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Transportation infrastructure runs beneath all our books--from traffic jam plot devices to globe-hopping journalists to subway chase scenes in thrillers.

Today's guest on the Morning Media Menu was Melissa Lafsky, the brand new editor at Infrastructurist. Lafsky talked about how writers of all stripes can learn something from infrastructure: from studying the most dangerous bridges in America to "apocalypse porn" in our horror movies.

Here's more from the interview, exploring an under-reported global story: "The Chinese economy is going through the roof with production and exports. As a result, they've had a huge boom in infrastructure. For the Olympics, they built a whole new transportation infrastructure to impress everybody at the Olympics. They were even controlling the weather. In Beijing they have these weather control systems, it's pretty fantastic ... They have a hub of technology, a good deal of money, and an incredible need for infrastructure as the economy is growing."

Tonight author and hypnotist Maggie Dubris will attempt to hypnotize an audience at KGB Bar in Manhattan, revealing how hypnosis can help authors beat writer's block and write better. Besides teaching creative people the benefits of hypnosis, Dubris is the author of "Skels" and the book-length poem, "WillieWorld."

GalleyCat caught up with the hypnotism expert to find out how to beat writer's block. "I teach writers how to go into hypnosis. I give them CDs I've made that address pretty common issues for writers," she explained. "Perfectionism issues, troubles getting started, or the feeling that you're going to write something terrible--these feelings are pretty easy to deal with in hypnosis."

She explained that writing is a hypnotic activity: "The actual creative, inspired sense, when you lose track of the world while writing--that's a state of light hypnosis." She concluded with thoughts about inferiority and perfectionism: "It's really easy to say, 'I suck at writing,' but it's really hard to say 'I'm a good writer.' You need to be conscious of the negative suggestions you may be giving yourself. Your subconscious responds to hyperbole."

As the publishing market is flooded with books analyzing the stock market crash last year, smart writers are asking, "What's the next big story?"

Today's guest on the Morning Media Menu was Bloomberg Markets editor Ron Henkoff, discussing the future of business journalism. Henkoff explained how his monthly magazine has helped preserve the art of investigative journalism, outlining the most important financial stories for journalists to cover--a valuable road-map for business journalists looking for new book projects.

Here's an excerpt from the interview: "In an age where there is infinite information everywhere you turn, we feel there is a real need for (and a real market for) in-depth journalism. A lot of organizations have retreated from that ... Municipal finance seems to be one very under-covered area of journalism that is important to virtually every citizen of the United States. How do banks finance schools and fire departments and so forth? We've looked into that in-depth ... It's a story about finance, but it's a story that affects every citizen."

The GalleyCat Twitter feed is an excellent reading list, stocked with the collective wisdom of Twitter's brightest publishing minds. Still, the unfiltered feed can seem a little daunting.

In an ongoing effort to make the GalleyCat Twitter feed more user friendly, we are building a few fancy new Twitter lists that will break the thousands of publishing posts we read every week into curated collections. For instance, this GalleyCat editor compiled a list collecting the 140-character wisdom of the speakers at the upcoming mediabistro.com eBook Summit.

We will also build Twitter lists around a number of major GalleyCat themes, so write @GalleyCat with your suggestions for each list. When the process has concluded, these links will be live: Best Digital Book Twitter Feeds, Best Agent Twitter Feeds, Best Book Publicity Agent Feeds, Best Writing Advice Twitter Feeds, Best Publisher Twitter Feeds, and Best Publishing News Twitter Feeds. If you think there is a major topic missing, feel free to send those suggestions to @GalleyCat. Editor's note: Thanks to P.D. Smith, we will add a Best Author Twitter Feeds list.

As print magazine work dried up and print publishing faltered over the last few years, one author turned to new forms of storytelling to help his career.

Today's guest on the Morning Media Menu was media critic and author Douglas Rushkoff, exploring his newest project, "X"--a conspiracy-driven graphic novel that will be used to build a video game. In addition, Rushkoff talked about layoffs at major magazines, the lifestyle of a 21st Century writer, and "Life, Inc.," his critical analysis of corporate culture.

