I was just a few weeks pregnant when I was hit with the idea for my newest book, Switchcraft. I was on the phone with my friend in New York, turning just a slight shade of green at the tales of her dating adventures. My life as an unfettered young woman was over and then I wondered what would happen if we switched lives?  Continue reading...

Check out Word, the blog of Writing and Read magazines, which bills itself as "chock full of writing tips, book chats and whimsical word ramblings" put together by the publication's editors. They're not kidding.

Ben Zimmer, like most lexicographers we meet, has a fascinating a background: A self-described "dictionary hound" as a kid, he volunteered in college as a "reader" for the Oxford English Dictionary, scanning music magazines for new terminology. He then worked as a linguistic anthropologist researching the languages of Indonesia before returning to his lexicographic roots. Long discussions with the OED editors about emerging technology led ultimately to his current job, as Editor for American Dictionaries at Oxford. It's a job where he's intimately involved with the Oxford English Corpus, a high-tech infrastructure for writing dictionaries. Ben graciously spoke to us about his work:  Continue reading...

Check out these literary blogs for belles-lettres-related thoughts profound, serious, quirky and sometimes humorous:

Ready Steady Book blog

The Literary Saloon

Spurious

This Space

Here's a novel, ahem, idea: Stories that involve books, publishing and writing. Check out:

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

The relationship categories in the Visual Thesaurus include:

Antonym: A noun, verb, adjective, or adverb that expresses the opposite concept of another word. Example: Good is an antonym of evil.

Pertains to: An adjective that is related or pertains to another word. Example: Academic pertains to academia.

Participle of: An adjective that is derived from a verb participle. Example: Applied is a participle of apply.

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"Two peoples divided by a common language." George Bernard Shaw said this about the British and the Americans, but the same can be said of anoraks and suits.  Continue reading...