Maurice Sendak, author of Where The Wild Things Are, passed away last week. His death has prompted our Year of the Novel blogger, Caro, to reflect on her first literary love and some of the characters who have followed…

Since Maurice Sendak passed away last week, the media has been awash with heartfelt tributes to the author. It’s proof enough (for me, anyway) that stories and characters are robust enough to inhabit our collective imagination, long after the pages are turned.

Max was my first love – I was only six at the time, so the age difference wasn’t creepy. When I first read Where the Wild Things Are, I thought his wolf suit was cool and the way he faced up to the monsters was brave. He made a majestic King, and even when it all went wrong for him, I knew he didn’t mean the things he said. I looked into the pages, and fell in love – the first of many literary crushes. Max was honest and impulsive and a little melancholy. Actually, if I had to have a ‘type’, that’s probably still it.

Since then, there have been many other literary-loves. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to feel at least a flutter for Mr Darcy, but I like my leading men a little less clean-cut. As a teenager, I would have dated Holden Caulfield, even though I would have known from the start it was going to end badly, and there’s something about Gatsby that sweeps me off my feet every time. I’d marry Atticus Finch any day of the week, and Quick Lamb (from Cloudstreet) breaks my heart over and over. There’s something about Levi, from Annna Karenina, and Czech comic artist Joe Kavalier (from The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay). Heck, I’d even have a dalliance with Sherlock Holmes, though I suspect he wouldn’t take me!

In 2006, Sendak ruined my mental picture of Max, when he told The New Yorker he would be a grown man by now, and much less of a catch:

“My God, Max would be what now, forty-eight? He’s still unmarried, he’s living in Brooklyn. He’s a computer maven. He’s totally ungifted. He wears a wolf suit when he’s at home with his mother!”

But in my mind, he’s just a lost little boy I can’t help admiring – and the outpouring of affection for the book, the character, and the author suggests I’m not the only one with a place in my heart for Max.

I don’t know what it takes to create a character people love – and miss – years after reading. But I do know that getting swept up in the magic of other people’s characters can’t be a bad start.

RIP Maurice Sendak, and thank you for Max.

Ever wondered what editors want from writers? Our special Facebook event Lunch with Sam Cooney is your chance to ask.  Sam, incoming editor of The Lifted Brow and experienced editor across a range of genres and publications, will be on hand to answer your questions about finding a market for your work.

Who is Sam? Sam is not only the current editor of The Lifted Brow, but also a writer, publisher, manuscript assessor, guest commissioning editor, proofreader, copyeditor, copywriter, and tweeter.  He has worked as a reader and editor at Voiceworks, Overland, and Sleepers Almanacs.  A regular festival-goer, Sam has reviewed for some Melbourne Fringe Festival shows, worked with the Melbourne Writer’s Festival, and hosted panels at the Emerging Writer’s Festival and the National Young Writer’s Festival. 

First up, a couple of posts you may want pass on to those closest to you. Justine Larbalestier offers advice to friends and family: You Don’t Have to Read My Books. Dave Farland offers more advice for the friends and family who surround the writer: Keeping Writers as Pets.

Author Leah Peterson blogged about receiving a Cease and Desist letter regarding the title of her book recently, which in turn lead to a great blog post on The Passive Voice about the distinctions between copyright and trademark law as it pertains to fiction.

Crikey posted the provocatively titled want to cut filesharing by 40%? Here’s how, citing statistics from a recent study that looked at how many Australian’s file-share and why they do it. The article is primarily focused on film and television file-sharing, but one only has to read Alan Baxter’s I’m an author, take my stuff for free and Jani Patokallio’s post explaining why ebooks will be obsolete in five years to see different takes on the issue of availability as it pertains to prose in ebook form.

Another interesting statistic to consider is the news that Nearly 100% of Publishers Have Seen E-Booksellers Get Their Metadata Wrong. Given how important meta-data is to ebooks, it’s a troubling statistic.

Do you abandon books once you’ve started reading? Book Riot discuses the art of letting go of a book when you’re not enjoying it (Personally, I have to admit, I’ve never quite wrapped my head around this one – I’ll doggedly pursue a book I’m not enjoying right to the very end).

Those are the links that caught our attention at the AWM offices this week. As usual, we’re keen to hear about your favourite links in the  comments – tell us the advice, opportunities, and essays about writing and publishing that caught your attention this week.

YA author Diana Peterfreund posted a glib-but-accurate list post about the difference between Revising and Rewriting earlier this week, but even more interesting was the follow-up post about the way the process changes once you’re a writer under contract.

In keeping with the YA theme, Malinda Lo has a great post on Writing about Kissing. It’s a great examination of various kinds of kissing scenes, with examples and details on why they work.

