Author: Lynne Cantwell

Lynne Cantwell grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan. She worked as a broadcast journalist for many years; she has written for CNN, the late lamented Mutual/NBC Radio News, and a bunch of radio and TV news outlets you have probably never heard of, including a defunct wire service called Zapnews. But she began as a fantasy writer (in the second grade), and is back at it today. She currently lives near Washington, DC. Learn more about Lynne at her blog and at her Amazon author page.

Book It, Kiddo!

Ah, August. Back-to-school sales are in full swing and parents are counting the days until classes begin. So the start of this year’s Pizza Hut Book It! program can’t be far behind.

Book It! began in 1985, when a Pizza Hut executive was looking for a way to encourage his son to read. Here’s how it works: Elementary-school teachers set reading goals for their students – maybe they have to read a certain number of books of their own choice, or maybe they have to read for a certain number of minutes. The kids keep track of their progress on materials furnished by Pizza Hut and emblazoned with the restaurant’s logo. At the end of the month, every student who met his or her goal gets a coupon for a free personal pizza. The program continues all year, and if the class meets its annual goal, then all the students get a pizza party. Continue reading “Book It, Kiddo!”

LynneQuisition: Jodi McIsaac

For this month’s LynneQuisition, we turn to someone who knows the answer to a question we’ve probably all thought about: What does the EM have stashed in that footlocker in the basement? Oh, wait. That’s the wrong question. The one I meant was: What would it be like to work with Amazon Publishing?

Jodi McIsaac knows the answer. She first self-published her urban fantasy Through the Door, and then Amazon’s 47North imprint called. Continue reading “LynneQuisition: Jodi McIsaac”

Words I Never Want to See Misused Again, Anywhere, Ever

Maybe it’s the weather. It’s been really hot here, and when it’s not hot, it’s rainy. In any case, I’m feeling kind of cranky lately. So when I ran across this article about words we all might be misusing, I was in the mood to: a) shake my head at the misguided masses, and b) share it far and wide.

And then I read it again and realized that some of the words the blogger had flagged weren’t really misused. Instead, the word’s definition had changed over the years/decades/eons. That happens quite often. I mean, you aren’t going to call a happy person “gay” these days, right? Not unless you know some additional details about them, anyway – details that may or may not have anything to do about their current emotional state.

Anyway, this realization made me crankier. So I came up with my own list of words whose misuse ought to be expunged from the zeitgeist. Continue reading “Words I Never Want to See Misused Again, Anywhere, Ever”

Pseudonyms: A “Casual” Case Study

Who woulda thunk it would be J.K. Rowling, of all people, to test the power of the pseudonym?

Rowling, of course, is the gazillion-selling author of the Harry Potter series. Upon hearing that she’d bought herself a Scottish castle, I wondered whether we would ever hear from her again. Hadn’t she already hoovered up all the loose change in the publishing world? Couldn’t she retire from writing and, I don’t know, administer charities or something?

Apparently not. Last fall, amid much fanfare (although lacking the squealing tweens and the giveaways of round-framed glasses that greeted the launch of the later Harry Potter books), Rowling released her first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, to tepid reviews. Right now, it’s got a 3-star average from some 3,600 reviews on Amazon; one called-out review says the book is “like a bad movie that you just want to end so you can say you know how it ends.”

But if you thought Rowling’s literary career was over, you’d be wrong. Continue reading “Pseudonyms: A “Casual” Case Study”