You are viewing [info]nightwolfwriter's Friends Page

Taking off the parent hat

Today I'm posting at YA Outside the Lines on "Taking off the Parent Hat." It's about how "writers can’t parent their YA characters. We can’t protect them from their own mistakes. Sometimes we have to let characters do things we would never want our own children to do."

Tags:

Spinning Sunday

Yep. Still spinning this faux cashmere. But I MIGHT finish the singles this coming up week. If I do nothing but spin. Heh. This yarn is thiiiiin.

Little Princess

My mom’s birthday is coming up and I told her I want to knit her something for it. What did she want? She immediately said, “I want a hat like yours.” I got to see her during the Dark Days tour in Austin and she DID seem jealous of my hat. So I said I’d make her one. (The pattern is Spring Beret. Rav link.)

Here it is finished, but unblocked.

Spring Beret for Mom

I used handspun merino wool in a colorway called “Stardust.” Neither of these pictures are accurate, but the second is a little closer.

Here is the hat blocking on a plate and posing with Bob the Spinning Wheel. The lace stretches out a lot!

Spring Beret hat for Mom

Since I have a little time before I visit her, I might knit something else for her out of the rest of Stardust. Hmmm.

Originally published at Jodi Meadows. You can comment here or there.

I think the last time we went on a vacation not attached to a convention, some dire weather formed and was a problem. We are paying attention to the weather outside our window and the weather reports to see what is going to happen next with this storm and how it is going to effect our plans to go home.

Had a lot of fun yesterday. We went to the Catty Shack, which is a rescue place for large wild cats and a few other animals. We went to see the five tiger cubs that they had recently acquired. Caroline had a blast and a half. She took a lot of pictures with her camera and had fun just looking at the cats. Many of which were awake and moving around but by the time that we left, they were mostly asleep. The ranch was celebrating the birthday of Freddy the Lion who is now seven years old. The animals are happy enough and interact well with the humans. We also found a good use for our old bowling balls because the big cats love to play with them. If you are in the area of Jacksonville and haven’t been there, it is worth the trip. Information can be found on their webste here.

After finishing up our visit to see the big cats, we dropped Shana and Caroline off at the Sun-Ray Cinema because Caroline was going to spend the night with Shana so Peter and I could eat a meal without worrying if there was something on the menu that Caroline would eat. We had our anniversary dinner at Ruth Chris Steakhouse and it was very nice. It was just pleasant to spend some time in each other’s company where we could totally focus on each other even though we spend a majority of the time talking about the kids and work. We discovered that this is our steel anniversary so I am going to get Peter a very nice sword.

Today plans are a little iffy due to the weather. So we are going with the flow. Might go see MIB 3 again this afternoon.

I am grateful to everyone who made our anniversary so nice for us.
Hullo all!

Submissions Guidelines for Issue Three of Cabinet des Fees's Demeter's Spicebox are now up!

We have chosen the Aarne-​​Thompson type 2031C, The Mouse Who Was To Marry The Sun for Issue Three, do refer to the guidelines for the additional prompts!


Reading Period: 5 APRIL 2012 onwards (until we get the perfect two stories for the next issue).

Do bear in mind that you will need to read the stories from Issue One and Issue Two, as this is a storytelling project and the prompts reflect this. DS runs in Volumes of four issues each, and each Volume will start with a fresh set of prompts.

If you have any questions or doubts, feel free to email us at demeterspice (gmail) in April!

Best,

Nin Harris

Airships & Automatons

Wikihistory rides again!

Originally posted by [info]abyssandapex at Wikihistory rides again!
Okay, okay - we hear you. By popular demand "Wikihistory" is now permanently displayed, with no paywall. Link away, my friends, link away. (Thanking Abyss & Apex by donating is optional.)

Short stories and other

I've just sent out the first round of the new short story sub - if anyone has signed up and NOT received it, please let me know and I will send you your fiction asap.

*

In other news, it is exceptionally hot. The Levels are lovely - covered in cow parsley and charnock, and there are cuckoos. The house is in some disarray, since Pickle the elder cat (I think) managed to kick a tin of red paint off the shelf, and Lily trod in it, with all 4 paws, then ran through the kitchen. I have just found Pickle sitting in the frying pan.

