Bartography

This Old Blog

2009-03-11T06:13:00.002-05:00

I'm doing a little renovation of the old Bartography place. Posting will be slight-to-nonexistent (except for posts like this) until I get all that squared away.

During that time, I imagine that the machinery at my desk and I will be getting along something like this:

I've been ShelfLifed! (ShelfLived? ShelveLifted?)

2009-03-05T18:34:00.004-06:00

In connection with my gig Saturday morning at Explore UT, I've been interviewed by the University's ShelfLife@Texas blog. If you're in the mood for random references to Andy Warhol, Howard Cosell, The Daily Texan, Three's Company, or Sophocles, I think you'll be pleased.

"Waiting to be found": an interview with Dianna Hutts Aston

2009-03-03T21:20:00.006-06:00

Some folks are lucky enough to have a dream job. My friend Dianna Hutts Aston has managed to get herself two.

In the children's literature world, Dianna is known for the several picture books she's authored, including her Cybils-winning An Egg Is Quiet and the Obama-approved The Moon Over Star.

In San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, however, she's becoming known for her other line of work. Dianna recently founded The Oz Project, a non-profit with a mission to provide disadvantaged children and young adults with "experiences that ignite the imagination and inspire dreams."

Here's how she describes that transformation:

In the summer of 2006, a hot air balloon ride in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico changed my life forever. The experience felt like floating in Glenda the Good Witch’s bubble, pure magic. I realized two things in the air that day: There are no real borders in this world. And there are no limits on your dreams, not a single one. If you can dream it, you can do it. It was especially significant to me because I’d become someone who no longer knew what her dreams were. I had food, shelter and education, and a quiet life as a mother and writer in the Texas suburbs. But I was longing for something else. I just didn’t know what it was.

Dianna discussed The Oz Project with me last week via email.

***

Does your work on The Oz Project complement your work as an author, or tug you in the opposite direction, or both?

Yes. I'm torn all the time, but still the happiest, luckiest person I know. My passion is The Oz Project.

When you're with these young people on their first balloon ride, how do they react to the experience?

Wonder, awe and joy.

And I get to watch their faces. It's an unbelievable joy. ... Kids in rural villages, orphans, street kids, kids with special needs... all the children no one's looking at. They'll remember it forever. One child will follow the balloon and be the Einstein or the O'Keefe or the Churchill who yearns to make a contribution to the world. I remember every single one of them: Lydia, Yvonne, Jorge, Pasqual, Alejandro, so many more. They see a world without boundaries from the realm of the rainbow. Some will follow that balloon. The leaders will raise many up. Some will continue with their lives of no schooling, whipping burros toward the dried grass and dust.

When those first-time balloonists come back to earth -- literally, anyway -- what happens next for them? Does The Oz Project play an ongoing role in their lives?

The balloon trips are mostly rewards for hard work, for displays of leadership. For instance, Betsy James just conducted the first Teen Writers' Workshop (it ended yesterday), and we'll take up the kids who attended. They're ambitious dreamers with the actions to back it up. There are a group of kids at Jalpa, a village outside of town, who are learning English from volunteers who have identified them as leaders and take time each week to go out and teach. So I'm partnering with existing organizations to give balloon trips. The Teen WW is part of Oz and The San Miguel Writers' Conference. We'll get bigger next year. So happy with all of this.

What does the Oz Project need in order to thrive? How can folks outside San Miguel help?

Money is the main thing, and a grant writer. I've been blessed with in-kind services, from graphics to web site design to accounting. I have a man who's going to work with me on grant-writing. A donation of a hot air balloon, a van, a trailer. What I'd really like is for others in the states to take the idea of raising angels and find them in foster care, special needs like blindness and deafness, children's hospitals, ghettos, isolated rural areas. The focus is on targeting leaders, those who persevere despite their circumstances. These children are waiting to be found so they can contribute their talents to the world. There's an Einstein, a Picasso, an Eleanor Roosevelt... just waiting.

The Day-Glo Brothers and other nonfiction about notable siblings

2009-03-01T07:19:00.006-06:00

As much as I've made about the daylight-fluorescence aspect of The Day-Glo Brothers, the sibling relationship between Bob and Joe Switzer -- night and day opposites, in many respects -- is central to the story as well.