Ever wondered what a publisher or writer really means? The Intern has posted a bunch of amusing euphamisism used by publishers, writers, and people querying agents about their submitted manuscripts.

If you spend enough time listening to the internet you may come to believe that writers are in a perpetual state of war with themselves, trying to balance the demands of getting things written with the need to build a platform to promote their work. Fortunately there are some very sensible things said over on Writer Unboxed about Writing versus Platform on when to give each the most focus.

Last week we mentioned Seizure publishing’s Viva La Novella competition, but if you’re still trying to wrap your head around the form then Daniel Torday’s essay on The Secret Life of Novellas can point you towards some texts you probably hadn’t considered to be part of the novella camp.

The Other Side of the Story is running a great series on becoming productive as a writer. Part Three went live this week, although the first two installments are still available and it looks like there’s more to come.

Ever been so irritated by a book that you’ve thrown it across the room? Well the good news is that you’re not alone – over on omnivoracious blog there’s a great post about Four Book-Throwing Offenses (And How to Avoid Them).

Those are the links that caught our attention at the AWM offices this week. As usual, we’re keen to hear about your favourite links in the  comments – tell us the advice, opportunities, and essays about writing and publishing that caught your attention this week.

Envelopes, receipts, and notebooks. This week our Year of the Novel blogger, Caro, talks about the fragments of work that are done when you least expect it…

When I started my current writing project, I bought myself a notebook – a nice, brown book with thick pages that smell like cut grass. I also treated myself to a very nice pen (nerds, you know what I mean – comfy grip, thin line, inky-but-not-so-haemophilic-it-leaks-all-the-time), the kind of pen that’s fit to mark the nice, thick pages of my nice brown book.

I’ve got a computer, too.   I’ve never been the kind of person who dotes on machines, but I love my lappy (laptop) – I carry it everywhere in my handbag, with the persistence and creepy devotion of a Hollywood starlet and her undersized dog.

Then there’s my work computer (not quite as loved, but it does the trick), my house full of notebooks, the memo function in my phone – a host of ways to record ideas as they come to mind.

But words are funny. They’re wild and flighty and hard to tame. The best ones, it always seems to me, are suspiciously absent when my nice brown book is open and my nice inky pen is poised. Instead they show up when I’m doing 110kmh on the motorway, or during an important meeting or a class I’m teaching.  They creep into my bedroom at 3am or pop up when I’m baking scones and my hands are covered in flour. When I’m in the shower. Or when I’m out for a run.

The hard work gets done on the computer.  The plot mapping gets done in the book.  But the little gems – the phrases I can’t let go of and the dialogue it feels like the characters said themselves – are invariably born on the backs of receipts and envelopes. It’s messy and confusing, and I’ve lost a few to the washing machine. But there’s something poetic about a book’s creation on little scraps of paper – delicate word fragments, as mysterious and unfinished as the ideas they emerged from.

Preparing to do the edit on you latest manuscript? Agent Rachel Gardener presents a quick and dirty list showcasing How to Cut a Thousand Words Without Shedding a Tear. A lot of the advice may sound familiar, but her comment on the math of editing is brilliant and incorporates some of my favourite advice about first drafts into rewriting.

Novellas: they’re two short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, and people tend to get all awkward when you ask them to explain why they’re different to either. Despite this the people who love the novella format really love it, so it’s great to see Seizure launch Viva La Novella competition for works between 20,000 and 50,000 words.  Entries close November 1st, 2012.

The Emerging Writers Festival has released its full program for 2012, and they’ve started their search for the next emerging editor who’ll work on next years installment of the Emerging Writer series.

Nansi Kunze makes a great argument for the place of humor in YA Fiction.

The resurgence of the Booklife Now blog continues, and it seems to be even stronger than the blogs first iteration. This week we recommend the brilliant guest post by Angela Slatter and LL Hannett about collaboration, as well as contributions about how to interview an author and How to Get Booksellers to Love You (and Sell Your Book).

Need to develop a thicker skin? There’s some real tongue-in-cheek brilliance in the existence of Online Rejection Generator – a service that will send writers one of several rejections, from the mild to the breathtakingly harsh, in order to take the sting out of the process before they start sending work out.

There’s a lot of aspiring writers who want to do what they do full-time, but there’s far fewer aspiring writers who actually prepare for the realities of being their own boss. Survival of the Freelancer: 7 Tips covers some of the things to consider when it comes to running your own writing business, from making the right choice to getting a good accountant and thinking about superannuation.

Those are the links that caught our attention at the AWM offices this week – how about you? We’d love to hear about the posts, articles, and links that got you thinking this week in the comments.