It Worked in Theory

Mo's hit me with a one-two punch of home truths over the last hour.
1) Gytha is my favorite. It's not fair for Reba to have to compete with that.
2) I'm under a great deal of stress right now - there are some things at work plus people painting the house plus the renovations I'm doing (the fridge arrives tomorrow. I'm not convinced it can be fit through the doors...) plus some things that are going undone because I'm doing everything else. And it's not fair to Reba to have her transition treated as yet another stressful problem I'm not giving a lot of attention.

Reba goes home tomorrow morning. I told her owner - it's not her, it's me. And again to be fair to Reba, she probably would do better in a home where she is not outnumbered by older animals.

To be honest, I feel relieved.

I did this once before, years ago. I wanted to get a companion for DB, but before Mickey, there was a 24-hour period with another cat who made DB miserable. I've never regretted taking her back the next day. (Although DB regretted my bringing Mickey in instead!)

Two Surveys

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

Writer BewareTwo fascinating surveys appeared this week. They look at opposite ends of the writing business, but dovetail in interesting ways. (This is going to be a long post, so please bear with me.)

The Writers' Workshop Survey of Professional Authors

In March, the Writers' Workshop, a UK-based writers' consultancy, launched a survey of traditionally published authors. The aim: to discover how authors feel about their publishers in a time of rapid change, where "it has become possible – arguably for the first time in history – for authors to detach themselves from publishers."

The survey results were posted this week, and they make for interesting reading. Authors are generally happy with a number of aspects of the traditional publishing process--notably, the editing they receive.
Around 75% of authors rated their editorial input as having been good or (more commonly) excellent. Just 14% disagreed...

Similarly – and again contrary to many stories about declining standards – authors rate their publishers extremely highly on copy-editing, proof-reading, page design and so forth. More than 80% of authors regarded their publishers as being good-to-excellent in these areas...

On the matters of cover design and jacket copy, authors remained broadly positive. About three-fifths of authors were highly satisfied with the way these things turned out. The remainder were, on the whole, ‘somewhat’ satisfied.
Marketing, however, was a different story. A majority of authors felt they weren't adequately consulted on their publishers' marketing plans, that their skills and strengths weren't adequately utilized, and that they had little input or control (ah yes--I know the feeling). About half the respondents felt that communication by the publisher was poor, and nearly half said that their publishers never sought feedback from them.

And while there is much grumbling in the writing community about the lack of publisher loyalty, with publishers no longer willing to stick with writers over several books while they build an audience, authors are just as fickle. 40% of survey respondents said they'd move to another house if given the chance. 22% weren't sure.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from SFWA | Comment at SFWA

May. 26th, 2012

How long does it take for a new cat and the old ones to stop hissing at each other? I want to give Reba a chance to settle before I give up, but Mulder and Gytha have to feel safe in their own home.

Glowing Kitteh!

It's caturday. So here's a picture of a glow in the dark kitten.



This picture was taken under a blue light, presumably of sufficiently short wavelength to cause the green fluorescent protein in the kitten's fur to fluoresce. Note that the adult cat next to it has no such protein in its fur, so it's quite content to lie still and non-illuminated.

The green fluorescent protein was genetically engineered into this adorable little kitten, by introducing the gene into a cat embryo using a virus. The whole study is something or other about monitoring the activity of individual genes to help study things like HIV. Personally, I think geneticists just like making things glow.

(Hey, come on, you can't expect me to read biology on a Saturday!)

Tags:

Another Signal Boost

Originally published at Dina's Lair of Doom. Please leave any comments there.

Hey all!

Quick post to bring your attention to a friend in need. Kym is an awesome crocheter (among other things) and could use a little help breathing this summer. If you have some spare pennies and could toss them at the jar, she’d be really grateful. There’s stuff in it for you if you’re nice enough – check out the auctions/things offered for your kind donation.

I know it’s the end of the month and our wallets are all a little light until payday, but even $5 would help. Dig in those couch cushions. Take the penny jar to the bank.

Because, you know…breathing is nice. Most of us take it for granted, but for some people it gets a little difficult at times.

Here’s the donation information. There’s more info here from Kym herself. You can use Paypal as well as the funding site they’re using. So go clicky the linky and help if you’re able. Maybe you’ll get something nice out of the deal! (Even if it’s just good karma.)

I’m out for the day. There’s eviltry to get to. I’m hoping there will be pics and a blog post tomorrow. We’ll see what happens.

  • Add to Memories

ah, the Virgo writerbrain.

