K.A. Laity's Blog, page 167

It Must Be True

Are You Anybody?

I had a rather surprising piece of mail this week, that made my head spin around for a minute and then re-read the message. I've been invited to be a keynote speaker.



Huh? Me?!



Apparently so. It's the eleventh annual Craft Critique Culture Conference at the University of Iowa next April. You can see this year's schedule online and get a feel for it. Here's their description:





Craft Critique Culture is an interdisciplinary conference focusing on the intersections among critical and...

BitchBuzz: The Next Big Thing

My latest column:

Women are Key in Discovering the Next Big Thing The latest innovation from iTunes launched this week. Ping was supposed to revolutionize the music experience. Reviews, however, were tepid. The "social network for music" as Apple promotion called it turned out to be less social than existing networks and not integrated with them, a rather serious miscalculation. It's possible they rushed the launch to coincide with the iPod re-launch and it will improve, but for...

Kit Marlowe Visits UnBound

Kit Marlowe is over at the UnBound blog with the Ravenous writers today. She's writing about cant, jargon and slang in her books and in her favorite novels. Join her and the whole crew, who are a fun bunch of folks and our wonderful hostess, the fabulous Dana Fredsti. Here's a snippet:



I love language!



I know, I know: all writers do, but I love the superfluity of language that supplies slang. I think in part it's like knowing a secret handshake or being part of an exclusive club. I...

Shakespeare-a-Go-Go

I set off Sunday for a Shakespeare double-header with my theatre buddy, Ron, and got all the way to Massachusetts to fill up on cheap gas before I discovered that I had left my check card in the cash machine: D'oh!



We got to Shakespeare & Co for the first order of the day: A Winter's Tale. I had seen a production last year at the Old Vic with Sinead Cusack and Simon Russell Beale, part of Sam Mendes' Bridge Project. It's not ever been one of my fave plays: it's got an awkward juxtaposition o...

Talking Book Trailers at Sia's

Here's Sia's introduction to my piece on what I learned from making book trailers: please stop by and comment, and be sure to check out the many interviews with writers featured on her blog.

PROMOTION AND BOOKTRAILERS My guest is a favorite of mine, Kate Laity. She's written some wonderfully entertaining stories under various names, including tales of magic, myths, and legends, as K. A. Laity. 

Branding and promotion is something of interest to authors. We talk about both quite a bit and you...

BitchBuzz: The Anti-Chick Flick

My latest column:

Winter's Bone: The Anti Chic Flick Debra Granik's film of the novel by Daniel Woodrell offers a bleak world and an engaging 17-year-old heroine, Ree Dolly. She's not fighting (or kissing) vampires, she's not wondering what boys think of her and she's not shopping. Ree (played with finesse and grace by the amazing Jennifer Lawrence) takes care of her younger siblings and her mentally ill mother, dreams of joining the Army as a solution to her problems and needs...

Pseudo-Sabbatical

As some of you may remember, I am enjoying my pseudo-sabbatical this semester. I was somewhat put out to find that while it was possible to jump the line to get tenure (which I did :-) it was not possible to bend time in order to get a sabbatical. You have to be at the college six years.



Pooh.



But I really need a break, so I applied for and received a reassigned time grant, added it to the one I get for coordinating Women's and Gender Studies and then taught my remaining course as a complet...

With Buzz and Bertie at the Veep's

What dog doesn't love having gutted soft toys balanced on his head? If Buzz didn't like ripping their guts out so much, he'd have more to chew on... Robert relaxes by the pool: sort of. As close as I get to "sunbathing" Despite this look, he made me some very fine meals including marinated steaks on the Vice President's grill (one of two--oooh, luxury) -- yum! At night we could hear the music form the Duchess County Fair (oh boy, Foreigner!). Alas, my idleness is over: classes (and departmental m...

Publications: The Last Ant and High Plains Lazarus

Good news of late: two rather difficult to place items both found homes.  "The Last Ant" is a short humor piece than amused me to no end, but apparently bemused a number of editors who turned it down flat.  I am an acquired taste, as always. It will be appearing in a future issue of the lit mag Wild Violet ; you may remember Alyce Wilson's publication as the home also of the pieces "Corrections to the Rules of Fimble Fowl (for 3 players or 4)" and "Me and Margery Kempe" -- clearly Alyce is som...