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John Irving Worries about Young Writers

john_irving.jpgIn this candid video interview, novelist John Irving confessed that his first novel, "Setting Free The Bears," would not be published in our 21st Century publishing industry.

In a new Big Think interview, he explained: "If I were twenty-seven and trying to publish my first novel today, I might be tempted to shoot myself...I think it's a lot tougher to be a first [time] novelist, to be an unknown novelist today than it was for me and so I worry about what's going to happen with those good, younger writers. But I don't think the book is in any particular peril, I think the book is going to survive."

The quote was part of a simple series of interviews with the novelist, each broken into easily digestible segments. Among other topics, he covered how writers should think about movies and why he can't leave the United States.

Philip Roth Cuts Lansing, Michigan

9780547239699.gifNovelist Philip Roth curiously cut out a reference to Lansing, Michigan in his thirtieth novel, excising a location a half-hour away from this GalleyCat editor's hometown.

The NY Observer painstakingly compared a review copy of "The Humbling" against the final copy sold in bookstores, uncovering this geographical slight: "[In the first draft] Pegeen's father runs a community theater in the capital of Michigan, a place for which Mr. Roth apparently has little love: 'Lansing, Michigan' is changed to 'middle of nowhere.'"

This editorial action tested our affection for Roth's work, since this GalleyCat editor actually covered indie theater in Lansing for his community college newspaper. Saddened by Roth's editorial exorcism, GalleyCat would like to salute all the writers, reviewers, readers, and community theater supporters in Lansing, Michigan. You are not forgotten!

How to Plan Your First Book

"I think it's usually a good time to write a book when you go to the library or the bookstore and the book you want to read isn't there," explained Michael Meyer in that video interview. He's the author of the book, "The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed,"and shared some simple, powerful advice for aspiring creative nonfiction writers.

Meyer was one of the ten writers honored at the 25th annual Whiting Writers' Awards last week. GalleyCat prowled the aisles of the 2009 Whiting Awards, interviewing a number of the winners about their writing lives, the recession, and the future of literature. The ten recipients each took home a $50,000 award for their literary efforts.

Here's more about the author: "The Minnesota native has lived for the past two of his 10 years in China in one of the courtyard neighborhoods - called hutong - first settled 800 years ago, whose narrow lanes run mazelike through the center of Old Beijing."

John Grisham Enters Price War Debate

johngrisham.jpgAuthor John Grisham bashed Amazon and Walmart in a Today Show appearance, criticizing how the companies have marked down books and made the market more difficult for "aspiring writers."

As we reported, Walmart (WMT) recently slashed book prices online, slashing the cover price of the top 10 pre-selling titles to $10 apiece--sweetening the deal with free shipping. This move touched off a book discounting war in between Amazon.com (AMZN), Walmart, and finally, Target (TGT). At one point, prices sank below $9 for a new hardcover.

Here's more from Grisham (pictured, via), from the article: "[The price] enables me to make a royalty, the publisher to make a profit and the bookstore to make a profit ... If a new book is worth $9, we have seriously devalued that book ... It's a free market--there's no legal case ... I'm not itching to sue Amazon or Wal-Mart...they sell a lot of books. But the future is very uncertain with books."

Jon Krakauer Criticizes Gen. Stanley McChrystal

jon23.jpgOn Meet the Press this weekend, author Jon Krakauer made headlines for criticizing the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan for the role he played after the death of football star and soldier, Pat Tillman.

During the show, Krakauer (pictured, via) debates why Gen. Stanley McChrystal helped give a "fraudulent" medal to Tillman after the star died in a friendly-fire incident. In the video, the author watches a clip of the General explaining why he gave the medal to the football star--an event that Krakauer studies in his new book, "Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman."

Here's more from the article: "He, he just said now he didn't read this hugely important document about the most famous soldier in the military. He didn't read it carefully enough to notice that it talked about enemy fire instead of friendly fire? That's preposterous. That, that's not believable." (Via Huffington Post)

AvantGuild: Memoir Isn't Just Writing About Yourself

Walter Kirn gives mediabistro.com members the inside story on expanding an essay he wrote for The Atlantic in Lost in the Meritocracy, a memoir of his "undereducation of an overachiever," in the latest installment of the "Hey, How'd You...?" series. "After I wrote the essay, I had a sizable response in the letters of personal outpourings," he recalls. "Everyone, it seemed, had been less happy than they were supposed to be and less well educated than they were pretending to be." So he set out to write something bigger, but realized that all those experiences he had weren't enough in and of themselves: "You think when you sit down to write a memoir that you have a story to tell because you have yourself and what happened to you, but that doesn't make a character in a story... You can't just record a sequence of events and have a narrative," he explains. "The conventions of storytelling are even more important when you're telling a real story than when you're telling a made-up one."

ag_logo_medium.gifThis article is one of several mediabistro.com features exclusively available to AvantGuild subscribers. If you're not a member yet, you can register for $55 a year, and start reading those articles, receive discounts on mediabistro.com seminars and workshops, and get all sorts of other swell bonuses.

