Thursday, February 27, 2014

Me and J.K. in a literary storm

I had a hard time coming up with a title for this post, and you can see what I picked. Not because it's an awesome title but because it made me smile. I picture tweed-jacketed authors tutting extra loudly, indignantly overfilling their pipes. And no one outside the book world caring much...

But this little storm involves me (a little bit) and JK Rowling who has, oh, twenty three billionty fans. Including my kids.

Here's what happened. An English author wrote an editorial for the Huffington Post suggesting that J.K. Rowling shouldn't publish more books, because doing so ruins everything else for the rest of us. Her article was not well received. (A lot of the backlash is described on the BBC web site here.)

Read it here for yourself.

And this is where I came in. I wrote my second ever HuffPo article, which was published last night, as a rebuttal. It's in the form of a letter to J.K. Rowling, urging her not to quit the writing gig. You know, because she listens to my advice on a regular basis. In the editorial, I argue that Rowling makes like easier for other writers, not harder.

You can read my reply here.

I feel a little sorry for the author of the first piece, Lynn Shepherd. I'm sure she didn't expect the trashing she's received, and I'm also pretty sure she's a nice person who wouldn't really want any author to stop writing. I expect, too, she's learned that if you write an editorial for an international news service, you better have some solid evidence or reasoning behind your work. The writing game is tough, and this little episode demonstrates quite well that the best way to the top isn't by climbing all over your fellow writers.

Especially the ones who live in castles.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Oh, BookPeople... you make me laugh


This is why I love BookPeople. It's a cancellation notice for an author event. Click and enjoy.



Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Disarming reviews: "Sorry!"

Next in the series of kids reading bad reviews, comes one from The Crypt Thief. This one is particularly interesting because... well, you'll see:



That's right. The reviewer gave one star because he hadn't bought or read the book!

(As ever, my thanks for the idea goes to: http://noblemania.blogspot.com/2014/01/childrens-authors-read-reviews-of-their.html)

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Disarming reviews: "Preposterous!"

The second in the series where I remove the sting of a bad review by melting it on the tongue of an angel.

This week features Natalie discussing my "preposterous" and most recent novel, The Blood Promise.


As before, a nod to the blog that started this for me: http://noblemania.blogspot.com/2014/01/childrens-authors-read-reviews-of-their.html

Monday, February 3, 2014

A trailer for you.

Have you ever seen a book trailer? You know, like a movie trailer but for a book. Some are brilliant, usually the ones with high budgets, actors, and trippy CGI. Naturally, most aren't.

And yet I've always been fascinated by the concept even though I've never had the contacts or resources to make an outstanding one. (I'm waiting for locals Richard Linklater and Matthew McConaughey to call and offer their services. Actually, McConaughey would make a good Hugo Marston, hmmm....).

Anyway, my kids had science projects recently and I was feeling left out. Can you see what's coming? Well, I thought it only fair that since I helped them a little with theirs, they should help me with mine.

Please, take this trailer seriously. As seriously as we did.