In the tiny village of Dmanisi, a 1.8 million year-old human skull was recently discovered to the amazement of scientists. Nearby, a team of archaeologists from the National Museum of Georgia and the German Mining Museum (DBM) unearthed Bronze Era caves.

But the area is also rich in minerals. One site, known as Sakdrisi, is even believed to be home to a 5,000-year-old gold mine. The area was part of a concession of land the Georgian government allotted for the exploration of minerals in 1994.

In 2006, Georgia's Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection added the ancient gold mine site to its list of protected cultural monuments. The archaeological significance of the region had been a source of pride to the company that had the initial rights to mine the area. But that's now due to change. The Russian-owned company RMG bought the lease in 2012, and now plans to mine for gold.

The power of gold

RMG believes that rich gold deposits are directly under the ancient gold mine site and petitioned strongly for the government to lift Sakdrisi's protected status.

The Georgian Ministry of Culture formed a commission to study the site's status in May 2013. After one month of investigations, the commission ruled that no grounds exist to justify the protected status. In July 2013, the Ministry of Culture revoked its protected cultural heritage status.

The commission also held that the previous Georgian government had granted the protected status illegally, although they say they cannot find the 2006 documents that granted Sakdrisi permanent protection.

Thomas Stöllner, from DBM, challenged the commission's scientific qualifications though, requesting in an open letter that a new international committee be set up to test the site's archaeological signficance. So far the request has fallen on deaf ears.

Conflicts of interest

Gold exports are big business in Georgia. Sales of the precious metal overseas totalled 25.7 million euros ($35.5 million) in 2013, nearly 3 percent of the country's total export earnings.

RMG Commercial Director Solomon Tsabadze, a former Georgian Environment Ministry official, says the mining company provides 85 percent of the local budget through licensing fees and is the largest single employer in the region.

But civil society groups suspect collusion between the mining company and the government. Back in 1994 a Ministry of Environment official, Zurab Kutelia, issued the original mining permit for Sakdrisi. Today, he is the chairperson RMG's supervisory board and a company shareholder. On the other hand, other former mining company directors have become government officials too.

For Marine Mizandari, Georgia's former Deputy Minister of Culture, the ministry's decision to remove Sakdrisi from its list of protected sites is a serious setback.

"Why are we called the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia, if we don't protect our monuments of culture?" she said to DW, adding that she believes she was dismissed from her post in the culture ministry for reasons related to Sakdrisi.

Citizens stand up

Mizandari is now at the forefront of the Public Committee to Save Sakdrisi, a coalition of civil society groups and students demanding that the Culture Ministry appoint a non-partisan group of international experts to re-evaluate Sakdrisi.

But her protest work is not yet getting results. At a recent meeting with university students on the issue, Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili reiterated the commission's controversial findings, saying there was no proof gold had ever been mined in Sakdrisi. He stressed that RMG has already invested heavily in the Georgian economy and that protecting Sakdrisi would jeopardize the jobs of 3,000 people.

RMG has now been given the green light to begin excavating, and activists and students have organized protests against the Culture Ministry's decision in Tbilisi and near the mine site. One of their chief complaints is their exclusion from the decision-making process.

"You can stop anybody on the street and every Georgian will tell you they are proud of their history and culture," said Avtandil Ioseliani, representing Unanimity, a local NGO coalition. "I don't know what the Culture Ministry is doing, but they are not answering the questions society has."

Although Sakdrisi has lost its cultural heritage protected status, it is still an archaeological site, which prevents RMG from destroying it completely. The Culture Ministry has announced that it will appoint an independent group of archaeological experts to monitor the mining work done.

But mining opponents fail to see the logic in the policy, since the mining process requires blasting and the destruction of the ancient tunnels, they say.

Nikoloz Antidze, from the National Agency for Cultural Heritage and Preservation of Georgia, recalls how archaeological sites were ruined when BP laid an oil pipeline across the country in last 10 years.

"State interests often override archaeological interests all over the world, not just in Georgia," he told DW.

Source: Deutsche Welle [December 17, 2014]

The Innovative Park in Australia

The new project of mixed use located in the north of Sydney, with the budget in 400 million dollars, urged to "plant trees and shrubs" in business. Developed by architects GHD, Innovative park Gore Hill is the newest building object Lindsay Bennelong Developments before which it's necessary to connect a problem ecological stability to business innovations.
Project Gore Hill will be the first technological business park received five stars AGBA and rating Green Star in Australia. In located on the former areas of studios ABC in Gore Hill, on the bottom part of northern coast of Sydney, business park, the area in 4.6 hectares, provides convenient places for offices, and as spaces under retail shops and the entertaining centers — including a separate site for retail trade in plaza-style, a zone of municipal departments, motor shows, the aqua-center, and also foot and bicycle paths.

