As one reviewer has reported, 'baby-sick lit' has taken over from chick lit as 'publishing's latest craze'. Polly Williams' previous novel, The Rise and Fall of a Yummy Mummy, delved into the turmoil of new motherhood and its corresponding loss of a sex life/decent wardrobe/sense of identity. It's all quite sharp and entertaining, with some funny insights about the weirdness of postnatal groups and the disorientation facing the onetime girl-in-PR when forced to adapt to a life of tracksuits and buggy-pushing. Like Fiona Neill's Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy, which projects the struggle with maternal identity further forward into life with school-age children, Williams' brand of baby-sick lit abounds with the contradictory impulse to love one's child and escape from it; suspicions of one's partner having an affair and temptations to have an affair oneself; and a rather peculiar obsession with personal grooming.

To the extent that it connects with a new generation of career-girls-turned-mummies, to whom babies are alien creatures and coffee mornings foreign lands, baby-sick lit has its place, just as Chick Lit does in the life of the busy commuter girl. (As Chick Lit author Jenny Colgan once famously remarked: 'We do actually know the difference between literature and popular fiction. We know the difference between foie gras and Hula Hoops, but, you know, sometimes we just want Hula Hoops. But when it comes to what we might call piss-stick lit, in honour of the ubiquitous home urine tests for ovulation and pregnancy, things become rather more uncomfortable.

"We are extremely excited to publish original content written by such a prominent author, available exclusively as an e-book," said Ana Maria Allessi, publisher of HarperMedia. "HarperMedia publishes approximately 350 titles per year, and Julie Quinn is a key player in this program. She is one of our top five best- selling e-book authors, and we expect that these original e-books will attract even more fans."

With the advent of the dedicated reader the e-book industry is on the verge of explosive growth, and Avon Books publisher Liate Stehlik believes that romance readers will be at the forefront. "The New York Times recently reported that female readers now compose one of the fastest-growing markets for digital books, noting their voracious reading appetite -- booksellers have told us that it's not uncommon for avid romance fans to buy upwards of five books each month," said Stehlik. "Julia Quinn is one of Avon's most popular authors, with four million copies of her books in print. These original e-book epilogues, of two of her most popular books, provide a perfect lead-in to the publication of On the Way to the Wedding, the final installment in her beloved Bridgerton series."

"After countless requests from readers, I decided to try something a little bit different," notes bestselling author Julia Quinn. "I'm thrilled to serve up The Bridgerton 2nd Epilogues -- the story after the story, in this unique book format. I think romance fans are going to be very excited."

Batwoman - real name Kathy Kane - will appear in 52, a year-long DC Comics publication that began this month. In her latest incarnation, she is a rich socialite who has a romantic history with another 52 character, ex-police detective Renee Montoya. 52 will be published in the UK as a graphic novel by Titan Books in 2007. The series is set in a world in which established superheroes like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman no longer play a part.

The new-look Batwoman is just one of a wave of ethnically and sexually diverse characters entering the DC Comics universe. Others include Mexican teenager Blue Beetle - who replaces the character's previous white incarnation - and the Great Ten, a government-sponsored team of Chinese superheroes. Regular characters Firestorm and The Atom, meanwhile, have been reinvented as black and Asian heroes respectively. The characters are part of a wider effort to broaden the make-up of comic-book creations in line with society as a whole. Batwoman, who first appeared in July 1956, has not been seen since September 1979 when she was killed by the League of Assassins and the Bronze Tiger.

"Casablanca" has topped the list of "101 Greatest Screenplays," a first-ever ranking by members of the Writers Guild of America that was revealed Thursday night at a reception in Beverly Hills. The screenplay for "Casablanca," by Julius Epstein, Philip Epstein and Howard Koch, was followed, in order, by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather," Robert Towne's "Chinatown," Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" and Joseph Mankiewicz's "All About Eve ."

"This list and the films on it are meant to be scrutinized and criticized, dissected and collected, viewed and reviewed," WGA West president Patric Verrone said. "They are the literature of our industry and the legacy of our union." Added WGA East president Chris Albers: "It's difficult to think of American life without the films on this list. Just reading the titles reminds us of the fantastic journeys they have provided."

The results, sponsored by the unions and Premiere magazine, were revealed at a gala tribute at the Writers Guild Theater. Members nominated more than 1,400 screenplays. Any produced screenplay was eligible regardless of era or language. Rounding out the top 10 are Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman's "Annie Hall," Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and D.M. Marshman Jr.'s "Sunset Blvd.," Paddy Chayefsky's "Network," Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond's "Some Like It Hot" and Coppola and Puzo's "The Godfather Part II."

Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" lassoed four prizes -- best film, best director, best adapted screenplay for Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, and best supporting actor for Jake Gyllenhall -- to top the Orange British Academy Film Awards Sunday.

Philip Seymour Hoffman was named best actor for "Capote" and Reese Witherspoon won as best actress for "Walk the Line." Thandie Newton won as best supporting actress in "Crash."

