Bookish links 16 Jan: internet vs novelists, siblings in YA, tweeting from the grave more!

RIASS stuff:

Today Im over on Maggie Nashs post talking about heroes and whether size matters. (Height, that is. Of course.)

Review: Maine by Courtney Sullivan'Rating:

Giveaway:'Safe Haven'by Nicholas Sparks'(US only)

My husband (nerdy software developer) and I are going to be up in Sydney over the 26th and 27th of February. If you'd like to catch up while we're there, drop me a line at readinasinglesitting AT gmail.com.

Other bookish stuff:

Ive just downloaded the Murakami calendar app. Ill review it once Ive had a bit of a play with it!

Is the internet killing the novel?'(No, Jonathan Franzen is just sticking his nose in again)'So: to recap. Writers can't write anything because they keep looking at the internet, which, as it does with everyone, is making them stupid. If they do write something, no-one wants to read it. If someone does want to read it, they can't, because the internet has permanently disabled the part of their brain that enables them to concentrate on any text longer than a tweet. And even if they can concentrate, it's meaningless because they don't really care anyway.

On siblings in YA literature'When we talk about diversity in ya lit, we also need to be talking about the diversity in families represented in ya lit.''Yes, statistically there are a lot of blended and nontraditional families, but we also need to make sure that traditional families are represented.''Andthat means including sibling groups of 3 or more.

Loneliness in American literature Afourth of Americans will also admit they are lonely when pressed to answerbut only in private. No one likes to say it despite a national literature full of isolated protagonists who usually win the day. Some hesitation may indeed come from these classic plot resolutions. When fictional heroes and heroines who are set apart triumph anyway, they gain our admiration, but they also seem to demand that loneliness accomplish more than itself.

Why programmers work late at night (surely applies to writers, too) Why then do we perform our most mentally complex work work when the brain wants to sleep and we do simpler tasks when our brain is at its sharpest and brightest?'Because being tired makes us better codersBeing tired can make us focus better simply because when your brain is tired it'has'to focus! There isn't enough left-over brainpower to afford losing concentration.

BrainHive: a social ebook library for school-aged readers

Long-dead authors alive and well on social media Some dead writers simply shouldn't tweet. J. D. Salinger was too reclusive; Hemingway would have seen it as needy; Faulkner would have balked at the character limit. Yet all three have accounts, certainly unauthorized and perhaps against their dead wills.

How children discover new books as they grow older For children six-to-nine, about a third of book discovery happens in school. At this stage of their life, they are learning to read and being made to read at school.

Rejections arent so bad, are they? No agent or publisher will ever write you a rejection as blunt as some readers will write. No publishing professional (er, I don't think) will ever send you an email that says, 'I rly hated ur book why does ur main female protagonist act like an idiot? And she's so mean I hope she dies.'

Current trends in childrens books and YA

Yay, beautiful book covers!

How to tell the difference between legit and dodgy agents'New agents at established agencies, or those who have publishing experience elsewhere, are hungry to build their lists and you should definitely query them. Put them at the top of your lists, actually. But pay attention to the backgrounds of these new agents too. Plus some excellent questions to ask before signing with a new agent.

Is it time for the Scrabble letter values to change?

Anyone want to diagram this headline?

Emerging Aussie author or illustrator? Apply for a mentorship!