The Australian Innovative Project

“Project of a glass cube so typical for given area is not pleasant to us”, main architect GHD Nando Nicotra speaks. “From the very beginning of the project we wished to create the unique building corresponding to aesthetic ideals, and have decided, that it's necessary to concentrate attention to appearance of a building”.
The given project, example of modern innovative architecture, also is realization of various innovations on ecological stability — including repeated capture of superseded heat, effective system of lifts and a central air “chilled beam”. It guarantees that the project will receive a five-stars rating and will set the tendency of new level of requirements to the future industrial and commercial projects. At present works on district to start building in January, 2009 are conducted.

VIA «The Gore Hill Park (Sydney)»

The BBC has been investigating the trade, and the routes from Syria through Turkey and Lebanon to Europe.

The Smuggler

It has taken many calls and a lot of coaxing to get a man we are calling "Mohammed" to meet us. He is originally from Damascus but now plies his trade in the Bekaa valley on the border between Syria and Lebanon. He's 21 but looks much younger in his T-shirt, skinny jeans and black suede shoes. As we sit in an apartment in central Beirut I have to lean forward to hear the softly spoken young man describe how he began smuggling looted antiquities from Syria. "There's three friends in Aleppo we deal with, these people move from Aleppo all the way to the border here and pay a taxi driver to sneak it in." He specialised in smaller items which would be easier to move on - but he says even that has become too risky. "We tried our best to get the items which had most value, earrings, rings, small statues, stone heads," he says.

He made a good profit but bigger players with better connections "sold pieces worth $500,000, some for $1m", he says. When I ask who's making the money and controlling the trade in Syria his gentle voice takes on a flinty tone: "IS are the main people doing it. They are the ones in control of this business, they stole from the museums especially in Aleppo," he says. "I know for a fact these militants had connections overseas and they talked ahead of time and they shipped overseas using their connections abroad." Mohammed is still involved in cross-border trade, but no longer in antiquities. "Anyone caught with it gets severe punishment," he says. "They accuse you of being IS."

The Go-between

To sell looted antiquities you need a middle-man, like "Ahmed". Originally from eastern Syria, he is based in a town in southern Turkey - he doesn't want me to specify which one as he doesn't want the police to know. As a Turkish-speaker he is popular with Syrian smugglers, who ask if he can move goods on to local dealers. When I speak to him via Skype he shows me a blanket next to him filled with artefacts - statues of animals and human figures, glasses, vases and coins. They were dug up in the last few months. "They come from the east of Syria, from Raqqa, all the areas controlled by ISIS (Islamic State)," he says. Islamic State plays an active part in controlling the trade, he tells me. Anyone wanting to excavate has to get permission from IS inspectors, who monitor the finds and destroy any human figures, which are seen as idolatrous (those Ahmed is showing me have slipped through the net). IS takes 20% as tax. "They tax everything," he says.

The main trade is in stoneworks, statues and gold, and it can be extremely lucrative. "I have seen one piece sold for $1.1m," he says. "It was a piece from the year 8500BC." He gently handles each artefact as he brings it closer to the webcam to give me a better view. He has had to pay a sizeable bond to the smugglers to get this material and he doesn't want to lose any of it. The final destination is Western Europe, he says. "Turkish merchants sell it to dealers in Europe. They call them, send pictures... people from Europe come to check the goods and take them away." Ahmed will have to return the looted artefacts to his Syrian contacts, as I am clearly not buying them, but he won't be returning to his homeland. "If I went back I'd be killed," he says.

The Dealer

It's an unremarkable tourist shop in the centre of Beirut. Inside the glass cases are ancient oil lamps, rings and glassware but the shop owner, a laconic man in his late 40s, has an unusual selling tactic - he says much of it is fake. However, he assures me he does have genuine pieces from the Hellenic and Byzantine periods, around 1,000 years old. I'm interested what other items he can get, mosaics for example? I had been advised by archaeologists that mosaics would almost certainly be looted - at the moment, that would mean most likely from Syria. He asks which kind I want. Faces, animals, geometric designs? "If you're serious we can have a serious negotiation... there is always a way," he promises. When I ask if it's legal he smiles as he tells me the only way to legally ship these items is with official documentation from a museum saying they have been cleared for export.

