“My school was on fire.”

As Amy Bloom remembers it, the inspiration for her most recent novel came from two sources: the mythos of Old Hollywood and the criminal history of her own family. In The Guardian, she recounts the genesis of Lucky Us, with brief descriptions of her family’s rap sheet.

It’s a quiet week for new books. David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, which famously became a blockbuster bestseller after being released as a paperback original, is now available in hardcover for the first time ever in the U.S., thanks to a new Modern Library Edition. Short story master Tessa Hadley has a new collection out, Married Love, (as a paperback original, coincidentally).

Over the course of a half-century, Vladimir Nabokov wrote hundreds of letters to his wife Vera, which are being published in book form this week for the first time. Among other things, they reveal the absurd pet names he invented for her (such as Goosykins and Monkeykins) and display Nabokov musing over whether or not to borrow a friend’s castle for the summer. Also worth reading: our own Garth Risk Hallberg on Nabokov’s Ada, or Ardor.

Some practical advice on the Tin House blog:  “So, you’re going to a writer’s conference?”