Book cover design

Today at lunchtime, I found a few blogs about book cover design. I've known for a while that authors get no say in how their books look -- which I understand but still think sucks -- but I never knew that even publishers can get their selected designs overturned by the big time booksellers!

Thinking about that, I wonder how wickedly cool cover designs even get out there in the first plase - e.g., Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.

Are there marketing departments in publishing houses that just stamp their feet and refuse to back down? Are there any authors that do get a say - JK Rowling, Stephen King?

I wonder how a publisher might choose to illustrate the story I'm writing at the moment, In Finding. It's a paranormal chick-lit. So. Some kind of wistful woman on a beach and scrawly handwriting for the title? haha, my poor story. Actually, the book I've just finished reading is Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger and you know what? Kind of paranormal chick-lit-y... kind of... but no headless pink ladies on that cover. Instead its cover is dark, and the title suggests darkness too. I thought it wasn't.

Here's what I browsed through today:

• Guardian books blog: "Judge a cover by its book - the conservative tastes of over-mighty retailers have resulted in generic jackets that say nothing about their contents."
• The Book Design Review blog - favourite covers of 2009. Vote for your favourite! (Mine is Columbine).
• A list of Smashing Magazine's faves - includes some beaten up, old school style covers.

A stack of books to read!

Here's my mahoosive reading list. Or my "as yet unread and might not ever be read stack", I should call it, as I don't think I'm going to finish some of these books. Most of them I'm really excited about getting into though!


Top to bottom:

The Elements of Style by Strunk & White -- part of the leaving gift from my old work (they got me a bunch of books from my Amazon wish list!). This book is widely considered a classic 'how to', gathering together writing best practice in a succinct way. I will probably flick through this and then have it on hand as a reference. One of those books you just need to have on your shelf! (nb 'White' is E.B.White -- Charlotte's Web)

Little Constructions by Anna Burns -- picked up on the cheap from a Books Etc store during the Borders closing down sale (wish I had planned this instead of stumbling across the sale in its final dying throes and thinking, 'of course! they have stock to get rid of!' and at that point, all that remained were bad biographies and travel books). I already started this book and I haven't finished it and I doubt I will try starting it again. In the first 15 pages, it introduces 8 characters who are all named J---- Doe. The writing wasn't good enough to sustain the gimmick and I lost my patience. I didn't know who was who and it was too hard to battle on with.

Exurbia by Molly McGrann -- from the same Books Etc sale. Not sure about this one, was quite a random choice. A "I have my doubts but we'll see" pick.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith -- Xmas gift from my sister-in-law. To be honest, I've tried this book before and I couldn't finish it. I know some of my friends who were in the same situation (in fact, with the same copy of the book - we had a competition to see whose bookmark would go the furthest). I know it's supposed to be amazing though, and now my SIL has gifted it to me, I am beholden to try it again. And so I will! Perhaps now I live in London, I'll like it more?

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz -- Xmas gift from my sister-in-law. She wrote "I found this book to be both so funny and touching... you may need to keep a Spanish dictionary handy! It's awesome!"

Essence and Alchemy by Mandy Aftel -- leaving gift from my old work. I read this as a library book years'n'years ago, and have wanted it for myself ever since. And now I finally do! This is a luscious book that looks first at the history and magic of perfume, and then also delves into creating your own. In another life, I would like to be a perfumer. I have a character sitting in my brain who is a perfumer. One day we'll find her story and put her down on paper.

Finding Serenity: anti-heroes, lost shepherds and space hookers in Firefly (multiple authors) -- leaving gift from my old work. I loved Joss Whedon's Firefly - best ever sci-fi TV show. It was so well written, such amazing characters. This is a set of essays about it and I'm looking forward to reading them, seeing a critical review of various aspects of the show and what made it so great.

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (multiple authors) -- leaving gift from my old work. I've had my eye on this collection of short stories for a while. One of my favourite themes - apocalypse! - written by some fantastic writers: Orson Scott Card, Stephen King, Elizabeth Bear, Cory Doctorow, Octavia E. Butler!

The Art & Craft of Storytelling: a comprehensive guide to classic writing techniques by Nancy Lamb -- leaving gift from my old work. A highly rated book on Amazon. This is part of my plan to read a good book on writing every now and then, to bolster my inspiration.

Character & Viewpoint (the elements of fiction writing) by Orson Scott Card -- leaving gift from my old work. This book is rated well on Amazon and I loved his other one on writing sci-fi. Another book on writing for my inspiration.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger -- Xmas gift from my sister-in-law. She remembered how much I LOVED The Time Traveller's Wife, by the same author, what a sweetheart! Ooh I hope this is as good at The Time Traveller's Wife. That book made me weep!

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood -- soo excited about reading this one! I just love Margaret Atwood: she is one of my all time favourite writers of all time ever and ever. And Oryx & Crake is my favourite of all her books and THIS book is apparently like a sequel, set in the same post-apocalyptic world (!) so ohboy, I can't wait to delve into it. I got this hardback on sale. I usually don't buy hardbacks but I found out the paperback won't be out until, like, October. So I snapped this one up.