If it was only a small mosaic I wanted, I could take the chance and try to smuggle it out myself but he warns it's a serious decision, as I could get caught. For a fee he can have them shipped to the UK but it will cost me many thousands of pounds. We shake hands as I leave and he gives me his business card. It has only taken 10 minutes to be offered illicit antiquities. Arthur Brand, an investigator who helps recover stolen antiquities isn't surprised, it chimes with his experience in Lebanon. "I've been there several times and at times and it really is amazing," he tells me from his base in Amsterdam. "The illicit trade is run as a professional business with offices and business cards and you can buy antiquities from Lebanon, but also from countries like Syria, Iraq." The link between smugglers and dealers is the dirty secret the art world doesn't want to admit to, he says.

The Cop

He could easily pass for the star of an Arabic cop show but Lt Col Nicholas Saad is a real policeman, head of Lebanon's bureau of international theft. In his office, filled with certificates from the FBI and Scotland Yard, he shows me photos of huge Roman busts seized in a recent raid in Lebanon. We go up to the roof of his police station, where out to the east, beyond the mountains, is the border with Syria. This is where refugees pour into the country and are exploited by the smuggling gangs.

"The refugees come in big numbers and the gangs put things between the belongings of the refugees," he explains. Since the conflict in Syria he has noticed a significant increase in the smuggling of looted artefacts, "especially from the Islamic parts, Raqqa (the base) of the Islamic State", he adds. His team has seized hundreds of Syrian artefacts. "We have the archaeology expert that said they're very valuable from the Roman period, from the Greek period, years before Christ," he says. But there isn't a market for them in Lebanon. "Lebanon is a transit station, it's one of the the doors that goes to Europe. The real money is made in Europe."

The Treasure

Inside the Beirut National museum are treasures from the cradle of civilisation - Hellenic, Roman and Byzantine statues, busts and sarcophagi 3,000 years old. Hidden away from the public in a store room below the main galleries, seized looted antiquities wait to be returned to Syria. My guide is Dr Assaad Seif, an archaeologist and head of excavations at the directorate general of antiquities in Beirut. He rings a bell and a wrought iron door is unlocked. Inside are scores of items - pottery, stonework - but the most valuable items are sealed away in a warehouse. "We have huge funeral sculptures, representing men and women used to seal the tombs, from Palmyra," he says.

Most of the seized items are from excavations rather than thefts from museums. The looters target warehouses at ancient sites like Palmyra, a Unesco world heritage site. "The warehouses at archaeological sites have objects they know are not listed or catalogued yet, and they think it could be easier to sell them," he says. "The Palmyra objects had value for people in Syria... it gives a kind of identity," he says. Although reluctant to put a price on any of the bigger items, after some coaxing he relents. "We have a dozen objects that would sell for $1m each on the open market." I understand why they keep them out of sight of curious foreign visitors.

The Destination 

It has taken days to get through to Dr Maamoun Abdulkarim, the archaeologist in charge of Syria's dept of antiquities in Damascus. When I do reach him, he's angry. "The sites under the control of ISIS, in these areas we have a disaster, a lot of problems. IS attack all things just for the money," he says. "It is our memory, our identity, for the government, the opposition, for all Syria." It's impossible to stop the looting but he is adamant more could be done to crack down on the trade. "We are sure through all the sources a lot of objects go from Syria to Europe, in Switzerland, in Germany, in UK - and Gulf countries like Dubai and Qatar," he says.

It was a common refrain. Everyone from the Lebanese police to Mohammed the smuggler and Ahmed the go-between said the main market was Europe. In the UK there have been no prosecutions or arrests for selling looted Syrian artefacts but Vernon Rapley, who ran the Metropolitan Police's art and antiquities squad for almost a decade, says too much shouldn't be read into this. "I'm quite confident that there have been seizures of material like this," he confidently states, as we stroll around his new workplace, the Victoria and Albert museum, where he is director of security.

Rapley still liaises closely with his former police unit and he is certain that artefacts from Syria are being sold here. He wants the trade in these antiquities to become "socially repugnant and unacceptable" so that in the future, he says, "we don't have interior decorators looking for these things to decorate people's houses".

Author: Simon Cox | Source: BBC News Website [February 17, 2015]

In the most recent issue of Real Simple magazine there is a great article about things you shouldn't say to a college graduate. I mostly bought the magazine because of the one page article and I think it was worth it. So inspired by them I've come up with five things you shouldn't say to an English major.