The past week, foreshortened by recovery and then my mom's birthday dinner and the lecture, has been much about me utterly unable to focus. I didn't know why - my brain WANTED to work, and there is, dog knows, enough work for me to be doing....

And then I thought about what I'd said in an earlier entry, how my apartment didn't seem quite 'right' to me when I got back, and thought about past periods of distraction, and went "oh." Because I'm very smart, but sometimes not so bright.

So today - in between passes of writing - has been all about cleaning and sorting and the usual summertime rearranging of furniture (moving the sofa so it doesn't block the AC, etc). Because I am very fond of CatSitter B, but her staying here had made it not-quite-so-much-my-own-place. And now it's mine again, properly sorted and everything where I want it to be.

I suspect the focus will be much more, well, focused, going forward.


(it had BETTER be. So damn much to do OMG)

Dear Peter,

Another year has passed and I love you more than I did a year ago. This year has had its up and downs. There have been some great, incredible ups and some seriously down downs but we have gotten through it with each other to support the other and have the other’s back. We have laughed together, cried together, held each other and had a lot of fun.

This year for our anniversary we decided, at pretty much the last minute, to come on down to Jacksonville so Caroline and I could see the Sun-Ray Cinema and Shana and Tim. Today we have plans to go with the girls and see a big cat sanctuary called the Catty Shack and see the animals there. Caroline is looking forward to this. Yesterday we saw MiB 3 (Men in Black 3) at Shana and Tim’s movie theater and had a really good dinner there. It was funny seeing the scene that we saw shot under the FDR drive in context and on the big screen. This is the first family vacation we have taken that has not been attached to a convention in a very long time.

I want you to know that I appreciate all that you do for me and for our family. You love and support me in what I want to do. We collaborate on different things and can use each other as a sounding board and know that we will get honest answers from the other party about our work. I trust your judgment and you have a good eye for the visual as well as the written word.

You know when I need a break and you take over things that needed to be done and get them done. It makes me feel loved that I know I don’t have to worry that things won’t be done if I can’t get to them. You know me both the good and the bad parts of me and accept both. You know when to just let me alone and when to be there for me. I know that I can trust you with anything. There are times that you know me better than I know myself.

Life is very much an adventure with you. We do cool things and met cool people. There are times that I sit back and look at what is going on around me and I smile because never in my life did I expect to be where I am and who I am with.

Our Caroline is turning into a lovely young lady. She has self confidence and self-esteem that you helped build in here. I love just watching the two of you together. I love it when you are working while sitting on the couch and she is curled up next to you with her head on your side. It is a sight that brings warmth to my heart. She trusts us to be there for her and I know in my heart of hearts that we always will be.

You were commenting the other day how we have gotten to the shorthand part of our relationship where we finish each other’s sentences, say things at the same time, or convey what we mean with fewer word because the other party is already finished the sentence in their head correctly. That is comforting to me. We are in sync on so many things.

We still teach each other things which is nice that after 11 years we have things that we didn’t know about the other person. And we learn things together.

That word “together” really sums us up. We are together and enjoy being together each day of our married life. And together I am sure we will achieve so much more over the coming years.

I love you Peter David and I am proud to be your wife.

Love-
Kath

PS: I am so very grateful to have you in my life.

My tweets

Tags:

New 5-star review for Storming Heaven

Sorry I’ve been lax on the blog front lately; I’ve been trying to make my deadline on the Star Trek: The Next Generation — Cold Equations trilogy. Someday soon I hope to have cover art to share … but today is not that day.

I’ve come slouching out of the shadows this evening to share these excerpts from a new review of Star Trek Vanguard: Storming Heaven by John Keegan on Critical Myth-Interpretations

“[Storming Heaven] unspools at a blistering pace … This was dark, gritty Trek at its best.”

“The pace is relentless. … The result is a book that you don’t want to put down, because there’s no telling what might come next. Even the climax of the series, in the final third of the book, seems to escalate at frightening speed.”

“For those who may have been sitting on the fence, waiting to see if it would have a good enough ending to justify giving the series a shot, rest assured: this is one Star Trek saga that does not disappoint.”

John also shared his review over on GoodReads, where he gave Storming Heaven 5/5 stars. Thanks, John!

Mirrored from davidmack.pro/blog.