In looking around for other children's and young-adult nonfiction about notable sets of siblings from previous eras of American history, I've been surprised by how few are represented. (Where are the Marx Brothers? Frank and Jesse James? Donny and Marie?) For some additional context about sisters and brothers, I've assembled a list of my favorite titles. There are undoubtedly other worthy books that I've overlooked and would do well to add in updates to this post -- I'd love to hear your suggestions.

Footwork: The Story of Fred and Adele Astaire
by Roxane Orgill, illustrated by Stéphane Jorisch
Candlewick Press
2007
If you're not sold on Footwork by the time you get to young Fred and his older sister in costume as a dancing lobster and champagne glass, then you're harder to please than even the most jaded vaudeville crowd. But take notice: The Astaires eventually won them over, too.

Good Brother, Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth
by James Cross Giblin
Clarion Books
2005
Until April 14, 1865, Edwin was more famous than younger brother and fellow actor John Wilkes. But the story offered by Giblin is more complex than that, with "good" Edwin's earlier career nearly undone by his drinking, "bad" John Wilkes' heroic feats on stage (34 performances in 18 roles during one four-week engagement), and the brothers' own awareness that their affection could not survive even a discussion of their political differences.

Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Beecher Preachers
by Jean Fritz
G. P. Putnam's Sons
1994
In one of the most famous American families of the mid-19th century, the girls were not allowed to follow their father into the ministry, and the boys were not allowed not to. Fritz winningly relates how, with her history-changing Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet proved herself the best sermonizer of the lot.

Sisters Against Slavery: A Story About Sarah and Angelina Grimké
by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson, illustrated by Karen Ritz
Carolrhoda Books
1999
The Grimkés didn't just transform themselves from slaveowning Southern belles into abolitionist Quakers -- they went further, pushing against the prejudices within their adopted faith and the 19th-century restrictions on women speaking out in public about anything.

The Two Brothers
by William Jaspersohn, illustrated by Michael A. Donato
The Vermont Folklife Center
2000
In this absolute gem based on a true story, Jaspersohn and Donato tell of the heartrending separation in the 1880s of Prussian brothers Heinrich and Friedrich Eurich, followed by their coincidental, goosebump-inducing reunion along a fenceline between two Vermont farms.

To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers
by Wendie C. Old, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker
Clarion Books
2002
If there's a shortage of books about other notable siblings, there's a surplus of titles about Orville and Wilbur Wright. But there's always room for the likes of this contribution by Old and Parker -- accessible, insightful, and soaring.

Up Close: Robert F. Kennedy, Crusader
by Marc Aronson
Viking
2007
Aronson embraces both fact and speculation in his engrossing, eye-opening account of an ill-fated life entwined with those of older brothers Joe and Jack.

A Bartography Sampler

2009-02-28T23:59:00.002-06:00

For those of you stopping by my blog for the first time, welcome! This month, I celebrated my grandfather Whacker's centennial, considered my good fortune to live in the Texas Triangle, and provided a black-lit glimpse of my debut book. Here's a bit of what else you'll find in the archives.

Beyond the Big Idea: a five-part tutorial geared toward young readers about how to track down more information on a subject covered in a nonfiction book
It's almost as if the bats are a metaphor for something: "Much of my time surrounding yesterday's Austin SCBWI conference was meticulously planned -- but meticulous planning will get you only so far."
Original Manuscript: What-nik?!?: A short story, told from the perspective of a professional-wrestling-crazy American boy, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Soviet launch of Sputnik
Project: The Day-Glo Brothers: Collected posts about my first book, a nonfiction picture book to be published by Charlesbridge in July 2009
Project: S.V.T.: Collected posts about my second book, a mysteriously titled, thoroughly ridiculous picture book to be published by Little, Brown in 2010
Project: Masqueraders: Collected posts about my third book -- a YA nonfiction project originally code-named "Pasta," and subsequently referred to as both Impostors and Masqueraders -- to be published by Dial
Socialit: Reports on conferences, workshops, shindigs, and other gatherings of folks in the children's book business
Thanks, Granddad: A version of the eulogy I delivered for my grandfather, Ernest E. Lewis
U.S. History Reading: Book reviews and suggested reading for various periods and themes in American history
"Why I Want an Agent" Week: The mental inventory I took shortly before the right agent and I finally connected
What am I working on?: Let's not forget the ongoing work of researching, writing, and revising manuscripts and trying to market the results.
What am I waiting for?: And this. There's lots of this.

