Reflections and Resolutions

In 24 hours, it will be 2007. I usually reserve my whole “year in review” thing for my birthday, since January 1st is an arbitrary designation of some pope observed in my case mainly by when my taxes roll over, but my birthday is a measurable distance that belongs to me. (Also, it’s really convenient [...]

Good Tidings and Wassail…

Much like the rest of the publishing industry, this blog will be going on vacation until 2007. Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, Happy Dark Cold Weather to our friends in the north, and Happy Warm Glorious Summertime to our antipodean readership (Hi, Nalini, Sally, Justine, and Scott!) Sailor Boy and I are off to Florida.
I’m [...]

The Dark Magic of Google

So the final Harry Potter title has been released: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. What do you think? I’m reserving judgment, but I haven’t really been a huge fan of any of the titles since #4 (Phoenix was a great title, but I’m not sure it fit the book). The Washington Post article about [...]

Likeability

Last night I watched The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. (Full disclosure: I haven’t read the book.) (Fuller disclosure: I’ve seen maybe two episodes of The Gilmore Girls, which probably comes as a shock to some people, seeing as how I write books set at Yale.) I’m going to leave aside for a moment that [...]

Surveys Surveys Surveys

I’m turning in my copyedits today, and then I’m free as a bird! Look at me! Whee! (except for that proposal due next month. And that critique I owe my C.P. And those revisions on the other proposal. Sigh. Never done…) However, I am free to write things like “email” and “towards” and “missing person’s [...]

hooks and Harry

So is anyone reading the “hook” Crapometer postings on Miss Snark’s blog? I’ve skimmed a few (she says, eyeing her mountain of copyediting) and though I’m not quite sure what she means by a hook (something like a back cover blurb, I’m thinking), it’s fascinating to get a glimpse of what agents have to go [...]

Copyedit drive-by

I’m eyebrow deep in copyediting Under the Rose for the next few days, so this is going to be quick.
In passing, here are some things I’ve learned care of my fabulous, fabulous copyeditor:
The thing I refresh approximately 694 times a day is called “e-mail” not “email.
It’s “Daily Kos” not “The Daily Kos.”
One should always double [...]

Favorite Holiday Films

Topic shamelessly stolen from Ally Carter, though she wants me to pick just one, and I can’t. How about a top ten:
10. Santa Claus: The Movie. I don’t know what it is about this film. Certainly it’s not Dudley Moore’s rather creepy portrayal of an elf. I just love the idea of the Santa Claus [...]

How many books did you write?

Science fiction author Tobias S. Buckell is running a survey on his blog asking published novelists to say how many books they wrote before selling their first novel, and if their first written novel was the one they sold. If you’re an author, please take a minute (it just takes a minute) to fill out [...]

A Year in Books, 2006 (post one)

For the past two years, I’ve been keeping an ongoing list on my blog of what books I’ve read throughout the year. This year, I added little codes like “authors new to me” or “YA novels.” You can see them in the borders of this blog.
I started it in 2005 as a lark, but I [...]