Obsessions, Links, and News Bits

Okay, so I was reading TadMack’s post below about obsessing over one’s signature (which I often do when signing an edition of prints–it gets tiresome after #10 or so, believe me, especially when I start thinking about how most of them will never get purchased) and I realized that my personal book-related obsession these days is author photos and jacket bios. One of my favorite author photos is one of Carol Plum-Ucci’s, which looks sort of like this only she’s lounging on some stairs with a cup of coffee looking like a cranky writer up too early. I actually get sort of annoyed when there isn’t an author photo or at least an informative bio. In my head I plan out what sort of author photo I’d want to have, and what I’d write in my bio; I debate whether I will keep with my current plan of having a byline of S.J. Stevenson instead of my full name, and how much information to release to my reading public. Of course, this is contingent on having something book-length actually published. I’m still working on that…

I found a couple of fun links for library lovers. I mean lovers of libraries, not lovers IN libraries, although they too may feel free to enjoy these links. Firstly, there’s LibraryThing, where you can catalog up to 200 of your books for free and see what other users share your literary tastes, and what else they’re reading. You can feel free to look at my page, but it’s so far empty because I can’t figure out whether I’m “allowed” to catalog books I checked out of the library or otherwise borrowed, or if it’s supposed to only pertain to books I actually OWN…

Another link, which I just now randomly found while looking for that author photo of Carol Plum-Ucci, is Literature-Map, which claims to be “the tourist map of literature.” If you enter an author’s name, it will show you a graphical “map” of other authors which are supposedly similar to that author. The closer on the map another author is to the one you entered, the more similar they are and the more likely a reader is to enjoy both authors. It’s a cute little diversion. It’s part of a site called Gnod (don’t even THINK about spelling it backwards), which has similar doohickeys for movies and music. Fun distractions.

A few news bits:

• Can’t remember if this was already posted here ages ago, but apparently, if I want to catch a publisher’s eye, all I need to do is write fan fiction and post it online. Um, yeah…I’ll get right on that.
• I can’t wait for this Maurice Sendak pop-up book. Did you know I sent out Where the Wild Things Are holiday cards this year? Yup, found ’em at B&N. Or maybe Borders.
• 2006 nominations for the Carnegie and Greenaway medals were announced a while back; among the nominees is Eric Schlosser’s version of Fast Food Nation for younger readers.
• I also keep forgetting to toot a horn for The Edge of the Forest, which is silly, since I contributed two reviews this month and one last month. This time around, you can find me in Middle Grade and Graphic Novels. Also, if you’ve been enjoying the exchanges we’ve been having about book covers, check out Little Willow’s great feature on “Judging the Cover.”