So much talk about the recently deceased writer caused me to reflect on fame. It's like fire in that it can be unpredictable, scar for life, or save lives with its warmth. Certainly a catalyst ( Read more... )

Today's riff is about the problem of chasing literary greatness.

Below is a riff I scribbled last June, when I was sitting in the Hard Rock cafe. I was accompanying some kids, and I'd thought the adjacent village of shops would be covered. Nope! But I'd brought along my notebooks, and before tackling the current p, wrote these notes, which I just rediscovered while clearing my desk ( Read more... )

scbutler linked to this article about Joe the Plumber publishing a book. [Edited: before I said 'he got a big advance' which turns out not to be true. But the general drift of the article hit a nerve for me and others, so I leave the rest to stand.]

Quote that got to me:

I know: publishers say they print garbage so that real literature, which seldom ( Read more... )

sarahtales asks a good question about a marketing ploy to get yet more teenage girls buying Twilight: do you do "team"? The obvious target here is younger girls, who so often divide into cliques. Team Edward and Team Jacob is a fantastic marketing ploy, guaranteed to arrow straight to the thirteen year old hindbrain ( Read more... )

So I was attempting to reboot the brain by reading some Horace as I drank my tea, then I nearly snarfed my beverage up my nose when he observed how unfair it is when writing is slammed for being tasteless, or coarse, because it's modern--and honor and respect are reserved for ancient writings rather than the accusation of indulgence. You know, ( Read more... )

jimhines has a rant today about e-pubs, self-publicizing, tie-ins, and how people will read your carefully written words, see what they want to see, and slang you for it. (He didn't say that, I read his carefully chosen words and came to my own conclusion ( Read more... )

History that never was...

Just now the spouse and I watched an uncut version of A Hard Day's Night. Midway in, when one of the songs started, he asked me, "Were those two guys their managers?"
( Read more... )

There are a bunch of people who are connected with small presses and who also take a hand in their own publicity, so I thought I'd link to rosefox's new blog for Publishers Weekly, where she talks about what works and what doesn't.

TV showed the beginning of a movie I hadn't seen since it came out: Jewel of the Nile. I sat down to rewatch the opening, which still sparks with promise, and even laughter when Danny DeVito is onscreen. Though I do not know the details of its production, it seems to me so obvious that that beginning is Diane Thomas's work--that the guys who took ( Read more... )