Tart thoughts on the nature of fiction - and some sweet ones, too
Monday, June 01, 2009
Just One Book: the Debate
An excellent, judicious post about the Salt Just One book campaign by Sheila Bounford at Off the Page, written largely in response to a fierce debate on Jane Smith's How Publishing Really Works.
Elizabeth, thank you for the link to my blog, which has already sent several people over there.
Thanks to the "Just One Book" campaign, I now have a copy of the wonderful "Balancing on the Edge of the World" in my hands. I've read the first story: the ending was made even more powerful by your quick, easy style and it's stayed with me all day. Lovely. If the rest of the stories are as good (and I bet they are), I'm in for an absolute treat.
I'll be going back to Salt's (apparently difficult to navigate, but I didn't find it so on my slow dial-up connection) website in a week or two to buy a few more books but meanwhile, I'll be reading your fabulous book.
Jane, I'm so pleased to have discovered your blog. And thank you so much for buying my book - I do hope you enjoy the rest of the stories. But I can thoroughly recommend other Salt books: of course you know about Tania's The White road, of course; I'm sure you're going to love Carys Davies's haunting contemporary fairy tales, and Vanessa Gebbie's feisty stories are a must, as are the varied but evocative stories of Charles Lambert, and the tough wry stories of Matthew Licht which I've just bougt and have started reading. Pletny more, though: as Charles Lambert says, Salt don't do duds to my knowledge.
'An analytical, and sometimes funny, take on the world of fiction reading, writing and publishing' - The Cerebral Mum 'Other than the fact that the lady writes well, with insight, empathy and personality, that she speaks her mind and shies not from confrontation when such is necessary and constructive ... there is really no reason for me to visit her blog' - Alan Kellogg
'Pretty great all the time' - Scott Pack
STORIES
What if you made a different choice, or had a different life?
'The stories in Used to Be are the work of a dazzling writer' - Nuala O'Connor
'One of the finest short story writers in the country' - Neil Campbell
Short stories 'Quite swept me off my feet... Nothing would have induced me to interrupt Balancing on the Edge of the World by Elizabeth Baines until I'd read them all' - Dovegreyreader
'A disturbing and thought-provoking meditation on power, control and the uncertain language of logic' - Carys Bray. For more see my website and the Salt website with PDF sample.
VIDEO CLIP: reading of extract from The Birth Machine
2 comments:
Elizabeth, thank you for the link to my blog, which has already sent several people over there.
Thanks to the "Just One Book" campaign, I now have a copy of the wonderful "Balancing on the Edge of the World" in my hands. I've read the first story: the ending was made even more powerful by your quick, easy style and it's stayed with me all day. Lovely. If the rest of the stories are as good (and I bet they are), I'm in for an absolute treat.
I'll be going back to Salt's (apparently difficult to navigate, but I didn't find it so on my slow dial-up connection) website in a week or two to buy a few more books but meanwhile, I'll be reading your fabulous book.
Jane, I'm so pleased to have discovered your blog. And thank you so much for buying my book - I do hope you enjoy the rest of the stories. But I can thoroughly recommend other Salt books: of course you know about Tania's The White road, of course; I'm sure you're going to love Carys Davies's haunting contemporary fairy tales, and Vanessa Gebbie's feisty stories are a must, as are the varied but evocative stories of Charles Lambert, and the tough wry stories of Matthew Licht which I've just bougt and have started reading. Pletny more, though: as Charles Lambert says, Salt don't do duds to my knowledge.
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