Maya Panika's Blog, page 16
June 21, 2012
How to publish a bestseller
From The Economist:
TAKE the plot of “Jane Eyre” (rich man with issues falls for innocent young lass), strip away the introspection, add some S&M sex and you have “Fifty Shades of Grey”. E.L. James’s novel is the hottest book so far this year, having sold 2m copies in three weeks in America.
The book’s appeal is obvious, says James Hall, the author of “Hit Lit”, who claims to crack “the code” of bestsellers…(click on the picture to read more).
June 20, 2012
June 18, 2012
Mirror Mirror
‘…It’s amazing how frequently the myths and religions of Greece,China,Central America,Russia, and other places use mirrors. The ancient Egyptians – as well as the Etruscans, Romans, and many other cultures – buried people with mirrors, probably because these magical surfaces were thought to capture the soul and help preserve it in the afterlife. Similarly, the Chinese thought that demons only became visible in mirrors, so they put them on their backs to defend themselves from malevolent forces.’
I’ve been reading an interview with Mark Pendergrast about his book MIRROR MIRROR: A History of the Human Love Affair with Reflection – which is definitely going on my wish list. The science, mythology and history of mirrors is a fascinating subject and so important to the development of the Entanglement tale through its three book ride. It wasn’t until I started working on Entanglement and all the research that entailed, just how remarkable mirrors are, how important to the myths, religions and rituals of our ancestors, and how vital to current science.
Richard L. Gregory’s book Mirrors in Mind takes a more scientific approach, but also delves into the art, history and mythology in an attempt to find answers to the mystery of mirrors. As Feynman said, when trying to work out how the mirror flips an image right to left, but never top to bottom, ‘How does the mirror know?’
‘Thousands of years of questioning and experimenting have led to an ever more surprising understanding of light, of matter, and of mind. Who could have guessed that mirrors are like radio aerials and like tuning forks; and yet through the strangeness of light they are not quite like anything else at all.’
June 17, 2012
Watching Chris Packham’s
Superb new show Secrets of Our Living Planet – bringing back happy memories of my own rainforest days but reminding me of one thing above all others: anyone who speaks of the ‘tranquility of the rainforest’ has never been in one. Day and night, the racket is tremendous.
And Chris is wearing jeans. In the rainforest? Chris, you are well-hard my friend – or possibly just soft in the head because denim in the jungle is sweaty and nasty and tends to lead to leeches and nappy-rash in awkward and embarassing places. I speak as one who knows.
My Jasmine has a literary bent
It bloomed on Bloomsday and the bedroom smells divine. Did anyone out there listen to Ulysses on Radio 4 yesterday? I’m afraid I didn’t hear much, far too busy with Entanglement, but I have the podcast and will give it a proper go later in the week, after Entanglement is published, when I may have more time.
Yesterday evening we watched The Joe Meek Story, an excellent film and surprisingly, very funny - ‘Gene Vincent, terrorising the inhabitants of Shrewsbury in an uninsured van’ is a line that will live with me for a long time.
Poor Joe Meek was a tragic genius if ever there was one. His first hit was my own favourite, Johnny Remember Me, which 
my mum had on 45 with the red white and black Top Rank Label and which I used as the theme for Entanglement. That era, that character, has had a consistent attraction for me since I was a teenager; something in the fascination of the liminal, the place between places, between rock and roll and the flowery sixties, after Buddy Holly and before The Beatles. It’s Alan Henderson aka Heathcliffe Strong’s era too, with his mohair suit, 
leather coat and fondness for frothy coffee at Luigi’s, which is based on a real café which used to stand on the A1 near Retford, somewhere in the depths of Sherwood Forest.
Jess Conrad was a wonderfully ironic choice for Larry Parnes. Jess Conrad briefly played in goal for the Entertainer’s XI, a celebrity football team my uncle also played for. JC’s fans invaded the pitch and the match had to be called off. I don’t remember this incident (I hasten to add) but my Mum never forgot it. Mum was terribly annoyed. Mum was terribly annoyed about a fair few things in the sixties, the froth on coffee for example, always asking for her coffee without froth; whenever I watch The Rebel, I think of her.
The scene in ‘Telstar’, when young Jess Conrad – played by Nigel Harmon – knocks seven bells out of Heinz, was especially priceless, as was the film which I highly recommend.
June 16, 2012
It’s Bloomsday
And BBC Radio 4 is marking it with an all-day broadcast of Ulysses and other dedicated programmes.
I’m listening to Part 4:The Library, through the Lunchtime Streets, to the Ormond Hotel. If you’re missing it, or the thought of Ulysses in its entirety is too much for you, it’ll be on BBCi for another week, or click on Mr Joyce to get the podcasts.
Review: Apocalypse Cow
by Michael Logan
2*
A light and easy read and rather predictable: a set of dis-likeable characters set out to escape as the UK is ravaged by Zombie animals infected by a man-made virus. Loaded with self-conscious irony as a pair of Eco-warriors, an unwilling teenage vegan, a meat-mad moron and an abattoir worker face down farm animals turned zombie carnivores, it started out interestingly, I thought it was going to be more than it was – it was, after all the co-winner of the Terry Pratchett prize – but it was just another average, everyday, routine, casually brutal zombie tale. According to the blurb, it made Terry Pratchett ‘snort with laughter’; I’m afraid I didn’t snort or giggle, I might have smiled a little; there are some clever one-liners, but laugh? Not even once. I could have forgiven the formulaic characters, predictable plot and comic-book writing if it had made me laugh but it just wasn’t funny. Apocalypse Cow is not a patch on Half Sick of Shadows with which it shared the TP Prize. Disappointing.
June 9, 2012
I just bought The Dreamshift Chronicles, Book 1: Broken Dreams
by D.L. Silverman
On a promise to read and review. Do you have a Kindle or self-published book you’d like me to read and review? Send me a free (Or cheap. I don’t begrudge spending a quid or so but I draw the line at a fiver!) copy and I promise to review it here, on Goodreads and on Amazon and to Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr the links, IF you promise to do the same for me – take a copy of my novel Entanglement (due out shortly, be sure I’ll be posting like a mad eejit when it is finally available), review it and spread the word.
I write many advance-copy reviews for Amazon (in case you want to check me out).
My only proviso is that I am an honest reviewer. I won’t post great reviews of books that I don’t think deserve them. If I really don’t like the book, if it is something I would normally give a one or two star review, I’ll let you know privately and won’t post the review unless you want me to. I also can’t promise to have the review up immediately. I’m sent a lot of review books, I do an awful lot of reading for review so, depending on how much work I have on, it might take me a month or so and occasionally longer to get around to your book. I will let you know straight away when I post your review.
Just comment on this post if you’d like me to read your work.
