Canadian journalist, science fiction author and co-editor of the blog Boing Boing Cory Doctorow discusses trademarks and copyright in the digital age:

Today in Literature: On this day in 1893, Dorothy Parker was born in Long Branch, New Jersey.

Novelist Sebastian Barry and biographer Michael Holroyd named the recipients of Britain’s oldest literary prize, The James Tait Memorial awards.

L.A. Times’ Jacket Copy sums up the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

Senator Barbara Boxer writes her second novel (now if she could find the time to actually read the bills she votes on).

Round em up! Fresh Ink dishes the latest dirt from the world of publishing.

Round em up! Guardian Books has some nuggets of its own.

Don’t let the bed bugs bite… Penguin gets infested.

The Korean Herald catches up on the latest Korean literature translated into English.

Self-published author strikes a promotional deal with Neiman Marcus.

Bookninja reports on a new program that aggregates Twitter updates and chooses the rhyming ones to construct the longest poem in the world.

“Writing comes more easily if you have something to say.”

-Sholem Asch

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Erick Setiawan’s syntax are taken to task at the Washington Post for his novel OF BEES AND MIST.

And Valerie Martin gets a similar ribbing at Newsday for THE CONFESSIONS OF EDWARD DAY.

But Maggie Stiefvater fares better in The Trades for her werewolf version of a TWILIGHT-type saga, SHIVER.

Sharpen your conspiracy theories, but FAMILY OF SECRETS: EVERYTHING YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW ABOUT THE BUSH DYNASTY WAS WRONG, by Russ Baker, is praised for his exacting research and documentation.

From the YouTube description:

Based on the critically acclaimed best-selling novel by Alice Sebold, and directed by Oscar® winner Peter Jackson from a screenplay by Jackson & Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens, The Lovely Bones centers on a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family and her killer from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.

The Telegraph’s Sinclair McKay chats it up with Margaret Atwood “about religion, science and the danger of bees dying out” as the PR machine ratchets up for The Year of the Flood.

Guy Gavriel Kay, writing for the Guardian Book Blog, takes the torch and runs with it in the debate over the ethical lines of novelists using real-life characters in their fiction.

Poet Ravi Shankar recounts his arrest for “driving while brown”.

Chris Cox examines the trend of memoirs about dogs and wonders when novelists will catch up.

Robert Hanks takes stock of Penguin’s Great Ideas series, now in its 5th year. Check them out here.

The NEA is awarding 16 literature fellowships totaling $275,000 to support projects by literary translators to translate works into English.

Smashwords kicks off an eBook distribution relationship with Google’s Android line.

Barnes and Noble being sued by its own shareholders over its expansion into the textbook market.

R.I.P. Jose Asenjo Sedano, author and poet.

Today in Literature: On this day in 1920, A. A. Milne’s only child, Christopher Robin Milne, was born.

“My sole literary ambition is to write one good novel, then retire to my hut in the desert, assume the lotus position, compose my mind and senses, and sink into meditation, contemplating my novel.”

-Edward Abbey

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The Economist does not find Sam Tanenhaus’ THE DEATH OF CONSERVATISM to be straight shooting, but they still think Bill O’Reilly is a nudge.

A comic-book version of FAHRENHEIT 451.  I hardly knew what to say when we talked about it the other day, but Salon Magazine has a review.

USA Today has Niffenberger, Conroy, and freshman, Heather Gudenkauf, with her her debut, THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE.

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, by Leonie Norrington (with illustrations by Michael Camilleri), scores a nice review from January Magazine.

The author discusses his debut novel, Huge:

… oh wait.  I didn’t fly.  I drove.  But as my insufficiently padded little car has about a four hour butt-limit, there’s a pair of tired spots (could actually be closer to pulverized) right in the vicinity of where I’ve been attacked by the driver’s seat.

I attended the Killer Nashville Literary Conference this past weekend and, as usual, it ended too soon.  Wonderful production, Killer Nashville.  Geared towards writers of mystery, crime, and thriller fiction, this annual event features scores of lectures and panel discussions on writing craft, the publishing business, and a string of presentations for source material presented by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and other experts.  This year there were classes on the art and science of surveillance, reconstructing shootings, poisons, real case studies, and an excellent primer on psychopathy, just to name a few.

The TBI also stages a crime scene contest each year, in a light version of the course they use to quiz professional law enforcement.  Yours truly got to help set up this time and it’s probably not hard to imagine how much fun it is playing go-fer for two career sleuths oooh-ing and ahhh-ing over the realistic consistency of their secret-recipe fake blood.  See for yourself the fruits of our labor -

(photos courtesy of C.H. Valentino, because I’m simply too dumb to remember my camera)

I can’t decide if I should say what they used for brains.  You’ll never look at a child’s kitchen playset the same way if I do.

