Bookish thoughts 30 July: future of writing, spoilers, life as an illustrator & more!

RIASS stuff:

Interview: Mingmei Yip on narrative, Chinese femmes fatales, and chicken's feet

Book Review: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake'Rating:

Book Review: The Guys' Guy's Guide to Love by Robert Manni'Rating:

Other bookish stuff:

Canberra YA novelist Jack Heath on 7 things to leave out of your novel'I don't really care how the characters get from one place to another. A single word covers it. Train. Car. Horse. In fact, here's a new, improved opening line to'The Lord of the Rings: 'Wow, it sure took us a long time to walk here,' said Frodo, as he looked up at the gates to Mordor.

My quick thoughts: Hee, I had a bit of a giggle at that LotR line. He forgot to mention prologues, though. Have I ever mentioned that I loathe prologues? Prologues to me either say hey, want some backstory? or they say Hey, heres a bit that weve chopped out from chapter 20, where things actually get interesting. Weve put it at the front to keep your interest until chapter 20! Clever us, eh? Eh?

'There will be no more professional writers in the future''The economic trajectory of writing today is 'a classic race to the bottom,' says writer Ewan Morrison.

My quick thoughts: Theres definitely a more for less push at the moment. As a freelancer, I can certainly say that Ive faced a good deal of downward pressure from clients who argue that they can simply find someone in India or the Philippines to do their writing for themafter all, its just writing, and anyone can string a sentence together. My response is usually to give them my blessing and send them on their way. Im not interested in fighting over fees.

But these cheap overseas options as well as desperate writers willing to play the how low can you go game does affect the perception of the value of writing. My husband sees it all the time as a software developer as well. Its interesting how much people are willing to pay for graphic design, yet how little theyre willing to spend on the technology and software that actually scaffolds that graphic design. So I do think theres something to be said for these ultra-low Amazon prices fuelling this push for cheap work.

And, given that we live in a super-size-me era, where more is definitely more, its probably no surprise that it seems that'authors of full-length fiction are being pushed to put out so much content a year in order to meet the apparent demands of the reading public. I just read about a romance author whos committed to a novel a month over the next year or two, for example, then straight after that came across an article about the low advances paid for romance novels. I suppose that more product hopefully means more royalties, and with ebooks ones backlist is more readily available, but man, this is all feeling a bit'Player Piano here.

'On a similar note:'Boyd Tonkin: In the era of mass free publishing, we need taste-makers more than ever'In a healthy publishing landscapecollaborative editing should still leave room for strong-minded indies who publish a few books a year simply because a couple of committed individuals love them, he argues.

Spoilers are good for you'It turns out that most of the people for whom the story was spoiled reported enjoying it more than those who read it unprepared.

My quick thoughts: can I get a resounding hell yes here? Honestly, while I can understand people not wanting a whodunnit to be revealed, or some other major plot twist, when people get all fussed about something that happens on page ten, or a minor sub-plot, or back cover copy, well, theres something a little wrong. If you cant enjoy something merely because you know something about it, I submit that theres something very, very wrong with your imagination.

Sex in the suburbs: a history of the bonkbuster in six books'Did you twitch at the term bonkbuster? I did.

Australian author Fiona Lowe'wins 2012 RITA for Boomerang Bride'(Ill be reviewing this soon)

What are UK publishing peeps reading this summer vacation?

An interview with Lee Battersby'There's no real success yet: I don't consider selling the novel to a publisher a 'success' as such, because that's what I was aiming to do in the first place. As pleased as I am to sell to someone like Angry Robot, it's really just a case of job done, and completing the first step towards establishing a long-standing career as a novelist.

Mmm, hand-drawn type'(and not that scribbly stuff weve been seeing everywhere, either)

The mystery of Charles Dickens'Here is a man overcommitting himself to projects and responsibilities out of an insatiable interior restlessness that would leave him burned out and exhausted in his fifty-ninth year.Charles Dickens was a man of outsized energy, appetite, and ambition

The winners of the Australian Kibble and Dobbie awards'(awards that apparently have nothing to do with dog food or house elves)

The 10 best closing lines of books

Dutch eBooks Gaining Momentum in 2012

Not bookish, but something that all book lovers will adore: the worlds strongest coffee

A short film about illustration, and this quotable quote to go with it: 'The borders of what illustration actually is are ever-shifting, and the finest illustrators take enormous pride and pleasure in their work, despite its creative frustrations.

Do you highlight when you read?In my Goodreads travels, I noticed a poll on highlighting when using an eReader, and that the majority of people who own an ereader report highlighting as they read. I know that I certainly do, and to be honest, its one of the reasons why I do enjoy reviewing on my Kindle. Im able to readily annotate and highlight without having to worry about destroying a book, and I can easily pull up the file for when Im writing my reviews. (The reviews with handy quotes? Theyre the books Ive read on my Kindle) Although to be honest, I do get the heebies whenever I see what other people have highlightedit seems that everyone in the world highlights the same passages, like theres some sort of highlighting peer pressure going on.

Interview with Louise Monaghan, author of'Stolen

Tracy Chevalier: finding the story inside a painting