RIASS stuff:
Book Review: The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer'Rating: 
Vikings! Trolls! Spoken-word poetry!
Book Review: Ever by Gail Carson Levine'Rating: 
'A YA hero's journey set in a quasi Ancient Mesopotamia.
Interview: Nikki Logan on using the wilderness as setting in romance novels
Giveaway: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley'(world);'Giveaway: Dracula by Bram Stoker'(world)
'Other bookish stuff:
Have you set up 2-step verification on your Gmail account? Ive had my email account hacked twice in the past few years, and its just a wee bit embarrassing to realise that youve unwittingly spammed a whole bunch of editors, agents, and publicity peeps.
An interview with historian Iain McIntyre about pulp fiction in the 60s'McIntyre notes that the pulp fiction written during this time was largely written by conservative older men (or women for romance). The novels were padded out with minority groups and subcultures. However, there were opportunities for newer authors who wanted to have a say about various social issueshowever ham-fistedly they did so.
An interesting post on definitions of horror and what makes something horrifying'Horror is not just a genre. Like romance and mystery and suspense, its an emotion'that can be generated within a book about something else. Why would we want to have a scene or passage or more of horror in a non-horror-genre book? To deepen the darkness of the book? To heighten the relief of a happy ending? I do think that horror would provide contrast (in the color sense) to the rest of the book, as long as it doesnt overwhelm with darkness.
A settlement has been reached over the Google library project'Though not all of the details have been released, Google will make 20% of each featured book available to browse, and books can also be purchased.
A fascinating article on why writers disappear'Kristine Kathryn Rusch looks at a number of reasons behind why writers suddenly seem to go AWOL. These include the fact that they might be writing under different names in different genres, that they might have stopped writing altogether, that they might have been blacklisted for naughty behaviour, and that they might have moved into another area of publishing such as editing or agenting.
Need something to cure all your existential ills? Theres a poem for that.'
The secret bylines of HP Lovecraft and five other famous ghostwriters'An interesting one is prolific author Peter Lerangis, who was responsible for more than 40 of the Babysitters Club books and some of the Sweet Valley books. (Its fair to say, then, that I read most of his stuff as a kid.)
C C Hunter on how to conquer self doubt and just write.'These tips include being aware of peer pressure and avoiding negative types (so, so truewho you hang out with has a huge impact on your work and your concept of self), ensuring that youre constantly making the effort to grow as a writer, and accepting that sometimes youre going to fail at something.
Jaclyn Moriarty tells us the story behind her new novel and why it's for both adults and teens'(stay tuned for our review) In the end my publishers said: Why does it have to be one thing or another? An adult book, a teen book, a cross-over book?'It's a book,' they said. 'We'll publish it as a book.''So, my children's book became a young adult book became an adult book became a book. But people still want clarification, and the default position for 'a book' is usually an adult book
What the Popularity of YA Means for Digital Publishers'Digital, in essence, can provide readers with the freedom to read exactly what they want, with ease, and without judgment.'What'it is is far more important than'where'it is or'how'it is classified. It is also so much easier to build communities based on common interests.
Some eerie vintage ghost illustrations
Some nautical etymology for you
Ray Bradburys last essay'Bradbury speaks of discovering his local library and how much it opened up his horizons, turning him into a voracious, questioning reader.
On the definition of action in fiction'Agent Mary Kole points out that theres a difference between action that drives the plot forward and busyworkwhere characters are doing stuff, but if they werent doing it, then it wouldnt really affect the plot either way. This is something I personally struggle with as an author. Its difficult to balance dialogue, characterisation and all the rest of it when youve got your characters running around all over the place. Its so much easier to do it over a cup of tea!
In Sydney? You might want to pop along to GenreCon.
Fans of Sarah J Mass might want to pop along to a live chat on the Throne of Glass Facebook page on'Sunday 7 October,'7am Australian Eastern Standard Time'(4pm New York time, 9pm London-time)
