Ch-ch-ch-changes

It's been mighty quiet 'round these parts, I reckon. Must be a good reason for that.

Well, boy howdy, there is! You might be seeing a few changes at the ole Flux Blog in the near future. Kind of a "re-imaginin'" like them thar Hollywood folks like to say.

Best put the kettle on, kick your feet up, and keep your eye on Flux, ya hear?

Let me get this straight... you're dissing the Wild and Crazy Guy?

For reasons that should be obvious, I get a bit twitchy whenever someone suggests banning a book or play or tries to impede others from access to artistic materials. For instance, a school superintendent in Oregon shut down a high school's impending production of Steve Martin's play, PICASSO AT THE LAPINE AGILE, after 137 community members signed a petition stating their "concern" about the show's adult content. Similarly, across the country, other high schools have faced similar opposition to their proposed stagings of the musical, RENT.

In the case of the Oregon school, Steve Martin himself has stepped up to the plate and offered to fund a non-profit production of the show to be produced off-campus in an effort "to prevent the play from acquiring a reputation it does not deserve."

I'm always happy to see parents taking an active interest in their children's activities and I firmly believe it is every parent's right to steer their children away from anything they feel might be harmful (based on personal values, of course). That stops making sense to me, though, when this "protective" nature expands to the children of other parents. Isn't it just easier (and more responsible) to tell your kid "I don't want you to have anything to do with that show" than it is to attempt to block other people's children from having the experience? Or am I missing something?

Anyway. Yay on Steve Martin. I hope the director of the show takes him up on this offer.

Congratulations to Robin Friedman!

Robin's Flux book, NOTHING was recently shortlisted for Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year Award for Best Young Adult novel.

Winners will be announced at the end of May. Robin's book had previously won the 2009 Sydney Taylor Notable Books for Teens Award. Go Robin!

Noah's got nothing on these ARCs

Liz Burns, bloggoddess at A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy has a well-researched piece on the nature of ARCs (that's Advance Reader/ing Copies) over at ForeWord Magazine.

Check out the first article here.

And the second one here.

Thou Shalt

Agent Nathan Bransford has a fantastic post offering 10 Commandments for Writers.

My favorite?

6. Keep up with publishing industry news. It may seem counterintuitive to follow the news of a business in which layoffs currently constitute the bulk of headlines. But it behooves you to keep yourself informed. You'll be happier (and more successful) if you know what you're doing.

Actually, they're all my favorite. Good stuff.

Rejection, schmejection.

Agent Janet Reid has a great story about how getting rejected can be a good thing.

If you like this, then you'll enjoy...

Back in my days as a bookseller, I often talked with customers who looked for recommendations based on authors they liked.

"I like Nelson DeMille," I'd hear. "Got any books like that?"

We had cheat sheets that told us "if a customer likes THIS author, recommend THAT author." After a while, you got a feel for what people wanted and could make recommendations without even thinking.

There's been an interesting discussion on Adbooks recently that stemmed from one person's request that people recommend titles that are "like" TWILIGHT. The subsequent answers have often surprised (and occasionally amused) me. Sometimes I'd go, "That's a fair comparison" and other times I'd think, "Those two books are NOTHING alike." It got me to thinking: what exactly do we mean when we say one book (or author) is like another?

Are we comparing style of writing? Similar theme? Pacing? In the case of TWILIGHT, when asking for a comp title, do we mean something that's romancey? Angsty? Vampirey? More importantly, when someone asks for a recommendation, do we offer suggests based on what WE feel is comparative or what we think the OTHER person feels is comparative?

When someone asks you for a comparable title, which area do you typically default to?