There’s a book in the works from Gov. Sarah Palin to describe her life in Alaska and her experiences in presidential politics. She will be writing the book herself, working with a more experienced co-author. As far as I know, the co-author will not be Franklin Graham, pictured with Mrs. Palin below.
I just bought two copies of Lars’ latest on the Nordskog Publishing page. Order your copies there too and take a look at those reader blurb to see some names we’ve seen here.
Next stop, a campaign to get West Oversea chosen for many city-wide reading programs throughout the country. (I’m kidding actually, but I wonder how something like that could be done.)
British poet Carol Ann Duffy wrote a poem a while back in which someone with a knife says, “Today I am going to kill something. Anything.” That poem, “Education For Leisure,” has been removed from the English GCSE syllabus. Some British literati are upset, but Duffy says, “I never really liked the poem anyway.”
Hunter Baker reviews a biography on Francis Schaeffer. He writes about Schaeffer:
The man who cared enough to tutor a little boy with Down Syndrome is also the man who told his church in St. Louis that he would resign if a black person ever came to his church and felt unwelcome. The budding intellectual who answered the existential questions of college students in Europe is also the agitator who took up the cause of the unborn and became arguably the finest shaper of and advocate for a potent evangelical critique of modern culture.
The Warren Adler contest is taking short stories now through July 13. This year’s theme is “Short Fiction in Varied Genres” and there’s a $15 admission fee.
Sci-Fi author Paul McAuley talks about writing science fiction in the United Kingdom.
Here in the UK, there are now only three major imprints that regularly publish sf; a major reduction in the diversity of the genre’s ecological niche. And for the most part writers can no longer develop their careers in public, fostered by a sympathetic editor: they have to hit the ball out of the park with their first novel. It’s either two strikes and you’re out, or keep hitting home runs with the same rhythm and swing – if you do write a successful novel, the publisher wants more just like it, in other words. Which is why, I guess, there are more series around, now. So the market is much tougher than when I started out, but in general the ambition of writers is higher, too. I wouldn’t mind seeing some shorter novels, though. Or rather, seeing novels written to their natural length, instead of being pointlessly expanded by the equivalent of the fluff that bulks out padded envelopes.
Andrew Peterson links to an essay by N.D. Wilson for good reasons to write fiction. “For many children, the only nobility, the only joy, the only strength and sacrifice that they see firsthand comes in fiction,” Wilson claims.
Lars, did you mention this interview you did with the Christian Science Fiction blog?
Sherri is pointing out her favorite poets for National Poetry Month.