(via Ed Champion)

Here is The Rare Book School 2010 course schedule: 4-8 January 2010 in Baltimore, MD
11 (I-20)	Book Illustration Processes to 1900	Terry Belanger
12 (M-20)	Introduction to Western Codicology	Albert Derolez
7-11 June 2010 in Charlottesville, VA
21 (C-85)	Law Books: History & Connoisseurship	Mike Widener
22 (G-20)	Printed Books to 1800: Description & Analysis	David Whitesell
23 (G-30)	Printed Books since 1800: Description & Analysis	Tom Congalton & Katherine Reagan
24 (L-65)	Digitizing the Historical Record	Andrew Stauffer
25 (M-10)	Introduction to Paleography, 800-1500	Consuelo Dutschke
14-18 June 2010 in Charlottesville, VA
31 (B-10)	Introduction to the History of Bookbinding	Jan Storm van Leeuwen
32 (G-50)	Advanced Descriptive Bibliography	Richard Noble
33 (H-60)	History of European and American Papermaking	Timothy Barrett & John Bidwell
34 (H-65)	Introduction to Printed Maps	Alice Hudson, assisted by Joel Kovarsky
35 (L-95)	Born Digital Materials: Theory & Practice	Matthew Kirschenbaum & Naomi Nelson
12-16 July 2010 in Charlottesville, VA
41 (B-90)	Publishers’ Bookbindings, 1830-1910	Sue Allen
42 (H-10)	History of the Book, 200-2000	John Buchtel & Mark Dimunation
43 (I-35)	The Identification of Photo Print Processes	James M. Reilly, assisted by Ryan Boatright
44 (L-30)	Rare Book Cataloging	Deborah J. Leslie
19-23 July 2010 in Charlottesville, VA
51 (H-50)	The American Book in the Industrial Era, 1820-1940	Michael Winship
52 (H-90)	Teaching the History of the Book	Michael Suarez
64 (I-10)	Introduction to the History of Illustration	Erin C. Blake
54 (L-10)	Special Collections Librarianship	Alice Schreyer
26-30 July 2010 in Charlottesville, VA
61 (C-90)	Provenance: Tracing Owners & Collections	David Pearson
62 (L-30)	Rare Book Cataloging	Deborah J. Leslie
63 (G-10)	Introduction to the Principles of Bibliographical Description	Richard Noble & David Whitesell
64 (M-70)	English Paleography, 1500-1750	Heather Wolfe
9-13 August 2010 in Washington, DC (tentative)
71 (I-90)	The Art of the Book in Edo and Meiji Japan, 1615-1912	Ellis Tinios
25-29 October 2010 in New York City (tentative)
81 (M-50)	Introduction to Illuminated Manuscripts	Roger Wieck

To sign up, go here.

And on the topic of tens, Margaret Atwood, with gimlet eye doubtless trained on traffic generation, gives us another:

Vanwaffle

TEN EDITING TIPS: FOR NOVELS, NON-“EXPERIMENTAL”

1.The beginning. This is the key signature of the book. Sets the tone, introduces the leitmotifs. Are the people in it main characters? If not, how much do the readers need to know about them?

2. Charles Dickens said, “Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em cry, make ‘em wait.” He put “wait” at the end because it was crucial. (In any series of three, the third is the most important.) In terms I’ve picked up by playing with the boys: Drop the hankie early, but make ‘em wait for the opening of the kimono. Are you telling too much too soon?  (Suspense: a good thing, if not done too obviously. Who is this guy? What happens next? Don’t signal too much, too far ahead.)

3. Verbs shall agree with subjects  (singular, plural). That is, unless it’s dialogue or third-person inside-the-character point of view, and the author wishes to indicate that the character has a weak grasp of this principle.

4. Verb tenses. This is tricky. But in general: if something is always true, use the present tense. If it was always true once, use the past, or “would” plus past tense to indicate continuous action in the past. (“Every day, he’d go to the laundromat.”) . If it’s something happening before the time we’re in, use the past perfect (“He’d gone.”) Only the author knows the time flow – an editor can query, but the author must decide.  If tenses are disjunct, there should be a very good reason. (Maybe the character is having a breakdown.) See also the use of the historical present. (“So, he goes, “What’re you doing?” and I go, “Butt out,” and he … etc.) Elmore Leonard is an expert at this kind of thing, and at informal dialogue in general.

5. The gerund mistake. A common one. “Walking along the beach, a pair of boots was seen.” Means that the boots were doing the walking, not the observer. Correct: “Walking along the beach, he saw a pair of boots.”

For the rest…

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Margaret Atwood shares ten gift ideas for those intent on trekking her path:

1. A small notebook, so your budding novelist can carry it everywhere and jot down notes, and possibly addresses. Moleskine is the classic, but there are many others. Should fit in pocket or bag.

2. A large box. This is for all the drafts. Keep them! You may need them later.

3. Mortification: Writers and Their Public Shame, compiled by Robin Roberston. Everything awful that may happen to you in public has already happened to someone else, almost. Add to the list (I hope not).

4. Roget’s Thesaurus. I know there are some thesauri on line but nothing beats the paper version. It is somehow more troll-able. And when things go bad, you can warm it in the oven (not to much, it’s flammable) & cuddle up to it in bed.

5. The Stretching Handbook. Or something like it. Or Pilates lessons. Anything to straighten out that writer-spine & bad elbow we get after a while…

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In 1841 Thomas Babington Macaulay observed that “it is good that authors should be remunerated; and the least exceptionable way of remunerating them is by a monopoly. Yet monopoly is an evil. For the sake of the good we must submit to the evil; but the evil ought not to last a day longer than is necessary for the purpose of securing the good.”

In his new book Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars, highly regarded copyright lawyer Bill Patry

concurs with Macaulay, arguing that ‘copyright should last only as long as is necessary to ensure that works that would not have been created but for the incentive of copyright are created.’

The book at once demonstrates how copyright is a utilitarian government program–not a property or moral right, and deplores the manner in which debate has deteriorated into a battle between oversimplified metaphors; language which demonizes everyone involved – pirates and orphans alike. This has led to bad business and bad policy decisions. "Unless we recognize that the debates over copyright are debates over business models, says Patry, we will never be able to make the correct business and policy decisions

A former copyright counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives, policy adviser to the Register of Copyright, law professor and author of the definitive Patry on Copyright, the man, currently copyright counsel to Google, is a centrist and advocate of balanced copyright laws, and, perhaps most significantly, the owner of a kickin’ pair of running shoes

Moral Panic concludes with a call not for strong or weak copyright laws but more effective ones, designed to maximize the creation of new works and learning, and minimize obstacles which prevent others from accessing and building upon them.

Listen here as Patry, speaking as a concerned, informed citizen, not as a Google employee, works his way out from Macaulay’s lucidity, a sampling of which I cite to start off our conversation:

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Here’s what we

scored

Top is by Doug Cosby, of a neighbourhood I used to live in, Hintonburg. Bottom is by Andrew King, whose Skeet Shooting Television Sets I purchased several years ago for considerably more than what similar sized paintings are  going for now …which of course thrills me…Still, I like them so much that – being the true philistine – I decided to buy more and lower my unit cost.

I left Cube, reluctantly leaving these items

on the wall.

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and I see this ditch, and this clay sculpted in an appealing way

and then I come across this

hole. So I get out of the car to take a

closer look, and realize

that beauty can be found in the strangest places.

And isn’t that wonderful.