I'm one of those people who needs eight hours (nine is better) of sleep or I become zombie-like, sitting around blinking and doing things like deleting all the links I wanted to share!
Thank goodness that I'd also saved them in a file. It's like I knew I wasn't going to get any sleep last night!
Anyway, here there are and as I'm sure there will be more typos than usual, I ask for your forgiveness in advance:
The YA Blogosphere is buzzing over Ellen Hopkins being invited--and then uninvited because of "objections" (read: CENSORSHIP)--to a book festival in Texas. Almost all of the other authors who had been asked to attend the festival have now withdrawn, in protest, which I think is awesome. Two of the authors have great blog posts up about this: Pete Hautman on the
festival and what happened and Melissa de la Cruz, another author was was invited and backed out when Ellen was uninvited--on
how she lost out on something she loved due to censorshipThe folks at Orbit have done yet another
chart of trends in fantasy book covers--Castles had better start looking over their back because dirigibles (!!) are starting to grow in number...
Over at Murderati, a post about something I think most writers (or at least, this one) have to deal with--learning how to
get out of your own wayPimp My Novel on
great first lines -- I admit, offer me a good first line when I pick your book up when I'm browsing the bookstore, and chance are I'll buy it. (Is anyone else the same way??)
E-books are most definitely making their presence felt--
they've started hitting the USA Today bestseller list (which is a very, very big deal) -- While I have yet to meet a YA writer whose e-books sales have been over ten percent of their total sales (is there anyone out there who writes YA and whose e-books sales are higher than ten percent of their total?) there's no doubt in my mind that e-books sales are going to become hugely important--and fast--for adult authors, particularly those who write genre fiction.
Agent and author Nathan Bransford wants to know
what you'd do if you were in charge of publishingMore on Barnes and Noble's
problemsBeloit University's Mindset List for the Class of 2014 -- I love these lists, not only for what they say about those the list is about, but for who is writing them as well. (I mean, J. R. Ewing??? Really???)
And, of course, a few tasty bites--
Peanut Butter Mud Hen Bars (just trust me!!) and
Chewy Salted Pecan and Chocolate Chip SquaresAlso! Don't forget that
your worst meal could win YOU an
ARC of Beautiful Darkness...