John Irving’s World of Fiction: Almost As Bizarre As Reality

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We have a friend, who, when encountering yet another ridiculous moment in life, says, “You can’t make this stuff up.” It is true that nobody would believe things that happen when some humans get together. Thus is the beauty of John Irving’s work — he comes very close to the stuff of real life. It may be dredged from his imagination, but if you think it can’t happen next door, you need to work on your eavesdropping skills. This is why we’ve been intrigued by the reviews of his newest book, Until I Find You — the one he switched […]

Books/Mags/Blogs

Friday Morning Karma

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It’s been a rough year for libraries, but as we suspected, they continue to exist and thrive. Not so long ago, it appeared the Salinas public library would close due to lack of funds; today, it’s not a sure thing, but the community came to realize the important place the library serves in their collective lives. This will be a choice faced by many citizens in the coming years. Now comes words that prisoners in San Quentin have raised funds for the libary. Reasons varied, but center around the prisoners’ belief that better education would have changed their paths. Now

Square Pegs

You Have A Book, Now What?

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While we imagine there are some out there who love doing publicity, most authors seem to treat it like a chore — one that could make or break a career (possibly if cleaning refrigerator had such impact, we’d be more inclined in that direction). Publishers offer varying levels of marketing support to authors, commensurate with past experience or future hopes. Yes, Virginia, this means that many authors don’t get to sit on the couch next to Katie Couric. Most authors do signings in bookstores in towns they never thought they’d visit, facing an audience of one or two curious people.

Tools and Craft

Who Knows What Darkness Lurks In The Heart of Authors?

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In an essay at Powell’s, our friend Martha O’Connor talks about her journey from wide-eyed innocent to stark raving mad author, with a slightly pink side trip thrown in for good measure. Her journey, like so many, truly began when she realized her first mistake: Now I’m quick to admit that my first book, which I wrote at age fifteen, was horrible. It was the most pathetic fantasy novel ever written, and could have been used as the textbook for a How Not to Write a Novel class. It was filled with pages of unnecessary description and exposition, clunky dialogue,

Books/Mags/Blogs

When Fiction Opens Minds, Thinking Follows

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Last week, someone suggested that women’s fiction doesn’t get reviewed because it’s about characters (or perhaps character studies), while men’s fiction is about ideas. While we don’t want to get into a discussion on the importance of characters in fiction (we take the position that they are a key element), we also don’t want to get into an discussion about what constitutes an “idea”. We’ve had enough bad ones to know the pitfalls there. There has also been discussion about the domestic nature of women’s fiction. Again, without specific definitions, it’s hard to say for sure why this is such

Books/Mags/Blogs

Note: Guarantees Are Like Red Flags

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It appears that someone out there is impersonating agent Deidre Knight by sending letters to authors, assuring publication and a low agency commission. Let us assure you that The Knight Agency doesn’t need to drum up additional business — this is a scam, and someone is trading on Knight’s sterling reputation. Do not fall for this. While it is possible that a reputable agent might contact you, offering representation, this is not the norm. And no reputable agent is going to guarantee publication. We’ve had many dealings with Deidre Knight over the years, and she is always helpful and professional.

Agents

Where Have All The Good Girls Gone?

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In their continuing series of editors, MediaBistro talks to Julia Cheiffetz of Random House. And Cheiffetz talks about her current project, a book with the controversial title of This Is Not Chicklit* and why she believes it’s important for diverse voices in literature. One day when I was out for a jog, I started to think about all of the big literary novels that have been championed in the past few years: Middlesex, Motherless Brooklyn, The Corrections, Everything is Illuminated&151all great books. But it dawned on me that, more or less, these were all guy books. I started to wonder

Publishers and Editors

Department of the Obvious: Summer Submission

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Grumpy Old Bookman (via Susan Gable, who might just be promoted to research assistant if she doesn’t watch herself) points us to another in our series of “Look At That, The Girl Can Think” stories. In today’s episode, on a show called University Challenge, the Romance Novelists Association (the British version of Romance Writers of America, or perhaps it’s the other way around) firmly trounces the team from Wisden, which is the cricketers bible and run by people with, and we quote, “…an astonishing memory for obscure facts and statistics. And, naturally, they are all educated chaps.” Despite such a

Square Pegs

In Which We Discover That Kids Don’t Pay Attention to NEA Studies

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We work this morning with the powerful sense that finding book-related news would be as easy as, well, opening our laptop. Wrong. It is as if the world took the entire weekend off. We cannot understand what could be happening — it seems like something should be catching our attention. In unrelated news, it appears that reading is on the rise. If you factor out high schoolers (and there is a small but vocal group who strongly believe that this is the least one should do during these difficult years). Though it is entirely possible that another study, completely contradicting

Square Pegs

On Yes, That’s What It Should Be

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[Note: the source is the husband, overheard during one of his rare moments outside of headquarters] The kids have been reading non-stop since they got it. They kept going until they were delirious. They stayed up, reading, until the words didn’t make any sense. They went to sleep, and when they got up, they started reading again. They’re delirious.

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