1. Have you ever considered minoring in business? Yes, I have. No, I don't want to. If I wanted to minor in business I would and could but I've found a different path and it doesn't involve killing myself with a microeconomics textbook. Also, the business department is not the be all end all college.
2. So you want to be a teacher? Thousands of people get English degrees every year and obviously not all of of them end up being teachers. Some people like the idea of standing up in front of thirty pimple faced brats and attempting to explain why To Kill a Mockingbird is so great. I, for one, do not.
3. Recite some Shakespeare! I'm not sure where people get the idea that English majors sit in rooms and memorize lines from Shakespeare but someone asked me to do this once. I've never even taken a class on Shakespeare. I mean I've read Shakespeare for class, but only for a couple of weeks. I think this is just the first author most people think of.
4. So what do you want to do? Most college students don't know what they want to do but everyone seems particularly concerned about what English majors want to do. I don't really understand this. I usually want to ask them if they're offering me a job. There are a lot of majors out there that seem less applicable to the real world than English. Ones that immediately come to mind are American Studies, Leisure Studies, and Italian-- and I'm sure all of those people find jobs eventually. With all the typos I see on restaurant signs I think we could use a few more English majors in the world.
5. Why don't you write a book? A lot of English majors want to write books. A lot of English majors will write books or are currently working on books. But writing a book is not the solution to the "problem" of being an English major and truthfully there are a lot of English majors who I hope never, ever write books. Some English majors just like to read. Some of them are great technical writers. Some of them have no interest in writing at all. You're shocked I know.

So what do you say instead? Ask them what kind of classes they are taking, what they like about their major, what they don't like about it. English majors are great at talking and I'm sure you'll find a great conversation with them somehow.

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Cleanliness — health pledge!

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Emergency Cash Loans for Small Businesses

Traditional cash loan for serious projects!

VIA «Fast loans it's real!»

The Wheelwright's are an affluent Boston family. They meet up every summer at the family's Nantucket summer home, also the permanent residence of the family matriarch, Nona, and Charlotte, Nona's 30 year old granddaughter.

This summer the family really has something to celebrate: Nona's 90th birthday! Soon the quiet Nantucket house will be overflowing with family members, and with them comes extra family drama.

Summer House

is told from the viewpoint of three generations of Wheelwright women: Nona Wheelwright, Helen Wheelwright, and Charlotte Wheelwright.

Nona Wheelwright is the oldest surviving member of the Wheelwright family. Her husband, Herb, passed away several years ago. Her days are spent reliving her youth. Through flashbacks, the reader catches a glimpse of her introduction to the Wheelwright family. Although her midwestern family was wealthy as well, Nona (known as Anne in her youth) had to work hard to be accepted into the family. Secrets she's kept for decades may change the family forever...for the good and and the bad.

Helen Wheelwright is married to Nona's oldest son, Worth. She's recently discovered he was having an affair, and spends the summer weeding through her thoughts as to what her future will hold.

Charlotte Wheelwright has finally found her passion: running an organic gardening business on her Grandma Nona's land. She's the free-spirit of the family. After attempting to join the family banking business without success, the Wheelwights agreed to allow Charlotte to take upon this endeavor. It also helped that she'd be caring for Grandma Nona, a task Nona's children hadn't been able to take upon themselves.

Three years later she's still at it and with a profit! When the older generation of Wheelwrights learn that Charlotte's "pet project" as bloomed into a profitable endeavor they want to put an end to it immediately. Although Charlotte pays her grandmother rent for the land she uses, her family thinks she is taking advantage of Nona's generosity.

Summer House

contains everything you would want a summer book to have: love, deceit, drama, mystery. I loved that the story is relayed through the eyes of three different generations of family members. Each gives a different perspective on a situation. The Wheelwright family is a large one, and at first I got a little confused with all the differerent names. After long, it wasn't too difficult to distinguish between them as each has their own very distinctive personality.

This book was the perfect quick summer read for me; I read it in one afternoon alone. I appreciated Thayer's descriptive writing and in-depth characterization. You fall in love with each of the family members, despite their many flaws. I held great reverance for Nona--she was an incredibly selfless, inspiring woman.

So, be sure to pick up a copy of Summer House

before you head out on your summer beach (or backyard!) getaway. You won't regret it.

Thank you to Pump Up Your Book Promotion for allowing me to join in on this tour. Thank you to the publisher for providing my review copy.

