Do androids Twitter about their dreams of sheep?

I certainly wouldn’t know, but The Book Bark does now. As in Twitters, I promise to try and keep the sheep down to a minimum.

Sorry about misleading you’all here with the unrelated title.  I’m running a fever after having hauled my laundry down to the machines in the pouring rain.  My brain is burning and I am feeling more than a little bit addled.  Anyway, off topic!  

All right I’ve been dragging my feet with regards to the Twitter phenomenon, but I think it’s finally time to throw my hat into the ring.  Part of my issue with the whole Twitter thing was that I just hadn’t figured out what I wanted to use this blog’s twitter for.  Well I finally reached a decision this weekend; I will no longer be doing the Blogosphere Barks feature as a round-up post of links.  Instead the feature will be moved entirely to the twitter account where from time to time I will also blab about what I’m reading as I’m reading it or other malfunctions of my brain.  This decision was actually a pretty hard one to make.  I love reading link round-ups and find out a lot of information this way from sites such as Enter the Octopus and SF Signal who disseminate an impressive amount of information this way. It is nice having it all right there in one post.  I realize my round-ups are few and far between and I regret that.  I read a lot more than I write about on the internet, but the #1 reason that I don’t share these links more often is that it takes a surprising amount of time just to write and format the post.  I hope that Twitter will be a better medium for this and will enable me to bring you better content.  

So here is the link should you like to follow me on Twitter as well and I hope you will.  I’ve also added the Twitter widget to the blog.

~ Darcy

Blogosphere Barks

A brief link roundup for today.  It  is a bit of a random mix.  

I came across this response on Cherry Blossom Salad to the “How to Mark a Book”  essay by Mortimer J. Adler.  The original essay is somewhat interesting but I find the responses to it even more so.  I liked the points Cherry Blossom raises about book lending being a cycle.  One day if you are bored, go on a hunt for blog posts made on this topic.  People have such differing views when it comes to marking their books. 

Jessica Merrit posts a list of the top 100 Best Science Fiction blogs on Distance Learning Net.com.  While it’s nice to have some new reading material, I don’t think this list ought to have been ranked like this.  I mean seriously, can Watching Dollhouse really weigh in at spot #58 while sites like Futurismic come in Futurismic, Fantasy Book Critic, and Fantasy Debut come in at 84, 87, and 90 respectively?  Dollhouse hasn’t even aired yet.  

Author John Updike passes away at the age of 76

Gaiman’s Graveyard Book Wins Newberry Award

Dakota Fanning to play Jane in New Moon (Twilight Sequel)

Twilight is Satan’s Cloak of Evil? - Well…that’s a different perspective. 

Realms of Fantasy to cease publication following the April 2009 issue – NOOOOO!  T_T

Finally, and in a strange way it is sort of sci fi but…WHY!?  Disney, you have gone too far this time.  

The Debate Continues And It’s Not What You Think

The elections may be over (and /grats to Mr. Obama) but I today I am reminded of a decades old debate that still rages on to this day.  That’s right:

Star Wars vs. Star Trek – A battle my Trekie boyfriend and I continue to fight each day.

So to honor the good fight, I felt like talking up a few Star Wars Barks.

Lightsaber Types – Posted on Film Freaks

Star Wars Producer Rick McCallum heads up new a new social network: SoHo Muse

Jessica Yellin is our only hope

Haven’t been watching the Clone Wars?  Maybe that’s a good thing, but you can watch the episodes on Star Wars.com FYI.  I’m actually enjoying the series to some degree; I repeat, the -series-.  We don’t talk about the movie on this blog.  

And if you haven’t seen it before, check out ST v SW.net.  There are tons of tech articles relating to both universes.

Blogosphere Barks

Links of interest from over the weekend of a literary or geeky nature.  

Baltimore and Philadelphia fight over the body of Edgar Alan Poe

The Hour’s new entertainment blog launches and will be covering the VMA awards tonight.

A couple of blogging editors are getting roasted this week

Facebook also known as Big Brother

Like swords?  Like manga?  Check these out!

Bookends LLC – Submitting Collections

Cockatoo that sings the Imperial March

Amazon to start selling “One Laptop Per Child” laptops

Barnes & Noble and the eReader game

Colleen Lindsay posts two great articles for writers,  Pimping Your Book:  What is publicity and marketing anyway? and Pimping Your Book: How to work with your publicist.

Blogosphere Barks

With my last day off until next semester what am I doing?   Wasting time on the internet…dur.

Next week all my classes are in session, I start my second internship, and I begin working on my submission(s) for Tears of The Phoenix’s new anthology.  (More on that to follow later.)

The Guardian takes a look at the Sony E-Reader

The 40 favorite books of Philip Pullman

Moonrat strongly advises unagented authors to get one.  (This is some really good advice for writers)

Got to catch them all!  Every last Star Wars Shirt!  Want!  Want!  Want now!

Dangerous Book for Girls is full of danger, and a curse!

Farewell to the Bookosphere my favorite part of the day, but good luck to Matt Staggs.   There are many roses there to stop and give a sniff.  

Sci-Fi themed vacation destinations

More on the Watchmen Trial

Bidding war over yet another Olympian memoir  (found through Bookninja)

39 Clues will release in just a few days!  It’s a really interesting idea, but it could go either way and be a big hit or a short-term fad.  

The 5th Percy Jackson novel is announced, Percy Jackson & The Last Olympian

The bookstore that has them all, except for one.  -sniffle- (found through Bookshelves of Doom)

Sci-Fi/Fantasy Blogosphere Barks

When Vampires work in Sci-Fi and when they don’t.

