The “gang” at MobyLives has been on vacation for August, but there is a GREAT “column” this week called The Freelancer: Going to work in your pajamas is great … except when it’s not … written by Chris Rodell. He discusses BOTH THE POSITIVE AND THE NEGATIVE aspects to being a freelance writer and the […]
Through “MaudNewton”, I learned this FANTASTIC news: Rupert Thomson’s incredible novel, The Book of Revelation is being “adapted” for film. In an “article” about ballet luminary Meryl Tankard, a news outlet reports the exciting news that “Tankard looks rested and calm despite a frantic schedule of projects, including choreographing the dance sequences for Ana Kokkinos’s […]
You know, maybe I was too hard on Mr. Koch and his formatting intensive book The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop in my post earlier today. I mean, after all, who am I? He ran a prestigious program for decades, he’s published two novels and at least three nonfiction books. Meanwhile, I’m a nobody sitting here […]
Publishers Weekly reported on Tuesday that controversial company PublishAmerica is facing a new lawsuit. As reporter Steven Zeitchik wrote, “though this time it has upset someone with a lot more clout–and lawyers–than unknown authors.” The Maryland-based publisher launched a new business division in the United Kingdom called PublishBritannica which incurred the wrath of Encyclopaedia Britannica. […]
I really wanted to like this book. The author has great credentials, the subject matter is of particular interest to writers, and the reference materials are impeccable. But reading this thing was like the old spy movies where our hero is subjected to the drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… […]
Frustrated writers like to rail against the injustices of the publishing industry. I’ve been known to vent a little here and there myself, although I stop far short of calling publishers a mafia. But there are many out there who, through much gnashing of teeth and beating of breast, lament that their novel is being […]
An anonymous literary agent calling herself Miss Snark runs a blog where she dispenses blunt, pointed comments and criticisms that are engaging and entertaining. You can submit work to her and she’ll run it through the Crapometer and post her thoughts. She also responds to comments.
One viewer asks “I see a lot of agent websites […]
Richard Price may now be better known for his film work or his urban crime dramas. But his early novels are excellent examinations of working-class families and the pressures they face. Probably my favorite early Price novel is Blood Brothers. Published in 1976, this book follows the difficult decisions facing eighteen-year-old Stony De Coco. His […]
Via MaudNewton, I learned of a brief and entertaining article examining Lolita at 50. The article explains the genesis of Nabokov’s idea, how his wife just managed to convince the author from burning the manuscript, and how many readers have mistaken certain elements over the years. Particularly interesting is the treatment of Lolita’s foreward. In […]
Jay McInerney provides an interesting review of Indecision by Benjamin Kunkel in Sunday’s New York Times. In a quick wrap-up, McInerney describes the recent history of coming-of-age novels by writing, “In its modern form the American bildungsroman (the novel of formation) descends from The Catcher in the Rye‘ (1951). Reinvigorated by feminism in the 70’s, […]