Fresh when it gets here from 
                                        Julie Barrett 
                                        Tuesday, July 5, 2011
                                    
A few bits today:
This, via 
Lee Goldberg, a Wall Street Journal article about 
gatekeepers in publishing. Some of the comments at both sites are spot on. Yet, some get lost in the "publishing is broken" mantra. 
The gatekeepers may be shifting, but I promise you that readers are going to tire of paying for the privilege of being slushpile readers. And many commenters also miss the point about the spam. Someone asked on a message board why in the world Amazon would have a refund policy on ebooks. This is why. When someone pays three bucks for a mishmash of blog postings or a plagiarized copy of a book, shouldn't they demand their money back? I have my problems with Amazon, but this is one policy I agree with.
Bra and other undergarment patents, 1892 - 1930 (via 
OMGThatDress) If you're going to write about a particular time period, you can't forget the underpinnings. Too many folks seem to forget how constricted Victorian women were, and how many layers of clothing went under that dress. If you think a man can easily ravish a woman while she's wearing 
one of these, you have another thing coming.