Cleolinda everywhere

@christylemire: Greetings from the Academy. It's Hollywood's biggest morning. We are all very glamorous. And jacked up on caffeine.


@ropeofsilicon: Hugo leads the pack with 11 nominations followed by The Artist with 10.

( TWEETRAGE )

First: I am somehow the subject of writertracy's Author Spotlight this week! Also, in lieu of publicity headshots (I have none), I let her choose any of the Secret Life pictures she wanted. Obviously, this involved ponies.

Second: Let's have some linkspam. ( Read more... )

...because the two or three weeks after Christmas are my traditional Book Wallow. And I really like Stephen King's short stories, which tend to be more high-concept and less tangential than his novels. That is to say, you get a handful of really interesting ideas, rather than one idea that goes on for three hundred pages longer than it should. Full Dark, No Stars is actually another one of his novella quartets, like Different Seasons and Four Past Midnight. But still: short stories, less rambling, more skillful endings. So I curled up with this one and plowed through it in one sitting, as I tend to when at all possible.

I will say, even an hour's contemplation has made me feel a little kindlier towards the stories. They're not badly written. They're just really, really unpleasant. You get to the afterword, and King even says, "The stories in this book are harsh. You may have found them hard to read in places. If so, be assured that I found them equally hard to write in places." Well, GOOD, is all I have to say about that. But we'll get there in a moment.

( MAJOR SPOILER DISCUSSION )


Next up: I have to choose between The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Matched, which is apparently the new big YA thing recommended for "people who liked The Hunger Games." I have not yet read The Hunger Games, but I need to keep up with The Big Things better than I have. Even though Matched's fans seem to already be divided into Team This Guy and Team That Guy, which sets off my Sparkle Motion sensors. On the other hand, the original title of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was Men Who Hate Women. But at least I know that going in.

And yes, we will get back to Varney. Sometime this week, I hope, although I think I may take this week off from Secret Life to spend some time working on the entries themselves.