Wordless Wednesday -- A House Divided

Civil War reenactors from the Battle of Fort Gamble, 2007

ALA Must-Reads List (Genre Fiction)

People ask me all the time for a recommended reading list of current fiction. I've been writing a novel, so my reading of late has been primarily non-fiction research materials and I am only now starting to catch up on the pile next to my chair. Nevertheless, when all else fails one can rarely go wrong going to the American Library Association for a recommendation... The ALA Best Genre Fiction list is an excellent place to start. Or you could ask your friendly neighborhood librarian. They're your friends and they live to talk about books... kinda like me, but with a professional credential in "Recommending Books" beyond just being a book blogger.

Pardon Our Dust

My apologies for the shifts in format and headings and whatnot. I'm still tweaking the blog, looking for the optimum layout and graphics options. I've been looking for something that will enhance the central themes without detracting from them or pigeonholing me overmuch. I think I've got things settled for a bit.

Kindle: The Truth Will Out

The folks at xkcd are nerdtastic... and probably right.

Happy Birthday!!!!

A very Happy Birthday to my nephew (and alleged doppleganger) Jared! Seriously, he just needs a beard, a personal library and a collection of manky old typewriters. I should just cobble together an "Uncle Scott Starter Kit". Seriously, though, have a happy one, kiddo!

Codes, Ciphers & Truth Stranger Than Fiction

I sometimes hear people react to thrillers and puzzle novels as unrealistic or "the sort of thing that just doesn't happen." I can't help but thing that people who say that sort of thing just aren't paying attention. Like the sculpture at the CIA compound in Langley that is in a cipher so complex even the CIA isn't entirely sure what it says. From WIRED Magazine... Mission Impossible: The Code Even the CIA Can't Crack Posted using ShareThis

BEDA

As you might know (if you pay any attention to the badges in the right sidebar anyway), last month, I signed on for a project requiring daily blogposts for April. Why not? I post fairly often anyway and why pass up the opportunity to put your work in front of new eyes? It sounds easier than it is. Blog Every Day in April (BEDA) was the brainchild of YA author Maureen Johnson as a means to get herself to blog more often and provide greater accessibility to her fans. Gone are the days of JD Salinger and his peers hiding from their readers, the modern author steps out there and participates in an active discussion of their work. And MJ's status in the young adult community has prompted an amazing amount of young people to take to their keyboards (I almost said "Take up the pen". I am so 20th Century sometimes...) and write about themselves, their lives, their loves and their personal travails. April 2009 has passed into history and as of this moment, there are 6,682 posts on the rolls and more spread across the internet on personal blogs and even in video posts. Anyone who thinks the written word is dead or that kids don't know how to express themselves anymore is wrong. Those of us who learned to type on actual typewriters can often place too great an emphasis on the old forms to the exclusion of the volumes and value of what is happening in the digital realm. Working at the writing center, I could've told you that young people write all the time above and beyond their schoolwork. Often, they are writing under, around and in spite of the way in which they were taught to do so. Theater and film are thriving on YouTube. Poetry is alive and admirably suited to Twitter. And young adult fiction has never been a stronger medium. Just because Harold Bloom doesn't like Harry Potter, there is no reason to believe that the young people are any less literate than those who preceded them. Quite the contrary in my opinion. The formats change, the topics expand and evolve, but the printed word is far from dead. The breadth of subjects and depth of thought that have been made manifest in this project is breathtaking: book reviews, modern cultural shifts (such as Amazonfail), college choices, lifestyle choices of all stripes and a lively community of very literate young people. Like too many others before me, I once said I could never write for the Young Adult market because I didn't want to have to 'dumb down' my stories for 'kids'. How wrong I was. And how wrong those who came before me were to believe that. To the point that I think I might be daunting writing up to the level expected by a new and demanding audience of literate readers. It has been at times surprising and hilarious to watch BEDA unfold. At times it has been predictable, filled with the banality of daily life: school, dates, crushes and cetera. But frequently it jumped into another sphere and became something completely other... like unmaking an exquisite piece of origami to find it was folded from a collage of Roald Dahl short stories, Shakespeare, JD Salinger and a social studies textbook. It was an honor to participate and be invited to read your thoughts these past thirty days. See you next April! --- Cross Posted at Maureen Johnson on the Ning.

The Fight over the Google of All Libraries: A Wired.com FAQ

The Fight over the Google of All Libraries: A Wired.com FAQ I've mentioned this several times now. While I don't always agree with Wired's editorial commentary on this topic, they have posted a top-notch guide to understanding why I care so much about this topic. This FAQ goes a long distance toward encompassing the full scope and impact of the battle over Google's quest for eBooks. Posted using ShareThis

News of the Wordsmiths

Speak the speech! April 23 was "Talk Like Shakespeare Day". Did you participate? You may have participated without even knowing. Did you realize how much of modern speech came from the Bard's prolific quill? Here's a list of all the common every day words that the venerable Oxford English Dictionary attributes to Master Shakespeare. If you're speaking English, then odds are, you talk like Shakespeare every day and don't even realize it. If you participate (consciously) in the event? Did your coworkers, friends and family? Send me your stories of bardic interactions at swalkerperkins@gmail.com and I'll feature the best ones here on the blog! Britain's Poetess Laureate Great Britain has named their first female poet laureate: Carol Anne Duffy. Amid all the doom & gloom and with the WHO continually elevating our status on their "Omigod We're All Gonna Die" scale, I love getting a good bit of news. The best part is that her gender is noteworthy, but not the best part of the story, this is a seriously talented poet worthy of her post. Congratulations from the far side of the pond! That Which Frightens Us Shall Make Us Rich... Well, it'll make someone rich. You knew it was coming, didn't you? At least this one came out awhile ago, not just to capitalize on the current madness (maybe past madness). Proving that there's no such thing as bad publicity, the AP reports that The Great Influenza, has skyrocketed up the charts at Amazon and elsewhere. A backlist book about the 1918 "Spanish" flu pandemic has sudden resonance with modern Americans. And why not with CNN and other news networks (not to mention blogs like this one) giving it loads of free publicity? Upcoming books about viral outbreaks are netting big returns too. If there was an Ebola outbreak (God forbid) I suppose copies of Hotzone would be flying off the shelf too. I don't write much about medical history, but it is tempting... maybe not.