Early week smatterings

Lionel Shriver describes the effect of winning a major award — and the strangeness afterwards.

It’s the 50th anniversary of PEYTON PLACE and the AP’s Hillel Italie offers up a retrospective on the book and its controversial author, Grace Metalious.

Kate Mosse (who also got a big writeup in the Washington Post) explains why authors are tempted to borrow — especially when the source material is too good not to use again.

Patrick Anderson has many good things to say about Joshua Spanogle’s medical thriller debut ISOLATION WARD, while Mark Timlin does the same for two crime debuts by Roberta Kray and Patrick Quinlan.

The Chicago Sun-Times has a long, long piece about Anne Rice’s conversion from vampire novel to Jesus supporter.

As the DVC trial continues, Dan Brown is expected to take the stand today — that should be fun…

Want to know what the ten worst autobiographies are? The Independent’s Boyd Tonkin gives a few suggestions for the honor.

The Melbourne Age talks to M.J. Hyland, who isn’t much of a fan of children but keeps writing about them in her books, including the wonderfully done CARRY ME DOWN.

And finally, I’m starting to pack, too. But I usually procrastinate on these things.