I gained new appreciation for my friend, Butch Wilson, over at www.tech4writers.com.  He’s an angel anyway, but his knowledge of how to get the best freeware/shareware/open source tools for writers easily filled the two presentations he gave during the weekend.  Need nifty technology?  Click above and you will not be sorry.

And finally there was me.  On Sunday morning, I gave a talk, Write What You Know - Learn What You Don’t, and if I was a little long-winded on the philosophical side of telling the truth in fiction, I did at least leave the attendees with a list of internet resources that is by no means complete.  It’s reprinted here, at Tech4Writers, and I hope more than anything, it sparks a notion of all the things we could get right, if only we’d ask.  My little group of Sunday morning diehards battled their (and my) party fatigue and made something quite fine of the whole affair.

Special thanks to a few people, out of a terrific group as a whole, who made the bruising to my tailbone more than worth it:  Beth Terrell; Clay Stafford; Philip Lacy; Butch Wilson; Special Agent Mike Breedlove, TBI; Special Agent Dan Royse, TBI; Addie King; C.H. Valentino; and Dr. Stephen Benning, Vanderbilt University.

Only three hundred and fifty-some days until next year’s Killer Nashville.  See you there!

David Barnett wonders if there’s any harm in a repackaged edition of Bronte’s Wuthering Heights endorsed by fictional characters if it gets the kids to read.

Speaking of weakly-drawn vampire characters… that mecca of literary news, TMZ, is reporting that the lawsuit alleging plagiarism on the part of Stephenie Meyer has been officially filed in federal court.

The new issue of Coyote Wild Magazine is now online, with a young adult theme. Check it out here.

Dermot Bolger chats it up with poet and novelist Gerard Donovan in the Irish Times.

The German Book Prize announces its nominations for the 2009 award.

Insert your own toilet joke here.

The Evening Standard’s Sam Leith examines the allure of the sensationalistic literary biography.

Booksquare helps you help SXSW get a strong slate of book panels.

R.I.P. Hugo Loetscher, “the most cosmopolitan of Swiss writers”.

Today in Literature: On this day in 1667, John Milton’s masterpiece Paradise Lost was entered in the Stationers’ Register.

“Good authors, too, who once knew better words
now only use four-letter words writing prose…
anything goes.”

-Cole Porter

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Madeleine Wickham (aka Sophie Kinsella) gets laughs and approval in Washington for THE WEDDING GIRL.

Publicist-turned-author, Robert Rave, is -must refrain from punning his name- received with much fanfare at American Chronicle for his debut tabloid culture novel, SPIN.

Dave Wood is good for KISSINGER 1972: THE CRUCIAL YEAR, by Alistair Horne, and a kids book - THE STEEL PAN MAN OF HARLEM, by Colin Bootman.

Hopefully not timely in any sort of parallel way, Adrian Goldsworthy tells us HOW ROME FELL: DEATH OF A SUPERPOWER.

Author magazine sits down with the author of Shimmer:

Friend to AuthorScoop, Kim Michele Richardson, has to be pleased that the current issue of Writers Digest has included THE UNBREAKABLE CHILD in their Writer’s Workbook feature.  ‘Master The Memoir Basics: 5 Essentials’ references Kim’s story as a wonderful model of how to craft a hopeful ending.

“It’s a gut-wrenching book, but two things save it from being merely depressing… It delivers what the title promises…”

Excellent endorsement, and an helpful example to those in the throes of their own life’s story.

Alain de Botton becomes “writer-in-residence” at Heathrow Airport.

GalleyCat’s Jason Boog chats with Peter, Paul and Mary co-founder Peter Yarrow about his children’s book imprint at Imagine Publishing.

Chris Power is back with a new installment of his “A brief survey of the short story series”—this time focusing on the profound, and profoundly funny, Nikolai Gogol. Links to the previous 19 installments here.

Pop mystics chomping at the bits to get at some of that Dan Brown action.

Opposition to the Google Book Settlement continues to grow.

Android reportedly dips its toe into the eBook pool with talk of a $100-$200 laptop tablet/eReader.

Borders ups the ante in their bid for teachers’ business, increasing the discount offered to educators from 20% to 25%.

Husband and wife journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn to share the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement.

Lauren Oujiri offers some tips and links for writing bad poetry (although, really… if you have to be taught to write bad poetry, do you really have what it takes to be a bad poet?).

R.I.P. Richard Poirier—founder, Raritan: A Quarterly Review and Library of America.

Today in Literature: On this day in 1915, Ring Lardner, Jr. was born.

“The profession of book-writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.”

-John Steinbeck

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The Washington Times revisits the quintessential cold war wrangle with W.R. Smyser’s KENNEDY AND THE BERLIN WALL.

Rebecca Stead earns high praise for her latest Young Adult offering, WHEN YOU REACH ME.

