Writing Unleashed with Laura M. Harkins

News Source The Future of Print Books Emily Witt of The New York Observer discusses indie publisher Melville House’s attempt to secure print books in the future . The innovation HybridBooks will utilize Quick Response (QR) barcodes in the back of print books, giving readers access to free supplemental material. Will the QR barcode help print books maintain relevance? Source Need Help Focusing on Writing?  John Briggs from The New York Times breaks down three text editors that provide full-screen views, cutting down on internet distractions . Briggs also features an “app that turns off your network connection for a set amount of time.” How do you avoid distraction while writing?     Source Experience Leads to Inspiration For all my nonfiction writers and passionate procrastinators. Travel with A. Igoni Barrett on his flight home to Lagos, Nigeria while he reminiscences about his fellowship at the N...

News Source NYC Poetry Festival  Over 130 poets from all corners of the U.S. will gather on Governors Island this weekend for New York’s first poetry festival , Saturday, July 30 th -Sunday, July 31 st . Check out the official festival website here . What literary festivals have you attended? Source Going Extinct: Copy Editing  Virginia Heffernan discusses the affect of technology on the publishing industry. She says publishing houses don’t hire as many copy editors as they did in the past, which leads to typos sneaking into print . Do typos in published work turn you off or do you find them endearing?     Source YouTube Time Machine  Ever wonder what Leo Tolstoy or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would look or sound like on video? Booklicious Blog posted videos of six famous authors, including Mark Twain and Ian Fleming . What author from the past would you like to hear speak? Contests ...

News Grieving Loss Through Memoir The past week I spent in Roanoke, VA learning, reading and critiquing memoir and other non-fiction forms made me stop and take a longer look at Meghan O’Rourke’s blog post at Huffington Post. She interviewed her father about the grieving process after his wife and her mother passed away to mark the publication of Meghan’s book, The Long Goodbye: A Memoir . What memoirs have you read that helped you understand the world better?       blackcelebkids.com Bullying Novel from 50 Cent Julie Bosman of The New York Times tells readers about rap artist Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s novel about bullying , Playground , due out in January of next year. He used his life growing up to inspire and provide material for the novel and hopes it will not only help his teenage son, but many young adults.        Do you think 50 Cent’s explicit lyrics will affect the public response to his novel? Literary Traveling NPR helps you...

News Literary Blending with Fantasy/Sci-fi The Wall Street Journal discusses the line between genre and literary fiction, low and high art. Alexandra Alter dives into the  literary novelists’ struggle to compete with ubiquitous fantasy and science fiction.  Is the literary novelist’s move to blend their genre with popular fiction going to help or hurt them?     Analysis of All 7 Harry Potter Novels Sean Smith at The Boston College Chronicle talks about Romance Languages and Literatures Professor Emerita Vera Lee’s On the Trail of Harry Potter , “which she touts as the first book-length literary analysis of all seven Harry Potter volumes.” She breaks from previously published analyses to focus on how J.K. Rowling created Harry Potter and why. Would you purchase the literary analysis of the beloved YA series? Summer Reading List The New York Times runs down a list of 19 promising new books to keep you busy during the summer. Janet Maslin shows us that ...

News   Children Inheriting Their Parents Books According to Kevin Hartnett, parents often choose books from their childhood to share with their children and foster a love for reading. A wonderful tradition to pass on to the youth of this world.   Name 1 or 2 of your favorite books as a child?     syracusesandpark.com Looking to Turn Your Novel Into a Movie? Josie Freedman, Co-head of the Media Rights Department (with Nick Harris) at International Creative Management (ICM) discusses what she looks for when deciding if a novel can translate into a movie .   What novels do you think would make for a great movie? last.fm PJ Harvey to Release Her Writing and Art Work Life and the chance to make a record took musician  PJ Harvey away from her desire for the visual arts, and now would like to make her way back. While on tour for her a new album out this year, a plan to showcase her poetry, short fiction and drawings is in the works. ...