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Cute Twitter pirate!!! Must. Have. Also, interesting links, especially the imposter article.

I like the Twitter pirate, too. I will look forward to your roundups - I think this is a good way to keep neat links from vanishing into Twitter (which is why I stole the idea from Tasha in the first place ;-))

Agreed, Jen--I've definitely been disappointed on multiple occasions when I've gone back to my Twitter feed to look for a link I posted and found it had evaporated.

Thanks for the heads up!

Thanks for the shout out, guys!

I think that cover is gorgeous! And I've requested a copy of Orleans too!

Squee!!!!!

Ooh, exciting! I still have to read Tankborn, though. I was going to try to do a reading/signing with Karen Sandler in the Sacramento area, but the B&N declined because they didn't have my book in stock, or something. :(

I really look forward to Sherri Smith's newest! Yay.

Congratulations to Tanita!!!

Your new cover is beautiful!

Thank you!! :)

Prestige free??? Really???

Irony: after this in my Google Reader this morning was a review of the latest Theodore Boone, John Grisham's allegedly poorly written YA nonsense. Prestige-free indeed.

Good luck with those revisions!

T: That was my first reaction, too: "Prestige-FREE?? REALLY?" But she goes on to explain herself, and I like what she had to say about it--she saw YA's separateness from the so-called "literary world" as a positive thing.

Adrienne: Thanks!! :)

Hey, cool! Yay for Tor.

Sounds interesting. Thanks for posting.

I clicked over, and it looks fantastic. My only question: how do I clone myself so as to have time to read this, too? Decisions, decisions... Still, I'm ready to be suckered!

I'm really happy to see more YA zines popping up these days, with this one, and Verbal Pyrotechnics...the short fiction needs to get out there and read!

What's with the Plato?

That's for this semester's Humanities class...Evolution of Human Culture. Very cool so far, but a ton of reading...

When I went back to complete my Political Science degree last semester I had to take Political Theory I

I had to read and refer to the Republic for two papers. It was fun at first, and I enjoyed the old English but by the end I wanted to scream.

I did love discovering a new shero in Christine de Pizan. The Book of the City of Ladies was way ahead of its time.

Petition link didn't load will try again later. Hopefully that means everyone is rushing to sign it.

Go Smart Girls! I have a copy of this very book on my shelf, but must hand my head and say that I didn't er, finish it... ::sigh::

Thanks for the shout-out!

thanks for the linky dinks

Ohmygoodness, the article about writers is spot on! Thanks for that!

Thank you for the book birthday wishes!

That crossover discussion sounds great, but like you, I'm thinking: too much book goodness, too little time. :(

Thanks, too, for the shout out for the webcasts! And for whizzlefarts, of course....

Thanks for the tip link...I love tip articles/posts (easier for my brain to parse) and that's a great topic!

AFROGEEK!

I faint at their very coolness.

Afro Geek Mom and Dad are new to me. Aren't they great! I think I read about them at Color Online. Then I went to visit and was like OMG a college professor who teaches comics? How cool.

BTW, did you draw that bird, Sarah?

Wish I could say I did, but nope--I got it at Clip Art Etc, which is a great site.

What a great post - although it's deadly, of course, with all those tempting links.

Mwahahahaha.

Great links, thank you. "Making time to make." I really like that.

I like "making time to make" as well, though some days it's "marking time til make" or something like that.

Thanks for the shout-out!

Greg

I had missed Liz's post about the shoulds of blogging. Thanks for pointing it out. I *try* not to let myself get carried away and fretful about blogging, but every once in a while I feel some serious self-induced blogger guilt. It's good to know that others deal with that as well.

Thank you so much for linking to the giveaway! This made ME smile! :)

i think one of the reasons there is much fail in the SSF movie world is that, traditionally, there is a world to be saved as the central plot, and we all know that it's men who save the world. what is it hemingway said? that in order to be a man you must fight a bull, father a child, save the universe...

movies are a special problem because few people discuss POV. your movie has a main character, the film follows that character throughout, you can generally only be shown what that character sees or knows. even if they know several women it is rare (for storytelling purposes) for them to be together, with the male protagonist, talking to each other. it's just not their story.

also, when it comes to action, in order to make female characters equal to male characters they tend to be portrayed as competitive with all, men and women, which makes it hard for them to be friends or allies.

mind, i don't disagree with the bechdel test for examining weaknesses in storytelling equity, but i think the problem goes deep into the heart of narrative expectations and structures and most media aren't willing to rock that boat.

btw, i saw SALT over the weekend and throughout i kept thinking "thank you for turning down the lead, tom cruise" because angelina was such a better person for that role. now, we can look at that as an example of "blind" casting in that the lead was assigned regardless of gender (and probably a little bit of marquee recognition) but then we have a film where she's the only women in a man's world of espionage. if cruise had starred in it, the film would be void of any women. should we be seeing that as a shift toward the better?

Now that you bring it up, an awful lot of SFF movies, even if they do have a strong female lead, do the "woman in a man's world" thing. I think part of it is that we're still stuck in a nostalgic aesthetic when it comes to the structure and the story of sci-fi especially--either because we're still making movies based on older literature or because we're making movies that harken back to that earlier aesthetic. The Heinleins, the Harlan Ellisons, the Philip K. Dicks of the world wrote some fascinating stories but, as in society at the time, women don't always get a central role.

They need to start making some movies out of Connie Willis books.

I can't really address YA movies...the last one I saw was Percy Jackson, which is a double fail with respect to this particular discussion--SFF and YA, and hardly a girl in sight. The one female YA character started off intriguingly strong and then totally petered out and got lame.

LOVE that HEY MAINSTREAM MEDIA thing. I looked at all of the photos, in fact. SO GREAT!

I am thinking about going through all the sff Newbery winners, now I have them in their nice little list for my poll, and applying The Test to them...and then I am wondering if I will find the time to do so....tricky, since I don't have them all to hand.

Charlotte, that's a huge project... but it might be quite worthwhile.

I wonder if we'd find the ones back when the Newbery STARTED were better equipped to pass The Test than the books now... although the Old-Skool SFF had so few women in them that they wouldn't.

A Conference Fund...now that is an idea. Have also been trying to save up for KidLitCon but just received news of the godson's confirmation at approx. same time. Must ponder the schedule. And the $$. And the locales. It is always something.

I've found reading kids books is a good way to connect to nieces, friends' children, etc. Not why I read these books, of course, but a nice side benefit.

Agreed on both counts! Thanks for stopping by and commenting. :)

I suppose I should be reading Expressions, but I still feel more connected to my old branch of the SCBWI. Still, it's a great source of information, and I'm happy to hear about the Iranian Book News Agency. That's pretty cool.

I dunno, I benefited from a real conversation about author salaries, etc., when I was in grad school, and every time a kid asks me about the real deal, I tell them. Of course, it's all in the delivery...

Hm, after one presentation I did at a school, the kids wrote letters on what they learned from me--several said they learned that being a writer is a tough job! ;-D

First, congrats on getting an agent. That's huge! Second, I really, really want Cinder by Marissa Meyer and The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.

Congratulations on your agent--Andrea Brown is a terrific agency.
And thanks so much for helping to spread the word about our First Books fundraiser.

Making sure I've said it loudly and in public: SO PROUD OF YOU!