Bliss and darkness

Chocolate. Take a minute to think about enjoying a delicious piece of your favourite chocolate, won't you? That moment when you bite and it snaps into your mouth with a light crunch, and the rich warm flavour of it starts to diffuse throughout your mouth. As you inhale, the flavours and aromas flood your olfactory senses. Your brain releases a burst of pleasure chemicals in reaction to the sensations your mouth is enjoying. With each bite, it melts more and more, luxuriously coating your tongue, filling each and every tastebud with luxurious sensations and deep, complex flavours.

Chocolate is a fascinating thing. As with all of the greatest of life's pleasures, it's complex and intricate. And the science of chocolate is a blend of different facets of chemistry and biology no less complex than the flavours it possesses. Similarly intricate is the history chocolate shares with society. Human beings have been enjoying chocolate for at least 4000 years. Coming from the plant genus theobroma (literally meaning "food of the gods"), it was originally used by the Aztecs and Mayans in the ancient Americas. The traditional use was to grind the cocoa beans and brew them into a hot drink, together with chilli and other spices. This drink was known in the Nahuatl language as xocolātl, which is possibly where the word "chocolate" originated. So beloved were the cocoa beans to the people of South America that some cultures even traded them as a form of currency. Since then, chocolate has found its way to the very heart of human culture, and is enjoyed almost everywhere humanity places its feet, including being taken into space by astronauts.

Take a step back, now. A step back to what's happening in your body as you bite into a nice luxurious bar of chocolate. Laced with the alkaloid drugs, caffeine, theobromine and phenethylamine, a the chocolate stimulates your nervous system, latching onto the dopamine and adenosine receptors in your brain. Your pulse rate increases and you start to sweat lightly, as a wave of dopamine washes over your brain. Your muscles contract, your skin starts to tingle, and your senses sharpen. You salivate as the chocolate melts slowly in your mouth. As it continues to do so, your brain continues to release pleasure chemicals. Serotonin and endorphins wash over your senses, relaxing you in spite of the stimulant effects your body is experiencing. Sharpened senses, elevated heart rate, deeper breathing, tensed muscles and dreamy relaxation. All at the same time. No wonder chocolate is so blissful.

Chemically, chocolate is rather interesting too. A dispersion of cocoa solids and milk solids, encased in a soft cocoa butter matrix. Cocoa butter is the fatty oil found in cocoa beans, and it's the magical ingredient that allows chocolate to melt at approximately 3 degrees below human body temperature, allowing that delectable feeling of the chocolate melting as you bite into it. A good chocolatier will work carefully to treat their chocolate to give it that perfect taste and texture. After being fermented and dried, the cocoa nibs are treated with an alkali (often potassium carbonate) prior to roasting them, to improve the flavour (a process known as "ducting"). The amount of alkali needs to be just enough so that it catalyses the Maillard reaction and enriches the flavour, but not too much or the triglycerides in the cocoa butter will start to saponify, ruining the flavour. The cocoa should be roasted carefully so as not to burn it, but enough to enrich the colour as the roasting produces tannins. Those tannins then oxidise, darkening the cocoa still further. These roasted nibs are then ground and liquefied into what's known as chocolate liquor -- the purest most unadulterated form of chocolate!

The chocolate liquor is then blended, with cocoa butter, to whatever extend is desired. The darkest chocolate is virtually pure chocolate liquor with enough cocoa butter to set it. Milk chocolate typically contains vanilla as well as milk, to enrich the flavour, and white chocolate omits the cocoa solids altogether, containing purely cocoa butter and milk. This blend is emulsified and "conched" -- the liquid is swirled around metal beads which grind all the solid particles finely. The finer they are, the smoother the chocolate, and the silkier it feels in your mouth as you savour it. The highest quality chocolate is conched this way for at least 72 hours to ensure it's as perfectly smooth as can be.

But with the final stage, there's more left than just pouring it into a mould and allowing it to set. Just as a master blacksmith has to make sure steel is the perfect consistency as it cools, a master chocolatier ensures that chocolate is just right. Both work in the same way. Chocolate is tempered, just as metal is. Cocoa butter is actually capable of existing in 6 different crystalline forms, and in order to make sure it crystallises just right, care must be taken to heat treat it properly. Only one of those crystal forms gives the best chocolate. Get the temperature wrong and it will melt too easily, or taste gritty. At just the right temperature, the chocolate needs to be worked, to create the right kind of seed crystals -- phase V crystals. Only once there are enough phase V seed crystals in the mixture, can it be left to cool and solidify into the perfect chocolate. Smooth, glossy, and crisp. Blissful.

