10.29.08
Like a Shark on a Moped, National Novel Writing Month Zooms in for the Kill
Just two days and a wake up left until NaNoWriMo (Unless you start right crack at midnight, in which case you can skip the wake up.
Are you set? Are you prepared? Do you have your writing device, be it a pen and notebook or computer? Do you have your copy of 
someplace nearby so you can read it for encouragement?
Did you take your copy of 
and lock it away until December 1st?
Did you circle every Wednesday in November and write in “NaNoWriMo Support Group 7:30pm @ Schuler Books and Music in the Eastwood Town Center?
Did you log into Facebook and RSVP for the event “NaNoWriMo Support Group @ Schuler Books and Music Eastwood”?
Excellent! The hard part is over, now you just have to write 50,000 words in 30 days.
That’ll be a snap.
-Greg Baldino, Facilitator for Planet F.I.C.T.I.O.N. @ Eastwood
10.18.08
The November Country, or Why I’m Doing NaNoWriMo and You Should Too.
Bookstore employees have a reputation as one of the more eccentric demarcations of industry, but still there were the odd glances and steps taken backwards when I broke the news to my fellow lit-slingers that I would be participating in National Novel Writing Month; an annual event where participants world wide try to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.
The prospect seems a little daunting: if you write the exact same amount every day that’s 1,665 words a day- 2,000 if you take weekends and Thanksgiving off. On the other hand, between emails, blog postings, text messages, and message boards, I probably write twice that on a daily average, (and that’s not even counting the writing I do for my day job—like this blog post for instance.)
But still, trying to get this all done in a month -wouldn’t it be better to take as much time as I need? Well, maybe. But this way by the end of this month I’ll (hopefully) have a complete novel, full of plot holes and spelling errors, but complete nonetheless.
Therein lies the other reason: The only conscription of victory in NaNoWriMo is 50,000 words completed by midnight November 30. It doesn’t have to be good, or coherent, or exhaustively researched. NaNoWriMo is the punk rock of literature.
Look at it this way: If I can write a crappy novel in 30 days, then YOU could write a crappy novel in 30 days. And if you’re going to write one, why not come down to our Eastwood store on Wednesdays at 7:30pm? There you find others undertaking the same Herculian* labor crying into their lattes and ruminating over the state of their word counts. (Okay, that’ll probably be just me.) If you’re still not sure, why not check out No Plot, No Problem by NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty.
*As in the Greek demigod, not the Agatha Christie detective
If you’re still daunted, yet compelled to put pen to paper in a less intensive endeavor, you should check out the monthly meeting of the Planet F.I.C.T.I.O.N. Writer’s Workshop & Discussion Group, meeting the last Tuesday of every month in our store.
Either way, if you see a shambling, broken-looking man, held aloft by his beard and a mug of our Chapbook Cafe’s fine mocha, be sure to ask how my word count’s looking.**
**Okay, this is a bit of an embellishment- for one thing, I’m eagerly loking forward to this project, and the challenge of it all has me chomping at the bit for October to hurry up and finish. For another, my co-workers will attest I look like that every day.
NANOWRIMO 2008 OR BUST!
-Greg Baldino, Eastwood Staffer, Planet F.I.C.T.I.O.N. Facilitator, and 
10.16.08
Vampyres of Hollywood by Michael Scott and Adrienne Barbeau
While I am generally a proud and vociferous fan of all things un-dead, recently my excitement has been whipped up into a new sort of frenzy with a number of happenings — the recent announcement of a 2009 publication date for the first Stoker family-authorized Dracula project since the original 1931 movie starring Bela Lugosi (Dracula: The Un-Dead, by Bram Stoker’s great-grandnephew Dacre Stoker and Dracula documentarian and historian Ian Holt, as announced by Publishers Weekly); the upcoming Lansing Civic Players’ stage production of Dracula; and my joyful discovery of Vampires of Hollywood by one of my new favorite authors, Michael Scott, with scream-queen siren Adrienne Barbeau.
Scott is the Irish author of over 100 titles, best known stateside for his bestselling young adult series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. I recently had the pleasure of meeting him on his book tour, and was blown away by his immense knowledge of folklore and mythology, which he works seamlessly into his own literature with a brilliant blend of imagination and historical revisionism. In Vampyres of Hollywood, he and Ms. Barbeau meld the various vampire mythologies with a behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood to great effect, at turns hilarious and pulse-racing.
10.11.08
The Charlemagne Pursuit, by Steve Berry
One question that’s always haunted ex-Magellan Billet agent Cotton Malone was what happened to his father. He was told a line of obvious bull by the Navy, long ago, and now he wants real answers. But as soon as he gets his hands on them someone tries to steal them at gunpoint… Read the rest of this entry »
10.06.08
Battle Royale vs. Hunger Games vs. The Inferior – Battle to the Death
Recently the publishing powers that be have released a particularly strong slate of Young Adult titles, including two books that managed to top my infernally long “Need to Read” list – The Inferior, a stunning debut and the beginning of what looks to be an incredible fantasy series by Peadar Ó Guilín, and The Hunger Games, one of Scholastic’s lead titles for the fall season and also the beginning of a series, written by by Suzanne Collins, the popular author of The Underland Chronicles.
With their dark subject matter and unflinching portrayals of potential dystopian futures, both books will appeal to a similar audience, including mature young adult readers and adults alike.
