You have until Monday to enter the Donald Maass “The Breakout Novelist” book giveaway. Hurry! Go now and enter!
This one is a little dated but a quick (and accurate) read: The Writer’s Holiday by Seanan McGuire. I usually take my laptop to dinner parties and holidays.
“From where I sit, you can’t actually sell an e-book” by Mark Shatzkin is an interesting discussion on print vs. digital books that often doesn’t come up in conversation when consumers are complaining about e-books. Take a look.
You can’t have a discussion of any length about ebook sales and pricing and DRM in any sized group of digital publishing observers before you hear that it is somehow wrong or unfair that a “purchaser” can’t do everything with an ebook they’ve bought that they do with a print book they’ve bought.
This is a little bit on the political side, and I definitely don’t want to offend anyone, but I thought these poems were really beautiful and I wanted to share. It is called God Loves Poetry and the group takes Westboro Baptist Church’s crazy hate letters and blacks them out except for certain words that create poetry filled with love and peace and faith and honesty. Very cool.
Word Bubbles is evil. And wonderful. But evil. And you won’t be able to stop playing. Give your soul to Word Bubbles. I did.
Live the Language are a set of beautiful videos that deliver you to another country, another world, another life, and it is a lovely place. The Paris video reminds me of Stephanie Perkins’ book Anna and the French Kiss.
Friday! Friday! Friday! Ohmygod it is finally friday.
Has this been the weirdest week for anyone else? I don’t know. I finished Matched by Ally Condie which was amazing and almost everything I had heard it would be. Can’t wait for the next book. Also, having read the book now, the cover is incredibly appropriate. Speaking of Matched, author Melissa Walker has recently interviewed Ally Condie about her cover. Check it out here.
News! And! Links!
I can’t go another day without posting about this, but my secretsister Margo over at Urban Psychopomp posted four days worth of informative adrenaline shots to fixyoursaggymiddles (as in, of the manuscript you are currently writing, not the Christmas 5 we’ve all been packing on.) This was so timely for me because I’ve got nothing but saggy, soggy, lumpy, unhappy middle bits sandwiched between a beautiful beginning and a decent end. Her ideas about fixing a saggy middle aren’t unique, but they are written in such a way that actually makes sense and feels easily applicable. I can’t recommend her more.
Musings of a Palindrome posted pictures beautiful and inspiring riffing on the theme of white (which incidently, is the color of my current world. Unfortunately there is ice under the snow from a tuesday night sleeting and I’m unwilling to scoop the snow away only to fall on my butt every 2 steps down my driveway.)
Stephanie Perkins has a great post chock full of info including favorite books. Her new book Anna and the French Kiss is on my Christmas List. Is it on yours?
Courtney Summers’ new book, Fall for Anything, comes out on Tuesday, December 21st!!! FINALLY. I am so dying to read this book. It would be on my Christmas List except that I won a copy from Courtney’s blog and should arrive by way of Amazon and UPS on tuesday. Score!
Steampunk! Steampunk! Steampunk! There’s never enough steampunk, and over at the blog Chasing Ray, the steampunk never stops. Check out this week’s Steampunk/Alternate History Week.
Stranger than Fiction
New strain of bacteria is killing the Titanic. As sad as it will be to lose this piece of history, I find it amusing that the first comment on the article seems to be in excited hope that this bacteria will finally create zombies.
Red Sea shark attacks puzzle scientists - there is at least one Jaws inspired shark in this area of the Red Sea attacking people . . . more people recently than in the last ten years combined. Also, it is an area not known for shark populations of any kind. Strange but true or a viral marketing campaign for Jaws 4 gone too far? Hah! Ok, maybe I’m not that funny this morning. Sorry, it is pre-coffee time for me.
Britain tripled its college tuition last week and the student population went crazy in a very revolutionary way – they rioted and attacked the prince’s car and set a giant christmas tree on fire and became a force of nature to be reconed with. Ever notice that people in Europe are fearless against their government and have a long and triumphant history of overthrowing their leaders when their leaders push them too far? Notice how Americans don’t really do that and we just let things happen and complain about it on our Facebooks instead? I wonder why that is?
The rare and beautiful 19th century book “Birds of America” sold at aution for $10 million. There is hope that the new owner will not break the book up and sell the pages individually. I have no problem dog earing my books, but the thought of cutting up this very, very, very rare book and selling it in pieces makes me feel incredibly sick to my stomach. I hope the new owner thinks twice lest he be pitchforked and torched by a mob of bibliophiles.
I can tell its finals week because here at Tell Great Stories, I’ve got so many people searching for book theme help I might as well open up my own shop and dispense advice on book themes ala Lucy. Hey, maybe that’s a good idea! All I can say is, kids! Read the books you are assigned. Your teachers google your papers and they will know if you cheated. I know for a fact they google your papers. So cut it out.
Here are some exact searches on books and themes that led students to me:
dreamland by sarah dessen theme
the maze runner quotes about survival
good vs evil theme in watchmen
political themes in watchmen
socially unacceptalbe things holden caulfield
too much violence in the outsiders
how to katniss characterized
quotes for the book “ruined” by maula morris
why is katniss significant from the novel
theme of the book sunrise over fallujah
why the book the outsiders should have been banned
what’s the climax to ruined by paula morris
literary elements in sunrise over fallujah
what is the outsiders book message
I’ve got lots of searchings for Maslow’s Hierarchy Pyramid (which if you’ll remember, I wrote about in terms of writing dystopian fiction.) Some are really strange which leads me to believe those doing the searching do not know who or what Maslow and his pyramid are. Sigh. My favorites are that apparently Pies need maslow too and that apparently Maslow needs an island. And why not?
the maslow’s hierarchy of needs for drinking
Maslow heirarchy of needs in a distopia
entertainment in maslow heirarchy of needs
what if a need isn’t fulfilled in maslow
maslows triangle of wants and needs
pies needs maslow
maslow’s hierarchy of needs for video games
maslow hierarcy of needs deserted island
maslow needs island
I did have one really cool search “Why teach dystopian?” which I think is an excellent question which I will answer right after Christmas!
