Buzz Worthy News
This week on Buzz Worthy News a Walmart building sees its best use yet, Maureen Johnson gets crowned the Queen of Teen, a new Sailor Moon is on the horizon and, as always, there are Scandalous Scandals to report.
Buzz Worthy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly diligent reporting on Book World News and the latest book blogging news and scandals. Visit every Monday to check out what’s happening. For the latest cover reveals and YA book releases, check back on Fridays.
So what’s the best thing to ever happen in a Wallmart other than inspiring the People of Walmart site? Don’t know? Well, imagine what you’ve always wanted to do to Walmart every time you’re in a thirty person line behind someone with fifty-five items – thirteen of which don’t have their barcodes and five of which need a price check. Now imagine what you’d do that Walmart. Which I’m betting is something like clearing the people out, trashing the store and abandoning it to whatever fate the universe has in store for such things.
Which in this case, the Universe deemed that MS&R Architecture firm would design a totally kick ass library using the abandoned building for their client. And that library design would go on to win the 2012 Library Interior Design Awards.
The library is considered to be the largest single story library facility in the country and is the size of 2.5 football fields – meaning that readers in that area scored a serious touchdown.
Okay, you don’t have to tell me that was lame. I already know…
Totally badass and the best use of a Walmart that I’ve ever heard of.
Steph says:
Huh. I’ve always wanted to live in a Walmart and get lost in a library. Problem solved! My family would see me go in, but never see me come out.
This week marks the week of 150 years of Alice in Wonderland and fantabulousness. Now, if you listen to Galleycat and believe what they have to say about the story of how Lewis Carrol came to develop the story of Alice in Wonderland, which goes something like this:
“On July 4, 1862, Charles Dodgson(the author who would publish as Carroll) boarded a small boat with three young girls…Entrusted with entertaining the young ladies, Dodgson fancied a story about a whimsical world full of fantastical characters, and named his protagonist Alice. So taken was Alice Liddell with the story that she asked Dodgson to write it down for her, which he did when he soon sent her a manuscript under the title of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground.” – According to Brain Pickings.
But this is a lie. Or at least, if it’s true, it’s not as interesting as the story Cracked tells.
Lewis Carroll was the pen name of the very conservative Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Anglican deacon and professor of mathematics. He wrote Alicein the 1860s, a time when the most radical thing taking place on college campuses was complex math. While that sounds innocent enough, Carroll thought it would lead straight to Satan. Yes, the book that launched a million acid trips was written by the biggest square in the universe for the nerdiest reason imaginable.
What incensed Dodgson was that math no longer had any real-world grounding. He knew that you could add two apples to three apples to get five apples, but once you start thinking about the square root of -1 apples, you’re living on the moon. The Rev. Dodgson thought the new mathematics was completely absurd, like something you’d dream up if you were on drugs.
I hope that was interesting and hasn’t at all misinformed you at all. If anyone wants to comment with anything at all accurate or factual based to either affirm or correct the above, that would be really useful.
Steph says:
One-hundred and fifty years of scarring little children with the image of the Cheshire Cat, including this poor, unfortunate soul. Here’s to one-hundred and fifty more!
This week Maureen Johnson, YA writer of several novels including The Name of the Star, was crowned the 2012 Queen of Teen in Surrey.
She describes herself as “thrilled” to win the award – but can you trust someone who is American, and therefor supposedly totally into democracy, an accepts a titled, monarchistic position.
How does Johnson supposedly explain this inconsistency? She’s going to be “bringing some American blood to your royal line.” I think we all know what that means!
…Actually we have no idea.
“It is true we rebelled against the very idea of a crown,” she said, “but I am prepared to put that aside and rule with a fair and temperate hand, and not to fire a few triumphant rounds in the air during the ceremony.”
Well, alright, that sounds reasonable.
Johnson was voted in by an online poll, the award is granted every two years and is based on an author’s ability to write “real-life issues in a way that is honest, entertaining and fun”.
We hope she rules fairly for all involved and that she will be as wise in her Queenship as she is able to rock that tiara.
Photo originally by Heather Weston – I don’t know who altered it, but that Blogger is SERIOUSLY badass.
Speaking of tiaras and scepters and practically everything that is awesome in the world:
According to Comic Book Resources – there is going to be a new Sailor Moon!
