December 2011
27 posts
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Naming Infants After Bloodsucking Monsters All The... →
Good to know, good to know.
Looks like parents nowadays aren’t afraid to get baby name inspiration from a source that literally sucks— books about vampires.
According to Parenting.com, people are still not tired of naming their offspring after horny, fictional supernatural beings…
Read more.
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Ray Bradbury finally gives in, agrees to release... →
The author added that “We have too many cellphones. We’ve got too many internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now.”
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November 2011
26 posts
1 tag
Latin American writers endured tough times →
As a novelist and memoirist, Isabel Allende, the famous contemporary Latin American, narrates the political history of the contemporary world under the cover of fiction. She writes stories of passion and romance. “Her novels and memoirs tells the stories of women and men who live with passionate commitment - to love, to their world, to an ideal,” said the speakers at a seminar held on...
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Jonas Kaufmann | The Smoldering Tenor →
Whatever their source, good looks can take a musician only so far, Mr. Kaufmann insists. “Even though beauty could help a career, it can never be something a career is based on,” he said. “Beauty goes by faster than you know, so if your qualities in singing and acting aren’t good enough, where do you go once the beauty is gone? Generally, the parts I’m...
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Charlotte Bronte fan spends life dressed as... →
Well, I love the Brontes, but…
Lyn-Marie Cunliffe, 49, loves 19th century author Charlotte Bronte so much she dresses as the famous author all the time - even while doing her supermarket shopping.
The mum-of-two dresses in the home-made smocks whilst doing the school run - and not bothering to change even when she’s out grabbing a burger with the kids.
But the...
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Daniel Craig thinks Kardashians behave like... →
Yet another reason why I love Daniel Craig.
Daniel Craig thinks the Kardashians behave like “f**king idiots”.
The James Bond actor explained while he doesn’t “judge” the reality TV family - whose most famous member is Kim - and acknowledges that they have made “millions” through their show ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’, he doesn’t agree with selling your soul to make good ...
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The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson →
I don’t usually read YA (mainly because I’m an OA), but my daughter ordered this for a presentation she’s doing in library school (well, technically, it’s called “information studies”, and she’s getting a master’s this weekend under the If You Can’t Get a Job, Get Another Degree plan). She knows about things. Book things. So I fully intend to...
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10 Themes Shared By Historical Fiction and Science... →
Why, yes! Now that you mention it, we DO have lots in common where it really counts!
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Love, betrayal and courage: Private letters reveal... →
Anyone who knows me will tell you that possibly my favorite story of all time (in both book and film) is The Great Escape. I first read the book as a child at my grandparents’ home, and I loved it. While I did have rather odd reading taste for an elementary school-aged girl, my choices during that visit were limited to the books on my grandparents’ shelves. My grandfather was a really...
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Nora Roberts: The woman who rewrote the rules of... →
I like the way she thinks!
Later, at the bookshop in Boonsboro, the small town in rural Maryland where she lives, she’s doing a signing and answering questions and is equally phlegmatic. What does she find helps keep her going when she’s writing? “Alcoholic beverages.” Does she tweet? “I’d rather stab myself in the eye with a flaming stick.” What...
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Mexico City proposes new marriage vow: 'Til permit... →
Modern day handfasting—in Mexico?
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Jane Austen: Possible arsenic victim, probable... →
Arsenic and Old Jane.
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Wolfe and Higgins bring zombies to Camelot in... →
Knights of the Living Dead? Yes, I am laughing. I will place it on the shelf (of my mind) next to Sarcophakiss.
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Truth, lies and historical fiction; How far can an... →
Historical fiction writers teeter along the fine line between literal and literary:
Authors Philippa Gregory and Wayne Johnston can tell you that historical novelists have to deal with some odd complaints, most of which stem from the fact that everyone from the living descendents of their fictional characters to the fans of medieval monarchs will cheerfully ignore the words “a novel”...
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Shackleton's secret lover: Polar explorer was so... →
It doesn’t get much more romantic than this:
He was a fearless polar explorer, undaunted by anything nature could throw at him.
But beneath his rugged exterior, it seems Sir Ernest Shackleton was a sensitive soul haunted by the memory of a secret sweetheart.
Details of a hitherto hidden romance have surfaced with the discovery of a collection of lovers’ keepsakes in a family...
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The Brontes and the ultimate taboo: As a lost book... →
Tiny tale: The colourful tale of murder and madness is part of a 4,000-word magazine with 19 pages, written by the young Bronte…
The document is tiny. Its 19 pages are the size of your credit card. Its author was 14 years old. And it is expected to reach in the region of £300,000 when it goes under the hammer at Sotheby’s auction house on December 15…
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Dave Scheidt: Sexy Mummies Are the New Sexy... →
Genius!
Sexy vampires, your time is running out. There are two more Twilight films to be released of the series then the “saga” is complete. What does this mean to you? Perhaps relief? Maybe you are sad they are ending? As a writer, I see this as a fantastic opportunity to corner the sexy monster teen romance market. Okay, so with Twilight and the Anne Rice stories before it, the...
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You know you're a lit nerd when... →
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Dave Astor: Hooray for Historical Fiction! →
It’s a current fact that I love historical fiction. No, not the kind that wrongly says President Obama was born outside the U.S., but the kind in novels such as Stephen King’s new 11/22/63.
Why is historical fiction great? For one thing, it enables you to learn about the past in a way that goes down easily and entertainingly.
I realize it’s better to read historical...
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Can Your Romantic Life be Reduced to the Pronouns... →
I…you…we…errrr…
…speed-dating study…found that couples who used similar levels of personal pronouns, prepositions and even articles were three times as likely to want to date each other compared with those whose language styles didn’t match. The metric, called language style matching (L.S.M.), was also better at predicting who didn’t make a love connection...
Publishers Weekly: Survey Says Library Users Are... →
Miller says LJ editors have been amazed by the strength of the findings so far—including the degree to which libraries are boosting book sales. “Our data show that over 50% of all library users report purchasing books by an author they were introduced to in the library,” Miller noted. “This debunks the myth that when a library buys a book the publisher loses future sales. Instead, it...
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"...the Regency romance community is brutal." →
I asked another writer who has published Regency romances what made the era so appealing to novelists. She asked that I not use her name “because the Regency romance community is brutal.”
Dear Book Lover: England’s Regency Period - WSJ.com
What the what? Seriously? I mean, I’ll take her word for it, since I’m not part of the Regency romance community,...
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