Happy Birthday (and, errr, Death Day), William Shakespeare!

Today marks the day historians claim as the birth and death day of one of the greatest literary figures of all time--William Shakespeare. Born April 23, 1564 and said to have died on the same day in 1616, Shakespeare wrote over 150 sonnets, more than 35 plays, and other scribblings in his relatively short life.

I've always been a Shakespeare fan myself, memorizing my favorite sonnets before bed, reading play
aloud with friends (voices and all, it's true), and enjoying a live performance when I could find an affordable one. This past February, I even got the chance to visit Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, just outside of London, when in the UK with my boyfriend.

Downtown Stratford-upon-Avon

While I didn't get the opportunity to truly explore (yet), just being there and seeing the small mentions of Shakespeare throughout the town was an awesome experience. On the agenda for next time: Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare is buried and his wife Anne Hathaway's house, among others sites.

In the meantime, I'll have to settle for what I can get from New Jersey to celebrate his birth/death day today--books, film adaptations, and even a package of Shakespeare-themed mints that I won during a study session for my Shakespeare final in college.

And, of course, these random fun facts I found on No Sweat Shakespeare:

• ‘William Shakespeare’ is an anagram of ‘I am a weakish speller’.  

• All Uranus’s satellites are named after Shakespearean characters.  

• Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway when he was 18. She was 26 and she was pregnant when they married. Their first child was born six months after the wedding. (Ooooh, scandal!)

• Shakespeare is the second most quoted writer in the English language – after the various writers of the Bible.

• Some of Shakespeare’s signatures have survived on original documents. In none of them does he spell his name in what has become the standard way. He spells it Shakespe; Shakspe; Shakspere and Shakespear. 

• Almost four hundred years after Shakespeare’s death there are 157 million pages referring to him on Google. There are 132 million for God, 2.7 million for Elvis Presley, and coming up on Shakespeare’s heels, George W Bush with 14.7 million. 

• Two of Shakespeare’s plays, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing, have been translated into Klingon. The Klingon Language Institute plans to translate more! (If you’re into quirky Shakespeare facts check our our  list of 23 things you never knew about Shakespeare)

 See the whole list of Shakespeare facts HERE

Support a New Way of Reading

Print books. E-books. Audio Books. Books in Braille. Picture Books.

There are so many different kinds of books out there--different ways of reading--for people with strong personal preferences, or even medical or developmental requirements. Sometimes different formats are even combined to help new readers--both young and not-so-young--learn to read more effectively and efficiently...or to read at all.

Learning Ally is one such non-profit organization that focuses on the latter. As "the leading provider of audiobooks – including the world’s largest library of audio textbooks," the organization supports not only the products needed for a person with a reading or learning disability but also "a community of support" for parents, teachers, certifiers, and more Their mission? 

To promote personal achievement when access and reading are barriers to learning by advancing the use of accessible and effective educational solutions. (Learning Ally, About Us, Mission)  

And with recording studios in over ten cities in the US the organization does its best to create as many audio books as possible for distribution around the country. But they can't do it alone. In fact, in addition to their awesome volunteers--including my dear friend Rebecca--they host an annual "Record-A-Thon" to raise funds to continue their work. This year's fundraiser? Happening NOW. 

So, dig into your pocket just a little, if you so desire, and lend a hand to help keep this admirable organization afloat. You can even donate to the NYC studio where Rebecca volunteers tirelessly by clicking HERE.

Authors Give a Hand to Young Writers

Writing is not an easy job. I should know--I've been sitting on partially written manuscripts since I was about 12. Editing I can hop to, no problem, but writing? Writing is tougher for me. Putting my own ideas down on paper is a terrifying thought.

I'm not alone in this fear though, and oftentimes writers need a little encouragement from their peers to get over the hump. Yesterday, BuzzFeed gave us a hand, by sharing "27 Pieces Of Advice For Writers From Famous Authors: where "Celebrated authors, editors and illustrators write advice to young writers on their hands for “Shared Worlds,” a two-week creative writing summer camp at Wofford College."

Here are some of my personal favorites:

1. Neil Gaiman.

Award-winning author of American Gods, Coraline, Stardust and many more.

Via: wofford.edu

3. Garth Nix.

Award-winning author of the "Old Kingdom," "Seventh Tower" and "Keys to the Kingdom" series.

Via: wofford.edu

4. Karen Lord.

Author of Redemption in Indigo and The Best of All Possible Worlds.

Via: wofford.edu

5. Patrick Rothfuss.

Author of The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear.

Via: wofford.edu

8. Jody Lynn Nye.

Award-winning author of more than forty novels and one hundred short stories.