Images from parsectraveller and gnuf on flickr.
Interesting in the sense of "interesting times."

Let's see. Today I found out that I'm simply not going to be able to get a stone countertop, no way, no how. On the good side, the laminate installer should also be able to fix the water-damaged cabinet under the sink. Apparently this is a fairly common add-on service. On the neutral side, I couldn't get any of this done for at least 4 weeks; I'm therefore going to push it back about 8 to give me a few paychecks to recover from the house painting and the new refrigerator.

Tomorrow I'm giving serious consideration to a quick Book Thing run - [info]fandance, I'd invite you along, except that on the way home, I'm going to stop and take a look at a cat. If I like it and the owner likes me, I'm going to have me a new cat. I'm not sure the reluctant owner is ready to part with her, but if she can bring herself to bear it, it'll be an extra day for M and I to referee the inevitable spats while the pecking order is worked out.

Poor Gytha, this will probably break her heart. You'll always be my favorite, Gytha!

Tomorrow there are also going to be house painters unless it's pouring, and at some point in the proceeding I find out when the new refrigerator will be delivered on Sunday. Also on Sunday is an interview with someone who is researching clinic escorts.

Good thing I've got Monday off, I'll need the time to flop over and pant!

today's amazing trainwreck

oy, cats.

Seeing me eat sauteed string beans, Boomer has decided that he too, must have sauteed string beans. In order to keep his nose out of my food, I gave him a piece. So far, he has sniiffed, licked, toothed, and otherwise pushed the bean around, but hasn't quite convinced himself to eat it.

But he is still quite interested in what's on MY plate. Because that's got to be better, right?

Tags:

For anyone near Copenhagen next weekend I'm a Guest of Honor with Alistair Reynolds at the Danish annual convention Fantasticon. For anyone in the vicinity, here's a link to the website and my schedule: (I'm not sure what a few of the panels will entail but am assured I will be told :-) )

http://fantasticon.dk/fantasticon2012/

Friday 17:00-17:20, Kultursalen
Opening ceremony
Everybody

Friday 17:30-19:00, Cafeen
Videnskabcafeen: The dead, the undead and the vampire romance
Ellen Datlow, Stig W. Jørgensen, Steen Langstrup, Gert Balling (m)

Saturday 12:00-12:50, Kultursalen
Stories we haven’t seen: The good short story
Ellen Datlow, Knud Larn, Henrik Harksen, H.H. Løyche, Ralan Conley (m)

Saturday 2:00 p.m. to 2:50 p.m., Heerupsalen
interview Ellen Datlow
Ellen Datlow, Ahn Lars Pedersen (i)
Saturday 15:00-15:50, Kultursalen
Genres – Necessary distinction or annoying restriction?
Ellen Datlow, Alastair Reynolds, Anne-Marie Vedsø Olesen, Stig W. Jørgensen (m)

Saturday 20:15-??, Festsalen
The banquet

Sunday 13:00-13:50, Heerupsalen
The fairy tale in modern fiction
Ellen Datlow, Nicolas Barbano, Lars Ahn Pedersen (m)

Sunday 17:00-17:50, Heerupsalen
The last panel – final remarks before the convention (end the world?) ends.
Ellen Datlow, Alastair Reynolds, Klaus Æ. Mogensen (m)

