Books/Mags/Blogs

Oh yeah, the cranky machine is running at full capacity. We may require a time out. There is, out there (there being someplace we can’t pinpoint, but it surely exists) a problem with the sales of literary fiction. Now, we do not have at our fingertips a graph of historical sales, but, we suspect, literary fiction has always sold to a lesser degree than genre fiction. If this is not true, then do not tell us as we’re going with that as our thesis. Now, readers are faced with increasing choice and limited budgets. So when we read stuff like […]

Something tells us we’re about to have a cranky day. We would apologize but we’re one sentence into what promised to be an interesting article (promise broken) and already we want to shoot off long diatribes to the journalist’s editor. This is how it starts, isn’t it? E-books have yet to crack the publishing industry, but that hasn’t stopped literature from tackling computer technology as a storytelling device. Well, technically, ebooks have cracked the publishing industry. Perhaps it would be better to suggest that they haven’t set the publishing industry on fire. Yet. We remain convinced that they will find

We understand exuberance — we’ve been excited about things plenty of times, but our innate sense of fiscal responsibility generally saves our checkbook from our enthusiasm (also, the husband). Perhaps it’s because we don’t look good in red. This may be why we do not publish novels. Sure, Little Brown & Company have proven themselves somewhat experienced in the publishing business. And their professional editors can spot raw talent in the same way we can spot decent Chinese food. An almost-finished novel by a first-time author? Screams “two-book, six figure” deal to us. So what that: “It’s a little tough

According to our schedule, we will be spending the weekend cleaning out the garage. Again. The evil garage elves delight in filling empty spaces with junk we surely did not purchase in a moment of weakness. But if we can manage a believable excuse, we will ditch the never-ending project and head for UCLA for a weekend of fun and excitement. Or as it’s known in SoCal, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Lots of local celebrities will be making the scene. Hmm, that doesn’t sound right. It’s such an ordeal, living in a city filled with famous folk;

Maybe we have the soul of a purist, but we feel a little uncomfortable with Nancy Drew’s breasts. Nancy, Bess, and George as manga chicks, while not quite as bad as last year’s bizarre updating of the Drew stories, seems to be messing with the spirit of the series. The only thing worse could be The Hardy Boys using hair ge–nevermind. ‘Nancy Drew’ finds clues in graphic novel

As evidenced by our lame attempts at headlines, we are title-impaired. Truly. If an excellent should happen to cross our path, we might trip over it, but won’t recognize it for what it is. The police report will read something like “the mysterious object appeared before the subject but disappeared before it could be identified. We cannot assist the victim in locating the culprit.” Only in police jargon. Stuart Woods had a great title. Such a great title that he refused to give it up. Nothing would sway him. He was resolute. Then a little issue called publisher support came

We have flirted for nearly a week with the idea of posting about this, well, rather strange commentary on Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book. Part of us felt like, “Yeah, it’s a particularly vitriolic review. So what.” Another part of us questioned the motivation of the reviewer. Foer failed the final — despite the fact he wasn’t enrolled in the class. Harry Siegel walked into the book with preconceived notions about the characters and writing style. The work met his expections accordingly. We would have accepted a review that assessed the story, the writing, the plot, but that wasn’t enough.

Did anyone else greet the news of first-time authors touring the club circuit with trepidation? Authors hitting local lounges? Surely no good could come of that. Next they’d fancy themselves rock musicians. Oh, wait, that already happened. Does nobody understand the importance of pre-assigned roles in this world? Okay, fine, we’ll admit it: we like this concept, though like Marya Hornbacher we have concern about what happens when authors share rooms on the road. Dueling laptops at dawn? The First Fiction Tour hits the clubs