Mir & Cottontail gearing up for Easter, by Two Mamas Photography
Good morning, book people! I’m sorry for the impromptu coffee break hiatus–my computer’s hard disk died last Wednesday. I have a new disk now, though, and thanks to my time capsule restoration, everything is as it should be. Which means we can start gearing up for Easter! I’ll have an Easter book list up later this week.
First up, at io9 author Robin Hobb, aka Megan Lindholm, aka Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden writes about how she ended up with her two pseudonyms–and the distinct authorial personalities that go with them.
Over at The Shatzkin Files, Mike talks about why it might be hard to find a public library 15 years from now. Long, but thoughtful and worth reading, particularly if you’re just getting into the digital game.
Over at Kris Writes, Kristine Katherine Rusch continues her Business Rusch series with this post on e-book royalties. Again, (very) long, but even if you’re not in e-book publishing right now, this is worth a look, as it highlights several key issues within the industry writers need to be aware of. (via @lkblackburne)
At The Wall Street Journal, Claire Messud reflects on the importance of finding a character’s true name. This, I can relate to–I often start with a place holder name, then write around until I find what I’m looking for. Name dictionaries and googling do not work for me; I need to come to my name organically, the way I need to come to my writing organically. (I am not a planner. I am dependent on lists in my everyday life; in my writing one, I’m dependent on my own particular brand of scattered focus.) Read more about Messud here.
In last week’s Independent, Boyd Tonkin wonders what it takes for a book to make history. Is it controversy? Writing? The author? Or the ‘ideological “grand narrative”‘?
At Kidlit, Agent Mary Kole has a quick post on the difference between proposals and querying with a complete manuscript–and why debut fiction authors need to the do latter.
And 
Cover Notes is a new series I’ll be running every Monday. Rather than focusing on covers of books I’ve read, I’ll be writing about books I’ve never read and recording my first impressions of their covers. Each book will also have an Embarrassment Factor of between zero & five, with zero meaning “a totally awesome cover I want to write fan mail about” and five meaning “I’m ashamed to be seen with this in public.”
What I think it’s about: This screams science fiction to me–and I desperately want it to be science fiction, a kind of Sunshine without the intense horror elements (I loved the premise of that movie, but the horror was too much for me by the end).
Good morning, book people! I’m wrapping up a big writing project today & Mir & I are properly recovered now (thanks to a series of naps), so I’ll be back to some semblance of normality on the interwebs this week. 