2012 Scribe Award Nominees

http://iamtw.blogspot.com/2012/05/2012-scribe-award-nominees.html

The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers (www.iamtw.org) co-founders Lee Goldberg & Max Allan Collins are pleased to announce the 2012 nominees for the Scribe Award, honoring excellence in media tie-in writing, and the naming of author Kevin J. Anderson as this year's Grandmaster for his lifetime achievement in the field. Anderson is the author of more than one hundred novels, adding up to over 20 million books in print in thirty languages. His work includes the STAR WARS "Jedi Academy" books, three internationally bestselling X-FILES hardcovers, the Superman novels THE LAST DAYS OF KRYPTON and ENEMIES & ALLIES, many novelizations (SKY CAPTAIN & THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, etc.) and, of course, the ten globally bestselling DUNE novels he has co-authored with Brian Herbert. He has won or been nominated for numerous prestigious honors, including the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and a New York Times Notable Book prize...and now he can add IAMTW Grandmaster to the list of his extraordinary achievements. The awards will be given at a ceremony in July at this year's Comic-Con convention in San Diego. GRANDMASTER: KEVIN J. ANDERSON GENERAL FICTION / BEST ORIGINAL NOVEL: ROYAL PAINS: FIRST DO NO HARM by D.P. Lyle MIKE HAMMER: KISS HER GOODBYE by Max Allan Collins & Mickey Spillane BURN NOTICE: THE BAD BEAT by Tod Goldberg SPECULATIVE FICTION/BEST ORIGINAL NOVEL STAR WARS: KNIGHT ERRANT by John Jackson Miller DUNGEONS & DRAGONS – FORGOTTEN REALMS: BRIMSTONE ANGELS by Erin M. Evans SUPERNATURAL: COYOTE’S KISS by Christa Faust DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: THE SHARD AXE by Marshiela Rockwell PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE PRICE OF FREEDOM by A.C. Crispin BEST ADAPTATION GENERAL OR SPECULATIVE CONAN THE BARBARIAN by Michael Stackpole CRYSIS LEGION by Peter Watts TRANSFORMERS: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON by Peter David COWBOYS & ALIENS by Joan D. Vinge BEST YOUNG ADULT ME & MY MONSTERS: MONSTER MANNERS by Rory Growler (Ian Pike) THE SMURFS movie tie-in by Stacia Deutsch and Rhody Cohon THUNDERBIRDS: EXTREME HAZARD by Joan Marie Verba BEST AUDIO MIKE HAMMER: ENCORE FOR MURDER by Max Allan Collins & Mickey Spillane DARK SHADOWS: THE LOST GIRL by D. Lynn Smith HIGHLANDER: ALL THE KINGS HORSES by Scott Andrews DOCTOR WHO: THE MANY DEATHS OF JO GRANT by Cavan Scott & Mark Wright

introducing Kung Fu Friday!

Ape Entertainment has launched "Kung Fu Friday" in honor of next month's launch of Kung Fu Panda: Tales of the Dragon Warrior, to which I'm contributing a story to the first issue.

Written by KFP editor, and all-around awesome dude, Aaron Sparrow, the first installment looks at the rough pencils by Massimo Asaro for Quinn Johnson's story in #1, "Baby Beatdown."

Check it out!

SFWA is looking to convene a Norton jury for the 2013 award.

The Norton Award is presented to young adult or middle grade science fiction and fantasy novels. The membership at large votes to place several works on the ballot which the Norton jury can augment with additional selections.

Interested volunteers should contact the office of the vice president at vp@sfwa.org.

Please include your name and email address as well as a sentence or two about the following:

1) Your experience (if any) as a reader or writer of young adult and/or middle grade fiction.

2) Your interest in serving as a juror for this award.

Volunteer applications should be sent by Friday, June 8.

Volunteers must be active SFWA members. Feel free to repost.

Mirrored from SFWA | Comment at SFWA

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/neil-gaiman-graduation-speech-50-shades-sales-bump-top-stories-of-the-week_b52102

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/?p=52102

For your weekend reading pleasure, here are our top stories of the week, including how to sell your self-published book in bookstores, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s bankruptcy filing and Neil Gaiman’s inspiring commencement address (embedded above).

Click here to sign up for GalleyCat’s daily email newsletter, getting all our publishing stories, book deal news, videos, podcasts, interviews, and writing advice in one place.

1. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Files for Bankruptcy
2. Hogwarts Library Box Set Coming from J.K. Rowling
3. The Lost History of Fifty Shades of Grey
4. Neil Gaiman Shares ‘Secret Freelancer Knowledge’
5. 50 Shades of Grey Sales Bump: INFOGRAPHIC
6. How To Sell Your Self-Published Book in Bookstores
7. Researcher Suggests Ratings System for YA Books
8. Don’t Let the Writing Life Kill You
9. Self-Published Nutritionist Inks 7-Figure Book Deal
10. Jennifer Egan to Publish Sci-Fi Story on Twitter

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

  • Leave a comment
  • Add to Memories

Skip Prichard Leaving Ingram Content Group

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/skip-prichard-leaving-ingram-content-group_b52114

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/?p=52114

Ingram Content Group CEO Skip Prichard will leave the company on June 8. He will be replaced by Ingram chairman John R. Ingram.

