Robin Brande, Author, Dog Lover, Coffee and Chocolate Addict. Living an Interesting Life.

Fiction author Robin Brande talks about writing, reading, and other vital matters

For writers, readers, and independent thinkers–book and story reviews by writers and readers, writers’ motivational articles, war stories from the publishing trenches, literary trends, religious controversies, free chocolate, and more.

Archive for May, 2006

A threat to the internet as we know it

Sunday, May 21st, 2006

My web guru BJ of Kickass Web Design wanted me to bring this issue to everyone’s–especially writers’–attention. There is legislation in the works right now that threatens our future use of and access to the internet. If the legislation goes through, it will affect writers by greatly increasing the cost of promotion of […]

A rising tide floats all boats

Saturday, May 20th, 2006

I just got off the phone with my friend Barry Lyga, whose novel The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl will be in stores in just a few months. It’s a great book, and I happen to know because I had the privilege of being the first person who ever got to read […]

Adjusting to the cold

Friday, May 19th, 2006

Yesterday I started reading the coolest book, called Swimming to Antarctica. It’s the autobiography of Lynne Cox, the long-distance, open-water swimmer famous for setting a new world record across the English Channel–when she was fifteen. She went on to be the first person to swim the Strait of Magellan. And then there […]

I would marry Eko

Thursday, May 18th, 2006

{My apologies to anyone who does not watch Lost. You people can talk amongst yourselves for a moment.}
If I weren’t already married, I would marry Eko because:
1. I love his beautiful accent. He could read mathematical equations and make them sound like song.
2. He never uses three words when two will […]

Author manners, Part 2

Wednesday, May 17th, 2006

I’ve already shared with you Meg Cabot’s advice about author manners at book signings.
Now Bookseller Chick has her own tales to tell in today’s post, “Authors Behaving Badly.” Apparently some writers forget that they are the face of their work, and acting like a jerk to bookstore staff is never in their best interest. […]

Guilty pleasures: the saddest book

Wednesday, May 17th, 2006

It’s such a relief when sweeps season arrives, because it means I can almost reclaim my life. Just two more episodes of Lost, Alias is ending, Grey’s Anatomy had its cliff-hanger Monday night–soon families will go back to playing Scrabble and throwing the football in the back yard. Hypothetical families.
I had such a […]

Writer’s Karma

Tuesday, May 16th, 2006

I first learned about occupational karma from my friends Carolyn and Peter, who spent a good many years waiting tables. They practiced Tipping Karma–always tipping generously when they went out to eat, on the theory that those tips would come back to them somehow.
I think it works with writers, too. Last week I […]

A few updates

Sunday, May 14th, 2006

My book: I got an e-mail from my editor at Knopf saying the production schedule for my novel THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION has been sped up, so the novel will come out in summer, 2007. Hurray!! Fall, 2007 was sounding SO far away. Now the book will be out just in […]

Zombie Prom

Saturday, May 13th, 2006

I know I am not the only writer out there with title envy. There’s a whole running gag about it in Shakespeare in Love, with Will Shakespeare and Kit (Christopher) Marlowe constantly checking up on each other.
Kit: What’s your new play?
Will: Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter.
Kit: (Clearly burning inside.) […]

The morality of fat

Thursday, May 11th, 2006

Maybe you have to have been a fat girl (or boy) to understand this. I’m not fat anymore, but I certainly had my run at it. (See the trail mix diet for my credentials.) And once you’ve been fat, those particular brain cells stay with you no matter how much less you […]