Click here to read an excerpt of Summer House

by Nancy Thayer.

I bought Getting Out of Town

used while I was in Chicago. I'd been having this feeling for awhile that I really wanted to find a book no one had heard of. Something different and awesome from what you read reviews of all the time. I think I do an okay job of reviewing lesser known titles on my blog, alongside more well known books, but wanted something totally different. Getting Out of Town looked like it might be that book. The back cover says it's a short story collection, but I look at it more like The Imperfectionists, a series of stories that are all connected. It is short though, just over one hundred pages. I'm counting this as part of the November Novella Challenge. The story takes place in a small town in Canada and mostly focuses on Nancy McKinnon, a woman in love with a drunk.

Most of the book is about wanting to get out of a small town and starting a new life. I was interested in the treatment of women throughout this book. In this small town everyone's business is everyone's business, and if a woman has multiple sex partners everyone knows it. And she gets labeled a slut. There is not escaping that, it's branded on her as long as she stays in the town. This is one example of many brands people in the small town get stuck with. It's as if it's impossible to change in a small town because everyone knows of you as the slut or the drunk or the pervert.

While I enjoyed that aspect of the book, I have to say I was extremely disappointed overall. I felt the characters lacked depth, I didn't really know much about them outside their personas in the town. I found the narrative structure to be extremely difficult to follow, one story starting off at a completely different point from where the previous one ended. The language felt contrived. I hate the saying "Show don't tell," but reading this was very difficult because most sentences were just telling me "We did this... then we did that... I saw this... then I thought this." Very frustrating to read.

I know I'm being really hard on this book, and part of it might have to do with the fact that I was somewhat offended by the portrayal of small town life. Most of the characters in this book were in there thirties but they all acted like they were sixteen. And while this might be true for some people who live in small towns, it's also true for some people who live in suburbs or cities. I felt like the characters became caricatures, which is one of my biggest pet peeves. I feel a little bad being so harsh on this book considering I haven't found a review of it anywhere else, and I don't think anyone has read it on Goodreads, but I call them like I see them.

I give this book a D. It does have a very nice cover though, so kudos to the publisher for that.

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Entrust repair to professionals!

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The Stone Towers by Zaha Hadid Architects

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VIA «Expocentre in Addis Ababa»

I that Vasilly had done a post on what books she had to read this semester at her blog 1330v. I thought this was such a great idea I had to steal the idea to use here! I'm taking seven classes this semester but two of them are business classes and therefor not really that interesting, so I'll just skip those books (the classes are Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness I and Foundations of Entrepreneurship in case you were wondering).

I'm taking a class called Film and Literature that is all about visual essays. For this class we're going to watch a film essay every week and have other essays that we read. I was really excited when I saw the book list for this class because it included some books I've wanted to buy for awhile. This includes The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present

and The Lost Origins of the Essay

. These are both humongous essay collections that will take me forever to get through, so I'm really excited I'll be required to read from them this semester. We're also reading Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: The American Classic, in Words and Photographs, of Three Tenant Families in the Deep South

. I'm not really sure what this one is about other than it deals with sharecroppers from the South. The final book for this class is The Pleasure of the Text

by Roland Barthes. This one appears to be about why people read, it's a very small book, only 80 pages so I'm interested to see what it's about.

The second English class I'm taking is Literature and the Book: Renaissance Texts as Technology. There are no books for this class but we will do a lot of readings online. I'm planning on using my nook to take the pdf's with me to class so I'll be sure to let everyone know how that goes. Even though we don't have books I know we're going to read Shakespeare, Donne, and Spenser, as well as texts about how reading formats have changed. I looked at the syllabus for this class yesterday and we're taking seven field trips!

The final English class I'm taking is Advanced Nonfiction Writing: Nature Writing. An opening just came up in this class yesterday and I was thrilled because I waited all summer for it to happen. I love nature writing and I'm excited to do some of my own. I'm also excited because while this class meets twice a week, only one meeting is actually in a classroom. The other meeting every week is at an outdoor location. For this class we're reading Nature Writing: The Tradition in English

, which appears to be an anthology of nature writing. A quick glance at some of the writers has me excited because they include Thoreau and Annie Dillard who I know I enjoy.

I'm taking an anthropology class that we're using the textbook Introduction to Physical Anthropology

for. I don't have much to say about that one. I'm also taking piano lessons but as far as I know there isn't a book for that yet.

