Friday morning linky

Had a great time chatting with the Young at Heart Book Club about Bones of Faerie last night. If you’re an adult reader of YA anywhere near Mesa, AZ, you should totally stop by. Next month they’re reading Lisa McMann’s Cryer’s Cross. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= On the confidence game: “Truly confident people have already worked out who they are and what they stand for, and more importantly – what they will not stand for … There is very little “gap” between the public and private self. They trust in themselves. Confident people don’t always need to be right, because deep down, they already live by their own moral code. Similarly, confident people have no need to draw attention to themselves because they aren’t particularly interested in what others think. They are too busy getting on with their own stuff.” On raising resilient children: “So many parents have said to me, ‘I can’t stand to see my child unhappy.’ If you can’t stand to see your child unhappy, you are in the wrong business. The small challenges that start in infancy present the opportunity for “successful failures,” that is, failures your child can live with and grow from. To rush in too quickly, to shield them, to deprive them of those challenges is to deprive them of the tools they will need to handle the inevitable, difficult, challenging and sometimes devastating demands of life.” On the online culture of “liking”: “A better literary culture would be one that’s not so dependent on personal esteem and mutual reinforcement. It would not treat offense or disagreement as toxic. We wouldn’t want so badly to be liked above all. We’d tolerate barbed reviews, some quarrels, and blistering critiques, because they make our culture more interesting and because they are often more sincere reflections of our passions.” Not only do you catch more (fruit) flies with vinegar than with honey, they seem to prefer vinegar over other household condiments as well. Which would explain why fruit flies are also known as vinegar flies. (With a nod toward this XKCD.) Also, it doesn’t take fewer muscles to smile than to frown. The first law of metafictional thermodynamics; or, why few series can last forever. Something for everyone who’s wondered how anyone can make the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs. Or in any other number of parsecs, for that matter.

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