbreaker's recent look at some YA and romance novels being adapted for the screen. (If you haven't seen the gorgeous first teaser trailer for the City of Bones movie, then what are you waiting for? It's also at that link. I. cannot. wait.)
• And another one among these recommendations from Suzanna Hermans of Oblong Books on WAMC–the one and only Libba Bray and I will be at Oblong at 4 p.m. on December 9. Come out if you can. (I'll also be in NYC briefly before and after.) 
• With that, I'm back to work.

• Let's get this link party started with a fantastic kickstarter I urge you to support. John Picacio–who's been nominated for or won every fantasy/SF art award under the sun, and deservedly so–is launching a new business. First up is the 2013 John Picacio Calendar, filled with amazing art and which you can snag exclusively via his kickstarter (plus other bonus goodies, depending on your contribution level). I've known John for years, and I suspect his world domination is nigh. And it couldn't happen to a more talented, nicer, or harder-working guy.
• Alexander McCall Smith on the allure of lady detectives in fiction, celebrating a new edition of the book featuring the very first fictional woman sleuth.
• Pyromaniac fun with candles just in time for Thanksgiving.
• Fairy wrens and secret passwords.
• The nine circles of Dante's Hell…in lego. 
• I found this comparison of women's magazine covers when they launched and now fascinating. (That first Glamour cover!)
• Laini Taylor on independent bookstores, e-reading, and more. So much of this resonated with me. Yes.
• An editor's perspective on editorial letters at Pub Crawl.
• Truly excellent interview with Philip Pullman–I was surprised by his superstitions. Snippet: "This is the value for me of writing books that children read. Children aren't interested in the least about your appalling self-consciousness. They want to know what happens next. They force you to tell a story." Also: A His Dark Materials TV show really could be amazing.
• This post by Kathy at Stellar Four about YA novels where male and female characters work together as equals made me very happy, not least because it includes my Phillips and Miranda in its list of couples.
• And last, my KidLit Cares auction item ends tonight at 10 p.m. EST. I'm offering a 50 page SFF critique, with bonus spitballing or pitch help via phone or email if the writer so chooses.
• And now it's back to work. End in sight, deadlines swirling, etcetera.

• Happy Wednesday, because yes, yes, it is one. To celebrate, a collection of many links…
• An excellent Vulture interview with Callie Khouri about Nashville et things. Snippet: "We’re constantly looking for songs that we love, and then we write towards them. We go, “Here’s where we’re starting, story-wise,” and then as we go along, we get a bunch of songs that we know we want to record, and we record a block of them. Then we just start folding them into story at various points." (You are watching this show, right? RIGHT?)
• I've been remiss in not pointing to the indiegogo to help revitalize legendary and amazing children's/YA bookstore Books of Wonder. Go here for more info and to pitch in; they've got two weeks left and are less than halfway to their goal.
• The entire archive of Omni magazine is online.
• Also via io9: freaky dancing pig.
• The New York Times hit Kentucky's doughnut trail. Combine it withthe bourbon one, and you know you want to come visit.
• Getting ready to entertain for the holidays or need a great cookbook for a gift? I can't believe I haven't mentioned the FABULOUS Kim O'Donnel's brand-new cookbook, The Meat Lover's Meatless Celebrations, the follow-up to her The Meat Lover's Meatless Cookbook, which is a stand-by in our house. Here's a great review of the new one. (I believe we test-kitchened at least one recipe in here and it was AMAZEBALLS. Must get a copy and try the rest, stat.)
• The cat cafe culture of Tokyo at Messy Nessy Chic.
• Fascinating Slate look at the National Book Awards intrigue in 1962, the year Walker Percy's The Moviegoer won. (Semi-related: In Nancy Pearl's recent Locus magazine interview, she said The Moviegoer didn't hold up for her when she went back for a reread. Which has now made me afraid to read it again, since I loved it the first time around. Ah, here's a post from Pearl about her disappointing revisit.)
• Why Authors Are Crazy tumblr. (Hat tip to Malinda Lo for the pointer.)
• The most excellent Carrie Ryan has a brand-new book out, the second in the  Infinity Ring series, Divide and Conquer.
• PW covered the KidLit Cares auction.
• Great post on showing and telling from Zoë Marriott.
• The always super-smart Beth Revis on why sometimes you have to delete to move ahead with a project…and why that is winning.
• Tie-in dolls from Twilight, LOTR, The Vampire Diaries, and others repainted to insanely realistic results.

My thoughts and sympathies are with everyone hit so hard by Hurricane Sandy and her downward spiral into destruction this week. My agent sister Kate Messner (who is generally amazing) has started the KidLit Cares auction to raise funds for relief efforts. I'm currently trying to decide what to donate, but will post here once my contribution goes up in case anyone's interested in bidding.

