RIASS stuff:
Have you ever bought a book because another author has blurbed it?
Book review:'Once a Ferrara Wife'by Sarah Morgan'(in which I use the term super sperm)
I still have a couple of of bookish quote print-outs (designed in spiffy Art Deco style) left over from my wedding, so if you'd like one, just email your address details to readinasinglesitting@gmail.com and I'll post one out to you!
I'm off on my honeymoon at the end of next week, so if you'd like your name up in lights with a RIASS guest post, just drop me a line.
Other bookish stuff:
Stina Leicht on the journey after publication:'With the first book, you've all the time in the world. When it came time to write [my next]'frankly, I panicked. The pressure to get everything as correct as I could get it had become too much. I didn't know if I could finish the second book. I cried all over my agent's t-shirt at the retreat last summer.
Lev Grossman defends YA fiction:'Theres one thing that young adult novels rarely are, and thats boring. Theyre built to grab your attention and hold it. And Im not as young as I once was. At my age, I dont have time to be bored.
Catherynne M Valente responds to Christopher Priests denunciation of the Arthur C Clarke shortlist:'The fact that so few books were submitted says more about peripheral issues than about the sins of the jury or the authors at hand: the tough-to-crack UK publishing scene and how much trouble science fiction as a genre is having right now, dominated by a few huge names (and therefore the style and ideas of those names), underselling as compared to fantasy, losing new blood to the enormous YA market which is all hopped up on SF dystopia right now (I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, but it is a thing), and torn between the desire to return to pulp roots and break new ground which might alienate the very vocal fans of those roots.
Three Authors (Matthew Reilly, Sandy Thorne and Leah Giarratano)'Offer Advice for Writers
15 writers bedrooms'(Fortunately for his landlord, William S Burroughs didnt apply cut-up approaches to his sheets)
The prettiness that is the Chronicle Books office
The Art of Google Books: catching serendipitous things in the scanning of old books
The Stella Prize is hosting a lunch
What should I read next? (Thanks to Absurdly Nerdly for the link)
Game on: book covers are competing for supremacy over at Out of Print books
Take part in Londons biggest book club
J.K. Rowling launches eBook site Pottermore
E-Book Sales For Kids And Teens Surge
Angela Carters teenaged poetry unearthed
A Narnia-themed playroom
Send to Kindle
Thanks for the link! I loved that article by Lev Grossman. He is so right! That is exactly why I read Young Adult novels, I love the simplicity of description and the never boring story lines. I know writers put a lot of time and effort into expansive descriptive prose, and I feel bad, but I almost inevitably skip those paragraphs.