Right Now in Speculative Fiction

J. K. Rowling is off and Stephanie Meyer is on…. I’m talking about Forbes’ list of the 100 Most Powerful Celebrities, which has Meyer ranking at #26 after earning $50 million dollars in the space of one year from her Twilight series. Rowling has dropped off the list, though, in the lull left after the end of the Harry Potter series.

The week leading up to your book’s debut you’re stirring up excitement on your blog and sending out emails to all of the contacts you’ve been gathering for ages. Unless you’re THE DEMON’S LEXICON author Sarah Rees Brennan, in which case you’re reeling from the shock of having your Livejournal and email account hacked into… and wiped clean. You can read her horror story on agent Kristin Nelson’s blog. And you can enter to win a copy of her book and a bunch of other novels here.

Our own Linda Joy Singleton is off in Savannah with several other YA writers at the Gothic Girls writer’s retreat, which apparently involves pizza and strolls to a graveyard, among other, more literary endeavors. Linda blogs about her experience here. You can follow all of the authors and read their answers to tweeted questions on this Twitter page.

Why are we still waiting for flying cars and Smell-O-Vision? Hasn’t our shiny future arrived yet? Actually, it has–but no one wants it. This CNN article discusses futuristic devices that have been invented but never implemented, like the jetpack, invented in 1961 but too impractical for use. Another little known invention: teleportation. (credit: Cynthia Leitich Smith’s facebook page.)

Writers: agent Nathan Bransford has a helpful checklist for revisions up on his blog. Have you checked your manuscript for your personal writing tics? Can you combine any minor characters?

Sarah Prineas, author of the Magic Thief series, is delving into the world of (angst-free) faerie. Her book deal announcement makes me chuckle:

Sarah Prineas’s THE CROW KING’S DAUGHTER, featuring faerie lore without the urban setting and without drugs, sex, and angst, to Toni Markiet at Harper Children’s, in a three-book deal, by Caitlin Blasdell at Liza Dawson Associates (NA)

Free books! Fantasy Debut is having a weeklong giveaway–it’s already started so hurry over for a chance to win lots of fantasy novels. Megan Crewe is also hosting a giveaway on her blog–you could win SHADOWED SUMMER by Saundra Mitchell, I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME by Lisa Schroeder, and a signed copy of Crewe’s own GIVE UP THE GHOST. And check back here tomorrow for own summer reading giveaway.

Parker Peevyhouse has a lot of books to read this summer.