Happy Sunday!

Oh, my. Welcome to deadline brain. And travel brain. And houseguest brain. And terrible weather forecast brain. It’s just that time of year and there’s so much going on that the blog doesn’t get written brain. 

But here I am, at last... coming to you from a lovely hotel room overlooking the rolling hills of Alabama. Yesterday was Southern Voices, and I had such a wonderful time! It was great to see my dear friend Patti Callahan Henry, and finally catch up with some more folks I’ve been passing in the night, Melanie Benjamin, Gin Phillips, Lori Roy among them. I did two hour-long sessions with a wonderful writer by the name of Roger Johns. We decided it would be fun to interview each other, and both sessions were a blast. Roger’s wit and generosity made for a very fun day. I highly encourage you to check out all of these authors, if you don’t read them already.

There’s just something special about spending a weekend with writers. We’re all unique and special, we all have some sort of passion, and we’re very opinionated. It was a blast.

Writers, if you ever get the invite from the indomitable Carrie Steinmehl and the team here, say yes immediately and unequivocally. And readers, if you’re near, come. This is an elegant, well-run program that should be held up as an example of a perfect reader event.  

Which leads me to now. I have a room with a view and a laptop. On the drive down, I did a lot of thinking about where to go with the book to reach the end, and I think I know the path forward. So if I’m quiet this week, it’s because I’m deep in the trenches getting the draft in place. 

With that, I leave you to it. Time for the latest and greatest links!

Here's what happened on the Internets this week:

Mary Laura interviewed Alexander Chee in A Series Of Misidentifications for A WORD ON WORDS.

This Secret London Alley Is Full Of Curious Old Bookshops. Let’s go!

Dan Mallory, 2 Starkly Similar Novels and the Puzzle of Plagiarism.

All the sad young literary fakes. “Fakes often tell us what we already assume about marginalized populations: that communities of color are rife with violence, that gay lives are tragic, that drugs make you cool, and so on. People living in their little demographic bubble without actually knowing anyone in these communities expect these stories, and they crave them.”

Teaching My High School Students to Love Reading. "For now, I’m teaching them to fall in love with characters and stories. To imagine worlds way different from their own. To be villains and heroes, friends and foes."

Want Advice on How to Run a Book Club? This Actual Book Club Has it Down. This sounds like a great group! 

Conference season is fast approaching... Networking Tips for Introverts.

Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones. "Read books are far less valuable than unread ones."

We Finally Know When Our Milky Way Will Crash Into the Andromeda Galaxy. Life as we know it is doomed... but not yet.

What I’m Reading:

FAVORITE CLASSICS

A friend asked me what my favorite classics are. Here are my faves in all their paperback school glory: Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, To The Lighthouse, Lolita, Anthem, A Farewell To Arms, and A Room Of One’s Own. (Note: Rebecca is MIA in the rainbow bookshelves downstairs.) What are your favorite classics?

That’s it for now. I’ll see you next Sunday.

peace and hugs,
J.T.