I should be working. But here, have some links while I procrastinate.

Justine Larbalestier, Please, Please, Please, Give Your Protag Friends, a Sibling, Parents:

One of things that attracted me to YA as a genre is that so much of it is about friendship and family relationships. It’s why every time I read a YA book that doesn’t feature those strong relationships I’m deeply disappointed. To me, it’s like the author failed to understand the genre.

Lavie Tidhar, Your literature, not mine:

I feel somewhat alienated from this view of literature, I must confess. Is it me who is ignorant, for failing to see, for instance, Chabon’s Specialness? Or to be stupid for expecting an international book festival to focus its attentions on something other than a privileged American writer bemoaning the fact he feels he can’t write about the Muslim veil?

Kari Sperring, Harrassment:

Sexual harassment is never acceptable. By anyone, of anyone. That is, for me, the bottom line. I've been on the receiving end of it on and off for most of my life.

Ursula Vernon, Not Dead Yet:

Chartres cathedral is about a thousand years old and looks it. Apparently there is a point in my head at which stuff merely becomes Really Damn Old, because I was not noticeably more wowed by the 4th century crypt in the basement. Yup. That's old, all right. (I don't think I have any real ability to comprehend a thousand years. Anything over about four hundred all occurs simultaneously in my brain. Petroglyphs, Anasazi ruins, Chartres, Romans, Visigoths, Mayans, Erik the Red, Columbus, Pyramids, Beowulf, Caesar...I think on some level I may believe Jesus was stabbed in the side with a Clovis point by Vikings.)

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I'd have something to say about this post, but I don't time to do more than roll my eyes and sigh.