Writer Unboxed

September 16 is an important date by anyone’s reckoning. It’s the 259th day of the year (260th in leap years). And in this day in history:

The first game of softball was played in Chicago, Illinois in 1887

The Massachusetts village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston in 1630
Hildegard of Bingen, German magistra and […]

Update on today’s post: Well, what do you know. Barnes & Noble has just reversed their decision! Read GalleyCat’s piece on this breaking news HERE. I appreciate their closing thoughts:
Interesting how consumer interest went from “a handful of pre-orders” to “enough customers… to warrant stocking it in our stores” in just two days, isn’t it?

If you’ve been keeping up with the WU Google Notebook updates (of course you have), you’ll already know all about the controversy over Barnes & Noble and their unwillingness to carry on their store shelves I Did it: Confessions of a Killer (the “If” in the title was removed by the Goldman family after winning […]

Last weekend I took my daughter to see the animated movie Ratatouille, and I was blown away. I’d expected a light PG romp about Disneyfied animals who have crazy adventures in Paris. I didn’t realize I was going to be treated to a meditation on creativity and artistic expression in a subtle and […]

This from Yahoo News:
J.K. Rowling has been spotted at cafes in Scotland working on a detective novel, a British newspaper reported Saturday.
The Sunday Times newspaper quoted Ian Rankin, a fellow author and neighbor of Rowling’s, as saying the creator of the “Harry Potter” books is turning to crime fiction.
“My wife spotted her writing her […]

Obviously I’m having a day of supreme mental blankness, when I can neither write nor blog intelligently. I was supposed to be working on my wip today, but I stumbled across the website Writing Fix: Word games for Writers and I got hung up playing cyber Hangman.
The Boggler game is pretty fun too.
Okay, this […]

First, the big news.  We are pleased to announce that Ray Rhamey, of the incomparable blog Flogging the Quill, is joining WU as a contributor.  Ray’s forte is editing, and as regular readers of his blog know, he’s as sharp as they come in terms of rooting out banal writing.  Ray also consented to do one of our first […]

Calling all fan-fiction dabblers! We want to hear from you. Do you:
Read fan fiction?
Write fan fiction?
Have you used fan fiction as a launching point for your writing career?
We are interested in your experiences writing, reading, and being a part of the fan-fiction community. Please e-mail me, Kathleen, at writerunboxed. I’m interested […]

A blog is a constantly-evolving entity.  At least this one is.  We have a few things to update you on in our quest to provide fiction writers useful information, inspirations, and entertainment.
We are pleased to announce that Jason Starr will be contributing to WU.  Jason is a best-selling author of noir and crime fiction, and finds time […]

From Answers.com:
When L. Frank Baum, born on this date in 1856, wrote the first in his series of books about the Emerald City — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz — little did he know the impact it would have on generations of children who would be terrified by the Wicked Witch of the West and […]

Do you ever have one of those days where everything seems to work out?  Crazy, I know!  Most days I lurch from crisis to crisis, so when my head hits the pillow I already mourn time lost to the banality of X (fill in the blank, annoying co-worker, freak illnesses, telemarketer).
But yesterday, ah, what a […]

Tidbits from the world of genre literature. Flashpan genre alert: yummy mummy. The chick-lit heroines enter their 30’s and have kids who talk back, husbands who’ve gotten fat, dogs they can’t potty train, and regrets to dissect with their girlfriends over mojitos and 100-calorie snack packs.  Anyone else see a Menopause Mavens trend becoming hot ten years from now? (h/t Booksquare)
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