The Adelaide Independent Weekly advises to look past a flashy (slightly fleshy?) cover and discover a worthy historical novel in Michelle Moran’s CLEOPATRA’S DAUGHTER: PRINCESS OF EGYPT, PRISONER OF ROME.

A set of graphic novels gets their dues, right here.

Hollywood has long had a knack for cranking out interesting films about writers. Classics like “Sunset Boulevard” and “A Face in the Crowd” have stood the test of time, but what about more modern fare? I gave it some thought and then took a stab at compiling a list of ten of my favorite modern films about writers.

Naturally, opinions may vary (“Where the hell is “Adaptation”?”). Feel free to hit the comments section and tell me what I missed.

The Film: “A Merry War” (Directed by Robert Bierman)
The Writer: Fictional poet Gordon Comstock
The Set-up: In this film adaptation of Orwell’s early novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying, poet Gordon Comstock (Richard E. Grant) is forced to reconcile his notion of “pure art” with the realities of life.
Classic Quote: “When you’re lying in the gutter, you’ve got nowhere to fall.” - Gordon

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The Film: “Kafka” (Directed by Steven Soderbergh)
The Writer: Franz Kafka
The Set-up: Kafka (Jeremy Irons) gets a taste of his own Kafkaesque medicine as he is caught up in a fictionalized underword that rivals his most surreal creations.
Classic Quote: “I write by myself… for myself.” - Kafka

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The Film: “Barton Fink” (Directed by the Coen Brothers)
The Writer: Fictional playwright and aspiring screenwriter Barton Fink
The Set-up: Broadway’s toast of the town (John Turturro) heads west to write for the movies, only to experience a bizarre case of writer’s block while being caught up in a nightmarish chain of events.
Classic Quote: “You ain’t no writer, Fink—you’re a goddamn write-off.” - Lipnik

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The Film: “Permanent Midnight” (Directed by David Veloz)
The Writer: Comedy writer Jerry Stahl
The Set-up: Stahl (Ben Stiller) lays bare his soul in this adaptation of his memoir depicting his double life as a writer and junkie.
Classic Quote: “People always ask, “What’s the worst thing heroin drove you to do?”. I always answer, “showing up on Maury.”" - Jerry

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The Film: “Naked Lunch” (Directed by David Cronenberg)
The Writer: William Burroughs’ alter-ego Bill Lee
The Set-up: Burroughs’ masterpiece of drug-addled paranoia is brought to the screen with Peter Weller, giant bugs and talking assholes. A can’t miss.
Classic Quote: “Exterminate all rational thought. That is the conclusion I have come to.” - Bill

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The Film: “Factotum” (Directed by Bent Hamer)
The Writer: Charles Bukowski’s alter-ego Hank Chinaski
The Set-up: Hank Chinaski (Matt Dillon), when not distracted by sex, booze and gambling, tries to get some writing done—usually about sex, booze and gambling.
Classic Quote: “If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs. And maybe your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery, isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance. Of how much you really want to do it. And you’ll do it, despite rejection in the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods. And the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.” - Hank

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The Film: “Henry and June” (Directed by Philip Kaufman)
The Writers: Henry Miller and Anais Nin
The Set-up: In 1930s Paris, Miller (Fred Ward) meets Nin (Maria de Medeiros) and their personal lives, along with those of their spouses, become tragically intertwined.
Classic Quote: “June appeared like an Angel, and I offered her a fool’s faith. She was a taxi dancer. I paid my dime, she put her head on my shoulder, but then the lies began. She told me her mother was a gypsy and her father was a count. Later, I saw a film and realized she swiped her whole childhood right out of the film.” - Henry

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The Film: “Sylvia” (Directed by Christine Jeffs)
The Writer: Sylvia Plath
The Set-up: Plath (Gwyneth Paltrow) struggles with depression and her inner demons against the backdrop of betrayal by husband Ted Hughes (Daniel Craig).
Classic Quote: “Sometimes I feel like I’m not… solid. I’m hollow. There’s nothing behind my eyes. I’m a negative of a person. It’s as if I never - -I never thought anything. I never wrote anything. I never felt anything.” - Sylvia

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The Film: “Total Eclipse” (Directed by Agnieszka Holland)
The Writers: Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Verlaine
The Set-up: A stark examination of the mutually-destructive and tumultuous relationship between the two poets, played by Leo DiCaprio and David Thewlis.
Classic Quote: “The only unbearable thing is that nothing is unbearable.” - Rimbaud

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The Film: “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle” (Directed by Alan Rudolph)
The Writers: Dorothy Parker, George S. Kaufman, Robert Benchley, Edna Ferber
The Set-up: Dorothy Parker (Jennifer Jason Leigh) navigates the social and artistic maelstrom of the Algonquin Round Table.
Classic Quote: “But I can’t understand what God is saying, because he’s got a mask over his face. Isn’t that just like Him?” - Dorothy

The poet onstage at the Royal Albert Hall in 1965: