Hangovers

Let's close some tabs, shall we?

• Jerry Seinfeld's productivity secret: "Don't break the chain." (This seems psychologically akin to keeping a word count diary to me–something I actually do find useful, particularly when I'm struggling with a project. Much less easy to goof off and not work for no good reason–other than that it's not going well, or is at a harder stage than usual, which are not good reasons–when I have to write down on that day "goofed off and didn't work for no good reason.")
• At NPR, the fascination with white horses: "But as rare as white horses are — fewer than 8 percent — it is amazing how they have fascinated virtually every culture. White horses are chosen to stand for good and for bad. One of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse rides a pale horse, but the unicorn — which is invariably depicted as white — stands for purity. Only virgins can capture unicorns. But contrariwise, in some cultures white horses represent fertility."
• At the Horn Book an interesting (and typically contrarian) look at trends in YA, looking at numbers of books published in various categories and etc. pre- and post-Harry Potter.
• One of my favorite contrarians, Laurel Snyder, on her love of picture books and their (at least sometime) rejection of classic story structure.
• How about that Vampire Diaries finale? A spoiler-riddled interview with Exec Producer Julie Plec at EW.
• Publishers Weekly: The Deals You Don't See at The Intern.
• "Happiness without a good work ethic is pretty impossible." Hugh MacLeod interviewed at the Happiness Project.
• Stephanie Perkins pulls some fabulous advice out of John Waters' Rookie interview.
• I absolutely love this gallery of supermoon photos. Inspirational planetscapes. Here's one at the Temple of Poseidon in Athens (taken by AP photographer Dimitri Messinis):

Happy weekend, everybody.

• Not enough time at the moment for an Actual Post, so links! Turns out that taking off a week to confab with amazing writers is seriously inspirational, and I'm deep into the fictional swamp at this point…and playing catch-up on other work that piled up while off in the bat cave. But, wow, wow, I will attempt to make a little post at some point, if for no other reason than as an excuse to point you to the work of said writers. It was truly an honor to workshop and talk craft and biz (and indulge in silliness of the highest and lowest orders, of course) with each and every one of them. And thanks again to everyone who came out to the utterly fabulous Malaprop's, despite a drizzly evening.
• My delightful publisher has been doing more cover reveals. You can check out all the first four on this pinterest board. I heart them all, not least for the fact that each one is sooo very distinctive. Also, this morning Editor Amanda tweeted a picture of real-life, printed Blackwood and Shift ARCs–I'll bet my release month sister Kim heard my morning yelp all the way across the ocean. I'm pretty sure I heard hers. (Unrelated: Should I be on this pinterest business? Probably not, but am weak and tempted.)
• Locus Award finalists! Congratzies to everyone!
• Tayari Jones offers a procrastination-avoidance tip that I think is truly smart–preparing your space the night before.
• Laura Miller on the new book Hit Lit, bringing her usual insightful take to this analysis of the components common to blockbuster bestsellers. I think this is my favorite snippet: "While “Hit Lit” may seem, to many readers, like the literary equivalent of instructions on how to boil water, the sad truth is that plenty of those who speak contemptuously of Dan Brown’s prose are writers who could not get a child interested in a fairy tale."
• Malinda Lo on writing about kissing. I have to admit, I used to find such scenes painfully hard, but now I kind of love writing them (despite the fact they're still really hard to get right–but, you know, what isn't?).
• Love this visual summer resolution from Ralph Waldo Emerson via Lauren Cerand's pinterest board, via Stephany Aulenback:
  
• Finally, go listen to my dearie dearest Christopher Rowe's wonderful, World Fantasy-nominated short story "Another Word For Map Is Faith" on podcastle.

