'I've never felt less festive': the art of writing Christmas novels, 365 days a year

Drinking sherry, bingeing Downton Abbey ... how authors keep up the spirit of the season, even when writing during heatwaves and a nightmarish ChristmasChristmas novels are not a new phenomenon. Charles Dickens sold out of his first print run of A Christmas Carol in days in December 1843, while Agatha Christie played on seasonal stresses with titles including The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding in 1923 and Hercule Poirot’s Christmas in 1938. But these days, there are acres of festive crime and rags-to-riches romances under the mistletoe to choose from. All tastes are catered for, whether it’s a love of trains (Edward Marston’s Victorian railway detective story A Christmas Railway Mystery), religion (Unlikely Santa: An Amish Christmas Story) or even festive erotica. Ebook retailer Smashwords stocks romance titles including The Old Dragon of the Mountain’s Christmas, and the inventive-sounding A Cyborg’s Old Terran Christmas. (“Interstellar bride Nell and her three children are forced to enter space-sleep capsules in the hope of surviving a calamity. She wakes over 700 years later on a ship of cyborg warriors. In this strange environment, Nell can’t imagine what their future will hold, but she is determined to keep her promise and make Christmas for her children.”)It may sound futuristic, but it is part of a long tradition beloved by readers. As Christina Storey at Allison & Busby, an independent publisher whose titles this year range from Anna Jacobs’ Christmas in... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2020-12-17 15:22:04 UTC ]
News tagged with: #print run #allison busby #wonderful time #independent publisher

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Toronto Comic Arts Festival Makes In-Person Return

After a three year hiatus due to the pandemic, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, held June 17-19, welcomed in-person artists and fans to the Toronto Reference Library for an international presentation of new titles and artists. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-06-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The 25 Most Significant New York City Novels From the Last 100 Years

Four writers and one bookseller gathered over Zoom to make a list devoted to fiction in which the city is more than mere setting. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-06-22 09:08:54 UTC ]
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Novels set in the art world highlight our angst over authenticity

"Fake," "Hammer" and “Portrait of an Unknown Lady” are literary thrillers that explore authenticity through the lens, or rather the canvases, of the art world. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-03-24 15:38:03 UTC ]
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'Maus' ban makes Art Spiegelman's Holocaust graphic novel an Amazon bestseller

Sales of Art Spiegelman's 'Maus,' the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel on the Holocaust, have risen after a Tennessee school board banned it this month. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-01-31 18:49:42 UTC ]
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Tennessee School Board Bans Graphic Novel Maus Right Before Holocaust Remembrance Day

The "Orwellian" decision to ban a graphic novel that depicts the horrors of the Holocaust was made days before Holocaust Remembrance Day. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2022-01-27 17:45:36 UTC ]
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Dutch Writing Campaign returns for fourth year

The Dutch Foundation for Literature has announced the New Dutch Writing campaign will return to the UK for the fourth year.   Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-25 17:20:43 UTC ]
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‘The Latinist’ is the perfect suspense novel to kick off your reading year

Set in the claustrophobic world of academia, this twisty tale by Mark Prins will remind you of Donna Tartt’s ‘The Secret History’ Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-12-31 23:16:02 UTC ]
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‘Around the World in Eighty Days’ — about to get a reboot — is the perfect Christmas tale

The classic adventure story mirrors the holiday season — weeks of madcap action and inner turmoil that usher in a morning of gladness and goodwill. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-12-22 13:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins marks 'five days of giving' this Christmas

HarperCollins is participating in "five days of giving" this week, to highlight the charities and causes it is supporting this Christmas. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-15 14:56:31 UTC ]
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Goth-rock queen PJ Harvey is publishing a book-length narrative poem that took six years to write.

PJ Harvey is trying her hand at poetry again. In April 2022, Picador Poetry in the UK will publish the hardcover edition of Orlam, Harvey’s book-length narrative poem. A special collector’s edition featuring the musician’s original artwork will follow in October 2022. The long-form poem, which... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-11-12 18:12:55 UTC ]
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Art of Writing 2021 Highlights Diverse Characters, Mental Health

Hosted annually by the ECPA, 2021’s Art of Writing took place virtually from Sept. 30—Nov. 4 with webinars touching on the need for authentic representations of diverse people, the impacts of Covid-19 on writers, and other challenges within the Christian publishing industry today. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-11-10 05:00:00 UTC ]
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A Graphic Novel About 100 Years of Matrilineal Family History, From South China to Singapore

To hear Weng Pixin tell it, Let’s Not Talk Anymore started out as a kind of “fuck you” move after a particularly bad fight with her mom but—as these things tend to go—it gradually transformed into a project to locate herself within the moth-eaten story of her matrilineal line.  Moving back and... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-11-04 11:00:00 UTC ]
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The Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka Discusses His First Novel in Nearly Fifty Years

The Nigerian writer explains the origins of his latest book’s title, why novels are harder to write than plays, and the masochistic pull of political activism. Continue reading at New Yorker

[ New Yorker | 2021-11-02 22:37:29 UTC ]
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‘The Days of Afrekete’ is a bitingly funny novel with echoes to ‘Mrs. Dalloway’

The centerpiece of Asali Solomon’s story is a dinner party that goes off the rails. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-10-28 14:04:39 UTC ]
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“Anybody’s life could be a wonderful piece of art.” Read Maxine Hong Kingston’s best writing advice.

On this day in 1940, Maxine Hong Kingston was born in Stockton, CA. Kingston, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, took the literary world by storm with her seminal work The Woman Warrior (1976), which blends autobiography and mythology. The Woman Warrior, the winner of the 1976 National Book... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-10-27 16:42:53 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #writing advice #chinese immigrants #seminal work #woman warrior #national book award #literary world


8 Great Novels That Take Place Over the Course of a Day

A book that takes place in one day offers immersion in a character’s life and consciousness, with the added resonance of a creative constraint that mirrors our own lived experience of 24 hours with changing light, ticking numbers, and the book-ends of sleep. My attempt to try this in... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-10-19 08:50:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #takes place #lived experience #memoir


Final Inspector Montalbano novel, finished years ago, is published in UK

Andrea Camilleri was determined that his crime series could not be continued by another writer, leaving concluding novel with his publisher long before his death in 2019The final novel in Andrea Camilleri’s beloved Inspector Montalbano mystery series is was published on Thursday – but the late... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-10-14 10:03:48 UTC ]
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10 years of the Stella: how Australia’s women’s writing prize changed a nation’s literature

Publishers speak of the profound effect the prize has had on Australia’s book industry in the decade since its establishmentOn International Women’s Day in 2011, a group of Australian women writers and editors appeared at a literary salon and spoke about their frustration at the male-dominated... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-10-07 01:56:57 UTC ]
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'At long last, Idunit!' Wole Soyinka on his first novel in nearly 50 years

The Nigerian writer, the first sub-Saharan winner of the Nobel Prize, discusses 'Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth.' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-09-23 13:00:36 UTC ]
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Books in the Media: Critics swoop on Day's fifth novel

Elizabeth Day's latest novel Magpie (Fourth Estate) picked up reviews in the Observer, the Irish Times, the Sunday Times, the Daily Mail and the i this week.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-20 03:19:56 UTC ]
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