Via: wofford.edu

9. C.S.E. Cooney.

Noted author of science fiction short stories and poetry.

Via: wofford.edu

15. Lev Grossman.

Bestselling author of The Magicians and The Magician King.

16. Gregory Norman Bossert.

Noted short story author and illustrator.

17. Scott Eagle.

Noted author and illustrator.

Via: wofford.edu

18. Jeff VanderMeer.

Award-winning editor, publisher and author of City of Saints and Madmen, among others.

26. Karin Tidbeck.

Award-winning Swedish author of fantasy and weird fiction.

See them all HERE

Goodreads: An Amazon Acquisition

After working in the publishing industry for so many years, I've learned that there's sadly a good bit of passive aggression going on behind the scenes--as it does in every industry, really. But sometimes, publishing's particular brand of rivalry is more public than most.

Like today's announcement that Amazon has purchased Goodreads, for example.

Forbes.com tells us more:

After two years of stops and starts, Bookish, the book discovery and e-commerce website co-owned by three of the world’s biggest publishers, finally opened for business in February. Seven weeks later, Amazon has acquired Goodreads, the leading book-centric social network. 

Coincidence? 

Of course, with 16 million members, San Francisco-based Goodreads is a logical enough acquisition target for the e-tailer. (The sale price hasn’t been disclosed but seems likely to have been in the low eight digits; according to Crunchbase, Goodreads had raised a total of $2.75 million in funding.) 

The two sites aren’t mirror images of each other. In particular, as Laura Hazard Owen explains, Amazon and Goodreads make recommendations based on something called “collaborative filtering,” which factors in a user’s past activity and the behavior of similar users. Lacking Amazon’s servers full of data, Bookish — which is backed by Penguin, Hachette and Simon & Schuster — bases its recommendations more on content analysis. Bookish also lacks Goodreads’ social layer. 

Still, the similarities are sufficient that when Bookish launched in February, a Wired writer dubbed it “the love child of Goodreads and Amazon.” 

One thing to keep an eye on is whether an Amazon-owned Goodreads will continue to drive customers to other retailers. In 2011, the site stopped using Amazon’s API, saying the terms of use were too restrictive – in particular the requirement that all product links go to Amazon rather than to other retailers. 

In a blog post announcing the sale, Goodreads founder Otis Chandler suggested nothing is going to change, at least immediately: “Amazon supports us continuing to grow our vision as an independent entity, under the Goodreads brand and with our unique culture.” 

Obviously, Amazon would rather not send potential book buyers to its competitors. But with a new anti-trust lawsuit accusing it (and the six biggest publishers) of wielding too much control over the e-book market, this isn’t the time to be seen as acting like a monopoly. 

See the original post HERE

Oh, publishing...what will you come up with next?

A Wednesday Full of Romance

So far this week, I have edited two books, read three submissions, and am about to dive into another edit today. All for romance novels. Which I found ironic given the lead article today on the Huffington Post's Books page: "Trash or Treasure: Why More Women Should Read Romance Novels."

In the post, author Sherryl Woods provides some of her personal insight into romance novels, why they are so popular, why they are significant:

A number of years ago at the height of the shirtless hero craze on romance book covers, one of my novels featured an artist's rendering of an impish little girl dragging angel wings. A television news anchor in Washington, DC, held it up on camera and asked, "Where's Fabio?" 

I laughed and told him, "Fabio doesn't live in my books." 

While it's pretty clear with well over 100 novels to my credit that I'm a huge fan of romance, my infatuation with the genre goes beyond Fabio and other sexy cover models with their six-pack abs and larger-than-life persona. As a reader and as a writer, I want the kind of hero who might well live down the block and walk into my life at any second, the guy with a sense of humor, with strong values and a degree of dependability that will make him a wonderful lifelong partner. 

I often hear from readers that what they love the most are the "real" people who live in the pages of my stories. They identify with the women who face problems that they themselves have faced. They're inspired when the characters not only survive, but thrive. In fact, for some the characters become so real, they tell me they worry about them between books. And just recently I heard from a man who said the stories had helped him to rekindle the romance in his marriage after 22 years and 8 children! The simple fact that he was looking for ways to rekindle the romance made him a hero to my way of thinking. 

As far back as I can recall both proponents and critics of romance novels have labeled many of them as fantasies for women. Critics suggest that creates unrealistic expectations. Proponents cheer for the fantasies that keep female blood pumping and spawn a few steamy dreams. 

