And unlike retiring from a job, one can’t simply stop being a writer. “I always get an idea, and then I say, well, maybe I’ll just do this one. I think if the idea turned out to be a novel, it would be different. But once you do one story, you get more ideas, and pretty soon you’ve got half a book,” [Alice] Munro says. “So what are you going to do, stop there?” Alice Munro
Houghton has put more than a little marketing steam behind its “Polar Express” line. It’s brought schools across the country on board, encouraging teachers to take the Polar Express into the classroom with not only the classic book but “Polar Express” teaching units, math problems, train-track reading logs, puzzles, crafts and party recipes. Success `Express’: Houghton Mifflin’s ship, er, train has come in
Halfway through Michael Crichton’s new thriller, “State of Fear,” the hero, John Kenner, finds himself trapped with a comely blonde, dodging bolts of artificial lightning. Fortunately, Kenner, an agent for the government’s National Security Intelligence Agency, has the presence of mind to advise the blonde to strip down to her underwear, and, as a result, the two survive long enough to save the world from a diabolical plot. Getting Warmer
“I see the poet laureate throwing out the first ball at Dodger Stadium,” [Adam] Gottlieb said. State Still Has a Job Where You Can Feed Public a Line (Note: registration required. Sigh.)
“The publishing business isn’t as bad as the movies — publishers usually don’t bring in someone to rewrite your book — but you still don’t have control over design and marketing,” says Justin [Heimberg], who has had a hand in writing humor books. “So we decided to do it all on our own.” You, too, can write a screenplay! From idea to action with ‘Movie Plot Generator’
The first of these objections assumes the novel is a vulnerable form, easily manipulated and destabilised. That assumption is hardly borne out by its tumultuous 400-year history. The final objection, that it is no longer as easy to hoodwink readers as it used to be, is simply a slur on our grandparents. And a further obfuscation has grown up: the notion that there is a difference between novelists and storytellers. The assumption here is that the novelist is a creature of form and language, while the storyteller is occupied with the lesser act of narrative. There are several possible rebuttals
I would start, then I would get tired, and I would finish — that would be the end of the story. Eventually I realized, This probably isn’t the way to write. Five Debut Novelists. One Rock ‘n’ Reading Tour.
The two most popular categories are those labeled “Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror” and “Romance & Erotic Fiction.” Part of that, suggests Baty, has to do with the fact that sci-fi writers have taken to the Web easily. Another element may be the fact that romantic fiction is highly formulaic and therefore easy to write in a month. Speed Writing: With One Month to Pen a Novel, a Faster Piece Is Better Than a Masterpiece
“It’s a deeply unscientific — one is almost tempted to call it whimsical — compilation, which has a veneer of a certain kind of science,” he [Steve Wasserman] says. Making Books – The Bestseller Lists: Totting up book sales is not as simple as one, two, three.
“I was out recently doing push-ups in the park,” Mr. Suzuki said, through a translator, smiling, “and I could hear these people talking, looking at me, saying, ‘It’s Koji Suzuki!’” Bringing Out the Horror of What He Knows Best