Please hold your uncontrollable squeeing until the end of the article.
ISN’T SHE RESPLENDENT?! SAY SHE’S RESPLENDENT!!!
Kodansha and Toei announced that they’re making a new Anime of the 20 year old anime staple of every awesome little girl’s childhood.
Details are sketchy at the moment, but the Cuddlebuggery Hype team is currently predicting a 100% chance of kick ass.
Steph says:
\(^o^)/ My life is now complete.
If I have to source this then you’re on the wrong blog, baby. Wrong blog.
When Janet Maslin reviewed Patrick Somerville’s new novel, The Bright River, for the New York Times, she may made an itty bitty tiny, completely insignificant mistake.
Like when she mistook the identity of the main character. Totally not a big deal. Sommerville blogs about it here in a charitably named article for Saloon Thank You for Killing My Novel.
The mistake was corrected when the New York Times emailed the actual character to ask if there was a mistake (the character has his own email address) and a correction was soon posted at the end of the review. But even Sommerville admits:
“I don’t think the mix-up matters all that much. It remains mind-blowing to me that it happened, but I doubt the core of her conclusions would have been all that different without the mistake. The goddamned thing rambles, I know! It’s big and unruly and everywhere! But that’s why I love it! It had to be that way! But some people won’t love it! And hopefully some will!”
So, that time I thought a book was Middle Grade when it was actually Young Adult or that time I thought an author was a woman and referred to them as such in my review – totally not a big deal. Everyone makes mistakes. Even professionals!
Scandalous Scandals
Another author went on a tirade this week.
The attack began on this rather tame review when the author took exception to the following claim:
“The main character enrolls at West Side, and made a snarky internal remark about the school having a metal detector. As if she couldn’t believe people in Arkansas needed it…But here’s the big deal with that statement. A lot of people may not remember the March 1998 West Side Middle School Massacre. It got overshadowed by the Columbine shooting in 1999.(Here’s a great article about the story, http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net…, where I got all my facts because my brain was fuzzy on the subject.) Anyway, two students pulled a fire alarm and murdered one teacher and four students as they evacuated. One other teacher and nine more students were injured. It was devastating, to say the least. I guess what I’m saying is: Either have another student explain to the mc about the shooting or pick another school (there are a lot to choose from in Jonesboro) to set it at because honestly, I couldn’t concentrate on the story after that remark.”
The author commented on the review, calling the reviewer a douche saying:
Then she took to Twitter:
*The school shooting occurred in 1998, not 1996 as White claims.
The author then went and attacked Kara’s review and then on Melissa Thayer’s review where she apparently told the commenters they needed to “get right with God” though no screencaps of this golden comment still exist so we can’t verify – only hope.
Isabelle Doan
Heather deleted her twitter. Her classiness is showing.
Lisa (Fic Talk)
OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!
STEPHANIE! A NEW SAILOR MOON!! A NEW SAILOR MOON!
MY HEART! IT IS SO FULL!
*CRIES A LA SERENA STYLE*
\(^o^)/
Stephanie Sinclair
@Lisa (Fic Talk):
RIGHT?! THE MOON GODS HAVE HEARD US!!!!
Christina (A Reader of Fictions)
Oh, I saw that get right with God comment, so that shit was real. I vouch for it. That def happened. There’s a series of tweets making fun of that. Yeah. She is cray. She then deleted like ALL of her accounts on the internet. Overreact much?
As for Alice in Wonderland, I’m pretty sure Dodgson wrote it because of both things: love of maths and love of little girls. Yeah, he was a creeper. Or, so I learned in a history of children’s literature class.
Nicola
For goodness sake, WHEN are they going to learn? I actually won that book a few months back and was going to read it… doubt I will now though! This behaviour is getting very very boring!
April Books & Wine
Wait, what? Get right with God? Lol um what.
I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT SAILOR MOON! I am like tempted to dust off my Sailor Scout outfit (because yes I legit have one – the skirt is red and the bow is black) cuz it’s about to be this year’s Halloween costume.
Georgette
Sailor Moon- made my day. Excellent!
Alice in Wonderland? I may be in the slight minority who were REALLY creeped out by it and didn’t really dig it.
