News & Notes – 2/09/2019

February 9, 2019 Lark_Bookwyrm News & Notes 1

News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff

Book News

San Diego Bookseller Undergoes Surgery, Other Booksellers Keep His Store Open (Publishers Weekly)
Selfies Award shortlist announced. The British award, which will be given for the first time this year, recognizes excellence in a self-published book. (Publishers Weekly)
ALA Rebounds in Seattle, with attendance at this year’s Midwinter Meeting higher than the last 2 years. Publishers Weekly looks at highlights of the conference, held at the end of January.

Worth Reading/Viewing

The Very Modern Anger of Shakespeare’s Women (Laura Kolb, Electric Lit)
Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give: ‘Books play a huge part in resistance’. The Guardian interviews Thomas, then opens the door to readers and famous fans to ask questions.

Free Fiction, Online

“The Thing About Ghost Stories” by Naomi Kritzler (Uncanny Magazine)

For Writers & Bloggers

Knife Fights, Lockpicking, and Other Things I’ve Done to Become a Better Writer. April Henry talks about the value of research, especially hands-on experience. (Tor.com)

Book & Movie Announcements

Unseen Robert A Heinlein novel reworks ‘awful’ The Number of the Beast (The Guardian) I remember the book as interesting (if problematic from a feminist viewpoint) and often fun in the first half, but having a really bad ending — not “bad” in the tragic sense, but bad in the eye-rolling, “what the heck is going on and why doesn’t Heinlein know when to stop” sense. So I’ll be interested to see this unpublished work, which Heinlein wrote as an alternate version of The Number of the Beast, with a completely different ending. Phoenix Pick plans to publish the novel as “Six-Six-Six.”