It's Been A While, Readers

I'm inspired to blog again after a few fallow weeks because the school year is winding down, the heat is cranking up, and I spent the past few days at the Backspace Writer's Conference where I spent time with the lovely Debbie of Write on Target.

Presenters included John Searles, who is the Books editor at Cosmo, David Morell, who wrote the first Rambo novel, and most pertinent to this blog, the amazing Jerry Gross, who invented** "The Gothic Romance" and the "Regency Romance" as paperback categories--what a genius! He explained to us the "formula" for Gorthic Romance covers, and I did a little google image searching to reveal that he was totally right. Check these out and see what they have in common, and which famous works of fiction they all allude to!

(images from mysteryfile.com, flickr.com, kleinletters.com, biblio.com)

**UPDATE I forgot to tell you the story of HOW he invented this category. Basically, he found a dog-eared, lovingly re-read copy of Rebecca on his mom's bedside. She said "they don't make em like this anymore," and a lightbulb went off above his head. the end!

It was a fun conference for me because I am knee-deep in revisions on my current WIP (I hope to be waist-deep later in the week) so I didn't need to shmooze editors or anything like that, but just soak up the words of wisdom and get psyched for this whole writing thing.

We heard some inspirational panels from writers who had gotten the nastiest kinds of rejections early on in their careers, but persevered and blah blah blah.

How have you all been doing? Any of my regular readers also dabble in fiction-writing? Anyone long to see this gothic romances back in print?

Favorite Characters EVER: Sam, Anne, Lizzy and More

Literary agent uber-blogger Nathan Bransford has opened a post with, like, the biggest question one can ask: your favorite character.

His own are rather erudite and sound a bit like they would overlap a bit with my h-l-p's favorites.

Sherlock Holmes? Quentin Compson? Jay Gatsby? Zaphod Beeblebrox? Willy Wonka? Leopold Bloom? Ahab? The whale?

I would agree that these are badass characters, but I might counter Quentin with Caddy or Dilsey, Jay with Daisy, Willy with Matilda, and Leo with Molly ;)

The most popular characters so far in the comments definitely line up with my sensibilities: Lizzy Bennet, Anne Shirley (of Green Gables), Jane Eyre and Samwise Gamgee are hauling in the votes in a most major way, and I applaud all of them. I also found some good ones in the comments: Kit Tyler from The Witch of Blackbird Pond (WIN!!), Scarlett and Rhett, Atticus, Scout and Jem from To Kill a Mockingbird.

Others I love, a bit randomly: Mr. Rochester, Hermione Granger + Albus Dumbledore, Meg Murray + Vicky Austin, Anne Eliot + her Cap'n, Will Ladislaw + Mary Garth, Aunt Bestey Trotwood+ the Micawbers, Edmund Sparkler + PANCKS, George Emerson, his Dad + Mr. Beebe, Viola, Horatio, Emilia, and a host of others.

Oh also Edward Cullen! (JK-sorta-not-really-hangs head in shame).

Who else is missing from this list?

Jane Campion's Keats Biopic a Hit In Cannes

The Guardian gives four stars to Jane Campion's latest film, "Bright Star" a period piece exploring mega-genius Romantic poet Keats' doomed--but oh-so-passionate--love affair with his neighbor Fanny in the final years of life. You bet your bonnet I'm going to be seeing this film when it comes stateside.

Keats is one of my absolute favorite poets, although sometimes I find him so brilliant and dense it's overwhelming. On my first trip to London I insisted on a day out on Hampstead Heath, which is as inspiring and poetic as it's cracked up to be, and then a visit to his house, which was surprisingly small and boring, a testament to his vivid imagination. I remember one of my college professors' mourning Keats' early death because he believed the poet would have become a novelist and playwright as well and left us with some unforgettable major works had he lived.

As for Campion, I'm not familiar with her work but I appreciate her feminist sensibilities. I've long been intrigued by her "Portrait of a Lady" because of its cast (Viggo as Caspar Godwood, John Malkovich as Osmond!) and may have to netflix that, stat!

The New Sherlock Holmes Adaptation Will Feature... PANCKS!

A New "Who's The Best Darcy" Poll To Add to Your Barouche

Go vote for Colin Firth in the Darcy smackdown over at the awesome Jane Austen Today.

Lauren Conrad, Novelist.

Gawker delves deep into the first published excerpt of "The Hills" "star" Lauren Conrad's novel, L.A. Candy.

Turns out the novel's the same contrived mix of "fiction" and "reality" as the TV show upon whose shoulders it sits... anyway, worth a look for all you literary gossip fiends ;)

Maureen Dowd, Feminist Websites, and More

So I've started posting shorter, timelier blog entries (or "diaries") at RH Reality Check in addition to my column. The first two are on topics fairly near and dear to this blog's EBC heart. Feel free, as always, to click through or not :)

Gender Cop Dowd's Plagiarism Kerfluffle

May 18, 2009 - This revelation of Dowd's thoughtless use of words is far from new. She's been a perennial thorn in the side of feminists and everyone who would like to move beyond Mad Men-era perceptions of gender.

. . . . .

