Buzz Worthy News
In this week’s Buzz Worthy News: Exciting news from Pottermore, an update on Divergent, a journalist is busted recycling his own work – and, of course, Scandalous Scandals. SPECIAL: Cuddlebuggery’s new CoBlogger is announced today!
Buzz Worthy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly news post containing book world news and blogger community gossip. For new YA releases and cover reveals check back on Friday for our Hot New Titles post.
Book World News
J.K. Rowling and Pottermore announce a House Cup Competition.
For those who having been tunneling through Venus for the last fifteen years and have trouble receiving transmissions from Earth and can only speak a strange, unknown language that is a derivative of a Czech version of pig Latin:
The House Cup was an annual competition in the Harry Potter books based on each of four houses competing against each other for points. To join Pottermore, click here.
“To take part in the House Cup simply log in to Pottermore and progress to the Sorting Hat ceremony in Chapter seven. There you’ll find out which of the four Hogwarts houses you’ll be placed into. Once you’ve been Sorted you’ll be able to help your house to victory by brewing potions and duelling with students from other houses to earn valuable points. Keep an eye on your house common room noticeboard and your owl notifications for important updates. After the inaugural Pottermore House Cup has been awarded there will be an update about Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.”
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Image from Divergent Nation
As part of our weekly blatant thieving of the YA posts by TRYXKITTIE from Oh No They Didn’t Livejournal, we bring the following post. LET THE THIEVERY BEGIN!
Divergent will start filming this year. The sceenplay has been written by Evan Dougherty and is in per-production right now.
“If that proves a hit at theaters, the company also holds rights to the twentysomething author’s sequel Insurgent, which currently sits No. 1 on the Children’s Chapter Books list.”
Taissa Farmiger and Steven R McQueen are fan favourites to play Tris and Four.
The movie is slated for release in 2015.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Recent new addition to the The NewYorker.com, Jonah Lehrer was caught up in a publishing scandal this week.
Lehrer was outed by Jim Romenesko for repurposing material from his writing published in The Wall Street Journal and for recycling writing published in his book, Imagine: How Creativity Works. Reluctant Habits claims he also plagiarised from Malcom Gladwell.
Lehrer is not going to be fired for repurposing his own work. It poses an interesting question about industry ethics. Harcourt is amending Imagine.
I’m glad they’ll be doing this. Does anyone know if something similar was done for City of Bones by Cassandra Clare?
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Scandalous Scandals
A blogger, Issendai, posted on liveJournal’s wank report about an author harassing her.
The original review is here.
Some particularly brilliant moments from this obviously heinous and evil review:
“Haghuf returns to the mother and tells her what Lezipina said. The other goblins leave the room. See, Le-ina’s words were an order as well as a prophecy. The mother is related to everyone in her own caverns, so she needs an outsider to beget the next baby. Haghuf, as bearer of the prophecy, is that outsider. And they have to do it right now. So this woman, who just gave birth to a deformed child and gave it away knowing it was going to be eaten, gives in to “intense ardour” and “flung herself into Haghuf’s embrace, moving with him in the resounding rhythm of the Dance of Creation.”
Three observations:
- OW. Fucking OW. Holy fucking RIPPED VAGINAL TISSUES OW.
- But then, if I just gave my son away to be eaten by mermaids, I’d want a good hot shag from a total stranger, too.
- How the fuck is she going to get pregnant right after giving birth? Do goblins store sperm like bees?”
And then this:
In fact, that’s pretty much how the entire world unfolds. Count Anton needs to scratch his nose? Here’s a history of the last five times he scratched his nose and his interpretation of the reactions of the people who watched him scratch his nose this time. Haghuf is going to visit the Kol’ksu? What’s a Kol’ksu? SUFFER, BITCH. What time period is this? HAH! LIKE WE’D GIVE YOU SENSITIVE INFORMATION. WORM. Where on the planet are we? SHUT UP AND WAIT FOR IT. The sense of wonder in the book is almost entirely supplied by the question, “I wonder what the scene I’m reading looks like?”
The Take Down Notice:
Further links:
Issendai’s Superhero Training Journal for more information.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Erastes, a Goodreads reviewer, was attacked by a self-published author a couple of days ago. The author posted on her review.