Here's an excerpt from the interview: "My real strategy now is to survive by any means necessary. There's less money out there [for writers]. In the old days, between books, you'd call Playboy or GQ and pick up a $3-a-word article for something ... Now you're lucky to get a buck or buck-fifty from a major magazine. All you can really do is diversify and focus at the same time."

Raymond Carver's famous short story collection title has become one of the blogosphere's most popular headline jokes.

As writers churn out more and more content for the Internet age, one Gawker writer discovered that the "'What We Talk About When We Talk About [X]' (WWTAWWTAX) construction" has become one of the most popular quick and dirty headlines. The title is taken from Carver's classic collection (and short story of the same name), "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love."

Here's more from the post: "it's showing off. It's pandering--signaling to a certain preferred reader : 'This one's for you, you brilliant appreciator of contemporary short fiction!' and to another reader: 'Stay away, cretin!' The majority of these publications' readers probably do occupy that demographic and temporal hot spot for which Carver is sort of an unofficial poet laureate. Most of the people reading this do. I definitely do. (In fact the first time I spotted a WWTAWWTAX headline I was so amused/pleased with myself for getting the reference, that I tweeted about it.)"

The online writing site Scribd has been in the news over the last day as someone with the same name as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan--the suspect held after yesterday's mass shooting at Fort Hood--had posted an essay about suicide bombings on the site.

The NY Times joined seven other news outlets writing about a FBI investigation into the work of a Scribd poster with the same name as the shooting suspect: "In one posting on the Web site Scribd, a man named Nidal Hasan compared the heroism of a soldier who throws himself on a grenade to protect fellow soldiers to suicide bombers who sacrifice themselves to protect Muslims."

Based on this newspaper speculation, the essay has been read over 4,000 times and generated 44 comments on Scribd, most of them from readers debating the identity of the essay writer. However, a simple SuperPages search turned up six different people named Nidal Hasan around the United States. As these online writing communities grow, they will invariably be mixed up in news stories--but it is difficult to connect these online personalities to a real writer.

Over at our sibling blog, FishbowlLA, Tina Dupuy interviewed a former LA Times editor about the dilemma facing every writer in the 21st Century: to blog or not to blog.

Richard Rushfield explained why he left his post at a national newspaper to serve as West Coast editor at Gawker: "There were so many times when you'd write a wonderful article for the LA Times, or break some news and it would just be met by the sound of crickets. When you are at the LAT you're at a place where even the website isn't in the central flow of the nation's cultural conversation. But at Gawker one is very much in and a part of that conversation and as one who is writing, in part at least to communicate, that's where you want to be."

Despite this new focus, Rushfield didn't lose his long-form chops. He also wrote a new book: "Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost: A Memoir of Hampshire College in the Twilight of the '80s."

Amazon.com (AMZN) has entered the Twitter-sphere with new program, drawing a mix of criticism and praise among users.

According to TechCrunch, Amazon.com has launched a new feature for Amazon Associates entitled "Share on Twitter." The program allows associates to tweet about products sold at Amazon, generating quick and easy links back to a page on the bookseller's site. In an email to associates, the company wrote: "When Twitter users click on the link in your post and make a qualifying sale, you'll earn referral fees."

Many readers are worried that these referrals might harm the integrity of Twitter. ReadWriteWeb had these thoughts: "Soon they'll start promoting a great book they just read, a DVD they liked, or one of a million other things pulled out of Amazon's vast inventory. None of it will sound out of place given the types of informal conversations that take place on Twitter every day. You won't even know that they're advertising to you until you click through on the link and find yourself on an Amazon.com webpage--and even then, you may not be sure." (Via Jose Afonso Furtado)

As newspapers, literary journals, and digital publishers debate the future of content, one issue looms large: do we need paywalls to earn money for our content? According to The New York Times' public editor, executive editor Bill Keller has said that the paper will decide "within weeks" whether to erect a paywall--setting the pace for everybody from online literary journals to hometown papers.

Last week Five Chapters editor David Daley confessed his own uneasiness with his free journal's role in the publishing economy: "I'm not always sure it's good for the overall reading culture," he said. What do you think? Our blog network is running a poll to find out what all the different media types in the audience think about this crucial topic. Add your answer below...

Do You Think Paywalls Will Save Newspapers?(trends)