George W. Bush Writing His Memoirs

He didn’t want to come to Canada first when he was in office, but yesterday George W. Bush gave his first speech post-retirement in Calgary, Alberta. Figures he chooses the oil sands first.

Anyhoodle, don’t mind my political grumblings. I reserve those for the other blog.

As is expected, Bush is in the midst of writing his memoirs. Unlike previous presidents, though, he plans to focus on twelve key decisions in his life. Topics he plans on discussing include the juicy ones: 9/11, Katrina, Afghanistan and Iraq.

As much as I hate to admit it, I want to read this book. I’m not expecting much, though.

The book is set to be published in 2010 under Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House.

Link via Book Ninja

Bad Sex Award Proves Literary Heavy Weights Can't Handle Sexytimes

Paulo Coehlo, John Updike, and Simon Montefiore all have something in common—they should leave the love scenes for the professionals. All three have been shortlisted for the Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award.

As a woman who has read a lot of sexy books and written some exceptionally distasteful sex scenes in her time (read on for an explanation), I am not surprised that these illustrious literary heavey-weights have been brought down a notch. It's not easy writing sex. There's a fine balance between just enough exposition and the purple prose that keeps the reader wanting more.

Plus, is sex really something a novel needs anyway? Obviously if the literature has been published, and it hasn't been cut in the rigorous editorial process, one can assume that some one made the executive decision to keep it. Sex sells, right? So maybe if we keep Coehlo's love scene (set upon a park footpath), we'll sell a few more copies. What say you, Coehlo?

"At last, she could no longer control the world around her," Coelho continues, "her five senses seemed to break free and she wasn't strong enough to hold on to them. As if struck by a sacred bolt of lightning, she unleashed them, and the world, the seagulls, the taste of salt, the hard earth, the smell of the sea, the clouds, all disappeared, and in their place appeared a vast gold light, which grew and grew until it touched the most distant star in the galaxy."

If I had read this in context, I still would have snorted out laughing. Then rolled my eyes, because never have I emitted "a vast gold light." But then, I'm probably too artless for the type of sex Mr. Coehlo composes. For the longest time, my literary sex life was rooted in fanfiction written by and for teenagers like me, a world full of dominant males and eager to please sexual novices. Heck, I even wrote some of that garbage myself. And no, you cannot see it.

And nowadays I've got a pile of Harlequins a meter high, waiting to be devoured in between Don Quixote and On the Road.

I'm not saying that sex should stay in genre fiction. Heaven knows there are great examples of good sex in literary novels (The Time Traveller's Wife, anyone?) But it's awfully difficult to write a good love scene.

Image source: Stewf

E-Books are Catching On, New Digital Books Site from Chapters Indigo

Chapters Indigo (my former boss, loved you guys!) has just announced they will be launching a new e-books service called Shortcovers. They're betting on readers who are gradually turning away from the conventional book (clunky, undignified, hard to hold?) and towards their laptops and cellphones (shiny! digital! sexy!)

The site will offer free and paid digital content, much like (my current boss, love you guys even more!) Harlequin already offers, along with a host of other web 2.0 features—news articles, blogs, social networking, etc.

I'll be honest, I have not read a digital book ever. Well, does fanfiction count? I suppose that counts. Okay, scratch that; I have read a digital book, but not your traditional digital book. I'm intrigued by the idea, especially the mobile aspect. If I had the money I would probably already have a Sony Reader (Kindle, sadly, is not available in Canada as of yet.) Since I'm a poor bugger who needs to pay off her student loans though, I've got to stick to the traditional paper-and-ink. But the idea of storing several books in a tiny device that can fit in my purse for whenever and wherever is an enchanting one.

How about you? Are you already or are you thinking of taking the plunge into digital?

Image by libraryman.

Blogs to Newspapers: "Aren't You Dead Yet?"

If you've ever wanted to be a published journalist, but haven't been lucky enough yet, you might have your chance now. If you have a blog, that is. 'Course, everyone has a blog these days. This plant has a blog. My sister has a blog. If you don't have a blog, you should just stop reading.

BUT, if you do have a blog, and you live in San Francisco or Chicago, you might find your posts published in a new local paper. It's called The Printed Blog; the paper aims to publish blog posts from local writers and journalists. It's the 'best of the web on the newsstand.'

Oh, newspapers. You're sure trying hard, aren't you? I'm not saying this is a death knell, but...well, it's a death knell.

Blogs are interactive. They don't end at the end of the entry because the reader can choose to browse the links provided in the blog, find similar blogs, browse the writer's blogroll, or even the post history. Newspapers are static and hard to edit or comment on. Besides, do I really want to read last week's news in the paper when five new entries have been posted on the internet?

What do you think of this aggregate of blog posts in print form?