Katharine Beutner's Blog, page 17

More on co-authors

As a followup to the Patterson post, here's a post at the Christian Science Monitor about reader reactions to co-authoring. I just left a comment about the "genre books are so formulaic" bit because I'm apparently unable to let that slide, but it's an interesting post, especially given the popularity of multi-author pseudonymous series for young readers.

Goodreads Q&A group for 'Alcestis'

I've just started a Q&A/discussion group for Alcestis on Goodreads — it'll be active through the end of March. You're always welcome to ask me questions about the book here, of course, but I figured that it might be good to have a central location for question-asking and -answering. If you're interested, please do share the link around — I'd love to reach people who might not know about my blog or Twitter feed.

Oh dear, how true.

A. L. Kennedy in the Guardian, being awesome again, this time on the subject of starting a new novel:

So, Best Beloveds, the New Novel. I'm calling it that in the frail hope that it will hear me and turn into one – at the moment it is, of course, the New Notebook Full Of Stuff and A Smattering of Early Paragraphs. A long project is, as you will realise, a massive and potentially ludicrous commitment of time and enthusiasm which could come apart in your hands at any moment, could promise...

James Patterson and the vitality of story

I've seen a lot of chatter on Twitter today about this Times article about James Patterson. Most of the talk is numbers-focused, and there are some startling numbers in the piece — one out of every 17 novels purchased in the US since 2006 was a Patterson book (or a Patterson-and-co-authors book, about which more later). Several staff members at Little, Brown work only on Patterson's books; Little, Brown gave Christmas bonuses this year, based partly on the strength of Patterson's sales. He...

Needs more giant babies

Elements of Moon I had already seen/read/encountered:

Solaris (the book; haven't seen either movie version yet)
2001: A Space Odyssey (I'll admit it: I've never seen the whole thing)
Never Let Me Go
ETA: and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?/Blade Runner, of course.

Non-spoilery things about Moon I actually liked:

The silly "turning on the music every time the other person tries to talk" bit
Kevin Spacey as Gerty — perfect voice casting
Uh… good set design?

I know I say this all the time, ...

At some point perhaps I will stop getting giddy

But not today. Nice reviews from Booklist (sadly not available online) and ForeWord! Hurrah!

Links for writers (and readers)

Today, a recommendation: the blog of my dear friend and mentor Elizabeth Scott, who writes wonderful YA novels of all sorts. Her next novel The Unwritten Rule will be out in April, and she's published six other novels already. I recommend them all.

She is also the master of useful linkage. Seriously: whether you're published or not-yet-published, make checking her blog a part of your writing-blogosphere routine and you'll be rewarded with plenty of helpful tips, advice from agents and...

Music that hasn't yet happened

In this interview with the Guardian, Brian Eno explains the process of creating and naming "ambient" music. It reminds me a great deal of what many writers say about why they write:

My interest in making music has been to create something that does not exist that I would like to listen to, not because I wanted a job as a musician. I wanted to hear music that had not yet happened, by putting together things that suggested a new thing which did not yet exist. It's like having a ready-made...

"Many stories matter."

For today, a wonderful TED talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about the danger of listening to a single story.

Now with pomegranates!

This site now has a shiny new Wordpress theme — many thanks to T., my in-house web designer/tech support!

I've also added two new pages to the site: one contains an excerpt from Alcestis, and the other features extra bits of material related to the book. If you have any other questions, comments, or suggestions about the book, please let me know.