All sorts of stuff

Normalcy, it seems, is the order once again. Good thing, as being somewhat unbalanced, hung over, or otherwise cloudy may not be the best way to approach a seriously Major Fast that begins tonight. Or, it might, but I don’t particularly want to find out…

So anyway, the day’s lit news:

With reactions to the Booker shortlist still streaming in, Boyd Tonkin at the Independent applauds the judges for going back to the way the Booker used to be: choosing fiction with depth and vision instead of shallow pyrotechnics. No kidding. (VERNON GOD LITTLE, I’m looking at you…)

Philip Roth is doing the media rounds quite heavily now that THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA is out. He talks to Robin Siegel at NPR about the book and his reasons for going the alternate-history route.

Dennis Lehane, a “solitary type,” is interviewed by the West Roxbury Transcript as he prepares for a library appearance in the town.

Roger Lewis spent many years struggling to write a biography of Peter Sellers, but when the eventual book was filmed, he was barred from the premiere lest Britt Ekland take her frustrations out upon him. But he did see the movie eventually, and tells the Guardian what he thought.

Looks like suing Dan Brown is the in thing, as three British writers who co-authored a 1982 novel are considering whether to launch a lawsuit against the bestselling author for infringement.

Another day, another article about the joys of DIY publishing. The exception proves the rule…the exception proves the rule….

Bob Sassone, updating Professor Barnhardt’s Journal, interviews Will Christopher Baer on the eve of the writer’s new book in some time, HELL’S HALF-ACRE.

Mark Sarvas explains in an incredibly moving essay how his friendship with the late writer Steven Corbin was inspiring to his own self and his future work.

Robert Birnbaum finally gets back to doing what he does best: interviewing authors. His latest at Identity Theory is with Jonathan Ames.

Other blog-related news: ABC documents the rise of the author blog, while the Book Babes try, oh how they try, to keep up-to-date on the whole litblog thing (including interviewing Mark about TEV and other such blogs) but somehow manage to come across, as Galleycat so wonderfully put it, like two girls who’d met at summer camp in 1962 and bonded over Nancy Drew and their first periods.

And finally, this story is freaking me the hell out, while getting my alarm bells up at the same time.