Double X-asperation?

May 14, 2009 - Slate's new website by/for women has launched a thousand debates.

Another Book Listie Leaves the Ladies Out:

Carolyn Kellogg at Jacket Copy takes on yet another "100 best books of the century" list that has only 7 female-authored tomes in its ranks. This one is a list curated by Dick Meyer at NPR, who admits to its being "male" and "parochial".

Says Kellogg:

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it's certainly not my list. While I wouldn't call it parochial, I would say that a lot of the books are the kind that were assigned to be read in school, which indicates a kind of incurious reader to me. Misspelling Nathanael West's name (as Nathaniel), and including two books each by Philip Roth, John Le Carre, Richard Ford and John Updike doesn't help to convince me otherwise.

But truly astonishing is the fact that only seven books by women make the list. And number 100 — Nicole Krauss' "A History of Love" — was published in 2005, so it doesn't even belong in a list that spans 1900-2000. Which would cut down the number of female authors to six.

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This nonsense is why the Radcliffe list is so awesome and fun.


Previously in this category:

National Book Award: Testosteroney

Anti-feminist book critics review feminist works

Times' Gender ratio improves

Pulitzers: kinda testosteroney

Question of the Weekend: What's Your Favorite "Junk Food" Book?

(image: www.dollheads.com)

So with Angels and Demons getting expectedly pilloried in film reviews around the nation, I thought I'd open it up to my readers to ask what your favorite "candy" books are? Because just as we need to shove sugar and fat down our mouths sometimes and nothing else will do, so, too do we occasionally crave those delicious, addictive page-turners.

I think the reason people hate Dan Brown is because his books mix high and low in such a confusing way. He's neither Dean Koontz nor A.S. Byatt, but unashamedly throws a bit of everything into his winning formula(e?). But that's why I kind of have a soft spot for his place in the cultural fabric.

Anyway, I would not say Dan Brown is my favorite "light" read: I'd have to give that to the brits: Helen Fielding, Alexander McCall Smith, or--if she counts as "light"--Dame Agatha.

How about you?

In Santa Croce, With No Baedeker

My parents are on a trip to Florence and went into Santa Croce today to pay homage to Machiavelli, Michelangelo, and Galileo among others... anyway I can't even think about it without dwelling on one of the best-named chapters ever, "In Santa Croce With No Baedeker" from Forster's A Room with a View. The brilliant Santa Croce scene begins about 4:30 in the below clip, but if you fast-forward you'll miss Beebe telling Lucy what might happen if she lives as she plays Beethoven, the Emersons strewing cornflowers throughout the Miss Alans' rooms, a bit of Dench and Smith interplay, and a few lovely shots of "the view" of the Arno. Heaven.

I've realized that breaking this movie into ten-minute chunks all but guarantees you multiple perfect little youtube clips filled with iconic moments :)

Wuthering Heights... and GOSSIP GIRL?

My h-l-p helpfully points out a report that the new big screen Wuthering Heights ("Enough", sez I. "Can't we adapt Villette or Shirley already, for the love of Bronte?") has found a director and stars, supposedly reuniting the team behind "Girl With a Pearl Earring."

Cathy will be played by that luscious-lipped Tess, Gemma Arterton, who is fantastic. Great choice.

Heathcliff will be played by sneering prepster Chuck Bass Ed Westwick, best known for scheming his way through the NYC independent school landscape. WTF?

Brilliant marketing strategy yes--Wuthering Heights as teen angst melodrama, capturing the hearts of Twilight and Gossip Girl fanladies galore.

But appropriate casting for the wild, menacing, Heathcliff? I'll believe it when I see it.

(photo creds: dailymail.co.uk & gossipgirlnews.com)

Bill Compton > Edward Cullen

Here is the new True Blood "teaser." The show starts up again in a month:

As you may or may not know, the series is loosely based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, which are supposed to be wildly addictive.

I know it's a loose adaptation, but I'm impressed with the general badassness that Harris and series creator Allen Ball have granted to heroine Sookie. While Bill Compton, her southern-gentleman vampire beau, may be kind of Cullenish, Sookie's way cooler, spunkier, and far more eager eager to murder bad guys by stabbing them with shovels than Bella Mary-Sue Swan ever would be. And for that I say thank you!

Sarah Palin Book Deal...

"Is it a picture book?" quoth my h-l-p.

He is referring, of course, to the forthcoming memoir from everyone's favorite veep candidate.

White House "Poetry Jam"

Yes, it's true. The White House is hosting a poetry jam-- a jam, not a slam, cause everyone wins in this one.

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The performer’s list for the hip event includes James Earl Jones; poet Mayda Del Valle, novelist Michael Chabon, jazz musicians ELEW and Esperanza Spalding and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The poetry slam is actually an Obama campaign promise coming to fruition. Last year, Obama announced that he and First Lady Michelle Obama intended to bring poets and musicians into the White House to “open up the White House and remind people this is the people’s house.

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Sigh. This is brilliant. Because who is going to be freaking about about DADT, torture, Afghanistan and the economy when they're staring into Chabon's hypnotic eyes? Certainly not Ayelet Waldman :)