Back quickly to note that the Austin American Statesman just published Joe Gross’s interview with me about Alcestis, in which we discuss, among other things, companion animal fantasy, D’Aulaires’ Greek myths, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (I guess I should make an interview category on the blog, hmm?)

My brief jaunt out of town turned into a slightly longer jaunt out of town, thanks to the snow and ice storm that hit the mid-south this week. But I’m back, just in time for the official launch of Alcestis! Expect a longer blog post tomorrow, but for now, check out this Washington Post article on the comparatively tiny sales of classical recordings required to break into the top ten. Interesting to compare with small press expectations for literary fiction, I think.

Today, two interesting news articles about the difficulty of deciphering historical symbols, particularly those associated with death.

The first focuses on a mysterious heart-shaped symbol found on a coffin in a colonial-era African-American burial in Manhattan — it may or may not be a sankofa, a sigil printed on funereal clothing in Africa.

The second article describes rare bamboo-strip books found in a grave in Hubei province, in China:

Archaeologists will have to wait until excavation of the tomb is completed next week to attempt to read the strips, he said. “Sorting out those bamboo strips is like sorting out well-cooked noodles, you have to be really careful so as not to damage them.

“There is a possibility the strips contain an introduction written by the owner of the tomb, “like a letter of recommendation the deceased would carry with them to the underworld to give Yanluo, the god of death”, Shen said.

Such an evocative idea — a letter of introduction to the god of death. I wonder what Alcestis’s might have said? She was illiterate; I don’t mention that much in the book, as it’s simply a fact of her life. But even if she had been given a scroll to take with her to the underworld, she’d have had no idea what it contained.

As a followup to the Patterson post, here’s a post at the Christian Science Monitor about reader reactions to co-authoring. I just left a comment about the “genre books are so formulaic” bit because I’m apparently unable to let that slide, but it’s an interesting post, especially given the popularity of multi-author pseudonymous series for young readers.

I’ve just started a Q&A/discussion group for Alcestis on Goodreads — it’ll be active through the end of March. You’re always welcome to ask me questions about the book here, of course, but I figured that it might be good to have a central location for question-asking and -answering. If you’re interested, please do share the link around — I’d love to reach people who might not know about my blog or Twitter feed.

A. L. Kennedy in the Guardian, being awesome again, this time on the subject of starting a new novel:

So, Best Beloveds, the New Novel. I’m calling it that in the frail hope that it will hear me and turn into one – at the moment it is, of course, the New Notebook Full Of Stuff and A Smattering of Early Paragraphs. A long project is, as you will realise, a massive and potentially ludicrous commitment of time and enthusiasm which could come apart in your hands at any moment, could promise wonders, cough twice and then turn into ashes and sand at the end of three years’ preparation and one year’s labour.

While you’re at it, read the whole series. It’ll be a good way to procrastinate.

I’ve seen a lot of chatter on Twitter today about this Times article about James Patterson. Most of the talk is numbers-focused, and there are some startling numbers in the piece — one out of every 17 novels purchased in the US since 2006 was a Patterson book (or a Patterson-and-co-authors book, about which more later). Several staff members at Little, Brown work only on Patterson’s books; Little, Brown gave Christmas bonuses this year, based partly on the strength of Patterson’s sales. He sometimes publishes up to ten books a year.

I didn’t know much about Patterson before reading this article. I’ve never read one of his books, though I do remember reading something about his recent jump into YA with the “Maximum Ride” series, and I think I’ve seen a little bit of one of the Morgan Freeman movies based on his Alex Cross novels. What struck me about this article, even more than the numbers, was Patterson’s decision to turn away from attempting to write “reasonable literary novel[s]” and producing mystery novels and thrillers instead (and, later, YA novels, romances, etc.).  Here’s what Patterson says about his first novel, a more Chandleresque work than his later fiction:

The book won a prestigious Edgar Award for a first novel from the Mystery Writers of America. No doubt, some of those who praised it at the time would now say Patterson has failed to live up to its literary promise. That’s not how Patterson sees it. “It’s more convoluted, more bleak — more of the sort of thing that some people will find praiseworthy,” he says of “The Thomas Berryman Number.” “The sentences are superior to a lot of the stuff I write now, but the story isn’t as good. I’m less interested in sentences now and more interested in stories.”

Not to get back to Twilight again — I was doing so well! — but I find this kind of calculation, which seems similar to the priorities of the Twilight books, fascinating. I don’t think I could write that way, partly because I’m a slow, fussy worker when it comes to writing, but I can see the appeal, for readers and writers. Here’s another passage from the article, about one of Patterson’s co-authors:

Patterson helped Ledwidge get his first book published and his writing career started. A few books later, Ledwidge had garnered some critical acclaim but not much commercial success. In 2003, Patterson suggested that they collaborate on “Step on a Crack,” his first Michael Bennett novel. Ledwidge leapt at the opportunity. The book went straight to No. 1 on the Times best-seller list. One book quickly led to another. In 2005, Ledwidge quit his day job as a cable-splicer at Verizon, left the Bronx for Connecticut and became a full-time co-author for James Patterson.

Ledwidge told me that he and Patterson have an easy working relationship, that Patterson playfully teases him when he writes a scene that Patterson doesn’t like and praises him when he’s pleased with something. I asked Ledwidge if he missed writing his own books. “Honestly? ” he asked. “Not at all. This is much more fun.”

And there we get back to what Merrie and I were discussing in the comments on this post. How do we value fun in writing?

Elements of Moon I had already seen/read/encountered:

• Solaris (the book; haven’t seen either movie version yet)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (I’ll admit it: I’ve never seen the whole thing)
• Never Let Me Go
• ETA: and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?/Blade Runner, of course.

Non-spoilery things about Moon I actually liked:

• The silly “turning on the music every time the other person tries to talk” bit
• Kevin Spacey as Gerty — perfect voice casting
• Uh… good set design?

I know I say this all the time, but I really wish that mainstream reviewers (and SFF fans!) wouldn’t fawn over genre movies for rising above the level of “not entirely crappy.” (Ahem, District 9, I’m looking at you.)

To end this entry on a less curmudgeonly note, here’s an interesting list of the decade’s best SF films, by John Scalzi. Thoughts? Comments? I haven’t seen Blade II, Cloverfield, or The Incredibles, but I’d definitely kick one off sight unseen to add Children of Men. (And I know T. would vote for Hellboy II, because he thinks it should be on every best-of list ever.)

But not today. Nice reviews from Booklist (sadly not available online) and ForeWord! Hurrah!

Today, a recommendation: the blog of my dear friend and mentor Elizabeth Scott, who writes wonderful YA novels of all sorts. Her next novel The Unwritten Rule will be out in April, and she’s published six other novels already. I recommend them all.

She is also the master of useful linkage. Seriously: whether you’re published or not-yet-published, make checking her blog a part of your writing-blogosphere routine and you’ll be rewarded with plenty of helpful tips, advice from agents and editors, commentary from writers about craft and about the writing life, and etc. Today’s post is an especially fine example of the kind of great material she often finds — my favorite posts from it are Justine Musk’s notes on “how to write a book that ‘hangs together’” (in other words, how to develop the themes in your work), Kristin Nelson’s post of an annotated query letter, and this post on the value of MFA programs (a subject I’m planning to write more about soon, thanks to a recent question from a blog reader). For the other links, see Elizabeth’s blog!