It's that time of year again, when it is acceptable for elitists to boast of their hipster cred. Of course, I am referring to the Top (number) Lists of the year. I'm going to squeeze into my skinny jeans, wrap a scarf around my non-coated body, and crack open a PBR while I compile my best books of 2010 list. The top five Rationale: these are my five favorite books that were published in 2010. Of course, disclaimers apply; I couldn't read every book published, I may not have given some books equal attention, and on and on. However, I can still cull a few favs from the admittedly too-short stack of 2010 books I read. And here they are, in no particular order. What I said: Wolf Parts is vicious fairy tale excursions. Wolf Parts gives metaphor to the ambiguity of adolescence, turning the cautionary tale of “Little Red…
Category Archives General News
My wife told me that today was prematurity awareness day. Alright, alright, I get it. You could have been a little more subtle with the suggestion, but I get it. Hey, this problem is no picnic for me either… …what? Whoops. What I mean is, boooooo premature birth. My boy was five weeks premature. He had a few health issues, but he’s perfect now. He’s one of the lucky ones. Nobody knows why so many babies are born premature, but with continued education, awareness, and funding, maybe we’ll find out soon. Please, take a few moments to peruse the March of Dimes site. Shed a few tears. Pretend you had something in your eye. Then smooth everything over with your friends by talking about football and fantasy leagues.
I'm open for suggestions on a better name than "Author Photo Comics."
Roxane Gay comes clean about her approval of dirty money over at HTML Giant. She forces me to ask similar questions of my own moral aversion to sponsorship dollars. Historically, when presented with the opportunity to accept money by way of advertising, sponsorship, etc. I've justified the decision by passing the dollars along to those who I feel it rightfully belongs to (authors, editors, etc.). I've never kept any for myself. But Gay makes me ask: why not? For me, the decision comes down to a basic function of economics. Authors need time to write. Money buys time. The moral ambiguity part comes into play when an author is offered money before the author has something worth writing about. Then it becomes an issue of monetary motivation, which I think, kills the idea of art. <meta>Unless the intention of the art is to comment on the monetization of art. </meta>…
Jason Behrends over at Orange Alert once frequently posted what he called Tweet Reviews, which are basically collections of <=140 character reviews of each track on a single album. Really cool idea. I don’t think he ever actually tweeting the reviews though. So, I am going to steal/borrow…sterrow...his idea, and take it to the logical next level. I'll be focusing on books, specifically books which are organized in a way conducive to individual tweets. This would be short story collections, literary journals, online zines, anything comprised of individual works. Perhaps the best way to explain this would be by way of example. Twitter Review: #ITMT In The Mean Time by Paul Tremblay @paulGtremblay http://bit.ly/bfWKjw #ITMT story1: The ticking clock is a child’s impending pain. Incredible suspense. I suffered an entire life during this story. #ITMT story2: Does simple psychosis explain the girl's 2nd head? Her mother's unhealthy support of the…