Nanotechnology for Dummies -- leaving gift from my old work. This was on my wish list because I have a story I want to write someday which has a lot of nanotechnology in it. It's a complex story for a few reasons - quite a few characters I'd like to be in the center stage, and there's the science too. I don't think I have the skills or knowledge to write it yet (I tried, and didn't get far!) so this book will help me get there.

Second book of 2010

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie.

In 1971, during Mao's cultural revolution, 2 sons of doctors are sent to be 're-educated' by living with peasants in a mountain village. They meet the daughter of a local tailor and both fall in love with her, and with Western literature when they get their hands on a suitcase of illicit novels (all books banned at the time). Various little scenes and adventures abound.

The writer was apparently 're-educated' himself, and left China to live in France in 1984. The book was translated by Ina Rilke. I found this quite a nice read, feeling like I was reading a folk tale. I wish I had read some of the books the boys found - some Balzac for instance! - as I think that'd add another dimension to the story.

Onto book 3 now - It by Stephen King. This massive brick of a book is quite hard to hold! But it needs to be read. Borrowed it from Notwelshman.

I have quite a few books on the menu now thanks to my incredibly thoughtful ex-workmates, who snuck onto my Amazon wish list and got me a selection for my leaving pressie! Bless them. I'm so excited about getting into some of these!

first book of 2010

The Fire Gospel by Michael Faber

Theo is an Aramaic scholar who discovers nine previously hidden scrolls in a bombed Iraqi museum, and he promptly steals them for translation and publication. The scrolls are a 2,000-year-old gospel, written by Malchus, an associate of Jesus. And he has some new and real things to say about the man, particularly of his last days and the crucifixion.

I first discovered Michael Faber from the Bustees! Back in the day we had a bookclub thread on the forum, and his book The Crimson Petal & the White was one of the books we read for it. I found it long and, to be honest, kind of boring. Following that, I read his novella Under the Skin (hmm, just checking Amazon, the title proclaims it to be a novel. I remember it as a lot shorter than that!) Under the Skin is still my favourite so far - dark, creepy, speculative, an unfurling story - highly recommended.

I like his writing style; it's very readable, balanced and easy. I liked the dark humour in The Fire Gospel, plus the (even if snarky) insight into life as an author, post-publication. E.g., Theo obsessively checks his book's sales reports on Amazon and reads the Amazon reviews (although I did think the book contained too many of the reviews that Theo peruses). I also loved Malchus's ridiculous prose, his self-absorption and bodily ailments, plus the downright deliciousness blasphemy of his accounts of Jesus. According to Malchus, his last words on the cross are: "Somebody please finish me."

But the story itself feels thin and patchy and I felt though it didn't really go anywhere. Meagre character development. At least it's a short book - another novella passing itself off as a novel? - so easy to get through. I found out after reading that it's a retelling of the Prometheus story.

christmas reading wrap up, and a dash of inspiration

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas! I went to Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, with Duffy. We had a dreadful start to our holiday, with our flight being delayed due to the bad weather in London -- we eventually landed in Lanzarote NINETEEN hours after we should have! That was one big planeload of weary holidaymakers. Anyway, we suitably recovered and got some brilliant days. I didn't expect the weather to be so hot and glorious. However, aside from the weather, the Canary Islands as a destination isn't anything to write home about - a volcano that has vomited in the ocean, and 17 million tourist resorts plonked down on top, chocka block with fat sunburned Brits and Germans.

Now back in London. It's 23 degrees Celsius colder here.

No writing over Christmas (Holidays? Is that a worthy excuse?) but lots of reading and lots of thinking about the story.

So I read:

The Brightest Star in the Sky - Marian Keyes' latest book. I really love Marian's stories, they're so readable and she has a lovely voice. Truthfully, I don't like her early books that much but her writing has improved amazingly. I like the way her stories are crafted to unwind as you read them, and they're not predictable either. To date, my favourite one is Anybody Out There. It's heartbreaking & I recommend it.

The Rapture by Liz Jensen. Fairly absorbing, has a relevant story about climate change. Kind of post-apocalyptic drama set in the near future. I'm finding it hard to figure out why this story didn't grip me and I think it might be because I didn't care for the main character that much - I suppose for some reason, I didn't feel empathy for her, when I know I should have.

Old Man's War by John Scalzi. A fabulous space opera! I just looved the snippets of humour in this too. Some of the dialogue - so snappy, a delight to read. (You can read Scalzi's blog for more of the humour). And the science was awesome too. I looved the green soldiers. Looking forward to finding the sequel and reading that.

P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern. I saw the movie for this and I enjoyed it. Not your average rom-com, you know the kind which methodically ticks off all typical scenes such as kooky best friend advice, getting drunk & falling over, the Big Misunderstanding, the mad run through city/boat/town to proclaim undying love, blah blah scene, etc. But the book? Meh. Average writing, really average. And I don't understand why it became so popular and won awards and got turned into a movie. But the funny thing about that, is it inspires me.