• Feeling lucky? You can still go comment at the Book Smugglers to win a shiny Blackwood ARC until tomorrow night at 11:59 p.m. Central; open to everyone, regardless of home country.
• Speaking of the Smugglers, they also have a fabulous interview with Barry Lyga (and giveaway) up today. I cannot wait to read I Hunt Killers.
• Ann VanderMeer just announced the TOC for the Steampunk Revolutions reprint anthology she's editing and, boy, is it awesome–and I'm not just saying that because Christopher's "Nowhere Fast" from Steampunk! is one of the stories.
• At the Awl, Jim Behrle on How to Write the Great American Novel: "The desire of adults who are not YA authors to place themselves inside the lives of kids to make a more-perfect and more beautiful version of themselves in youth: Puking sound. YA authors are actually performing a vital service: Please continue doing that, YA authors! There’s nothing self-conscious and plodding about what you’re up to." The whole thing is hilarious.
• The delightful Gabrielle Gantz has a great interview with Michael Ian Black at the Rumpus.
• Robin Wasserman has a fancy new website design. And soon her super-fancy new book, The Book of Blood and Shadow, will be out. You really, really want to read this one. I LOVED it. And not just for the alchemical mystery at the heart of it (though obviously that is one of my favoritest favorite of things), but because of everything.
• A super post from the wonderful Elizabeth Bluemle of The Flying Pig bookstore: "He Won't Read Books About Girls."
• Gavin Grant, Small Beer Press magnate, interviewed!
• Art installation of 28,000 potted flowers at an abandoned mental health center. Gorgeous. (Via Kat Howard.)
• Have a good Friday, y'all. Get it? *wink*

I'm beginning to hit the point in the new book where I usually disappear from the blog, but will attempt not to go poof entirely.

• "Elephant rescued from 36-foot pit after three days."
• Jodi Meadows on fighting The Doubts.
• Best sandwich idea ever. Seriously.
• "Apparently I am a failure at success" comic at Hyperbole and a Half. (Via Erin Morgenstern.)
• USA Today talks to Pam Spengler-Jaffee and Nancy Berland about publicity. I don't know Berland, but Pam is one of the best publicists in the business.
• Oldie but goodie: (The now NYT bestselling author! yay!) Austin Kleon's post about The Gift by Lewis Hyde. I love that book so. (And Trickster Makes This World is kind of the bible of my new project.)
• Julie James on the art of research interviews.
• I can't remember where I first saw these, but gorgeous long-exposure photographs.

• Amalie Noether, little-known mathematical genius: "For her part, Noether left little record of how she felt about the difficulties she faced as a woman, or of her personal and emotional life generally. She never married, and if she had love affairs she didn’t trumpet them. After meeting the young Czech math star Olga Taussky in 1930, Noether told friends how happy she was that women were finally gaining acceptance in the field, but she herself had so few female students that her many devoted pupils were known around town as Noether’s boys."
• A new story by the fabulous Nancy Hightower, "Evangelical Wonderland."
• Every time I hear more about The Diviners, I seriously can't wait. Libba Bray interviewed at Booklist online: "Coming very soon is The Diviners (September 18th, 2012), the first book in a four-book, supernatural series set in 1920’s New York City. This one has jazz babies, speakeasies, shadowy conspiracy, a creepy museum, ghosts, Follies showgirls, rakish pickpockets, political intrigue and all manner of things that go bump in the neon-drenched night." Yes, please.
• Jane Friedman talks to Avery Monsen and Jory John about book publicity.
• Justine's delightful "I'll know I've made it as a writer when…" is, well, delightful. And so true. Oh, our neuroses, they contain multitudes.
• Lev Grossman on public speaking. 
• E. Lockhart saves The Sisters Brothers. Yay! A very entertaining decision to read, plus bonus excellent conversation from the commentators, joined by Max and Carolyn, who talk about what makes a book jump out of the reviewer stack. (I so agree–it's the promise of surprise, something (at least a bit) different than the rest.)
• I certainly hope this is true too (for *cough* Blackwood's sake *cough* since it's both).
• Holly posts her daily word counts from the writing of the new middle grade novel she just finished, Doll Bones. I love these posts so much. In fact, I love the whole idea so much I just started keeping a daily word count file for the new book I'm writing. Hard to cheat or live in denial when you have to look at it every day and explain why if it's lower than it should be.