The Day-Glo Brothers' debut at Explore UT

2009-02-27T20:24:00.002-06:00

The lineup and schedule are set for readings from me and three other Austin-based children's authors as part of Explore UT next Saturday, March 7:

10 a.m. – Liz Scanlon presents A Sock is a Pocket for Your Toes
11 a.m. – Chris Barton debuts The Day-Glo Brothers
1 p.m. – Brian Anderson presents Commander Zack Proton
2 p.m. – Jane Peddicord presents from Night Wonders

Details about the readings are here, and details about Explore UT are here.

See you there!

Not your father's Pokemon

2009-02-26T19:26:00.005-06:00

Yesterday 5-year-old F invited me to play Pokemon cards with him. I'm still not entirely sure what that's supposed to entail, other than beating your old man for a varying number of amorphous reasons that never quite seem to add up.

A little of that goes a long way, and to change the subject I got my old box of baseball cards down from a closet shelf so I could show him how his forebears did card-collecting.

"Can I have this one?"

"Sure."

"Can I have this one?"

"You bet."

This was working out great. And then, maybe two minutes into exploring that box I hadn’t opened in two decades, what did we find? A 1983 Topps rookie card for Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. In pristine condition.

I put the box away.

Behold the rare Tonygwynn, which
evolves into something worth $60

No, I don't know who Editorial Anonymous is

2009-02-24T21:26:00.002-06:00

A lot of folks have asked me that these past few days. Sorry.

But I do know that she or he has put together one helpful set of publishing definitions for the perplexed. And I was going to link to it anyway, even before EA was kind enough to include a Day-Glo Brothers photo as an example of a book that isn't printed in CMYK.

Here's the original photo:

Wanna see what it looks like under black light? Here goes:

Day-Glo Spotting #4

2009-02-22T17:03:00.003-06:00

London, England (photo by Jimmy Ogden -- thanks, Jimmy!)

A sneak preview of The Day-Glo Brothers

2009-02-18T20:26:00.004-06:00

Here in Austin on Saturday, March 7, The Day-Glo Brothers is going to be a small part of "the biggest open house in Texas."

The public debut of the book (and of me as an author) will be one of the many, many goings-on at Explore UT, a huge, campus-wide to-do designed to give school-aged kids a taste of what the University of Texas has to offer.

The festivities at the Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL) will also include presentations from other local children's book creators Liz Garton Scanlon, Christy Stallop, Brian Anderson, and Jane Peddicord. When the schedule is confirmed, I'll post that here.

I've mentioned before that I've done research at the PCL for some of my books, and The Day-Glo Brothers is among them. A December 1932 article in Popular Science ("Homemade Ultra-Violet Lamp Produces Magic 'Black Light'") inspired the work that led to Bob and Joe Switzer's discovery of daylight fluorescence, and it was there at the PCL that I first laid eyes on the actual article -- in glorious black-and-white.

If you'd like an advance peek at some reading material that's a little more brightly colored -- nearly four months before its publication date -- I hope you'll come on by.

Mega-glad to be here

2009-02-16T20:55:00.004-06:00

Of all the places for me to stumble into the writing of children's books, I could not have done better than Austin.

I've told this to folks for years, singing the praises of the supportive, nurturing local writing community. Lately, I've tended to go a step further by pointing out Austin's wealth of published (or soon-to-be) children's or YA writers, emphasizing that I'm only one in a crowd. When an acquaintance recently asked for suggestions of local authors he might invite to an event, I gave him a list of published writers and illustrators at least four times longer than he could actually use.

It's a great environment for me, and I feel lucky to be here, but after reading the cover story in the March issue of The Atlantic, "How the Crash Will Reshape America," it occurs to me that there might be another reason to be grateful.

In the article, the "Texas Triangle of Houston-San Antonio-Dallas" (including Austin) is singled out as one of the US "mega-regions" with "[w]ell-educated professionals and creative workers who live together in dense ecosystems ... generate ideas and turn them into products and services faster than talented people in other places can."