I tend to look at romance -- in books and in real life -- a bit differently. While the arrival of a knight-in-shining-armor in the middle of a crisis might be a welcome sight and being carried off to a carefree life of wealth and pleasure might even be a secret dream, most of us are going to find romance in other ways. It's going to be in that sweet, unexpected comment that makes us smile or the little gesture that demonstrates just how much we're appreciated. Our hero is going to be the guy who notices that something needs fixing and just does it or who plans a special date that might mean nothing to another woman, but means the world to us. It may even be the man who stands by, ready to help in a crisis, but wise enough to know how much we need to discover we can depend on ourselves. 

I think our view of romance -- what we want and what we need -- changes over time. Age and experience kick in. While the very young want the heart-stopping excitement and passion, in time we come to appreciate a good laugh, respect, and common interests. 

The one thing that never fades is the longing to see "that" look in someone's eyes, the twinkle that makes us feel desirable and alive. I think that's one reason so many of my books are multi-generational, with people of all ages discovering that a new romance may be just around the corner. I believe in those possibilities that remind us life can be worth living till the very last breath we take. 

In my Sweet Magnolias series, for instance, there are several "senior" Magnolias, who openly talk about their views on finding love at their stage of life. One is actively dating a younger man to the horror of her suddenly traditional middle-age daughter. A few very lively debates ensue that I imagine many of us can relate to -- from one point of view or the other! 

In this latest Ocean Breeze trilogy, which kicks off March 26 with Sand Castle Bay, not only do the three Castle sisters find love, but so does their grandmother, Cora Jane. The issues she faces as a widow who was happily married for many years are very different from those who were unhappily wed. And for me there was something especially endearing about the patient man who stayed in the background, never even hinting at his feelings out of respect for her husband and her marriage. Now, though, he's courting her with all the understanding he's gained through years of friendship. 

Bottom line, whether we're in our twenties or our seventies, we all need a strong bond to another human being. In fact, for older women, who've been widowed or divorced or never married at all and who may have given up on love, unexpectedly finding romance may be the sweetest joy of all. 

And when we're feeling low, reading about romance in the pages of a good book, can be just the reminder we all need to get out there and keep trying. Love could very well be right around the corner, just down the block or even in the house next door! As Jane Seymour says in the commercial for her jewelry designs, the key is to keep our hearts open. 

See the original post HERE

After reading Sherryl's piece, I have to say I agree with her (though have additional opinions--naturally. It is me after all). Romance novels are not just silly fantasies. They are about believing in love and the power of the heart, which is truly the reason we're all here in the first place. Love. Of all shapes and sizes. Romantic, familial, platonic. Romance novels often touch upon them all. It's about the romance of life, not just silly fantasies. Plus, they often make you laugh, cry, and just feel. Something I think we all could use a little more of.

So, pick one up, give it a whirl. And if you need recommendations, you know you to come to... *points to self* this girl.

What is YOUR favorite romance novel? 

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS on the Silver Screen

So, it seems they are making a film adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Can anyone say score!!

My book club (I know, members, I know. I need to email you.) read this one a while back with some interesting discussion about the book. I think I was actually the most critical, which perhaps is why I'm so excited for the film adaptation.

As we all know, when moving a book to the silver screen, changes, deletions, and additions must be made for a new medium. It's the beauty of adaptations--a new vision sprouting from the same idea. I did have some issues with the book (though not to say I didn't enjoy it very much--I definitely did! It was excellent overall.) that I'm interested to see what producers and directors do with. Green's story could translate very well to film and has the potential to really dig even deeper and in an even more accessible way into the hearts of its audience.

It seems our heroine has also been cast already. Set to play Hazel is Shailene Woodley, according to Entertainment weekly, via GalleyCat:

The Descendants actress Shailene Woodley has been cast as Hazel Grace Lancaster in the upcoming film adaptation of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, Entertainment Weekly reports. 

As of this writing, the announcement has attracted 240 “likes” on Facebook. Green himself has endorsed Woodley in a blog post: “I am very excited about this. Here’s the thing, tumblr: Shailene Woodley loves The Fault in Our Stars. She really does, and in her audition, she just was Hazel—at least to me.” 

The Golden Globe-nominated actress has taken roles in numerous book adaptation projects. 

We previously reported that she will portray Beatrice “Tris” Prior in the Divergent movie. According to Yahoo! Movies, she will also play Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. 

See the original post HERE

Shailene was brilliant in The Descendants (and I'm not gonna lie, I am a secret fan of her former ABC show The Secret Life of the American Teenager) and must be doing something to right to by landing so many fantastic roles in upcoming adaptations.

Looking forward to buying my ticket in advance!

P.S. I would totally go on a Divergent squee-ing spree right now, by the way, but I'll save that for another day.