Last Day Report
We'll be hitting the road in a couple of hours or so, so last report.
This is just free form throwing out of conversations.
How POD needs to become the new model for book printing, which creates less of a eco footprint--way future bookstores might look--people doing browsing differently now (on line)--need to wander shelves and touch and look at books. Hope that used bookstores stay with us as there is a deeply satisfying feel to a book printed 180 years ago, owned and loved by others. (Love discovering old notes and things in old books.)
Bringing one's backlist into e-book form; Book View Cafe and its evolving business model. (Lots of conversation about Book View Cafe.)
Language in fantasy (after a panel)--when language gets in the way of the reader--sloppy worldbuilding (Q "What do you mean by sloppy?" A "I mean when I have to memorize a zillion terms for supposedly new things, but then I find stuff like 'She aped his movements' when there is no sign of apes in the world, and I really hate 'Okay' in fantasy or far future sf worlds")--long discussion of "okay", when it trips the reader, when it doesn't--can't imagine okay ever falling out of use--history of cuss words, words found in Chaucer--
New writers and agents--agents--bad agents
What makes a YA voice--genre writers trying YA (or being talked into it by editors, and why those books fail) --simple language vs. simplistic language--tone--what kids actually read vs. what adults think they should be reading (reasons adults want kids to read a thing, not always for reasons you think)--
What exactly constitutes emotional payoff--how that works for adults, for kids, hardest of all payoff for both--adults as well as kids got emotional payoff from Potter--emotional memory makes old favorites work whereas the book encountered as an adult might not work (L.J. Smith in this context: those who first read them as teens love them still, others who encountered them as adults find them less engaging)
Bad editors, but you can't talk about them on line so they can stay bad with no repercussions
New York in 1959, when Bob Dylan arrived in town and musicians thought he was just carrying the guitar around as a chick-magnet until he took out his harmonica
Oxford versus Cambridge--Oxford in literature
German food (regional food) -- weirdest foods ever had
Stooges vs. Marx Brothers
Authors who try to gain readers by building a cult around themselves (when it works and when it doesn't--Neil Gaiman currently made a cult figure ("wins awards because he's Neil Gaiman, but in ten years, will people read the books in the same way?)
Dogs and how they communicate
New authors and books one loved--books outside the usual white person context--big love for Cindy Pon's Silver Phoenix--Malinda Lo's new book--
Old favorites we wish were still in print--old faves that are really dated now
This is just free form throwing out of conversations.
How POD needs to become the new model for book printing, which creates less of a eco footprint--way future bookstores might look--people doing browsing differently now (on line)--need to wander shelves and touch and look at books. Hope that used bookstores stay with us as there is a deeply satisfying feel to a book printed 180 years ago, owned and loved by others. (Love discovering old notes and things in old books.)
Bringing one's backlist into e-book form; Book View Cafe and its evolving business model. (Lots of conversation about Book View Cafe.)
Language in fantasy (after a panel)--when language gets in the way of the reader--sloppy worldbuilding (Q "What do you mean by sloppy?" A "I mean when I have to memorize a zillion terms for supposedly new things, but then I find stuff like 'She aped his movements' when there is no sign of apes in the world, and I really hate 'Okay' in fantasy or far future sf worlds")--long discussion of "okay", when it trips the reader, when it doesn't--can't imagine okay ever falling out of use--history of cuss words, words found in Chaucer--
New writers and agents--agents--bad agents
What makes a YA voice--genre writers trying YA (or being talked into it by editors, and why those books fail) --simple language vs. simplistic language--tone--what kids actually read vs. what adults think they should be reading (reasons adults want kids to read a thing, not always for reasons you think)--
What exactly constitutes emotional payoff--how that works for adults, for kids, hardest of all payoff for both--adults as well as kids got emotional payoff from Potter--emotional memory makes old favorites work whereas the book encountered as an adult might not work (L.J. Smith in this context: those who first read them as teens love them still, others who encountered them as adults find them less engaging)
Bad editors, but you can't talk about them on line so they can stay bad with no repercussions
New York in 1959, when Bob Dylan arrived in town and musicians thought he was just carrying the guitar around as a chick-magnet until he took out his harmonica
Oxford versus Cambridge--Oxford in literature
German food (regional food) -- weirdest foods ever had
Stooges vs. Marx Brothers
Authors who try to gain readers by building a cult around themselves (when it works and when it doesn't--Neil Gaiman currently made a cult figure ("wins awards because he's Neil Gaiman, but in ten years, will people read the books in the same way?)
Dogs and how they communicate
New authors and books one loved--books outside the usual white person context--big love for Cindy Pon's Silver Phoenix--Malinda Lo's new book--
Old favorites we wish were still in print--old faves that are really dated now