By Scott Bury

The Hobbit. Game of Thrones. The Twilight saga. Harry Potter. Snow White and the Huntsman. Oz, the Great and Powerful. Once Upon a Time.

Hollywood continues to score hits in the science fiction and fantasy genres, on both the big and small screens. There is an appetite for this kind of fiction.

And browsing around bookstores, grocery stores and the immense emporia that masquerade as drugstores these days reveals an appetite among the public for fantasy, too.

This video clip explains the importance of seeds, and seed diversity far better than I can.

http://youtu.be/QJ28IC63hlI

This is huge, and truly HORRIBLE.

I've just learned the EU is trying to pass a new law that would outlaw the selling or trading of heirloom varieties of seeds. If passed, this law would benefit only the multinational seed companies - like Monsanto - while endangering biodiversity and the safety of future…

I was at the London Book Fair last week - and I'll be blogging about that soon - when the news broke that David Mamet is to self-publish his next book.

His reasons? "Publishing is like Hollywood—nobody ever does the marketing they promise."

While I think it's great that someone as high-profile as David Mamet is self-publishing, I was very disappointed to find out the 

The doom-mongers have been running wild on Twitter with the news that Amazon is to acquire Goodreads. Much of that nonsense is typical (hysterical) Amazon bashing, or reflexive defense of the status quo.

I'm not going to deal with the Chicken Little stuff. I have less and less patience with people who claim that Amazon has or is striving for some kind of evil monopoly that will subjugate authors and readers when all the evidence to date is that they will treat authors better than any publisher and provide readers with cheaper books, a bigger selection, and a better customer experience than any other retailer.

One of the best writing teachers/mentors in the business is Author Candace Havens. This woman isn't an author, she's a force of nature, and any writer who wants to go pro needs to take her classes. Recently, she presented for us at WANACon, and she brought up some interesting points I'd like to share here.

Embrace Being Tired

Okay, first I want to take a moment to acknowledge that we do need rest.

There seems to be a view in certain self-congratulatory circles that publishers have finally got to grips with the digital revolution, that they have weathered the fiercest part of the storm, and that they are well-placed now not just to survive, but to thrive.

There are innumerable problems with that view, of course, but today I'd like to focus on one core truth of this brave new world that publishers have failed to grasp.

Hello, Internet! Welcome to the launch of The Storm Project, which, if you haven't figured out already, is a blog. My blog, specifically.

What happens at a blog launch, I'm not entirely sure, but feel free to make a cup of tea and mingle among the, er, crowd. Take notice of all the twinkle lights I put up earlier, glittering in the low light of the early 1900s theatre against varnished wood, and the artfully stacked books, and the bean bag chairs by open fires so you can talk about your favourite books with a fellow book lover.