I think that bodes well for those of us who create children's books and seek to connect with readers through schools and libraries in our own backyard. It suggests to me that not only the will of the communities in this region but also their resources will erode less and bounce back more quickly than in other regions in the months and years ahead. And that, I'm thinking, will translate into buying books, hosting authors, etc.

It certainly sounds good, anyway. I'm looking forward to comparing it to what I hear from folks from those communities at the Texas Library Association conference in six weeks.

A brief scene at my front door

2009-02-16T07:11:00.002-06:00

One afternoon this weekend, there was a knock at my front door. I opened it to find R, a four-year-old neighbor and friend of my son F.

R: Can F play?

Me: Isn't he at your house already?

R: Oh, yeah -- I forgot.

R headed for home, and I went back inside.

Happy Whackercentennial!

2009-02-11T19:55:00.004-06:00

One hundred years ago today, my grandfather Raymond Murray "Whacker" Barton was born. He's been gone more than 20 years, and I miss him, and I wish I had interviewed him when I had the chance.

I didn't miss that opportunity with his widow, my grandmother. She and I spent a lot of time with a tape recorder a couple of years before she died. My favorite of her stories, and the very first one I asked her to tell me for the record, was the one about their courtship, which began one fall when he was hired on at the school where she was already on the faculty.

In celebration of him, her, and Valentine's Day, here's how that story began:

When I first started going with Whacker, both of us were teaching in a high school. I was homemaking teacher and he was a football coach.

I had noticed him. At the first teachers' meeting, another teacher and I went up to the superintendent of the schools, and we told him, "You are not doing any of us any good. You hired two football coaches. The first one that you hired is very good looking [but already married], and the other one is so ugly. No one is going to want to go with that teacher."

So -- that's the one I married.

I had been noticing that at a certain time during the day, he would walk by my room, which was at the other end of the hall. So, I kind of made myself presentable. One day he stopped by.

I was living at home with Mother and Daddy. One Sunday he called me and he said he wondered if I was free that day and if I would like to go run and play. So, I thought a minute and said, "Yeah, I believe I will."

I went and told Mother that he asked me if I'd like to go "run and play."

She said, "What in the world do you do?"

And I said, "I don't know, but I'm gonna find out!"

This Life, that speech

2009-02-10T21:55:00.005-06:00

I don't know how much I've learned about storytelling in the past couple of years, but whatever insight I've managed to pick up, I owe a lot of that to This American Life.

Until spring of 2007, I had never listened to an episode -- I'd only heard a few fragments. I had no idea what I was missing, but since then I've missed maybe two shows, and each week I come away thinking, "That's how it's done."

So, what brought me around? This mesmerizing speech by host Ira Glass, which I was lucky enough to witness in person, and which is newly available online.

It was the last presentation at the Good Experience Live (Gel) conference. Like all the others, this one was scheduled to last just 20 minutes. It went way over, and I savored every minute of it. Maybe you will, too.

You're only as good as your next book. Or maybe the one after that.

2009-02-08T20:48:00.003-06:00

At a party yesterday afternoon, a friend asked about my book. Five-year-old F was with me, and he helpfully fielded the question. After a cursory reference to The Day-Glo Brothers, he then began breaking down his favorite parts of S.V.T., a book that won't even be published for another year.

This morning, I asked nine-year-old S to tell it to me straight: You and your brother are more excited about the second book than you are the first one, aren't you? His answer: Yep.

Who would have thought that the new could wear off my publishing debut less than eight years after I started working on it?

Duck! Rabbit! Tom! Amy!

2009-02-06T05:15:00.003-06:00

Tom Lichtenheld, my illustrator for S.V.T. (Little, Brown, 2010), has a new book on the way next month with Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and I'm plenty delighted to share this preview:

Twenty-Eight Days Later is now

2009-02-03T05:15:00.003-06:00

Thanks to Chicken Spaghetti for reminding me that this year's Twenty-Eight Days Later campaign has kicked off over at The Brown Bookshelf. For the entire month, they'll be showcasing "the best in Picture Books, Middle Grade and Young Adult novels written and illustrated by African Americans to help parents, teachers, librarians and booksellers recommend good reads."

Just based on the first couple of author/illustrator interviews, I can tell that, 28 days later, I'm going to have one long wishlist.

