NYTimes: A Space for Us

In the New York Times Sunday Book Review, 9/2/07, there's an amusing essay called "A Space for Us," by novelist Pagan Kennedy. In it she reflects on the how the relationship between author and reader is becoming more interactive in the age of online networking sites such as MySpace.

But for authors and readers, MySpace offers something entirely new: a forum where we can finally meet and get to know one another — or even collaborate in literary games. For instance, soon after the novelist Matt Haig put up a MySpace profile to promote his book “The Dead Fathers Club,” he received a message that would make any writer’s heart thump. Someone wanted to “friend” him, and that someone was none other than ... William Shakespeare. Shakespeare “sent a message telling me how much he enjoyed my work,” Haig explained to me (via MySpace mail). “I returned the compliment and told him ‘King Lear’ was pretty good, too, and that I’m sure he has a solid career ahead of him.”

Link to full article.