Baltimore Sun

Sarah Weinman wrote an article for the December 24th issue of The Baltimore Sun called: "Books that didn't get the attention they should have" The Keeper, along with Sokoloff's The Harrowing both get mentions:"Two of the best cross-genre debuts were penned by women. Sarah Langan stormed onto the new-wave horror scene with The Keeper (HarperTorch, 382 pp., $6.99), a beautiful, suspenseful novel of the hold a strange young woman has on an entire Maine small town that sets out to do exactly what it should: scare the reader with a combination of well-crafted prose and page-turning velocity. Likewise, Alexandra Sokoloff's The Harrowing (St. Martin's Press, 239 pp., $21.95) takes a familiar premise - five college students stuck in a haunted house - and adds a decidedly ancient mystic twist that ups the scare factor several-fold. The story wastes no words and is mercifully stripped of extraneous detail."

Take a look at www.baltimoreson.com

ON WRITING HORROR

The HWA has just published ON WRITING HORROR: A HANDBOOK BY THE HORROR WRITERS ASSOCIATION, available here.

The chapters are written by both major and upcoming voices in the field (Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Jack Ketchum, David Morrell, Mike Marano, Robert Weinberg, and the very knowledgeable Nick Kaufmann and Nick Mamatas). Should prove helpful to anyone trying to break into professional writing.

So go buy it!

Atlantic Monthly

The Atlantic Monthly's December lead story recognizes the "100 most influential Americans of all time". Panelists are: Joyce Appleby, H. W. Brands, Robert Dallek, Ellen Fitzpatrick, Doris Kearns Goodwin, John Steele Gordon, David M. Kennedy, Walter McDougal, Mark Knoll, and Gordon S. Wood. Almost all are history professors. Only ten of the selected influential Americans are women, and the first to make her arrival, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, ranks 30. What the *%&%! Look harder, people.

The 6-page article mostly explains the moronic selection process. Each American mentioned gets a one-sentence bio.

I like the Atlantic a lot, particularly its in-depth pieces relating to international politics. But once in a while it runs fluff like above, presumably to attract readers, or else it publishes some alarmist baloney describing America in the post-apocalypse. Both are irresponsible.

Women selected, and their ranks:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (30)
Susan B.Anthony (38)
Rachel Carlson (39)
Harriet Beacher Stowe (41)
Eleanor Roosevelt (42)
Margaret Sanger (51)
Jane Adams (64)
Betty Friedan (77)
Mararet Mead (81)
Mary Baker Eddy (86)