BCWW GUESTBOOK. New Workshop Guestbook allows simple feedback and discussion from members and visitors alike.
 Eric Shansby, Washington PostYOU'RE AN AUTHOR? ME TOO! Rachel Donadio in The New York Times Sunday Book Review says that the age of print on demand has made an author out of just about anyone who wants to be. Now everyone "can afford to preach in the desert."
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THE ALLEY
How a now graffiti-blighted San Francisco alley came to be named after Ambrose Bierce.
Photo-essay by Don Swaim
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ON THE LAM WITH KEN KESEY IN MEXICO. Lawrence Downes in The New York Times tries to retrace the footsteps of Kesey and his drug-fueled Merry Pranksters as they "hid out" in coastal Mexico in the 1960s. Novelist Robert Stone, one of Kesey's Pranksters, talks to me about the experience at Wired for Books.
EULOGIES NEAR FOR PRINT ENCYLOPEDIAS. Back in ancient times (1960s) I was proud owner of a set of Funk and Wagnalls encylopedias, each volume purchased weekly for $1.00 (reasonably decent money at the time) at the corner A&P. The Internet has rendered printed encylopedias almost obsolete. Go to: Ideas & Trends by Noam Cohen in The New York Times.
GEORGES SIMENON, EXISTENTIAL HACK. Paul Theroux on Inspector Maigret's creator, the Balzac of blighted lives, who was confident of winning the Nobel Prize. Go to: TimesOnline [UK].
 Shoe by Chris Cassatt & Gary Brookins © Tribune Media ServicesTHE WRITER AND HIS BOTTLE. Is there evidence, other than assumption, that there's a greater amount of alcoholism among writers than the general population? Joseph Tarakovsky in the Los Angeles Times tries to make the case that there is. Go to: The Spirits Behind the Writer.
THE NAME GAME. How does a book get its title? Here's a nice piece I lifted from CBS TV's Sunday Morning broadcast of March 2, 2008. Anchored by Charles Osgood. View it with any program that reads mp4 video files, such as iTunes or Quicktime. (As it runs 6:41 please give it time to load.) Click here.
WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR. , who died at the age of 82, is remembered as an erudite defender of Joseph McCarthy, founder of the right-wing National Review, and father of modern conservatism. But he also wrote eleven spy novels starring a James Bond-like hero, Bradford Oakes. To hear Don's 1985 interview with Buckley, go to Wired for Books.
 | THE TEN-CENT PLAGUE
I outgrew comic books when Mad Magazine came along, and I recall the hysteria that was almost as deranged as the right wing's communist witch hunts. David Hajdu's book, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America [Farrar Straus & Giroux, March 18, 2008] is an account of the moral panic that led to arrests, book burnings, and the emasculation of the industry. To read an excerpt go to bookforum.com |
BOOK LUST. Apple Computer's Steve Jobs, named by Fortune Magazine as the most powerful person in business, says people don't read anymore. But National Book Award winner Timothy Egan, in his blog, suggests it's unfortunate that someone so brilliant says something so stupid.
"SHELF LIFE" -- SUPER NEW YORKER COVER
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Traces a new book to its ultimate fate. Issue of Feb. 25, 2008.
TOO BEAUTIFUL. For Valentine's Day and long after, you'll love this short film, "Tulips," by the visual artist Jeff Scher. It's one in "The Animated Life" series in The New York Times, and it's adorable. Go to: Tulips and click on the video. You'll thank me for it.
WHAT F. SCOTT FITZGERALD'S PAT HOBBY STORIES TELL US ABOUT THE WRITERS STRIKE. Fitzgerald vs. Hollywood by Paul Greenburg in The New York Times Sunday Book Review.
NOVEL WRITING? PIECE OF CAKE. ASK ANYONE...
HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL IN 100 DAYS OR LESS. Day-by-day inspiration by John Coyne at Peace Corps Writers.
HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL IN TWO MONTHS. By Jeff Vandermeer.
HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL. By David Louis Edelman.
HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL. By Justine Larbalestier.
HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL. By Kate Maloy.
HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL. By Leon Bambrick.
HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL: THE SNOWFLAKE METHOD. By Andy Ingermanson.
HOW NOT TO WRITE A NOVEL. By Anita Sethi.
HOW NOT TO WRITE A NOVEL. By John Hewitt.
HOW NOT TO WRITE A NOVEL. By Tim Dowling.
A CLASSIC OR A FRAUD? Plagiarism allegations aimed at Wallace Stegner's Angel of Repose won't be put to rest. By Philip L. Fradkin in the Los Angeles Times.
ERICA JONG's 20 RULES FOR WRITERS 1. Have faith -- not cynicism
2. Dare to dream
3. Take your mind off publication
4. Write for joy
5. Get the reader to turn the page
6. Forget politics (let your real politics shine through)
7. Forget intellect
8. Forget ego
9. Be a beginner
10. Accept change
11. Don't think your mind needs altering
12. Don't expect approval for telling the truth
13. Use everything
14. Remember that writing is Heroism
15. Let Sex (The Body, the physical world) in!
16. Forget critics
17. Tell your truth not the world's
18. Remember to be earth-bound
19. Remember to be wild!
20. Write for the child (in yourself and others)
There are no rules
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TWO LITERARY LIONS BATTLE IT OUT. Michael Chabon vs. Erica Jong. The Washington Post Opinion Page.
ROBERT FROST HOUSE VANDALIZED. More than two dozen drunken teens arrested in Vermont. By Dan Barry in The New York Times .
WILL THE KINDLE BECOME THE iPOD FOR BOOKS? Apple's Steve Jobs says Amazon's new electronic book reader will fail because "people don't read anymore." But Randall Stross in The New York Times reports that it's not all that bleak for the publishing industry. [Note: according to this article, the entire U.S. publishing industry is expected to generate $15 billion in 2008; in 2007, Apple alone earned $24 billion.]
DMITRI'S CHOICE. Nabokov wanted his final, unfinished manuscript destroyed. Should his son, Dmitri, burn it? Ron Rosenbaum reports on the dilemma in Slate. To hear Don's interview with Dmitri, as well as a related interview with Brian Boyd, Nabokov's biographer, go to Wired for Books.
SAYING FAREWELL TO MICROSOFT WORD. Virginia Heffernan of The New York Times writes: "Oh, Word. For 20 years, you have supported and tyrannized me...After lo this lifetime of servitude, I intend to break free. I seek a writing program that understands me."
"SUBPRIME" VOTED 2007 WORD OF THE YEAR. "Subprime" edged out "green" "surge," "Facebook," and "waterboarding." So says the American Dialect Society in its annual list. This is a pdf file.
NON SEQUITUR by Wiley Miller
MAILER, PALEY, VONNEGUT: SAME ERA, DIFFERENT VOICES. The passing of three Americn fiction figures. By Morris Dickstein in the Los Angeles Times.
A PATIENCE TO LISTEN, ALIVE AND WELL. In recent years a spate of articles and books have lamented classical music's tenuous hold on the popular imagination and defended its richness, complexity and communicative power. By Anthony Tommasini in The New York Times.
PLEASE NOTE
The articles and cartoons posted in
2007 have been moved to the ARCHIVES folder |
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