Bluestalking

Oh, yes. She went there.

Be I ever so humble, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single librarian in possession of a [bit of] good [news] must be in want of a [forum.] This, Internets, is my forum.

And there is much rejoicing.

 

Ladies and gentlemen of the Internets, I present to you my friend, amiga, peer and person knownst to me: Amy Gail Hansen.

Ms. Hansen has been knownst to me these last several years. When first we met she was a reporter for a local newspaper, for which I also wrote a "new books" column on behalf of the library, now sadly defunct. She interviewed me for something I was doing for the library:  something, I'm sure, GREAT AND INNOVATIVE, beyond fabulosity. Something which has slipped my mind, but no less IMPORTANT.

When second or third we met, she had joined the writers' group I formed at our library, for which I had very great hopes, with a fair amount of FEAR, as I was so very new and frightened, indeed. Henceforth, as they are wont to say, BUILD IT AND THEY SHALL COME. Internets, come they did.

And then the group did prosper.

Verily, it prospereth to this very day, having helped along the interests of many members, some of whom have published pieces and works of a various and sundry nature, others who have just had jolly good fun while enjoying snacks sweet and/or savory and lolling about.

So here we are, in the present day. A young woman, once reporter and writer of nonfiction, has - through times of much work and several revisions - completed and sold the manuscript of her FIRST NOVEL. To a MAJOR PUBLISHING HOUSE located in NEW YORK! CITY!

 

New York! City!

 

You may relax for a bit, loll and imbibe as you wish, over the next 365 days or so. As Ms. Amy Gail Hansen updates me, I shall update you.

BUT! The working title may not wind up being the published title. So no, I will not tell you that lest I impart faulty information.

I hope you will feel a fraction of the joy and pride I do as to Ms. Amy Gail Hansen's unqualified SUCCESS! Probably not, in which case I beg of you to simply plan now to buy her book in large quantities once it has been PUBLISHED.

Again, I shall keep you updated.

 

 

 

Book Links from 2011: A brief retrospective

I don't keep very good track of all the book and literary-related articles I read through the year, nor the videos I watch, either. Maybe that would be a good 2012 resolution, since by the end of the year I've ingested so much great stuff I wish I could share the best of the best of it with you all. It's a busy, hectic, over-informed world out there; we're all bound to have missed some outrageously good stuff when we're off doing other things.

What I've collected here is no reflection on my 2011 book-related reading. I'm at a loss as to how to go about finding it all again. I suppose I can't, though, without trolling through my "history" on all the computers I've used.

Quick answer: That isn't going to happen.

So, alas and alack, a mere shadow of highlights from the literary world in 2011 is the best I can do.  Hope you enjoy these bits.

 

One of my fave YouTube videos of 2011, from World Book Day:

 

 

Edinburgh International Book Festival, "The Book I Bought Today:"

 

 

Favorite laugh-out-loud book trailers of 2011:

 

 

 

 

Sebastian Barry, on On Canaan's Side and his nomination for the Booker:

 

 

Julian Barnes on winning the Man Booker Prize for The Sense of An Ending:

 

 

Téa Obreht on winning the Orange Prize for The Tiger's Wife:

 

 

Edna O'Brien, "I'm sorry books don't have the same cachet as a pair of jeans:"

 

 

From Mashable: 50 + Sites for Book Lovers.

Articles from The Atlantic:     A Tumultuous Year in Books

                                                            The Phenomenal New York Review of Books

 

The incredible, amazing 2011 upstart the Los Angeles Review of Books

From the Huffington Post: Stereotyping You By Your Favorite Book of 2011

If you care about serious writing and don't know The Millions, you should.

2012: Happy 200th Birthday, Charles Dickens!

 

Dickens' 200th Birthday... Well... Discussed by Sock Puppets (I am so sorry)

 

 

 

The "new" Charlotte Bronte manuscript.

 

In Memoriam: Writers Lost in 2011

(By no means a comprehensive list)

Vanity Fair: Slideshow - In Memoriam of Christopher Hitchens.

 

Vaclav Havel

Russell Hoban

Diana Wynne-Jones

Brian Jacques

Anne McCaffrey

Reynolds Price

Josephine Hart

Christa Wolf

 

So much richness, so little time. What have I missed? Anything you would add?

 

Video: Karen Essex - Dracula in Love

 

From Dracula in Love:

"In the beginning, there was the voice.

That was how it began on that first evening, with a masculine voice calling out to me in my sleep; a dis-embodied voice slithering into my dream, a voice of deep timbre and tones, of sensuous growls, and of low, hollow moans - a voice laden with promise and with love. it was as familiar to me as my own, and yet I knew now whether it came from inside my head, from outside me, or from somewhere not of this earth. Hushed like wind through a valley and smooth like velvet, it beckoned me, and I neither had, nor wanted, power against it. The voice was my master."

 

 
 

Karen Essex is the author of four  novels, including the international bestseller Leonardo's Swans. Her award-winning essays and articles have appeared in many periodicals, among them the L.A. Weekly, Vogue and Playboy. She lives in Los Angeles.

 

Congratulations to Amber Kennedy, Winner of Scottish Book Trust Young Writers' Award

 

Amber Kennedy, Orkney, Scotland

Please read her short story 'Cure.' It's gorgeous and wrenching, plus very assured for such a young writer. Keep an eye out for this one...

 

Stuff Simon & Schuster is happy about.

 

 

Predictably, I had the chance to buy a copy of this for 90 % off when one of my local Borders stores closed. But I thought, "Oh, that must be so depressing..."

 

Turns out, hey, it isn't!

 

Insert head banging noise here.