I'd also just like to mention where I purchased the majority of my books. I rent expensive textbooks but for my book for English classes I just Better World Books. I'm mentioning this simply because I support this company. They offer free shipping in the United States and they use the money they get from the books to support global literacy organizations. If you have to buy textbooks anyway you might as well support a great organization as well.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

The princesses, fifth and sixth in line to the throne, will be given protection only when they attend official events on behalf of the Royal Family.
Safe: The Princesses are driven away from Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding reception by a protection officer
Prince Andrew had fought ferociously for the protection officers to stay. He argued his daughters should be treated differently from other minor royals because they enjoy HRH status.
But his argument failed because their cousin Zara Phillips, the daughter of Princess Anne, has no protection – even though she has a higher public profile.
Furious: Prince Andrew is said to have fought to keep the protection officers as he feels they are different to other minor Royals because of their HRH status
The cost of guarding Eugenie, 21, in her first year at Newcastle University has been estimated at £250,000 a year. It includes salaries, accommodation and living and travel expenses of two full-time bodyguards.
Beatrice, 22, studying at the University of London, enjoys the same level of protection.
Prince Andrew insisted his daughters have full-time protection despite private police assessments that they were low-risk targets.
No protection: The Duchess of Gloucester will no longer have security unless on official business, while Zara Philips has no cover despite her high profile
The Home Office is determined to prune the estimated £50million security bill for the Royal Family.
Other minor royals such as the Duchess of Gloucester who, unlike princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, performs official engagements, will also have their protection withdrawn when not on official duty.
source: dailymail

VIA Beatrice and Eugenie are stripped of their 24-hour protection after row over £50,000 annual cost

My choice — Advanced Direct Security

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On Thursday, I'm hopping on a plane to NY to attend BEA (Book Expo America) for the first time. I can't tell you how excited I am to have this opportunity to meet some amazing authors and finally get a chance to meet some of the wonderful book bloggers I've been following and tweeting with over the past year and a half! In addition, I'll finally get to meet some of the amazing publicists I've worked with over the years.

Some things I'm really looking forward to:

Friday

• From 2-3 pm I will be one of over 40 bloggers at the Firebrand Technologies booth (#4077). If you are coming to BEA, stop by and see me! Be sure to bring your business cards! Visitors to the booth will be entered to win a Sony Reader! Click here for a list of book bloggers that will be signing.
  

• Friday night is the BEAtweetup, which is the "unauthorized, unofficial, and entirely necessary Tweet-Up for Book Expo America 2009, complete with music, dancing, Belvedere Vodka literary themed cocktails, and Bookish Tweeps from all corners of the universe." Over 400 bookish people will be in attendance (plus there's a waiting list!)
  

Saturday

• I will be interviewing Neil Jones, inventor of COOL-ER, the elegant and affordable e-Reader. Any questions you'd like answered?

• Book Blogger's Panel. Six talented book bloggers will discuss how bloggers, publishers, and booksellers can work better together. If you can't attend BEA, you can call in and listen to the panel via Blog Talk Radio.

Amy from My Friend Amy
Beth from Beth Fish Reads
Dawn from She is Too Fond of Books
Julie from Booking Mama
Natalie from Maw Books
Stephanie from The Written Word

I'm attempting to learn how to post via my blackberry, so check back later in the week for BEA updates!

July 8-11

Those that know me are aware of my obsession with thriller and horror fiction. Thrillfest is like my dream come true; the opportunity, according to Jon Land, Vice President of Marketing for ITW, to "mix and mingle with some of the biggest names in the business." But, alas, since I took time off to attend BEA in May, I can't take off any additional work time without experiencing intense feelings of guilt.

One of the highlights of the event is the coveted ThrillerMaster Award, recognizing outstanding contribution to the thriller genre. This year’s winner is noted author David Morrell, widely considered the “father” of the contemporary action novel with his 1974 debut First Blood (which introduced the character of Rambo to the world). The award celebrates Morrell’s amazing career, spanning 37 years and 28 novels published in dozens of languages across the globe.

The prestigious Silver Bullet Award, recognizing outstanding achievement in the encouragement of literacy and the love of reading, will be presented to the #1 New York Times bestselling suspense novelist Brad Meltzer (The Book of Fate).

Additional bestselling spotlight guests that will attend are last year’s ThrillerMaster award recipient Sandra Brown as well as Robin Cook, Katherine Neville, and David Baldacci.