And Happy NaNoWriMo to those participating! I'm not doing it, but I am finishing this revision this month, hell or high water, as they say, and plan to suck all that novel-y energy that's in the air right in. Annd another member of the household just might be officially word counting in order to novel finish, not novel start. (If you're hoping it's Emma the Dog, well, you'll have to wait a while longer for her opus, I'm afraid. She has no thumbs.)

Some links:

• For the NaNo-ers, a helpful post from Sarah MacLean.
• How old is that bourbon? Why it probably doesn't matter, and may even be better younger.
• Famous writer maladies revealed! (My favorite book like this is the excellently titled Boswell's Clap and Other Essays.)
• Creepy Wikipedia entries.
• Real-life Island of the Blue Dolphins cave found?
• The delightful Sarah Rees Brennan talks cliffhangers.
• A great post from Robin LaFevers on creating character, which invokes Michael Hauge's theory of identity vs. essence, and other really helpful things.
• I loved Robin Wasserman's post about what scares her. Yesss, amorphous evil. My favorite kind.
• The one and only Beth Revis is running an ENORMOUS giveaway, a library of about fifty signed books from everyone she's done an event with this year, to celebrate the upcoming release of the last book in the Across the Universe trilogy. 

• I haven't actually gotten a chance to read all today's links yet, but I had too many open tabs…so I'm stashing them here to read later. In fact, I fear I'm going to have to mostly disappear for a couple/few weeks, because I really, really, really want to get this draft in shape sooner rather than later, but it's scary and so I need to get rid of Time Frittery. Filed under, the dangers of fragmented attention and shiny (or matte) distractions when inhabiting draftville. (And I'll break out of revision jail if SECRET NEWS becomes share-able, of course.)
• Chuck Wendig did a MARVELOUS interview with Margaret Atwood yesterday. Let's make mauve happen, mauve it. 
• R.L. LaFevers on "The Seven Stages of Publishing Grief (or Hello Darkness, My Old Friend) at Writer Unboxed. Along the same lines, Rachel Gardner on "Big Dreams vs. Realistic Expectations." (This BondGirl confesses that she usually expects the worst and then is pleasantly surprised.)
• The Top 10 Essays Since 1950.
• Dutch museum art heist. I can never resist a heist story.
• Two of my favorite io9 pieces this week: "7 Scientific Facts That Will Ruin Movies for You" and "How to Stop Nightmares from Destroying Your Sleep."
• Study finds that young blood can reverse some signs of aging. A dystopian in the making…
• A new and excellently creepy Genevieve Valentine story at Nightmare, "Good Fences" (which I can vouch is excellent because Christopher read it on her behalf at WorldCon).
• The portal fantasy discussion.
• Six tests of a solid story premise.
• Amy Rose Capetta on theme.
• Nashville! Please watch this show–it's by far my favorite of the new ones and looks like it could be truly wonderful if it gets the chance to live. Even if you don't like country music, if you like good writing, complicated situations, and well-drawn, interesting characters, check it out. /TV PSA
• And, last, on Saturday I'll be at the Kentucky Reading Association's annual conference as a guest at the author luncheon. (At which I'll finally get to meet the fabulous Saundra Mitchell and fellow Kentucky author Bethany Griffin in real-live personhood, as they're also guests.) I'm very much looking forward to meeting the educators, librarians, and others there (book people, I love you), and if any of you out there reading this happen to be going, then please do come and say hello.

• So I blogged almost every day this week AND I've gotten a lot of writing and other things done. Mercury must be in whatever the opposite of retrograde is. (Though I'm still a leetle behind on email; tends to happen when the writing is going well. Feel free to ping me again if it's something you need a response on right away.)
• This weekend I'm getting around to packaging up Blackwood bookmarks for those who requested them. This is the last call (for now, at least) for booksellers, librarians or teachers who want some. Just get in touch and let me know how many you'd like sometime before Sunday. More details here.
• Speaking of bookmarks, the fabulous Megan Miranda has some available for her forthcoming Hysteria if you're interested.
• Two wonderful Lois Lowry-related links: the one and only Robin Wasserman has a great review of Son in this weekend's NYTBR (fancy!) and the singular Kate Milford wrote a fantastic post about Lowry and the importance of dark stories (prepare to tear up).
• A reminder that Christopher has a brand-new story up at Eclipse Online, "The Contrary Gardener," featuring some of my favorite robots in recent memory and a trip to the Derby of the future. Perfect weekend reading.
• I know you've heard all about the Humble Bundle already, but here's another pointer to it. 
• The Atlantic looks at the fascinating things Coliloquy is doing with reader-directed stories, including many comments from the lovely Holly McDowell and Heidi Kling.
• Worried about your Amazon author rank? Worry no more! Instead take a look at Annalee Newitz's "7 Signs We Are Heading for a Mass Extinction." Now that's something to worry about. (See also: Scalzi being sensible about the rankings.)
• The Smithsonian has a must-read piece about "The Dark Side of Thomas Jefferson." (Via Colleen.)
• Jason Pinter on why books don't have to earn out for publishers to make money, particularly with big deals like Lena Dunham's.
• A typically wonderful and wise piece from Alexander Chee, this time for the Awl on lies writers tell themselves.
• The Awl also had a nice look at Ursula Nordstrom and Maurice Sendak's editorial relationship this week.
• And one last reminder, I'll be in Louisville for the Writer's Block Festival tomorrow for a YA panel at 1 p.m. featuring Katrina Kittle (Reasons to Be Happy) and Kelly Creagh (the Nevermore series) and moderated by Matt Jaeger, and around to sign afterward. Hope to see some of you there. 

