RIASS stuff:
Giveaway: Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz (US onlysorry, international readers!)
Friend-zoning and Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons'Why, yes, I went there.
On Instagram, travel writing and On A Chinese Screen by W Somerset Maugham
Review: Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz'James Bond for kids.
Review: The Best Man by Kristan Higgins'A ranty-rant post about misogyny.
Interview: LA Johannesson on writing 'technological romance'
Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter: a guy's perspective'Worth viewing for the hilarious pictures of my husband.
Other bookish stuff:
Rock bands re-imagined as cool illustrated fonts'
Reorganisation for HMH Kids'Starting in spring 2014, HMH is 'retiring' the Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Harcourt Children's Books, Sandpiper paperback, Graphia, and HMH Books novelty imprints and placing them all under one umbrella, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers.
Chinua Achebe has died'(I still havent got to'Things Fall Apart, which has been by my bed for a year now.)
When an agent gives up on a project
'A How To of Blog Tours'Have the guest post ideas ready! Guest posts will, I promise you, be the most requested thing from your bloggers, one; because readers like them, and two; there is nothing easier for the blogger. Come up with topics ahead of time, and think outside the box. Talk about something fun that pertains to the book, but isn't necessarily about it. Come up with a post that people haven't seen before and you're likely to have a hit. (And if youre going to come up with a guest post, make sure its something decent)
Jean Hanff Korelitz on the film adaptation of her novel Admission'It was immediately obvious to me that readers who had seen this film were going to have a very different experience of my novel. The entire rhythm of the narrative would be undercut because the reader would know, from the very first page, everything Portia was ignorant of. Then again, it occurred to me that readers coming to the book second would know what happens no matter when the revelations came in the film; I had already agreed to that when I agreed to the principle of adaptation. Maybe it just hadn't hit me until that moment. (by the way, dont forget to enter our Admission giveaway!)
Some practical processes that can contribute to the process of writing an original screenplay'The risk with diving straight into the laid-out script is that unnecessary time will be spent crafting beautifully written and entertaining scenes that fail to serve the story telling process and end up having to be excised wither at a script review or worse still, in the cutting room.'
Interesting article on WOOL and bestsellerdom' You can do everything right and fail. You can do everything wrong and succeed. Usually, as with Howeys journey, youll get some things wrong while getting other things right.'But and this is important there is no formula, and there never was.
An interview with Kate Atkinson'Since Atkinson had mentioned to her publisher that she worked as a chambermaid during college, the London papers went for the 'unknown chambermaid wins prize' angle. Even those who praised her seemed to do it backhandedly. 'I don't know if Kate Atkinson knows she was being very postmodern,' Richard Hoggart, chairman of the judges, declared.''I spent four years doing a doctorate in postmodern American literature,' Atkinson said as she sipped her coffee, amused but still irritated, even after all this time. 'I can recognise it when I see it.'
Underground New York Public Library
10 libraries to visit with Google Street View
Kickstarter Success: An Interview with Galvin Scott Davis'The biggest obstacle we faced which we could not account for was that Kickstarter never once featured the project during the entire 35 days and we don't know why. Regardless, this made it incredibly hard to fund and we had to market via social media many, many times very day.
New series on people of colour in dystopia
10 imaginary countries in books
On the impending publication of Willa Cathers hitherto-unseen letters'Ms. Stout and Mr. Jewell, in their preface, acknowledge that publication of the letters 'flagrantly' violates Cather's wishes, expressed in a will that partially expired in 2011 with the death of her nephew and second executor, Charles Cather. But publication, they argue, advances the deeper purpose of Cather's restrictions: cementing her status as a major literary artist.
The art of making magazines'Most magazines circa 2013 are both made of paper and not, so its an awkward phase, with a lot of format confusion, content appropriation, and money problems. At the same time, its a period of great innovation, with independent magazines, zines, and digital-only ventures getting more working space and often breathing life into the scene.
I hadnt heard that Chinua Achebe had died. One day I will read his books!
Im determined to get to Things Fall Apart now. Ive had it on my shelf for ages.