Kazuo Ishiguro

Friday Links: Autumn Reading and Other Escapes

Nephele Tempest

autumn book stack with apple

Autumn reading always means fatter books and more serious titles for me. Call it back-to-school syndrome. This year autumn reading also sounds like an excellent way to escape the world’s ills. We could all use something to distract us from politics and terrorism, hurricanes and health insurance, if only for a little while. So among this week’s links, I offer some lists of great books to inspire you, but hopefully also a few to help you get lost.

In addition, I have the usual collection of industry-related reads. I hope you find them interesting and entertaining.

Finally, a quick reminder that I am closing to new submissions as of October 10th. You can find complete details here. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend, and some excellent reading and writing time. Enjoy!

Stock Up for Autumn Reading

46 Books We Currently Love Even More than Books in General. – The booksellers at Parnassus Books offer up this wonderful assortment of reads.

2017 National Book Awards. – Check out both the short and long lists of books up for this annual award in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature.

Here Are 51 New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Choose from in October. – Pretty much as described.

Kazuo Ishiguro Wins Nobel Prize in Literature. – If you haven’t read anything by Ishiguro, now is the time to start. His work both entertains and makes you think.

10 Memoirs by Women in the Culinary World. – Are you a foodie or just intrigued by all things culinary? Check out one of these titles.

More Friday Links

The Ripped Bodice Report on Racial Diversity in Romance. – The ladies behind The Ripped Bodice Bookstore took it upon themselves to look into racial diversity in romance publishing. This report looks at the percentage of romance books written by authors of color at various publishing houses. (Warning: It’s disheartening.)

When You Shouldn’t Hire and Pay for a Professional Editor. – Jane Friedman looks at the increase in writers paying for professional editing work, when and when it isn’t actually necessary, and what “professional” means when it comes to an editor.

Here’s Where Your Favorite Modern Novel Was Written. – Peek at the writing spaces of some modern-day writers.

Friday Links

Nephele Tempest

Happy Friday, everyone! My week has been quite busy, but overall very good, and part of that has been that I feel rather inspired and energized by a couple of things that happened. Unfortunately, I cannot talk about them. One of the problems of this job is not all news is suitable for public consumption.

However, I do have links to share, and I sincerely hope that they inspire you and leave you feeling energized and anxious to write. At the very least, I hope they make you take a fresh look at certain aspects of writing and of reading, because I find a new perspective can be excellent for generating new ideas. Enjoy, and happy writing!

“Let’s Talk Genre:” Neil Gaiman and Kazuo Ishiguro in Conversation – A great conversation inspired by the release of Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant, and the genre-related chatter that followed.

On Writing Diverse Characters… And Moving Past Passive Aggression – An intelligent, informative blog post about what diverse characters should and should not look like.

Ten Commandments of Writing – An interview with Karen E. Bender in which she shares her wisdom.

Artist & Thief – Author Maggie Stiefvater shares an excerpt from her SCBWI Keynote speech.

The Power of Female Friendship – In the wake of the discussion of how unlikely books featuring females are to win major prizes, Michele Filgate offers this short-but-intriguing list of books about women and their friendships.

Friday Links

Nephele Tempest

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope 2015 is treating you well so far, and that you’re all back in the swing of your regular schedules. I feel mostly caught up with post-holiday backlog and am preparing to tackle my extremely full submissions box. If I fall in and disappear, never to be heard from again, you’ll know what happened. Smothered by a sea of manuscripts…

I’ve got this week’s assortment of links for you. It turned out fairly reading-centric for whatever reason. Just the nature of what caught my eye. I hope it inspires your reading activities for the week ahead, and that you’re inspired to do a little writing of your own, as well. Enjoy!

They’re Watching You Read – Interesting piece by Francine Prose.

Author Robert Stone, Known for ‘Dog Soldiers’, Dies at 77 – A lovely little remembrance for the author by NPR.

Hearing Is Believing – Fascinating article on the rise of the dramatic podcast as a form of entertainment.

23 Words for Book Lovers that Really Should Exist – Just a bit of fun, but I agree some of these ideas really do need their own words.

Kazuo Ishiguro: How I Wrote ‘The Remains of the Day’ in Four Weeks – NaNoWriMo isn’t the only approach to drafting quickly.