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DailyLit News: Love Our New Team

NOTE FROM FOUNDER

I’m thrilled to announce that DailyLit is joining forces with a brand new literary startup, Plympton, so we can together invent the future of serialized books and series. Ever since I met Plympton’s publisher, Jennifer 8. Lee, I’ve been impressed with her energy, enthusiasm and, most important, her dedication to the written word (she’s a former New York Times reporter as well as a bestselling author). Together with co-founder and editorial director, Yael Goldstein Love, she has put together an amazing team of technologists and editors who have already started work on enhancing DailyLit’s features and signing up new authors. It’s an exciting time for DailyLit.
Cheers — to loving our new team,
-Susan
Susan Danziger
Founder, DailyLit
@susandanziger, @dailylit

FROM PLYMPTON

GREETINGS FROM THE PLYMPTON TEAM

We here at Plympton couldn’t be more excited to be joining forces with DailyLit. And to be joining forces just in time for Valentine’s Day no less, a perfect time for new pairings! As Susan mentioned, we’ll be working on enhancing some features of DailyLit in the coming months, which will include giving DailyLit readers first access to the original serial fiction that comes out of our literary studio. We’ll be making every effort to leave the features you already love about DailyLit in place. Sometimes, though, what seems a trivial change to one person can be profound for another. If you ever feel that we’ve messed with something you cherish, please, please let us know!

ROMANCE IN THE DIGITAL AGE: WINKPOKE

One of the first Plympton original titles we’ll be publishing on the DailyLit site is a series of short stories about love in the digital age. “WinkPoke” is literature’s answer to The New York Times’ “Modern Love” column, with each installment a rich, fictional look at how we navigate intimate relationships in a world dominated by Facebook, FaceTime, and dining companions too obsessed with their phones to notice the growing look of despair on our collective faces. We won’t be launching this series until June, but we just couldn’t let Valentine’s Day go by without letting you know it was coming.

DAILYLIT LOVE SONNETS

No Valentine’s Day gift in mind yet? Why not surprise your beloved reader with an inbox full of sonnets. DailyLit features Sonnets from the Portugese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (”How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”) and the complete collection of the love sonnets of William Shakespeare. Just click the “Gift this Book” tab when signing up for the poems, send a personal message, and set the delivery date for February 14th.

FROM YOU

YOUR LITERARY VALENTINES

Last year at this time, we asked you which person (real or fictional) you would most want to have as a companion on Valentine’s Day. The clear winners were Mr. Darcy and your own partners. We think that’s pretty good news!

Some of you, though, have further flung yearnings.

“Browning, Byron, Yeats, Rumi, Burns, Auden, Bowie, several Begali poets – I want poetry and passion and stormy endings and memories. The quiet love and support is 50 years dependable at home,” said ynleung.
“Henry Tilney of Northanger Abbey – because I imagine he would pretend he had forgotten and then surprise me with a fantastic evening,” said Hollydy.
And Demeter wasn’t going to be forced to choose between two perfect alternatives: “Cary Grant and/or Mr. Darcy.”
It’s not too late to cast your vote.

WRITING THAT MAKES YOU SWOON

This year we want to ask you, what’s the most romantic piece of writing you’ve ever read? It doesn’t have to be a published work — could be something scrawled out on the back of an envelope just for you. Let us know your answers here. Our Editorial Director, Yael Goldstein Love, chose John Hollander’s nostalgic poem, “An Old-Fashioned Song” as her favorite, even though she’s feeling pretty lucky in love this Valentine’s Day.

An Old-Fashioned Song
by John Hollander

No more walks in the wood:
The trees have all been cut
Down, and where once they stood
Not even a wagon rut
Appears along the path
Low brush is taking over.

No more walks in the wood;
This is the aftermath
Of afternoons in the clover
Fields where we once made love
Then wandered home together
Where the trees arched above,
Where we made our own weather

When branches were the sky.
Now they are gone for good,
And you, for ill, and I
Am only a passer-by.

We and the trees and the way
Back from the fields of play
Lasted as long as we could.
No more walks in the wood.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

VALENTINE’S DAY DELIGHTS

If you have a special book lover you want to surprise this Valentine’s Day (or you want to treat yourself) here are some of our favorite finds from around the web.

This heart-shaped wreath made out of paper roses crafted from vintage book pages makes us think of Little House on the Prairie: Shabby Chic Edition.
We also love these handmade cards on Etsy. The outside is a library card in an envelope. The inside reads, “I’m checking you out.” Please do, beautiful card! Please do.
And Jane Austen fans will clamor for this T-shirt featuring her famous quote, “To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.” Better news for some of us than others.

KICKSTARTER FINDS: THE LETTERPRESS OF THE DIGITAL AGE

The People’s e-Book project wants to do for ebooks what the photocopier did for zines — unleash the creativity of individuals with a super-simple online tool that allows anyone to make e-books quickly and for free. The campaign, which already has over 600 backers, is over on March 1. You can follow the project on Twitter at @peoples_e or online at thepeoplesebook.net.

Tags: plympton

• Posted on 13 February, 2013
  by susandanziger
• Category
  Newsletters, Question of the Week, Weekly Question