As for Heather, it’s just wrong. You don’t attack people who a/buy your books b/take the time to read your books and c/honestly critique your books. If you can’t stand professional(I thought both reviews were nothing but professional), you don’t belong being an author in a public arena at all. Or on social media, at all. Just my overstated opinion. Great blog as usual, Kat.
Julie@my5monkeys
Yeah I saw that thing going down from goodreads. another author behaving badly. I thought that DNF review was pretty good in not attacking the author at all. When will they learn 🙁
Renae @ Respiring Thoughts
Dude, I love that Walmart, totally awesome!
But ugh, what is with authors? Don’t they ever get a clue…?
Shay @ 365 Books A Year
It looks like the author- Heather White- also took down her website:
http://heatherstiara.blogspot.com/ is coming up as “Blog not found”.
I “liked” Andrea’s review of White’s book. I think we bloggers have to come up with a standardized name for our Goodreads “Will never read this author-Author Behaving Badly” shelves so the shelves actually show up on the book’s GR page.
Sandra
@Shay @ 365 Books A Year: You know, I like that idea. 🙂 Is there a consensus on a shelf name?
Liz
I feel like as an author, I should apologize for her. There is NO excuse for calling reviewers names! Just because you get a lower-rated review or there is a valid critique does not give authors any right to attack. I’m so disappointed in her attitude and to make matters worse, instead of owning up, she’s gone into hiding? Ugh. On behalf of sane indie authors everywhere, we highly value your opinions and appreciate all the time that goes into reading and reviews!
Kara @ Great Imaginations
Yes, I was called a moron and told to “Get right with god” for swearing. I realize there is no proof though because she deleted the evidence. Next time , I will do MORE than screenshot just the original comments.
Although I hope there is never a next time. But, well…
I think I need to spend time in a Wal-Mart sized library. Let’s roll out!
Chicklitgirl
Heather White’s book also sucked real bad. It was FULL of grammatical and other errors, insta love and was just… bad.
I can’t believe with all that, she actually attacked a reviewer, who’s review btw, isn’t really all that ‘negative’, I mean, there are so many worse ways to say what the reviewer did.
Mireya
I have a question: does writing YA require that the authors drink some special Kool-aid and, if so, does the Kool-Aid have side effects… no … really… at least once every other week (sometimes more than that) I read about another drama moment courtesy of someone that writes YA 😛 Mind you, I don’t read YA, but I “hang out” here and a couple other blogs because of my nieces, who are both teens and I like to learn about what is new in the genre to find more reading material for them, however, I am glad they don’t feel inclined to come online to visit blogs.
Mirey
Expy
On the Sailor Moon news, are they remarking the anime or are they making a new season?
Kailia
Every week, there is some new drama. Do authors not understand that not everyone is going to love their book? AND OMG A NEW SAILOR MOON; SO EXCITED!
Kate C.
I have never liked Alice in Wonderland or the sequel. I think it was the pig baby that did it for me.
I think one should restrain from invoking God’s name to troll people, as I’m sure He doesn’t appreciate it. 🙂
Jo
Sheesh…. I’m now counting my lucky stars that I’ve never had an author be like that about any of my reviews. The funny thing is, when an author does this, they do get more publicity (even though it’s not good publicity at all).
AnimeJune
Given what other scandals exploded today (namely, the cray-cray “Fight Good Reads Bullying” website that targets “mean” reviewers by POSTING THEIR ADDRESSES AND PERSONAL INFORMATION ONLINE), they’ll just say that Heather “was calmly and reasonably commenting on a review” (because if they just sit back and ignore bad reviews like rational adults, the terrorists win) and that the “mean bully reviewers” are just “spreading lies – scandalous lies! – about her”.
That being said – NEW SAILOR MOON, AWWW YISS!
Tien
OMG OMG – totally speechless
Thanks for sharing the news re: Sailor Moon! xx
Kayto
I’m pretty sure I react like this every time a Scandalous Scandal pops up, but…really? This is the second time this week I’ve seen an author being stupid over something minor (the other, though not YA, was Phil Torcivia). Someone needs to make a website or blog or something, The Author’s Guide To The Internet, Manners, and Communication.
Hmmm…Completely unrelated: yay, Sailor Moon! My childhood returneth!
Pam
SAILOR MOOON!!!!!!!