• The Printz prediction blog is making some changes as they get ready to embark upon this year's reading.
• Kat Howard with a great entry on realizing the essential help other writers can provide: "I don't know where I got the idea that being a good writer meant being able to write by myself. I mean, I'm one of those people who always reads the dedication and acknowledgements. I'm not sure what I thought those people being thanked had done – provided moral support and sandwiches, maybe? But I'm very glad that I've been able to recognize this false idea for the insanity it is."
• Edan Lepucki at the Millions on finding inspiration and a story skeleton exercise she put a recent class through.
• That article from the New York Times about how fiction works in the brain. I knew we were all secretly adventurers.
• David Coe shares some things that surprised him about the business of writing; Carrie Ryan responds in turn with things that surprised her about the business of writing YA.
• Received a pointer recently to an interesting-looking new site, Book Lamp, which did a recent computational post about average book length and most common POV by genre–with handy dandy charts even. 
• A 'Where Are They Now?' on the cast of Buffy (ended in 2003! doesn't seem possible;still miss it). (Via editor Amanda.)
• You are following the 12 Days of Monsters at the Weird Fiction Review, right? It is filled with wonders. (I contributed a response to a question for a whole bunch of people about their favorite monsters that will run at some point, btw.) And it's in honor of ICFA. ICFA = can't wait.
• Cheap tips for relieving back and neck pain, aka the writer's lament.
• This story about a whale with a 19th century weapon embedded in its skin is a marvel; sadness for the weapon, fascinating for the sheer age of the whale.
• Laura Bogart's essay about Katniss Everdeen and how the character speaks to her at the Nervous Breakdown is one of my favorite pieces of writing on the internet in a long, long time. An absolute must read: "Every time I spilled the milk, slammed the door, or looked at him the wrong way, I was as noble as Katniss ascending that stage. The Hunger Games has gifted me with a new way of perceiving the lowest moments of my life. I am not just the girl whose skin burns from the sting of leather; I am the girl on fire." Must. Read.

Don't worry, I'm not planning a return to all-links-all-the-time, promise. But I got waylaid by a little cold last week (which meant missing AWP–boo), and then had to deal with a deadline that needed vanquishing (vanquished!), and so today I'm closing some open tabs and playing catch up.

Also: thanks to everyone who checked in with us after the terrible storms that hit here late Friday. Both we and our families escaped unscathed. Others were not so lucky, and many of the hardest hit areas of the state are the ones least financially able to recover from such losses; here's a simple way to donate to the Red Cross's Kentucky-specific efforts, if you're so inclined.

• Banksy on advertising: "Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head." Updated to add: Apparently Banksy ripped this off without attribution. Here's the info on the real source.
  
• The GORGEOUS book art of Brian Dettmer.
• Young women are pioneers of language: “If women do something like uptalk or vocal fry, it’s immediately interpreted as insecure, emotional or even stupid,” said Carmen Fought, a professor of linguistics at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif. “The truth is this: Young women take linguistic features and use them as power tools for building relationships.” (Via Scott Westerfeld.)
• Headline of the week: Teen Exorcists Shopping Reality Show Can't Possibly Be Faking. (Via Robin Wasserman.)
• Tansy Rayner Roberts has a great post about why editing stresses her out (and why that's what she needs in order to do it). I love reading about other people's processes like this. (Don't most of us? Makes us feel less weird/crazy/alone.)
• The divine Sara Zarr has started a new podcast, The Creative Life, and hosts Tara Altebrando for the first episode.
• Five unsung heroes who changed modern life at Brainpicker.
• How to name your first novel at NPR.
• Kate Messner is officially a rock star; see this post about her TED talk last week. Can't wait until the full recording is available.
• China Miéville on apocalyptic London in the NYT.
• A must-read post from Megan Crewe (it's an older post recently unlocked; looking forward to her new book): "Very few journeys are smooth or straightforward."
• Speaking of things I can't wait to read: I hear wonderful things about the fabulous William Alexander's debut middle grade novel Goblin Secrets, which is out tomorrow. Just look at that cover: swoon! Pick it up. Check it out. Etcetera.
• Somebody in Dublin has St. Laurence O'Toole's heart. No, really. They stole it. (Via Kat Howard.)

• Chuck Wendig offers some of his inimitable wisdom about fixing a broken (or just sprained) book. Lots of good stuff there.
• Everybody dance now: There's a new story by Genevieve up at Lightspeed, "The Gravedigger of Konstan Spring."
• Stephanie Anderson (aka Bookavore) offers some recommended books that she keeps in her back pocket for special moments. 
• Anindita has two fascinating entries: the first about being caught by chance at the twitter intersection between a friend who wrote a (pretty snarky) NYT review and author Matthew Pearl and the happy follow-up about a nice exchange with Pearl after her first post. Lots of excellent points and questions raised about this miniscule world we're all inhabiting.
• William Gibson on personal microculture: "We [are] shaped as writers, I believe, not much by who our favorite writers are as by our general experience of fiction. Learning to write fiction, we learn to listen for our own acquired sense of what feels right, based on the totality of the pleasure (or its lack) that fiction has provided us. Not direct emulation, but rather a matter of a personal micro-culture."
• Interesting PW piece about whether teens are embracing e-books.
• A roundtable with the ladies of Community (via Dave).