the league of reluctant adults

I've been trying to figure out why I refuse to panic over the Swine flu, despite the fact that the WHO seems to want me to cover my house in plastic and vaccinate everyone who enters, including my daughter's pet rabbit. Obviously people who have more education than I do are concerned, so I should be shaking in my shoes. I mean, it's killed like 1800 poor souls. Not as many as the regular flu (which wipes out between 250,000 and 500,000 lives every year) but, as the WHO says somewhat hopefully in its memos, the potential is there. I've decided it's all in the name. Swine flu. Or worse, H1N1. Come on, really? You science types have done it yet again. Totally stunk up a perfectly horrifying prospect with a crap descriptor. What you should've done was call Stephen King. Now that dude knows how to name a flu. If the WHO has released a letter to the public that said, "Captain Tripps is on its way to your town," I'd be so freaked by now I would...

A while back, JD entered our Rosemary and Rue ARC contest, but this was a contest with a catch, she'd have to review the book and become our very 1st guest reviewer.  We plan to do this as often as we can, so if you're an author who wants in, let Mark know. And here it is... ************************** I have to be honest, straight up – knowing I was reviewing ‘Rosemary and Rue’ made me read it with more of a critical eye than normal. My reading habits are exclusively for escapism so rather than reading this book for the sake of a good story (which is why I put my hand up for it in the first place), I was constantly thinking, asking myself and the book questions like ‘What does that character mean by that?’; ‘Why did that happen?’; ‘Where is the story headed because of this event?’    As a consequence, I figured out who was behind the mystery before the protagonist did. While the motive eluded me for a bit longer, I still worked it out before the protagonist. I finished the book...

Thom asked: "What was the secret origin of the League? What is the determining factor that seperates an LRA writer from the others? Basically, how did the cool kids get so cool and what makes them cool in the first place?" Dear Thom, The secret origins of the League are secret for a reason. If we told you we wouldn't have to kill you, but we would have to offer you as a sacrifice to Paco, Jackie's pet werechihuahua. He's small but he's mighty. Don't go there. Trust me on this. As for what separates the League writer from everyone else? Well, the truth is a League writer can't just be a good. No. A League writer must piss excellence. Also they can't have told us no when we asked them to join. That's pretty much our criteria. Now, on to the coolness question. I can't speak for the other Leaguers, but I became a cool kid by generous use of predatory snark and a devil-may-care personal style. In fact, I'm so cool, I'm actually a dork. P...

The winners of this week’s cover flats are… Jessica Kennedy Daelith Hockeyvampiress Jennifer Allen Lori Email me(at)markhenry(dot)us-- NOT mark(at)markhenry(dot)us that one will get you nowhere–and I’ll hook you up with the flat and somethin’ else swaggy. Have a good weekend y’all.

If you don’t have a twitter account but love making fun of horribly offensive television, well now you have a reason to follow me and Tor editor Heather Osborn on Twitter. Every Thursday we do a Twitter Commentary track of that week’s Toddlers and Tiaras. All you need to do to join in the fun is… 1. Set up an account at http://twitter.com 2. Follow mark_henry and HeatherOsborn 3. Record Toddlers and Tiaras 3. Start watching at 4:30 PST/7:30 Eastern and follow along on Twitter. It helps if you have an auto load twitter feed app, like Tweetdeck which you can download wherever. Get to it, bitches!

So... I think the idea is that we band of merry lunatics should answer the questions in the main LRA: WTF post in our own post so they're easy to find. And if I'm wrong... well, my being wrong is not particularly new to anyone. ;P I'll answer some of the questions in character and others... Eric: Good lord, would you stop talking about questions and f*cking answer one? [Enter, one vampire in "Welcome to the Void" t-shirt and jeans.] Me: Right okay, so Kiyote asked "How do you organize your writing? Outline or no? Notecards? anything?" Good question, Kiyote. I'm a panster so- Eric: I can believe that. Me: Believe what, Eric? Eric: I can believe you got pantsed a lot. Wait. That would be a Pantsee. Never mind. Go back to talking about your pants. Me: I start out with a character and a situation, an idea for a central conflict and rough idea of what the theme of the book is. Eric: Theme? [Eric raises an eyebrow.] Me: Yes, a theme. Eric: You're sayin...

As you all know, we're nothing if not helpful here at the League. Basically, we're givers. You know that. So to service you all as you deserve to be serviced, we're starting a new, um, service. Introducing the League of Reluctant Adults WTF? (LRA WTF? for short) feature. That's right, friends, we're answering your questions. Have a burning question about writing or publishing? We know some shit about writering and publishifying. Got a burning rash? We could probably recommend a good salve. Pretty much nothing is off limits. However, we reserve the right to delete anything offensive (our standards are pretty low though) or skip anything boring. Your questions will be answered by someone though. And you never know when one of our characters will step in to give you their two cents. So get busy, people. Help us help you. Do it now.