• I did not fall down a well, but I did fall smack dab into being assailed by allergens. I kept thinking the cold of last week was coming back, then realized* (prepare to be amazed by my deductive powers) that I felt fuzzy-headed after my walk each day… Aha! Allergies. (I'm a regular girl detective.) You can't put one over on me, not now that I take an extra zyrtec in the afternoon anyway.
• I forgot to tell y'all that there's a little excerpt from Blackwood in the newest issue of Lightspeed magazine for subscribers who get the whole thing e-lectronically. 
• "What The Vampire Diaries Has Taught Me About Plotting" by Becca Weston. Good stuff; I'm an especially big fan of #1.
• Jane Friedman being sensible on a usually non-sensible topic with "The Stephen King Guide to Marketing."
• Check out these black spidery bits on Mars. Absolutely fascinating speculation about what they are, accompanied by gorgeous photos. (Via Kate Elliott.)
• My lovely pub sister Kim Curran wrote an excellent post earlier this week about "10 Things Not To Do To Get A Book Deal–And Beyond."
  
• "The Vampire Hunt in Lincoln Park, 1888"–Adam Selzer is on the case.
• Eclipse Online is coming next week, starting with one Christopher Rowe's fabulous novelette "The Contrary Gardener." Love, love. But don't take my word for it; there's an early review at that link.

*Also hoping this revelation means that starting tomorrow I will get the kind of revision progress in that I need to be getting, which I haven't this week thus far. Lots of thinking, but not enough writing fixety. Also hoping–tentatively–that the next week might bring resolution on a front that has taken seemingly forever to resolve but could be exciting. *is intentionally mysterious* Keep your fingers crossed. (You know, when they're not busy with other things.) Ciao for now.

I'm almost in sight of being caught up–except for finishing the new novel revision, but working on it. Unbelievable! Or, rather, in honor of The Princess Bride movie's recent anniversary: Inconceivable! So…if I owe you a response or a guest post or something like that it should show up in the next few days.

There are many links today, so let's get to it:

• There's a New Voice interview with me up at Cynthia Leitich Smith's, which is a dream come true all its own since I've been following Cyn's blog devotedly for years. It's also quite possibly the most confessional interview I've done and I talk candidly about my publishing journey and its detours (by way of saying, a little nervous about this one, but you are all kind sorts, right?). Also, there's a deluxe giveaway featuring a signed copy of the book, a handmade duct tape rose pen, bookmarks and the LAST Blackwood T-shirt. 
• Emilie's Book World Blackwood review: "Gwenda Bond's Blackwood was a fantastic debut both from the author and new publisher, Strange Chemisty. It was exactly the kind of book I hoped it would be and it made me turn page after page." (*beams*)
• I loved this video about how David Bowie twirls those crystal balls so effortlessly in Labyrinth.
• TV maven Kate Linnea Welsh's "Why I Love Fringe." Oh, the new ep of this (alas) final season was SO good. Even at its bleakest, this is a show with love and hope in its heart. And willing to take risks.
• Interesting stuff about time travel in this article about Looper.
• Great interview with Libba Bray. Snippet: "I just read this great quote by Junot Diaz. He was talking about true intimacy, and he was saying that it was the willingness to be vulnerable and to be found out. I loved that phrase, that you were willing to be found out. That’s what I felt that YA did."
• Kimberly Hirsh will be posting about all lit dark and wondrous at Quaint and Curious. Add it to your reader/blogroll/etc.
• Congratulations to Betsy Bird and all the other organizers of KidLitCon this past weekend. It sounds as if it went swimmingly–and I enjoyed following along on twitter (next year must go back!) and am very much looking forward to the posts that follow this week.
• Speaking of conferences, my editor Amanda Rutter is exploring the possibility of throwing a YA-specific conference in the UK. If you have thoughts, stash them here.
• Baby pudu.
• It's October 1, which means that Cybils nominations are OPEN! There are a few rules changes this year. Go here for all the skinny.
• Last, but not least: October 1 also means that the Ballou Sr. High Book Fair is IN PROGRESS. You can read all about it at Guys Lit Wire. This is truly a labor of love and great organization by the wonderful Colleen Mondor and I urge you to go check out the post and see the evidence of what the previous fairs have done for this school-in-need. Then go scope out the Powell's list and get donating.