I can write a story like that. I can write a better story. If Cecelia can do it, so can I.

Lying on the sunloungers, I thought a lot about In Finding (previously known as Molly) and figured out a few little things that need tweaking and scenes that need adding earlier in to balance the story better.

Tomorrow is Wednesday - writing day! - and I will start working on those amendments.

Lastly, here's a random piece of inspiration: Have you seen the new Chanel No.5 tv ad with Audrey Tatou? It's so lush and luminous and golden. I love Audrey Tatou. Ah! Here's an exciting I thing I just discovered when Googling it - the ad was directed by my favourite director, Jean Pierre Jeunet! (Now I know that, I see it too...) So, here it is:

books books!

Last weekend I went bookshopping (yay!) and bought a couple of books from my wishlist. I also tried to find Frankie magazine - artsy cute indie magazine from Melbourne - their website msg board says you can buy it over here in Borders, but I was not successful. Boo. Perhaps I just need to try a different Borders?

I have read this book already because it was so very fascinating:

The Unthinkable: who survives when disaster strikes - and why - by Amanda Ripley

I can't remember how I found out about this book, I actually think someone on my LiveJournal flist mentioned it.

It's a look into disasters and how we react in them - the common reaction of individuals and crowds. Denial, deliberation, decisive moments. How we more often than not just totally freeze up and very few will act quickly enough. How some people are 'heroes'. The author uses real disasters and survivors for reference - from 9/11, to the July 07 London attacks, Hurrican Katrina, plane crashes, fires & tsunamis.

There's something... voyueristic about reading this book as well, getting these glimpses into the absolute horror that some people have experienced.

It makes you think - how would you react?

I know that I'll definitely be reading the safety card in planes from now on...

I'm now reading:

Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed - by Jared Diamond

I've read part of this book before, as my Dad had it, but I never got to finish it.

I don't always agree with Jared Diamond, especially on some of his approaches to human sexuality (he's got a very, very masculine-centric view), but I did enjoy this book when I first started reading it a couple of years ago.

It's environmentally focused, but includes other elements, looking at how societies have failed or succeeded in the past - for instance, he looks at Easter Islanders and Mayans as those who did not manage to succeed, and Tikopia in the Solomon Islands as an example of a society which is in harmony with its resources and environment.

I'm also reading:

Half of a yellow sun - by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

- which I got for Christmas 07 and have only just cracked open! This is fiction, set in 1960s Nigeria, and so far is fine, although I did put it down to read The Unthinkable instead....

all about books

I've decided to keep track of the books I read this year:

a) so I can look back at the end of 2009, and remember and review, and pick favourites

b) to make sure I keep reading

In 2008, my bestest book was The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It made my insides cave in, filled my head up with ash and despair. I read that so fast, consumed by it, I don't even know how much I actually read. I have since learned from an Empire magazine that it has been made in to a movie, with Viggo Mortensen as the lead. I'm not sure about this. The book is intense, especially with what isn't spoken, and so grey. Ashen. I will be interested to see how that translates to film. (if you go to IMDB.com and look it up, the character names give away so much of the most awful parts of the story, the parts as a reader that are sprung on you. Especially the role played by "Mark Tierno". If you haven't read the book, don't visit IMDB and read about the movie until you have).

Books so far in 2008:

Does This Make Sense to You by Renee
- I love how Renee writes humour into sad or tragic situations. She has a gift. I was rooting for the main character the whole way. A Kiwi author, one of our tutors at Whitireia, an inspiration.

Stiff by Mary Roach
- I've started this before but didn't finish. This time I got to the end. A good non-fic read about the 'lives' of cadavers.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
- Love her writing, one of my newer discoveries. I think the first one of hers I read is still my fave though, Case Histories.

Tales from the Town of Widows by James Canon
- Reminds me a lot of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which seems inevitable. Everyone will make that comparison. This, though, I found more accessible. I devoured it at the bach in Tata, got sand in the spine.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- Picked this out of the bookshelf at the bach at Tata. It wasn't what I expected, yet now after finishing it, I'm not sure what I did expect from this book (something more like Zadie Smith?). This book made me feel... unsmart, and I know there was more to it than I was getting.

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
- Cheat entry, as did not complete. Got bored. Tried very hard and some parts were great, but then it would skip to a character who was uninteresting. Had a feeling she killed off the best character in the first few pages. Won the Pulitzer Prize in 95. I really wanted to like this one.

Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones
- I'm cheating a little bit with this one too, because I read this on the plane to NZ (e.g., 2008), but as it kicked off my holiday reading, I'm still counting it. I haven't read Great Expectations. I feel I should! Kiwi author, nominated for the 07 Booker.

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
- A fantastic collection of short stories. I like the one, god I can't even remember the title now, of the kid being babysat by the Indian woman learning to drive, and the one with the woman having an affair.

Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood
- Mum gave this book to me for Christmas. I love Atwood. The stories in this book feel kind of autobiographical and I'm curious how much of it mirrors her life.

And currently.... The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.