The new face of lit

There's an article in Chicago Tribune talking about readers that have become collaborators, creating their own identities online. If you think about this, the world is becoming a completely customizable place. Music, whatever you want, TV shows whenever you want, movies on demand, and on the Net, you can find whatever you need to know when you need it. I'm not sure why a reader would want to buy one chapter of a fiction book from Amazon, although I'm sure there's a reason, but the idea of a completely customizable story, well, that fascinates me. One ending for the happily ever after crowd, another more tragic for hanky-lit crowd. Maybe character names can be changed to reflect whatever the reader's desire, but as a writer, a plug and play story will lose something over a well-thought out, well-characterized story. Although, I must admit, the idea of plug and play illustrations might be kinda fun. Don't like the hero's looks? Let's put Sean Bean in there instead.... So, any ideas on what a story on demand will be?

Cool journals

One of the things I've been doing for the past few weeks is writing in a notebook and then inputing the pages into the computer. When I started on my first book, I wrote by hand, and for me, I can get lost in my story faster, no idea why. Anyway, I go through lots of journals (an average book burns out about one 240 page lined journal, and I'm always on the lookout for cool ones. Found these from Pamela Barsky

Speaking of THE Mr. Darcy....

The Pride & Prejudice movie has many fans doing their own Mr. Darcy taste-testing, with most preferring the tart, lightly acidic Colin Firth version, a full-bodied, yet complex, Mr. Darcy with a dour bouquet, yet a smooth, slightly aged bouquet. For those fans of this version, and indeed, all the BBC/A&E romance classics,try this boxed gift set on for size. Colin Firth, Ioan Gruffudd, and many, many others.... Just in time for your favorite romantic, possibly yourself :)

If Men had to cook, this would have never happened....

DuPont Hid Teflon-Risk Studies

RTB

I'm today's post at Romancing The Blog I've been a little under the weather, so posts are scattered (as are brain cells, and also showers in the NY area).

onomatomania!

In case you need inspiration to pump up the volume in your writing, The Sound Effect Generator

Physics and Romance, it's all relativity...

My essay in symmetry, a department of energy publication put out by Fermilab, the National particle accelerator in Chicago.

Romance Novels Get Some Teeth

A short mention in Newsweek about the current trends in paranormal romance. Hmm....a few weeks back it was about Harlequin's Next line, now paranormal romance. Me thinks someone at Newsweek likes romance :)

For What Ails You....

Diagnostic Refrigerator Magnets of Mental Disorders. I'm thinking I should sell one for bad mystery novels or bad romance novels.... "dark", "stormy", "night", "flash", "gunfire" for the mystery fans, and for every would-be writer that thinks you can just "crank out" a book: "hard","turgid", "pounding"," "limpid", "dizzying","edge","crested",and of course, my favorites, "crescendo"

A lone, small voice in a sea of donnishness....

Rebecca Traister of Salon has penned an essay in defense of chick-lit and "silly novels by Lady Novelists," the quotes courtesy of George Eliot, circa 1856. I don't know exactly what it is within women that we seek in our reading. Love, community, validation? All three? Perhaps, but when I close my "silly novels," I'm a happier person. More balanced. Able to face the laundry, the seven pages I have left to write for the day, the kid's bickering. I don't know why, but I do know that I'm not alone. Women as a group are voracious readers. A book is a shared cup of coffee, not just with the author, but with the friend who shoved it in your hand, and said, "You have to read this book!" It's a wise person who recognizes that sometimes people do not read to educate themselves, or swoon over an author's words, sometimes they read merely to live.