The four-day event includes numerous author signings, a complete bookstore on premises, a cocktail party and reception for readers, a roasting of Clive Cussler, and a breakfast featuring first-time authors. The highlight is the annual ThrillerFest Awards Banquet, which this year will take place at Cipriani, one of New York City’s most spectacular event venues.

Some of the biggest names in the genre will be holding court with interactive panel sessions, including Kathleen Antrim, Steve Berry, Peter Rubie, William Bernhardt, James Rollins, Barry Eisler, Andrew Gross, David Hewson, Jon Land, Eric Van Lustbader, Gayle Lynds, Steve Martini, Donald Maass, Joan Johnston and many more.

2009 Thriller Award Nominees:

Best Thriller of the Year

Hold Tight by Harlan Coben
The Bodies Left Behind by Jeffery DeaverT
The Broken Window by Jeffery Deaver
The Dark Tide by Andrew Gross
The Last Patriot by Brad Thor

Best First Novel

Calumet City by Charlie Newton
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Criminal Paradise by Steven Thomas
Sacrifice by S. J. Bolton
The Killer's Wife by Bill Floyd

Best Short Story

Between the Dark and the Daylight by Tom Piccirilli (Ellery Queen Magazine)
Last Island South by John C. Boland (Ellery Queen Magazine)
The Edge of Seventeen by Alexandra Sokoloff (The Darker Mask)
The Point Guard by Jason Pinter (Killer Year Anthology)
Time of the Green by Ken Bruen (Killer Year Anthology)

So, if you are able to attend Thrillerfest, do so! I plan on attending next year. For more information, and to register, visit The International Thriller Writers Web Site.

Today I have an interview with up and coming author Alexandra Bracken. Her novel, Brightly Woven, debuts March 23. The short description of the novel from her website is, "Sydelle Mirabil is living proof that, with a single drop of rain, a life can be changed forever. Tucked away in the farthest reaches of the kingdom, her dusty village has suffered under the weight of a strangely persistent drought. That is, of course, until a wizard wanders into town and brings the rain with him." I haven't read her novel yet, though I plan to, so many of you might be wondering why I chose to interview her. Bracken is unique in that she was working on publishing her novel while she was still in college. She signed with an agent on her 21st birthday and after spending her senior year revising the novel her dream is finally coming true next week. How did she do it you might ask, and I think the work diligence pretty much sums up Bracken's story. I won't just leave it at that though, as follows you can read her answers to my questions about how she balanced school and writing and what path (or paths) she took to get there.

Where did you go to school, when did you graduate, and what did you go?
I went to the College of William and Mary, graduated last Spring, and majored in History and English

Did you start as an English major? What made you decide to become an English major?
When I was applying for schools, I focused on the Virginia area, mostly because I knew I wanted to study Early American History and I would freeze my butt off if I went to school in New England. I had always loved English, but my dad had convinced me to major in History and Government because he wanted me to be a lawyer. BIG mistake. I took one Government class and realized how stupid it was for me NOT to major in English--AKA the subject I really loved.

What were your plans for after graduation? How have those plans been fulfilled or how have they been different than you expected?
Originally, I was going the pre-law route (I'm sure you've all noticed that when you say you're an English major, most people assume that you want to be A) a lawyer or B) a teacher)... but I realized, in the middle of taking the LSAT unfortunately, that being a lawyer would make me MISERABLE, and spent all of the summer between Junior and Senior year moping around without a life plan. My next idea was to work in PR/Communications (which I definitely recommend), but I ended up getting a scholarship to attend the Columbia Publishing Institute and decided to take it. I now work as an editorial assistant in children's publishing. Looking back, it seems like a natural choice since being an author had given me a lot of insight into the business.I'm not sure if it's what I want to be doing forever, but I'm happy to be employed and doing something I enjoy!


What made you decide to take on writing a novel while in college?
I first tried my hand at writing a novel my freshman year--I always say that NaNoWriMo made me very brave, and it's true. I thought I would just give it a go, and ended up getting hooked on the process.

Were you planning to publish this all along?
No... I tried to be very realistic about it and not get my hopes up, but secretly I was hoping I'd be able to sell something before I graduated.


How did you balance school and writing?
I get asked this all the time, and I'm still not sure what the right answer is. I was very disciplined and made a lot of social sacrifices on the weekends. You really do have to find a schedule that works, though. The first three years of college were incredibly reading and writing intensive (I was once assigned 2000 pages of reading a week in my Sophomore year. Not. Fun.), but that helped me write. Knowing that I only had an hour here or two hours there meant that I used that little time for writing and writing alone. When i was working on revisions with my agent, I gave myself a deadline to finish the first round before finals that May. Starting in March, I woke up at 6 AM every day and wrote until I had class at 1 PM, and when I was done with homework at night, I'd be back to revising. I tried getting up at 5 AM and squeezing in an hour of work out time, but... uh... I quickly decided an extra hour of sleep was more important than getting my fitness on.


