tuesday turnaround

Feeling better this morning. And starving. I vote Sailor Boy takes me out to breakfast. Who’s with me?

Okay, my brain is working again. I picked a fourth book in the giveaway (see below). It’s a doozy.

Also, I was very intrigued by this blog post from Teresa Nielsen Hayden at Making Light, about an anonymous “editor” blogger who has taken to spamming the folks on Absolute Write with the usual “publishing is a secret cabal that hates you” type stuff. Now, I have nothing against the idea of anonymous bloggers. I regularly enjoy Miss Snark. I also think Miss Snark tends to give good advice (she is, occasionally, way off the mark). But situations like those TNH highlights do make a good case against the idea of trusting the advice of anonymous industry folks. You don’t know from what authority they are speaking. When the Nielsen Haydens or Kristin Nelson or Jessica Faust or Isabel Swift speak on their blogs, they have the identity and the experience to back them up. They can point to books they’ve sold or published or promoted or what have you to show why what they say works. So people who are looking for industry advice and see two anonymous bloggers, one of whom says, “good writing trumps all” and one of whom says, “actually, the publishing cabal requires a secret handshake” — it’s understandable that without any outside verification, the newbie writer could get seriously confuzzled. “Wait a second, why should I believe Miss Snark over this Bitch person? They’re both funny and anonymous.”

Hmmm, good point. I’m trying to think of a good answer that isn’t some variation of, “Because that old ‘secret publishing cabal handshake’ schtick sounds so bitter and amateurish.” Though it does. (Are you listening, anonymous commenters on PubRants?) I sometimes think I need some sort of protective eyewear when I read these comments, for fear my eyeballs will go rolling right out of my head. And again, we get back to the anonymous factor. The people saying these things are nearly always anonymous. One person made the laughable statement, on Kristin Nelson’s blog, that agents like to discourage new writers. Um, yeah, like Kristin Nelson has been discouraging the heck out of Jennifer O’Connell, Ally Carter, Jana DeLeon, Cheryl Sawyer, and Kelly Parra (all authors who debuted as Nelson clients)? I can’t imagine these anonymi are typing with straight faces.

Okay, rant hat off. Let’s talk about fun stuff:

How about we all go bug Justine, who has been silly enough to take topic requests on her blog? Whoever gets her to talk about the weirdest thing wins.

And, speaking of the inimitable Jana DeLeon, let’s go congratulate her for being nominated for an RT Award for her debut, Rumble on the Bayou (a great book, I’ll have to pimp it sometime soon.) We shall, however, not thank her for the digs on my hometown of Tampa in the following post.

Or, here’s a fun contest. Win a necklace to match the Nymph King’s. Ooh, pretty (and I’m not just saying that because I made them!)

I’m off to convince SB to buy me pancakes. Later!