Apologies for posting this a little later than usual on a Friday – it’s been a busy week here at the AWM offices with the announcement of GenreCon and the work going on behind the scenes for the next Australian Writer’s Marketplace print edition. But we’re sneaking this in under the wire, and there’s plenty of interesting links for you to chew over on your weekend.

If you’ve paid attention to publishing in recent years, you’ve noticed that everything seems to be changing, and the future looks increasingly uncertain. Other people have noticed too, which is why we recommend the Syllabus for the Future of Reading – a collection of links to books and articles about the future of the book and publishing.

There are myths about writers and there are truths about writers, and one is invariably more interesting than the other. It’s a split that Kim Wilkins looks at in her most recent blog post, What Writers Do, although it’s possible the thing we’re most excited about in that link is the news that there’s a new  novel coming up.

We link to a lot of advice here on the Friday Fry Up, but there’s no doubt that there are times when too much advice is almost as bad as having none at all. For those situations the Booklife blog offers up a handy decision tree that can help you ensure the advice you apply is the advice that will work best for you. They also offer some handy advice should you find yourself in the unenviable position of choosing to leave your agent.

If you’re interest in scriptwriting then the 2012 Neighbors Initiative is a great opportunity. The Australian Writers’ Guild and FremantleMedia Australia are giving  two writers the opportunity to spend 6 weeks with the story department of Australia’s favourite television serial, learning the ins and outs of writing for television.

There’s a great live-blog of the London Book Fair Digital Minds Conference that covers topics such as the development of JK Rowlings website, Pottermore, and the blurring line between writers, readers, and publishers in the digital realm. Lots of interesting reading and well worth checking out.

There’s so much discussion surrounding Amazon’s role as a bookseller that its easy to forget that they’ve started their own publishing arm. Paid Content’s article in which Larry Kirshbaum shares details on how Amazon Publishing will work offers a slightly different conversation than the ones we ordinarily hear about the Amazon brand.

And those are the links that have caught our attention this week – how about you? Let us know about any interesting links we missed in the comments.

The Australian Writer’s Marketplace is pleased to announce the launch of the first annual GenreCon, a convention for professional and aspiring writers of romance, mystery, science fiction, crime, fantasy, horror, thrillers, and more. One part party, one part professional development: GenreCon is the place to be if you’re an aspiring or established writer with a penchant for the types of fiction that get relegated to their own corner of the bookstore. Featuring international guests Joe Abercrombie (Author, The First Law Trilogy, Best Served Cold, The Heroes), Sarah Wendell (co-founder, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books), and Ginger Clark (Literary Agent, Curtis Brown), with more guests being announced in the coming weeks. GenreCon is the place to be if you want to:

• Educate yourself on the publishing industry
• Learn what it takes to become a successful genre author
• Build a network of writers who are passionate about genre fiction
• Meet editors, agents, publishers, and other genre publishing professionals
• Celebrate the rich contribution genre fiction has made to Australia’s literary landscape

The 2012 GenreCon will be held November 2-4, 2012 at the Rydges Hotel, Parramatta, NSW. Registrations are open now, with the special Early Bird ticket price of $190 available to the first 50 registrations. To register, visit us online at genrecon.com.au

Special Guests

We’re pleased to introduce you to this years international guests: Joe Abercrombie, Sarah Wendell, and Ginger Clark.

Joe Abercrombie

Joe Abercrombie was born in Lancaster, studied psychology at the University of Manchester, and spent ten years working as a film editor before his first book, The Blade Itself, was published in 2006. The First Law trilogy, a modern take on epic fantasy, is now available in more than twenty languages.  His latest book, The Heroes, made no. 3 on the Times Hardcover Bestseller list.  He lives in Bath with his wife and children and writes full time. Find him online at www.joeabercrombie.com.

Sarah Wendell

By day Sarah Wendell is mild mannered and heavily caffeinated.  By evening she dons her cranky costume, consumes yet more caffeine, and becomes Smart Bitch Sarah of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. The site specializes in reviewing romance novels, examining the history and future of the genre, and bemoaning the enormous prevalence of bodacious pectorals adorning male cover models. Sarah is the co-founder of Smart Bitches, and the author of the book Everything I Know About Love, I Learned from Romance Novels and the  co-author of Beyond Heaving Bosoms: the Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels, published in April 2009 by Touchstone Fireside.

Ginger Clark

Ginger Clark has been a literary agent with Curtis Brown LTD (New York) since 2005.  She represents science fiction, fantasy, horror, and young adult and middle grade fiction.  In addition to representing her own clients, she also represents British Commonwealth rights for the agency’s children’s list.  She attends the Bologna and Frankfurt Book Fairs every year.  She sits on the Rights Committee of the Book Industry Study Group, and is a member of the Contracts Committee of the AAR.  She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and lives in Brooklyn with her husband.