A Bartography Sampler

2009-01-31T23:59:00.000-06:00

For those of you stopping by my blog for the first time, welcome! Here's a bit of what you'll find in the archives.

Beyond the Big Idea: a five-part tutorial geared toward young readers about how to track down more information on a subject covered in a nonfiction book
It's almost as if the bats are a metaphor for something: "Much of my time surrounding yesterday's Austin SCBWI conference was meticulously planned -- but meticulous planning will get you only so far."
Original Manuscript: What-nik?!?: A short story, told from the perspective of a professional-wrestling-crazy American boy, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Soviet launch of Sputnik
Project: The Day-Glo Brothers: Collected posts about my first book, a nonfiction picture book to be published by Charlesbridge in July 2009
Project: S.V.T.: Collected posts about my second book, a mysteriously titled, thoroughly ridiculous picture book to be published by Little, Brown in 2010
Project: Masqueraders: Collected posts about my third book -- a YA nonfiction project originally code-named "Pasta," and subsequently referred to as both Impostors and Masqueraders -- to be published by Dial
Socialit: Reports on conferences, workshops, shindigs, and other gatherings of folks in the children's book business
Thanks, Granddad: A version of the eulogy I delivered for my grandfather, Ernest E. Lewis
U.S. History Reading: Book reviews and suggested reading for various periods and themes in American history
"Why I Want an Agent" Week: The mental inventory I took shortly before the right agent and I finally connected
What am I working on?: Let's not forget the ongoing work of researching, writing, and revising manuscripts and trying to market the results.
What am I waiting for?: And this. There's lots of this.

If you're not doing something you'd still like to be doing when you're 93, why not?

2009-01-30T21:00:00.003-06:00

If I hadn't already had the good fortune to be inspired in person by Austin's Betty X. Davis, this week's article in the local paper would surely have done the trick:

"The aspiring children's book writer, who at age 93 is still waiting for her big break, is determined that she will write until she can't."

I want to be Betty X. Davis when I grow up.

The Day-Glo Brothers and other picture books about the 1930s

2009-01-28T07:00:00.000-06:00

Most of The Day-Glo Brothers takes place in the 1930s, when Bob and Joe Switzer began experimenting with inks and paints that glowed under black light while moving ever closer to their discovery of daylight fluorescence.

For some additional context about that era, I've assembled a list of some of my favorite picture books set (at least partially) during the 1930s. There are undoubtedly some worthy subjects and titles that I've overlooked and would do well to add in updates to this post -- I'd love to hear your suggestions.

Aliens Are Coming! The True Account of the 1938 War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast
by Meghan McCarthy
Alfred A. Knopf
2006
McCarthy revisits Orson Welles' famously panic-inducing radio play by combining a smattering of the original script, a matter-of-fact description of the aftermath ("One man thought he saw a Martian spaceship"), and illustrations that offer the old-fashioned kick of cheesy sci-fi.

Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator
by Shelley Tanaka, illustrated by David Craig
Abrams Books for Young Readers
2008
Tanaka's stirring account of the aviator's daring and determination awakened my own, long-dormant childhood fascination with Earhart.

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman
by Marc Tyler Nobleman, illustrated by Ross MacDonald
Alfred A. Knopf
2008
Nobleman and MacDonald make a dynamic duo in their depiction of how mild-mannered teens Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster parlayed the strength of their imaginations into an enduring hero.

Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa
by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney
Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children
2002
Hip feline "Scat Cat Monroe" takes readers on a stylish, jazzy tour through Fitzgerald's rise from big-dreaming Yonkers girl to unforgettable First Lady of Song.

Hoover Dam
by Elizabeth Mann, illustrated by Alan Witschonke
Mikaya Press
2001
Mann's Wonders of the World books are wonders in their own right. Her words and Witschonke's art pay as much tribute and attention to the underappreciated workers as they do to the feat of engineering that tamed the Colorado River.

Seabiscuit Vs. War Admiral: The Greatest Horse Race in History
by Kat Shehata, illustrated by Jo McElwee
Angel Bea Publishing
2003
The story of the 1938 contest runs on two tracks -- a ticker-tape version in the staccato stylings of a stadium announcer, and another in the warm prose of an author who knows how to unfold the winning tale of an unlikely champion.

Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building
by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by James E. Ransome
Schwartz & Wade Books
2006
A boy with a newly unemployed father watches the rise of the New York City landmark -- from the 50-foot toss of a red-hot rivet to the finished tower's glow against Manhattan's nighttime sky -- with wonder and inspiration. Readers will, too.

That Book Woman
by Heather Henson, illustrated by David Small
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
2008
Henson and Small depict a pack-horse librarian's impact on a farm family, told through the skeptical eye and mountain vernacular of a non-reading boy named Cal.

Woody Guthrie: Poet of the People
by Bonnie Christensen
Alfred A. Knopf
2001
With a generous dose of Guthrie's own lyrics, Christensen shows how the singer and activist came to give voice to Americans in need through "This Land Is Your Land" and a thousand other songs.

Day-Glo Spotting #3

2009-01-25T21:45:00.003-06:00

In the Forest North neighborhood, Austin, Texas.

If I accomplish nothing else this week...

2009-01-22T23:00:00.001-06:00

I'll be proud of this humongous pile of garbage my family helped clear off a hike-and-bike trail on Monday, as part of a bipartisan band of trash-picker-uppers my wife organized. There were lots of kids involved, and they were especially into it -- let's hope this sort of thing becomes a habit for lots of us.

For other accounts of our efforts, take a look at Birding on Broadmeade, The Woodland School, Random Observations of a 30-Something Mom, McKinleys' Happy Days, and my beloved Redneck Mother.

From f&g to Frank&g

2009-01-21T21:51:00.005-06:00

Last weekend, a total stranger cut up my one advance, unbound copy of The Day-Glo Brothers.

I guess I should state that 1) he put it back together, 2) it was mostly my idea, 3) I paid for the privilege, and 4) I'm happy with the results.

See, I've been invited to present my first public reading of the book (yeah!) nearly four months before the publication date (wow!). But I have a hard enough time keeping an f&g (for "folded and gathered") together here at my desk, and I couldn't imagine reading aloud to an audience (even, at this point, a purely theoretical one) while trying to manage one of those slippery things.

So, I took my f&g to the Copy Shop Formerly Known as Kinko's, and on the fly the young guy at the desk and I came up with a solution: cutting each four-page sheet down the middle, so that we've got 24 individual pages instead of three sets of four four-page sheets, and then spiral-binding the whole thing.

To the pages being bound, we added a couple of sheets of 100-pound paper at each end to make the whole thing a little more rigid. I plan to glue the front and back pages to the inside of the cover, and have myself something that resembles a picture book -- albeit one with a plastic black spiral in place of the gutter -- and holds together in one piece at that March reading.

Maybe that spiral will go as unnoticed as the scar on the forehead of Frankenstein's monster. I'd take a picture of this Day-Glo monster of mine so you can see for yourself, but I'm out of natural light for the day, and fluorescent lighting doesn't do the colors justice. I don't want anyone (especially the illustrator or designers) coming after me with pitchforks.

Day-Glo Spotting #2

2009-01-18T07:22:00.003-06:00

Highland Neighborhood, Austin, Texas.

Alison Dellenbaugh recently pointed out something I hadn't considered -- that colorblind readers will perceive The Day-Glo Brothers quite differently from other readers. Thank you, Alison -- I'm so grateful that I won't be caught completely off-guard by this the first time it comes up during an author visit.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a couple of images run through Vischeck, a site recommended by Alison that simulates various forms of colorblind vision. First, the above image --

-- and finally the spread from my book that I featured a couple of months ago:

Got Day-Glo photos of your own that you'd like to share? Please send them to chris [at] chrisbarton [dot] info.

Nothing to read here -- move along, move along

2009-01-16T06:16:00.003-06:00

Specifically, move along to:

Harold Underdown at the Purple Crayon helpfully summarizes the current state of Working in Children's Books and the Recession of 2008-09
Mark Hurst at Good Experience has bad news for authors prone to repeating themselves in A Kindle trick changes the reading experience
Alison Morris at ShelfTalker asks, On What Subjects Do We Need More Non-Fiction?
Melissa Stewart at I.N.K. offers a smart approach to "Meeting" the Author
Jeremy Adam Smith at Beacon Broadside asks (and answers), Why Write Books?