Top Ten Fantasy Books Everyone Should Read: I agree with a number of these, but I would take off the Riddlemaster Trilogy by McKillip.  Not that McKillip isn’t awesome, but the Riddlemaster Trilogy wouldn’t be my favorite bit of her work.  I think that either McCaffrey’s Pern Books, Moorcock’s Elric Saga, Modessit’s Recluse Saga, or George R. Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice should have made the list instead.

Two interesting discussions on short fiction in Sci-Fi/Fantasy:  the forum discussion that started it & one bloggers response

John Levitt posts about the different approaches authors have taken to urban fantasy settings.

While another blogger tries to define urban fantasy.  - There were some really interesting responses to this, and a lot of Dresden fangirl/boy-ing (which doesn’t bother me any),  Harry Dresden for the win!

From SF Signal:  If these editors and authors could change anything about the science fiction field, it would be…. 

But wait!  Andrew Wheeler responds and it is the best thing I’ve read all morning.

Now you can have your very own R2D2 rotating webcam!  And like author David Keck, my significant other won’t let me have one!  T_T  

Ten Star Wars Toys That Happen To Look Like Celebrities

Blogosphere Barks: On Publishers and Agents

I noticed a number of good entries over the weekend on the actual business of books and book deals that may prove helpful to writers and some that were interesting from an editorial standpoint.  

Book Publishing Accounting Principles - I am so happy to have found this.  It looks like a good overview, and considering I have a class this semester on financial issues in book publishing, a handy introductory resource.  

Lisa Gold shares some advice with writers about research  

From Book Ends LLC: When a MS already has some publisher interest, and a post about discussing one’s future plans with his/her agent.  

There were two great posts on Pub Rants by Agent Kristin Nelson on Authors Behaving Badly and Agents Behaving Badly

Moonrat posts about gift giving, obligation or kind gesture?

While I was away, the book world exploded!

Well, I was visiting family out in PA near Page Lake this weekend when disaster struck in the form of an internet outage.  To make a long story short I’m behind on everything.  They say the great outdoors are supposed to be relaxing and what not…baaaaaaaah.  I couldn’t really separate myself from the work I needed to do.  I suppose I’m in the early stages of being a workaholic and what not.

I think I’m finally on task enough to catch up on my entertainment interests. It has taken me four hours to read through all the blog posts I missed out on, and man was this an interesting weekend around the blogosphere!  I’ll be posting a few roundups later on this evening for those of you who might also have been otherwise occupied.

Holy controversy, Batman!  The book world just seemed to explode with it this weekend, or at least the book blogs did.  From what I saw in my feed reader the top two stories of the weekend prompting the most blog activity were Random House’s cancellation of Sherry Jones’s book and the battle between Amazon and booksellers over Obama’s Challenge.

The Random House thing I knew about it.  It surprised me though that it took this long for the blogosphere chatter to kick it up a notch.  I think the Obama battle is the more interesting of the two stories.  I really wonder about the boycott.  Sure its making a stance against Amazon exclusives (or favoritism if you prefer to call it that), but it just means that even more readers will be getting their product through the online aggregator/megalodon.   The book is an Obama book…meaning it is going to sell, and what with all this delicious controversy I bet overall sales will be even higher than anticipated.  Amazon must be elated, and Chelsea Green should be too. I will say that it was a good marketing strategy, but I do side with the booksellers in this instance. I really wish the publishing world would just adopt a simultaneous release policy for all POD and e-format titles.  It would cause so much less heartache.  Need I remind you of another smaller controversy that took place when a certain YA book was released -AFTER- the print release?

Anyway, later in the week look for a review of Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliasotti and World War Z by Max Brooks, since I managed to polish those off this weekend while not wired to the net.  I’ll leave you with a slight teaser: both rocked!

Steampunk Blogosphere Barks

It seems like I’ve had a lot of Steampunk related stories popping up in my feed reader this week.  I suppose that means it’s time for a roundup.

If you don’t know what Steampunk fiction is, start at this great article on Shadows of the Apt.

Or here at Voyages Extraodinaires for a whole Steampunk Month!

The Empire Strikes Back gets the Steampunk treatment too!  I’d die of sheer joy to see Return of the Jedi get the same new look.

Finally, it looks like a couple of Steampunk writers are getting involved in World Building Month.  Yay, good luck guys.

The Aldersgate Cycle by Natania Baron: World Building Month-a matter of faith

Another One of Those Writer Blogs: World-Building Month: Magic System 
 

World Building Month

Credit goes to Cirellio for bringing this to my attention.  

There is a neat little event/workshop for writers going on at Tales of a Fantasy Scribbler during the month of August called World Building Month.  The kick-off is today but the coordinator does say that late-comers are still welcome.  

Posted by the author of Tales of a Fantasy Scribbler, Eliza Wyatt:

August is going to be dedicated to world-building, here, and on any other blog or site that wishes to participate. We’re going to be exploring everything; history, art, politics, geography, map-making, town-building, magic, science, rumor mills, everything that provides a setting for writing. Any medium of exploring these topic is welcome, from essays to writing samples to artwork. This is an open project. As with Villain Month, I’ll be showcasing people’s work every week.

World building can really make or break a story for me. (See also: this post on my favorite world building efforts in print)  I need a world rich with detail or as a reader, I’m not as engaged as I could be. I will agree though that there is a fine line between a world with good, concrete detail that enhances the story and a world that is just bogged down by it.  The story has to flow seamlessly through the world or you’ve lost the essential purpose of storytelling.   

I love following the blogs of authors who dedicate whole portions of their site to they how’s and why’s of their fictional world.  It is interesting to see the different processes each writer goes through in the developmental stages of their novel.  Although I won’t be participating in the event, I look forward to following it from the sidelines.  

I thought this might also be something of interest for you writers who are gearing up for NaNoWriMo 08.  I know there are a lot of participants out there that spend -months- planning out their projects beforehand.  I imagine this would help get the juices flowing.