Got a crush on Draco Malfoy? J.K. Rowling is concerned. In a piece on her website, she writes: “I have often had cause to remark on how unnerved I have been by the number of girls who fell for this particular fictional character.” Pair with: our own Elizabeth Minkel on Rowling and other authors with second thoughts.
Bad Boys
Woolf Tones
Still not sure if you want to keep a diary? Perhaps the testimony of Virginia Woolf can convince you.
Music To My Ears
Oh, to have cows and restaurants named after you: the life of the unusually-named NPR reporter.
Orlando
“I have often thought that if I were ever a drag queen, and more specifically that if I were ever a drag queen who was a contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race, I would play Virginia Woolf — or rather, Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf — in the Snatch Game episode when the contestants don their very best celebrity impersonation.” Untucking RuPaul’s Drag Race at The Los Angeles Review of Books.
What Improv Can Teach You about Writing Humor
Elissa Bassist took an intro improv class and used what she learned to create some rules for writing funny fiction. (Thanks, Rachel)
Sports Fiction
In an unexpected crossover of the sporting and the literary, ESPN Magazine is running a sports-themed short fiction contest. They aren’t publicizing it online, but this PDF from the print mag has all the details.
Our Man in Croatia
Robert Perišic’s Our Man in Iraq made it onto the first installment of our Great 2013 Book Preview. A few weeks ago, Perišic sat down for an interview with John Feffer about ongoing changes in the author’s native Croatia, which recently acceded to the EU as its 28th member state.