I’m actually writing this on Saturday, but let’s pretend the whole weekend’s gone by. It’s been insanely hot. Sunshine makes me feel productive (partly because my curtains are too thin, so i’ve got no hope of a lie-in), but our wireless unfortunately doesn’t extend into the garden. It doesn’t really extend into my room, not if I don’t want have the pages to time out. I’ve been reading the book I got from the Early Reviewers programme on LibraryThing (it’s. um. not great), and doing as much washing as the line can hold. Sunshine! Not damp clothes!

Also, gaining a sunburn, as a base for for regular burning later this summer. In winter, you can see my veins, I’m that pale. But I live in Britain, so it’s not like I see the sun more than twice a year anyway!

Publishing: Richard Nash on using web 2.0 for promotion in publishing, and Guy Gavriel Kay on why building social communities isn’t always a good thing. My main thought being, darn, I haven’t read a GGK book in ages. Also, yes, it’s a bit of a damned if you do, damned if you don’t thing. How much of your life are you willing to expose? How much do you need to expose to be more than a faceless entity?

Interest-Piquing: Your reality cheque. That 3-5% stat is one I’ve seen bandied about a bit. It feels right, though it would be interesting to actually see some research to back it up.

InsPiring: Ninjas save person from mugger. Well, that’s what happens when you mug someone next to a ninjitsu school.

Procrastination: The Swinger. I have no clue how this is done – it’s basically magic as far as I’m concerned – but it’s brilliant. The ‘python code’ (arcane sorcery) stretched the first half of every beat and shortens the second, to make any song you like swing. The examples are amazing; it works for songs you’d never imagine. But I guess it don’t mean a thing…

Also? Google “The Speed of Light in furlongs per fortnight”. Love that!

Firstly, a link that belongs below, really, but (a) the article is over a year old and (b) I want it to stand out because it’s interesting and I think it’s important for writers to consider the issue of race before they start writing.

Straight Talk on Race: Challenging the Stereotypes in Kids Books, courtesy of the School Library Journal.

Publishing

The big news this week, and not just in publishing, is VOLCANO! The publishing specific element is its effect on the London Book Fair, which has ploughed ahead regardless.

Less melodramatically, I offer a series of articles from the National Post on publishing. The fourth one, for some reason (I suspect Penguin might have had something to do with it), has been removed from the website but can still be found on Google cache.

1. License to Deal
2. Literary Journals: The Writer’s Sandbox
3. Mark of an Editor
4. A New Breed of Penguin (google cache)
5. In the Jacket Racket
6. Book publicists: A Tale to Sell
7. Get With the Program
8. IFOA: Putting the Pages in Order
9. Ecology of Books: Flying the Coop… from a small press to a big house (and a response from Daniel Wells)

It’s a monthly series, so keep an eye out for more installments.

Interest-Piquing

It’s all finance and forgeries in the Arts this week! George Washington owes $300,000 in library fines (though frankly they just want the books back, since they no longer exist), and Oxfam makes £37,000 auctioning a donated book. The National Gallery is making an exhibition of all the forgeries it’s accidentally purchased over the years, and a professor’s wife is discovered posting negative reviews of all his rivals on Amazon.

InsPiring

Obama has set his sights on Mars for the 2030s. Britain, meanwhile, gave up the most efficient space program in the world in the 1970s. Imagine if we hadn’t.

Procrastination

Oddly Specific. For those signs that are a little too literal.