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It's always nice to get comments from new people. We have a dedicated group of "followers" on our Blogger site, but we also know that beyond those hundred plus folks are those who follow on Readers, those who pop up when others direct them this way, and those who never comment at all, but who are a part of our silent friend group. We're glad to hang with all of you in a Shrinking Violet-y sort of quiet, holding-up-the-walls way, or in a chatty, we-know-you're-there fashion.
Greg Pincus, blogging at social media blog The Happy Accident, has as primer on commenting, to help with the challenge this month. And we must give full props to Lee for the hilarious Blogging Vacuum Diva. I laugh every time I see her. (Randomly: I found a link to a most hilarious Ed DeCaria poem, Who Is This Woman, And Why Is She Trying to Kiss Me whilst reading the comments from Greg's post. I laughed right out loud - it's so my entire childhood in a few short stanzas. See what commenting can do for you?)
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It's a book written by a friend - ample reason again to dive right in!
Instead, I sat and sort of looked at it with horrified fascination. It is Going To Be Scary. I knew this because I knew the topic of the book...
I read the first chapter and hyperventilated. Bargaining! For the return of clothing!!! SCARYNAZIS.
Yes. I am a scaredy-cat. Five words in, you know our heroine has already been captured by the Axis in WWII and Further Bad Things Will Commence.
This book is KILLING ME. And yet, I keep picking it up and reading chunks, when I fully intend to just move it to another spot on my desk. Yikes. It's addictive.
Out Feb. 6 - Stay tuned for the review.
(Also: I LOVE this cover. But the other cover, with the hands tied together... oh. Oh, oh, oh... poignant and scary and gorgeous. Must have been so hard to choose.)
CONNIE WILLIS, author of fifteen novels and over fifty short stories and novellas, is the Grand Master of science fiction. We knew that. But, she's just been awarded this officially, as winner of the 2011 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award from Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. You'll recall our 2007 interview with her. Or, maybe you won't. Maybe you've never yet read a Willis book. Well - do. Her hallmark talent is writing on brilliant science fiction topics, and bringing the reader along so that they, too, feel smart, and in on the joke and all the brainy stuff. She writes strong, smart female characters who don't take themselves too seriously; there's a touch of humor in her stories, and she's very, very good indeed. She's also gracious to answer questions from random bloggers. Well done, Grand Master Connie!
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Please go over and join the discussion on YA speculative fiction, featuring our blogosphere babes Tarie Sabado, Gwenda Bond, and one of our fave YA spec fic authors, Malinda Lo, too.
The conversation at SF Signal tends to be dominated by ...science fiction aficionados. Obviously. They tend to be male and perhaps not as informed on YA stuff as we tend to be in our blogosphere, so please, please, please go over and show your support and welcome some fresh new ideas as our 'spheres overlap. (I'm thinking of the thread on appreciating the place of romance in YA spec fic for young girls - it's not all Twilight, my peoples! I don't care for Twilight especially myself, but I will throw elbows and hip-check you across the room so that others get to read it if they want to, all right???) I'm so excited that a mainstream SF site is talking about the great big elephant in the room: specifically marketed young adult lit in the subgenre of science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction, and I hope that hearing from such intelligent and cool people will help to sort of ease the "Ugh!" factor that a lot of the aficinado set feels when faced with the whole YA SFF thing (I mean, we have UN-IRONIC nail polish that goes with our books and movies now. How scary-cool are we??).
Also: new blog alert! I'm a big fan of The Enchanted Inkpot but am glad to hear about The League of Extraordinary Writers, which is focused on dystopia, and The Interagalactic Academy which is hopefully going to fill the space that The Spectacle used to fill for me.
O, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea!
And love is a thing that can never go wrong,
And it's Tuesday already!
Have a happy week.
With apologies to Dorothy Parker.
8 comments:
Hi Tanita!
Thanks for all this goodness. I want to read Verity myself...in a fascinated but anxious way. Let me know if you think it might be too much for my sensetive self!
Can't wait for the review of Verity!
As always, I'm in awe of all your blog- and website-visiting--thanks for sharing your fabulous finds.
Thanks for talking up the Comment Challenge! You are indeed a good commenter, which is why you also get why it is so valuable to our community and to your own enjoyment of blog-reading. I tend to decline in online participation as the long holiday season takes over, so this is always a good chance to kick-start my commenting again.
Love, love Connie Willis. I perk up when I see her name.
I'm also looking forward to the review of Verity!
Just hopped over via Mother Reader's blog.
It's great that you already follow and comment on so many blogs. Finding balance between that and writing is a challenge for me.
"I routinely comment more than five times a day. (I have more than a hundred blogs I visit regularly on my Reader.) I am a person who's not on FB or any other social media, though, so it's easier for me to read what people are writing, and comment there. (I think blogging will always be Just About My Speed. Just don't ask me to talk to five people in a room in public.)"
In almost all of this, we are Social Media Twins! The only difference is that I am on other social media (mostly Twitter and Verla Kay's blue boards). But I'm not on Facebook, and blogs are still my favorite online medium.
Charlotte & Trisha: So far, so good on Verity!
Kelly: I am making it a personal goal to read all of Connie's books - now more than ever!
Michelle: Dropping out of the social network thing really helped me; blog commenting doesn't feel as competitive to me as commenting/liking on FB did... have no idea why. This is just more my speed.
Jen, my almost-Social Media twin: I think I may end up doing a Tumblr for a book of mine - I like the idea of putting up pictures and quotes that I don't have to comment further on - but I think if I'm to continue to give myself at least five solid hours of writing time daily, I need to stay out of the fray...
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