What advice would you give college students who want to write seriously in college? What advice would you give those who want to publish? What steps should they take?
The advice that I always give to high schoolers and college students that ask me this question is this: While you're in school, focus on being a writer before you focus on being a published author. I really miss the days I had before I was published, when I could write whatever I wanted regardless of how crappy it was and I didn't have to worry about another person's judgment. I can't reinforce this enough, being published in college is like having a full-time job, and one that isn't always fun. It's an incredible amount of stress and pressure to put on yourself, when you're already anxious about exams/papers/what-have-you. Not everyone will have a negative experience, but I would also add that a good portion of my friends thought that I had graduated a semester early because I was so deep in my revision hole that I only surfaced for food and class. School is such a unique and wonderful time, but you don't get to experience it when you're by yourself writing. There are a zillion and a half elements in Brightly Woven that I picked up from the classes I was taking at the time. Be a sponge and absorb as much as possible from your classes and friends. Make sure you're taking advantage of all that college life has to offer, and if you happen to write something that you feel is ready to be seen by the world, go for it! Revise it seriously, submit it to agents, and learn from the feedback you get. Make sure that when you're writing you are happy and excited, because the minute you start feeling stressed out or depressed, it often means that your life has become unbalanced, and you need to step away and refocus.


What advice would you give to English majors about how to make the English major work for them after school?
Okay guys, here's a secret: what matters in the job world isn't necessarily what you majored in, but the internships and work experiences that you have. My current boss didn't hire me because I was an English major (though I'm sure that helped)--she claimed it was because I talked about coordinating our Student Assembly's Thanksgiving airport shuttle rides. So don't discount any work experience you have, regardless of how small or insignificant you think it is. I would also recommend networking with alums in the career field of your choice, and seeking out speciality programs like the Columbia Publishing Course, which often feed you directly into jobs. Besides the fact that companies are always looking for good writers (seriously--critical writing does not tend to be a strength of most business majors), so be sure to always play that up. Plus, you've spent how many years analyzing and forming your own arguments, right? That's another skill you have in the bag.

Alexandra's novel, Brightly Woven, comes out March 23. You can read a longer synopsis if you follow the Brightly Woven link.

VIA Cannes Film Festival 2011: Salma Hayek in a wacky Gucci dress

I've had a long time love affair with Joan Didion. She is the master of the personal in the essay. She knows exactly when to divulge her own history and when to hold back and let others come trough. Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a collection of essays about 1960's America and Didion captures the mood perfectly. She isn't afraid to question or learn and that is what makes her such a fantastic essayist and journalist. In the preface Didion says she went to San Francisco because the world she understood was disappearing. And, as an essayist, she attempts to understand the world she has come to.

I think a lot of people feel this way now. The world a lot of us have been a part of is disappearing, and that includes me. Not only is technology moving faster and broader than any of us probably expected, but we are losing the vastness of American-- we are constantly building over it. Didion looks at San Francisco with the same wonder and confusion we look at our world today, and in doing so realizes that things fall apart. The collection is split into two parts, Life Styles in the Golden Land and Personals. Life Styles in the Golden Land contains essays that explore others lives in San Francisco while Personals is more of Didion's ruminations on things like journaling and home. I vastly preferred Personals to Life Styles in the Golden Land, but this was perhaps because they were easier to connect to on the surface.

Out of everything I read in this book, I loved her essay On Keeping a Notebook the most. In this essay she explores the reality of a notebook, and considers how temporary it actually is. In a journal we write what we are thinking at one moment, and years later we can return to those some words and not have a clue what we were actually thinking about. She talks about how she cannot actually keep a diary because it is too boring, but how she still has a need to write things down. And then she says "I imagine, in other words, that the notebook is about other people. But of course it is not. I have no real business with what one stranger said to another at the hat-check counter in Pavillon..." (135). I loved this because when I journal I often do write about other people, but it isn't actually about them, it's all just a reflection of me.

Because of the disconnect I felt between the two sections I'm giving this a B, but I know I will return to it someday.

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VIA MISS UNIVERSE CANADA 2011 CONTESTANT - Valery Karen Michaud