Prichard (pictured) had this comment: “When John hired me five years ago, he shared his vision and I signed on to make that vision a reality.  I signed up to accomplish certain goals, and those goals have all been met one by one. With solid positions in all of our markets yielding terrific results, I feel I have accomplished what I set out to do. I now will do some consulting and then look for a new role that will consume me as much as this one has. I’ve enjoyed every minute of my time at Ingram.”

You can follow the outgoing CEO on his Twitter feed. Ingram is a Nashville-based company that works with 21,000 publishers, distributing books and digital content to “35,000 retailers, libraries, schools and distribution partners in over 200 countries.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Do Spoilers Matter?

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/do-spoilers-matter_b52107

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/?p=52107

Literary critic Stanley Fish stirred up the publishing world this week, dismissing the need for spoiler alerts when writing about fiction or film. He used a specific example: “If The Hunger Games is so shallow that it can be spoiled by a plot revelation, the alert doesn’t save much. If The Hunger Games is a serious accomplishment, no plot revelation can spoil it.”

Over Mulholland Books, great writers like Lawrence Block and Joe R. Lansdale have responded to his essay today–we’ve collected some of their commentary below. Follow this link to read more essays from Megan Abbott, Nick Santora, Mischa Hiller and Marcia Clark as they are released.

Lansdale wrote: This is the silliest defense for spoiling stories for those of us who don’t want them spoiled that I have ever heard. I have spoiled, accidently, a film and I was almost lynched. They were right. If it’s done to me, I feel the same … There may be those who read the last page of a book, or like the previews for films to be so precise it lets them know how it’s going to turn out, but surprise has a great place, and most of us prefer it, and if we prefer not to have things spoiled for us, a spoiler alert is a nice warning to us who would prefer not to know.  Bad journalist. Bad, dog.”

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/daemons-in-the-mist-manhunt-coming-attractions_b51955

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/?p=51955

Here are some handpicked titles from our New Books section. Want to include your book? Just read our Facebook Your New or Upcoming Book post. Don’t forget to include your title’s exact release date and a link.

Into This World by Sybil Baker: ”On the day Allison Morehouse walks off her job, her sister Mina calls from Korea, frantic and in tears. Determined to discover the truth about her adopted sister, Allison flies to Seoul, yet Mina—and Korea—are nothing like Allison imagines. Over the next three months, Allison and Mina will unearth thirty years of family secrets—and Allison will discover in Mina the sister she never embraced and in herself, the stronger woman she can be.” (May 2012)

Daemons in the Mist by Alicia Kat Dillman: ”Seventeen year old Patrick Connolly has been hopelessly infatuated with Nualla for years but he is all but invisible to her. Until, that is, he rescues her from a confrontation with her ex. Little does Patrick know he’s just set off a dangerous chain reaction that will thrust him into a world of life altering secrets and things that shouldn’t exist, because the fog and mist of San Francisco is concealing more than just buildings.” (May 2012)

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Adobe Adds iPhone Optimizing Tool

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/adobe-adds-iphone-optimizing-tool_b51675

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/?p=51675

Adobe has upgraded its digital publishing toolkit to include  a content viewer for iPhone, as well as social sharing features.

This means that publishers can use the software to make apps that are optimized for the iPhone and iPod Touch devices. (The tool already works for publishers developing content on the iPad, Kindle Fire and Android tablets).

The Adobe blog has some tips for how to make content for the iPhone versus the iPad. Here is one thing to keep in mind: “The smaller screen on iPhone is going to strongly influence how developers design navigation and interactivity on these devices. Consider how people hold the iPhone: typically in one hand, and they frequently use a thumb to interact with content. Likewise, consider how people hold their phone for reading: I think a vertical orientation will prove to be a more popular orientation for these devices. So this leads to a couple of ideas for how to design both your publication for iPhone and where interactivity is found.”

Via TechCrunch.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

New book list: Recent YA high fantasy

Mostly because I was curious how much of it was out there in the last couple years with paranormal and dystopian being so popular, I made a list of high fantasy for young adults published in the last couple of years. I went as far back as 2010, and it’s still not that large a list. Feel free to suggest in the comments books I might have missed, but remember–only books from 2010 to the present. If you’re looking at a paperback, be sure the original version of the book was that recent. (ETA: For those who missed it, the picture is a *link* to the list, not the list itself. The full list is over on Pinterest.)

Originally published at Stacy Whitman's Grimoire. You can comment here or there.

Latest Month

April 2012
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Tags

Page Summary

Powered by LiveJournal.com
Designed by Paulina Bozek