SlushPile.net

The recent literary scandals sent me scurrying to the Slushpile.net library. Fraudulent identities and plagiarized words… someone spoofed this very situation. So I pulled down William Kotzwinkle’s hilarious 1996 novel The Bear Went Over the Mountain. A decade ago, this writer satirized the publishing industry with a plot that, at the time, required a massive suspension [...]

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Little, Brown, and Co. announced Thursday evening that it will withdraw Kaavya Viswanathan’s disputed novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life. The Associated Press reports that the publisher instructed retail and wholesale outlets to cease sales and to return unsold copies. A move that, according to the Washington Post is “fairly unheard [...]

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Writer X, like all of us aspiring authors, reads the words of encouragement all the time. He sees interviews with editors and agents where they proudly proclaim that if you just keep writing, don’t give up, pay your dues, stay true to your beliefs, find your voice, make every word count, tell the story you believe in, produce [...]

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Jonathan Harper interviews Michelle Tea for the Falls Church News-Press.

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I’m almost scared to post this, because if you even think the word “poker” while typing on a website, then the bots pick it up and spam floods in promising quick tips and online gambling opportunities. Some of them even promise to help fix your flops in the bedroom while teaching you how to handle the flop in a card [...]

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  Last week’s post about Why People Hate Self-Published Authors generated more email than any other item on Slushpile.net. We also had a good number of comments from a variety of opinions on the subject. Many people offered well-argued opinions both for and against self-publishing. My own take remains that there is not a single thing [...]

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Jack Kerouac’s former Hyannis, MA home sold for $300,000 after five months on the market. Ida Perry, one of the buyers, said she wasn’t familiar with Kerouac’s work. The house was originally listed at $356,000 and was assessed at $322,000. The author of 1957′s classic On the Road lived in the house in 1966. Kerouac also [...]

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  Last Thursday, I mentioned the news about Kaavya Viswanathan signing a huge book deal at such a young age. At a time when most kids are saving the rent money for their prom tuxedo, she cashed in on a two book deal. Over the weekend and on Monday, questions began popping up about similarities between [...]

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The guys at Misnomer have struck again. This time, Logan scores a great interview with Craig Clevenger, author of Dermaphoria and The Contortionist’s Handbook. One of the things about this discussion that really got my attention is Clevenger’s loyalty to publisher MacAdam/Cage and to the craft of writing. He mentions he’ll never get rich from writing fiction [...]

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The great Maud Newton points out an article in the Clarion Ledger about Eudora Welty’s home. The an article includes a slideshow of images from the author’s house and garden which will be open to the public for two days, April 29-30.

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The Book Standard reported that Snoop Dogg’s first novel, Love Don’t Live Here No More is due out in October. Published by Atria, the novel is the story of a young man in Southern California struggling to succeed in the world of hip-hop. The article quoted Kathleen Schmidt, vice president and director of publicity of for [...]

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Comedian Chelsea Handler is the author of My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands, and the subject of a Slushpile.net interview that should post in the next week or two. Her brand new show premieres tonight at 10:30 on E!. Keep your eyes peeled for our interview with Handler and to learn more about [...]

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