James Schamus, who produced "Brokeback" with co-scripter Ossana, noted it was a "gay shepherd movie" and not a gay cowboy movie. He thanked all at Focus and his "chief shepherd Ang Lee" for putting the movie together. He described producing "Brokeback" as "the greatest professional part of my life."

Lee told the gathered press that after "The Hulk," he had been very stressed. "I felt very blessed to work with James again," Lee said. Schamus helped produce Lee's "Sense And Sensibility" over 10 years ago. Lee also thanked the film's backers for giving an Asian director the opportunity to make such a film.

24. Which of These Passages is Not Excerpted From a Lynne Cheney Novel?

[ A ] "I was still under the impression that his taste in extramarital sex ran to patrician bluebloods, the discreet wives and daughters of America’s ruling dynasties. But when I saw Romana at the top of the townhouse stairs in a flesh-colored peignoir, things fell into place."

[ B ] "He could feel her heart beneath his hands. He moved his hands slowly lower still and she arched her back to help him.… He held her breasts in his hands. Oddly, he thought, the lower one might be larger.… One of her breasts now hung loosely in his hand near his face and he knew not how best to touch her."

[ C ] "Let us go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. We shall find ourselves a secluded bower where they dare not venture. There will only be the two of us, and…in the evenings I shall read to you while you go work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl."

The new project, in conjunction with romance publisher Harlequin Enterprises Ltd., kicks off with "In the Groove," to be published in late January, right before the Daytona 500. It's an attempt to appeal to a female fan base that isn't likely to be wooed by Caterpillar and Lowe's. Of NASCAR's estimated 75 million fans, roughly 40 percent are female.

Gentlemen, start your emotions.

"When the wife or girlfriend goes to get a book about NASCAR, so many times it's a book that they would get for their husband or boyfriend," said Kerry Tharp, NASCAR's director of public relations for licensing. "Now, maybe they can get a book that they would be more interested in and still have the NASCAR storylines."

Ever since my first book, She's Got Issues, got published, the first question everyone asked me was, "How do you think up your characters?" At first I lied. I said, "Um . . . I don’t know, I guess they're a composite of people I've met over the years." I thought that sounded good. I've heard other authors use that line, so I figured, what the hell.

But the truth is . . . I hear voices. I can easily imagine how frightening that must sound to people who don’t. That's why I typically keep that information to myself.

A while ago, I just couldn't take it anymore so I went into my bathroom with a tape recorder and put together a tape of voices that are constantly vying for attention in my head. You can't imagine the racket I live with on a daily basis. But I never complain. Mostly because I'm so grateful that my affliction never developed into the other kind of "hearing voices." Schizophrenia has got to be infinitely more distracting.

When I made my CD of voices, I started with cartoon characters and then I moved on to friends, relatives and neighbors. Before long, I had a little story going about someone who was eavesdropping on their neighbor’s conversations which were accidentally being picked up on their baby monitor. The idea of me making a tape of voices started out as a joke. The next thing I knew I had a CD and my husband was playing it at parties as soon as I left the room. He’s much funnier in person.

Anyway, once I got the voices on tape, one by one, they all seemed to disappear. But then, another whole crop of voices took up the little vacancy and before I knew it, I was putting them down on paper. My whole book is about people talking to each other. I take full credit for writing it but the truth is all I did was write down what other people were saying.

As many of you know, writers are notorious for one thing. No, not heavy drinking (well, actually, that too). But what I meant was not writing. Yes, it’s true. Writers will go to almost any length to avoid actually writing. I have mentioned this before.

And although some of you wrote the last time I mentioned this that if I hate writing so much, I should just quit, this is not a feasible solution to the problem. I really can't quit because, unlike Napoleon Dynamite, I have no other skills (such as computer hacking).

So I am stuck with (not) writing for a living. Because I still haven’t sold my old house and now I have two mortgages to pay. Besides, writers do like to write when the writing is going well. Unfortunately the writing hardly ever goes well. And so we must resort to bizarre procrastination techniques, such as watching every Law and Order episode featuring Chris Noth, in order to put off writing....

But now that I have seen almost every episode of JUDGING AMY, I have had to resort to new procrastination techniques. I have, obviously, read every issue of People and US Weekly to hit the stands in the last two years. I have been over and over the Jen/Brad/Angelina love triangle, and was horrified, as no doubt all of you were, by the latest information on Tom Cruise...that he is dating Katie Holmes, sixteen years his junior and apparently soon to be sucked into Scientology, if she hasn't been already. I was stunned by the revelation about Renee Zellweger’s sudden marriage to a singer who is not Jack White, and I am waiting, as is the rest of America, with breathless anticipation for the birth of Britney's, and Jennifer Garner's, babies.

But my latest procrastination technique of choice is reading Star Wars message boards. I will admit, I'm about the biggest Star Wars fan that there can be. No, I don't have a Princess Leia costume.