Writer Unboxed

Halloween is over, but here at my house we’re still working off our Snickers high while images of this year’s vivid costumes linger. (My son went as an evil jester, and not even I would want to meet up with anyone wearing that thing on a non-Halloween eve.)
Created characters can be whatever we want them […]

Lots of industry news this week. First, the winner of the prestigious Booker Prize was announced: Anne Enright, Irish author, has come away with top honors. There are two interesting charity events taking place: All About Romance is holding an auction to benefit victims of Katrina and a bunch of renowned children’s book illustrators are […]

Legal troubles for Houghton Mifflin, a push to end the selling of ARCS & galleys, the death of Harlequin’s NEXT line, a film partnership for HarperCollins and more. Read the latest books & business news at the WU Google Notebook HERE.
Write on, all!

My new novel for young adults, Cybele’s Secret, has been released this week here in Australia. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to share Kinuko Craft’s gorgeous cover painting with you. Unfortunately, the American edition doesn’t come out until September 2008, so anyone wanting a cute Knopf hardback to match their copy of Wildwood Dancing has […]

So…I just sold my second novel. Hurrah! Since I’ve already published my first one, it must have been a breeze, right? Er, no. In fact, the book that I anticipated being my follow-up novel was not the one that sold - and I have a theory as to why. Play […]

Quick reminder: Our latest contest ends Friday, Sept. 14. It’s shaping up to be quite a doozy, too. Don’t miss out!

Madeline L’Engle has died.

Like every American 5th grader, I was forced to read A Wrinkle in Time, and I hated it. Oh sure, the tesseracts–folded time–was cool, but as a dorky 11-year-old […]

I’m thrilled to announce that Donald Maass has agreed to an interview with me for Writer Unboxed. Maass, as most of you probably already know, has his own agency (Donald Maass Literary Agency) and is the author of my very favorite craft book for unboxing story, Writing the Breakout Novel. Seriously, if you don’t have […]

Most of the time we don’t hear about the world of authors–outside of book signings and award nominations, that is. But lately I’ve been reading a lot about authors and their out-of-the-cave times. Since most of this isn’t really applicable to what I’ve been trying to accomplish with the Books & Business Google Notebook daily […]

Folks who’ve seen the movie As Good as it Gets know that there was something magical about the pairing of an obsessive-compulsive and an out-of-luck waitress. It wasn’t exactly a love story, but it was a story about an implausible pairing made authentic. (I’d argue that it was the “implausible” part of the equation that […]

What makes a book a ‘keeper’? Why is it that Book A, a critically acclaimed literary masterpiece, venerable classic or New York Times bestseller, can be given away without a second thought while Book B instantly earns permanency on your small shelf of those titles you must own? Why can Book C be returned to […]

I’ll be tidying up the Google Notebook this morning, so don’t forget to go on over for your hit of Books & Business news for the week.
A study released last week really caught my attention: Kids eating foods and drinks from containers labeled “McDonalds” preferred the taste over the same exact foods served in generic […]

WU contributor Jason Starr’s latest noir thriller THE FOLLOWER has just been released to rave reviews.  We’re pleased to bring you this Take 5 interview with Jason.  
Q:  What is the premise of your new book?
The premise of THE FOLLOWER is The Date from Hell. It’s about a young woman in Manhattan who becomes the object of affection of a […]