Today's Highlights

Today I received an e-mail from Elinor Teele, an author I've worked with over the past few years, announcing some good news: Her short story, entitled 'Yard Sale,' is appearing in the June 2010 issue of Highlights Magazine. Check it out!

She's also published her girls' mystery novel, The Doll's Head, as an e-book, and has generously offered a free download of it to my readers! (Enter the coupon code EF65C (which expires 6/4/10) at checkout.)

Elinor says, "I'm thinking of it as an advance copy. The more feedback, critiques, reviews, comments, suggestions for website improvement I get the better"--so let her know what you think!

Elinor is a great example of a self-motivated, creative author who is successfully working to get her writing published, rather than seeing "traditional" publishing as the only path.

- L'Editrice

Room for genre revulsion, but not snobbery

I was watching Twilight in Forks, a documentary on the real-life town the Twilight books are set in and their impact on the town, and found this quote from author John Granger interesting:

"I'm not putting people down that have genre revulsion, except when they say she's a bad writer. When they come after her and say, This isn't just a matter of taste, I can't get that. Basically they say that, No, these are stupid readers who have no taste, and their experience is not real. That's the part that gets me: Wow, can you really say that? That these people are having what they feel are profound literary experiences, engagement in this text, and resonance at their core being, that's not real. That's something that they're faking?"

Now I'm no Twihard--I read the first book and didn't like it enough to read the second one, but I could see why they are popular--but I think Granger makes an interesting point, especially when we're talking about kids' books. If kids are reading, should we be snobby about what they're reading? I mean, there are obviously limits to this flexibility, but it is food for thought.

Granger also notes that Stephen King has panned the Twilight books for bad writing. However, King himself has had to defend himself against the critics who say his books are "just" genre fiction, and has said "If my book sells, I'm a good writer."

By that measure, Granger argues, "Well, Stephenie Meyer is a great writer."

What do you think? All I know is, I love this new term I've learned: genre revulsion. I'm going to apply it to lots of things from now on . . .

- L'Editrice

Julieta!

If you're anything like me, you can't wait to see the upcoming movie Letters to Juliet. If you're even more like me, as soon as you heard the film's plot, it reminded you of Suzanne Harper's amazing YA novel, The Juliet Club (now out in paperback!) . . .

Check out the cool trailer Suzanne made, with that very connection in mind, and read her book if you haven't yet!

- L'Editrice

Happy Earth Day!

As we know, Earth Day is Every Day, but I do think today is a great opportunity to make new resolutions on how to be more earth-friendly (a plus: you can then feel less badly about those New Year's resolutions for 2010 that have gone way by the wayside by now).

Here's one resolution suggestion I have: Don't buy this product! Really, Kleenex? Even public bathrooms are moving away from paper towels in favor of hand dryers. I mean, if you are going to market a home-bathroom product similar to something found in public bathrooms (but, really, why in the world would you?) at least go for something more modern, like the hand dryers. For shame.

Tree-huggingly,

L'Editrice

Late-breaking post!

I forgot to mention that tomorrow, April 20, I will be wearing red (and seeing it) in solidarity with Equal Pay Day. As the National Organization for Women says, "If we're going to be 'in the red,' we might as well wear it proudly to show our determination to end the wage gap."

Did you know that if women worked the equivalent of what their work is valued, they’d be clocking out at 3:15 p.m. every day?! This is just what NOW-NYC members and supporters (and maybe others in your area!) will be doing in commemoration of Equal Pay Day tomorrow. They figure that if women earn only 78 cents to every dollar a man makes (and the numbers are even bleaker when you look specifically at the data for women of color), why should we work more than 78% of the workday?

Learn more here and here.

- L'Editrice