wednesday a.m. linkfest (with one update)

1. Maud posted a link to the Underground Literary Alliance's new web effort, a blog on which they are publishing the fiction of members. The first thing I saw, skimming and trying not to look too closely was the sentence, "THE OVERTHROW WAS IMMINENT." Yes, in all caps. I may be blind.

(And yes, I am trying to keep the ULA down!)

2. There's a tiny movement to save the Pikeville home and farm of Harriett Simpson Arnow (whom I consider a Kentucky writer, but others have posited a "Michigan writer" -- she's buried here so I win), probably best known for her NBA-winning The Dollmaker. Reading some of this piece though, I have to wonder if old Harriett was all that popular with her neighbors:

Harriette Arnow's 1944 best-selling novel, "Hunter's Horn," was taken from her experiences in the now-extinct community of Keno, where the home is located and where she once was a teacher in a nearby, still-standing one-room school.

"I can read Hunter's Horn and depict who each character is in the story, because they're all real people," said Wanda Worley, a native of the area. "Many of them were dead before I was born, but my parents and grandparents had told me the same stories."

3. I made my first post at the Gaddis Drinking Club, professing my ignorance. And there's already a host of fantastic posts up by the other, far more knowledgeable members. The library should have the book for me within a day or two.

4. Dance, Dorothy, dance. (Also via Maud.) I find this upsetting for many reasons.

And herm... that's it. Except for: (Update)

5. Over the weekend, we were in B&N and lo and behold there was a table of Lemony Snicket books (the other side was for creepy Polar Express stuff, yuck) and I was dismayed, woefully dismayed really, to see that they've put crap covers with Jim Carrey's face on the Unfortunate Events books. This is a terrible idea, especially because Brett Helquist's illustrations are so perfect. I hope this is just a limited thing and that the real editions will still be out there. Movies made from books should not impact the enjoyment of the actual books. They have violated a natural law here and should be punished. (Anyone who is rich and would really, really like to get me something should go buy me one of those Helquist pieces. Thanks.)