He then goes on to post positive reviews in the comment’s section and follows them up with:
Regarding Feliz’s supposed historian status:
Other reviews that this author has allegedly attacked:
Speakitsname.com – Erastes’ blog
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
HUGE ENORMOUS ANNOUNCEMENT:
Thank you to everyone who applied. We had some truly amazing applications and we were incredibly saddened that we couldn’t pick most of them.
Joining Steph and I for Cuddlebuggery fun:
Adam Archer!
Elizabeth May
Congratulations, Adam! Great entry as always, ladies.
Kat Kennedy
@Elizabeth May: Thanks Elizabeth!
Amanda the Book Slayer
Congrats as well Adam! Some how you always seemed part of the team. Can’t wait to see what happens next.
Kat Kennedy
@Amanda the Book Slayer: Aw Amanda! Thank you!
Kara @ Great Imaginations
I’ve went ahead and added both of these authors to my DNR list. I don’t support authors who attack reviewers. Professionalism and a decent personality is a requirement if I’m going to read your book.
Congratulations, Archer. You will make a great addition to the Cuddlebuggery team.
Kat Kennedy
@Kara @ Great Imaginations: I completely agree! Not that either of them were on my radar to begin with.
BarkLessWagMore
Ugh, I really wish author’s would stop showing their ugly for all to see. Don’t authors realize anyone can read their hate? Way to win new readers. And here we go again with the cow hate. Why on earth would I buy a book by an author who resorts to “cow” and doesn’t possess the imagination to bother coming up with an interesting new insult for reviewers?
Congrats Archer you will make a fine addition to Cuddlebuggery!
Kat Kennedy
@BarkLessWagMore: I honestly don’t get it. How low do you have to stoop before you accuse a reviewer of being a cow?
April Books & Wine
Archer is always pretty interesting on twitter, so I think he’s a great fit for Cuddlebuggery.
Interesting news this week.
Kat Kennedy
@April Books & Wine: I hope he will be!
Kayto
I know it keeps happening…but whyyyy? The authors, I mean. You’d think we would have reached the point in culture now where we’re used to, well, the internet and how to act and everything.
Unless there were people doing this for professional print reviewers *before* the internet. In that case I take back my expectations and replace them with a desire to smack everyone with the Stick of Communication Skills and Etiquette.
Also, a ton congrats to Adam!
Kat Kennedy
@Kayto: There were – that’s the sad thing. This author behaviour has been going on for a long time.
Kayto
@Kat Kennedy: Oh. dear. Please excuse me while I weep.
I think I actually did see, once, a write-up of something that was a cross: early 2000s-ish, reviewer for a respected mainstream newspaper/something similar had their article online and got a nasty comment by the author. And the author was Caleb Carr–I mean, with a few well-known exceptions, right now when I see author stupidity I expect it to be newer authors who haven’t quite figured out how opinions work. This was a man who’d had several books already out, for several years (not YA, but if you ever feel like reading something that’s more Criminal Minds meets Sherlock Holmes, try The Alienist) and it just boggled me.
…All that to say, your answer rings true and thus: sadness.
Archer
*Takes a Bow* Ta!
No, but seriously, it is a tremendous honour to be a part of the cuddlebuggerverse and I cannot wait to get down to some more writing for the blog!
Lexxie
Congrats Archer! I look forward to reading more.
I don’t know why, but I continue to feel a little sad when authors rage against the reviewers. I will never understand why they do it – shouldn’t they just be happy someone felt something about their book and took the time to write about it?
Kat Kennedy
@Lexxie: It makes me sad too.
Lissa
Buzz Worthy News indeed! Well done, Archer!
I’m appalled by the behaviour of some authors. They give the rest of us self-pubbies a bad name. So someone didn’t like your book! Get over yourself. Go and cry in a corner. Eat some chocolate. Don’t start a fight on the internet where everyone can see.
linda
Congrats to Archer, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of his posts.
But to be honest, when I saw his comment saying he’d applied, I thought he was pretty much a shoo-in for the position, and it made me wonder why there had been a public call for applications in the first place. Not saying that it was wrong for you to decide to do that, but it did give me some uncomfortable feelings I have a hard time articulating. I feel bad that people put effort into applying when there was already someone who was a really good fit for the position and likely to get it, like when a company lists a job opening while intending to promote from within. I guess I was a bit bothered by the impression of equal opportunity when I thought it was really obvious who was going to get the job. And it made the entire process look really unnecessary, since theoretically you could’ve saved everyone the effort just by asking a few friends/respected reviewers to begin with.
Anyway, still love you guys and your blog, and obviously you can do anything you want on your own blog. I didn’t apply, so it’s not personal, and I think Archer makes a lot of sense as a co-blogger (I’m sure he’ll do a great job). I just thought the process was a bit awkward and wanted to share some of my thoughts/feelings, and I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts as well!
Kat Kennedy
@linda: I understand why you would feel that way. Perhaps I should explain:
To be honest, Steph and I didn’t really expect many people to respond and my personal intuition was that nobody would respond. In our minds we’re just this little book blog in a big blogging world.
Adam had his own blog that was picking up speed – we honestly did NOT expect Adam to apply.
We put out the general call because we wanted to give people an honest chance. What we discovered was that there are a HUGE number of very talented bloggers out there.
I can assure you that Adam was NOT a shoo-in. We had three close friends, a previous review war contestant and five extremely entertaining and remarkable (from people we didn’t know) applications alongside his.
Steph and I agonized over this decision. Ultimately, he DID win out but it was actually a very slim margin – even if it didn’t appear that way.
But what we would hate is for people to think we were somehow unfair. We have tried our best to actually benefit the applicants.
We emailed each applicant with offers to:
1. Connect them with each other to join up and make their own blogs which we offered to help promote.
2. Offer contribution posts to help direct traffic to their blogs.
3. Offer to help them set up a sole blog with our advice, assistance and contributions.
linda
@Kat Kennedy: Comment
Thanks for your response! Now I feel rather silly for making so many assumptions (I guess I let correctly calling the co-blogger winner get to my head). I’m grateful you cleared things up for me even though you didn’t owe me an explanation. My respect for you guys has definitely gone up, so I’m glad I shared how it looked from my perspective even though it makes me look extremely presumptuous. 😛 Thanks for being so gracious and awesome!
Georgette
Great blog as always! Congratulations Adam ~!!!!
Those two authors are ones I probably wouldn’t read to begin with, but this is stomach-churning nevertheless. Can’t we all just get along?
Jasprit
Well done Archer! I know you’ll all make one heck of a formidable team! Look forward to reading more of your posts together! 🙂
Lexie B.
Even though Pottermore has been rather ehhh for those who. already went through the first book, that’s actually kind of awesome. I might actually start going on it!
Also, I’d have to say I’m pretty excited for Divergent. It’s such an action-packed novel that I think it’ll transfer pretty wonderfully to the big screen.
Aaaaand, huge congrats to Archer! I’ve enjoyed the guests posts he’s made, and I’m sure he’ll make a fabulous co-blogger. 😀
Christina (A Reader of Fictions)
Everyone BOT you loved my book. This guy is such a tool bag. That books sounds AWFUL. Erastes wrote a great review.
Teresa L
Ah, brillant! Been waiting for Pottermore to release the second book. Glad that it’s happening soon. It was ages since Pottermore opened up to the public.
2015?! It’s going to years until we actually get and I hope it’ll be worth the wait. I still need to hurry up and start reading Insurgent! I’m hoping that Divergent will be successful so there will be a high chance of Insurgent hitting the big screen.
Oh, and congratulations to Archer!
issendai
I learned about this wonderful site today because of an article about the “Anti-Bullies” site… then paged through the older posts and found out my own kerfuffle with Jaq Hawkins was on here… then said to myself, “She’s been mighty quiet of late. Has she been up to anything?” and discovered that she’s posting MY real name around the Internet.
Le sigh. I’m glad y’all enjoyed my review of the TOTALLY LEGITIMATELY TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED Dance of the Goblins. I’ve enjoyed reading your posts and comments.