For your reading pleasure, as the work week comes to a close. Spend some time this weekend with a selection of links from this week’s Fiction Friday newsletter, produced by the Culture Alliance. Here is a miscellany of short fiction, news, opinion, advice and criticism from the publishing world.

Short Fiction

• The Taborin Scale – a novella by Lucius Shepard
• “The Story Teller” by Saki (H.H. Munro b.1870 – d.1916)

Reviews

• Triple Crown by Dick Francis – A Review by Lars Walker
• The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon – a review by Bill Shepard

News, Interviews and Opinion

• Four Reasons Why Authors Should Use LinkedIn – HT: Phil at BrandywineBooks.net
• Audio Interview with John C. Gardner
• San Diego Comic-Con: Scott Pilgrim, ‘Ulysses Seen,’ and a Layoff at Del Rey
• A Wry Dystopian Seer – The Wall Street Journal interviews Gary Shteyngart
• Harlequin Builds a Non-Fiction Presence
• Print Sales Up Double Digits at Amazon

Literary Criticism

• Excerpt from “Introduction on the Republication of On Moral Fiction”
• Moral Fiction – The Atlantic Magazine’s Mary Gordon discusses Gardner’s On Moral Fiction

Writing Advice

• Wright’s Writing Corner: What To Do When Your Outline Breaks

Announcements

• PW Calls for Information: War & Military – “Needed: Publishers’/editors’ written comments about the state of this category: what kinds of books are customers looking for; how have the current Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts affected sales and publishers’ future plans? We’ll look at books pubbing between July 1 and February 28, 2011. Story and sidebar ideas are welcome. Please e-mail submissions to Dick Donahue, [email protected]”