UnBeige: Extreme Makeover, Emily Dickinson's Home Edition

UnBeige, mediabistro.com's design blog, alerts us to a ceiling collapse at Homestead, the house in which Emily Dickinson lived as a small child and famously spent the last three decades of her adult life, writing poems. According to a report in the NY Times, the plaster ceiling in the front parlor appears to have dropped so low from visitors' regard Sunday afternoon that they heard it hit the ground. (The house is part of the Emily Dickinson Museum and was open for tours; no injuries were reported.)

Alice Munro Reveals Battle with Health Problems

alicemunroe.jpgIn a conversation at the 10-day International Festival of Authors, award-winning author Alice Munro (pictured, via) revealed a recent battle with health problems.

Here's more from The Canadian Press: "Munro said she's had heart bypass surgery and 'just had cancer.' Still, Munro said she's 'been lucky with her health,' unlike her mother, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at a relatively young age and died in her late 50s."

Recently the author took herself out of the running for the $50,000 Giller Prize, which she has won twice during her career. Last year she won the £60000 Man Booker International Prize, chosen out of a longlist that included 14 writers from 12 different countries. (Via Writer's Blog)

Lawyers Cancel Harry Potter Dinner

cvr_book7.jpg
As children around the world build wizard costumes for Halloween, a British woman canceled her Harry Potter themed-party after receiving a disproving letter from Warner Brothers' lawyers.

According to the Telegraph, a woman (who goes by the pseudonym Ms. Marmite Lover in the article), has hosted a few themed dinner parties at her home. While planning a party about J.K. Rowling's famous wizard, complete with talking paintings and pumpkin soup, the hostess received this letter from legal and business department: "While we are delighted you are such a fan of the Harry Potter series, unfortunately your proposed use of the Harry Potter properties... without our consent would amount to an infringement of Warner's rights."

The party will continued, now dubbed "Generic Wizard Night." In a London Evening Standard interview, the host explained her dinner series: "The night is totally a fan's tribute and is a one-off. It's not like I'm running a permanent Harry Potter restaurant...It is basically dinner parties that are paid for. I'm the cook and hostess. Each dinner takes four days of work and I make very little money from it."

Andromeda Klein, Born Under a Cryptic Sign

When we met with Frank Portman to talk about his second YA novel, Andromeda Klein, we joked that it was a banned book waiting to happen... (Little did we know that, no joke, one school in Portland had already cancelled his appearance because of the book's occult themes.)

Portman told us a bit about the tarot imagery that permeates the novel, which centers on a teenage girl (and practicing ceremonial magician) still coping with the death of her friend, and we went from there to talking about the accuracy of the story's handling of occultism in general. "I thought I knew a lot about it when I started," Portman admitted, "but I still had to do all kinds of research. It was a crazy odyssey... To write a novel about an obsessive character like Andromeda, you have to know a lot." Rather than simply use the magic as a framing device or a plot point, he strove to make it both integral to the narrative and absolutely real—but in a way that still allows skeptical readers to accept what happened to Andromeda as manifestations from her own subconscious fueled by her voracious reading on the subject.

Andromeda's efforts to preserve the occult section of her town's public library are a major part of the story, and Portman was quick to point out how much reading and book collecting shapes modern-day magick. "Everybody in that world is very proud of their collection," he said; the rarer the books, the better. "It's a lot like record collecting."

Speakng of record collecting, Andromeda Klein has a theme song (complete with references to Aleister Crowley and H.P. Lovecraft), which is also available as a 7-inch single. For the longest time, he revealed, he wasn't sure what his character's main name was. "Her name came to me while I was standing in line for bagels, and as soon as I thought the name, I had the tune for the song—all sorts of answers about her personality came from that."

Previously

"The Apprentice Has Become the Master": Once Her Assistant, Now Her Editor

AvantGuild: The Daily Show Producer's YA Novel

Author to Watch: Sarah Beth Durst - ICE

Author to Watch: Barry Lyga - "Goth Girl"

Author to Watch: Shani Petroff - "Bedeviled"

First Glimpse of Don DeLillo's Slim New Novel

AvantGuild: Lena Katz's California Trilogy

Getting Past Your Issues & Finding a Book

Darwinian Writing Advice

Soft Skull Press Defends Controversial Memoir

Journalists Remember Ryszard Kapuscinski

James Ellroy's Secret History

Gourmet EIC to Write Book about Condé Nast Experiences

John McCain Ponders Sarah Palin Memoir

Paul Auster and Salman Rushdie Sign Roman Polanski Release Petition

Author Lawrence Weschler on the Future of Literary Journalism

TMZ and Twitter Spread False Maya Angelou News

'The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind'

Sarah Palin Finishes Her Memoir in Four Months

Celebrating William Safire's Precision

William Safire Has Died

Why You Should Keep Writing Despite Rejection

How Did Mackenzie Phillips Keep Her Memoir Secret?

The Other D.B. Who Explains Dan Brown's Appeal

James Ellroy Book Club

Ralph Nader and His 700-Page Novel

Writers Learn How to Listen

Publishing and New War Veterans

Who Is Robert Bonomo And Why Is He Trying to Game Oprah?

AvantGuild: Writing the Book on Work-Life Balance

Author Jon Krakauer on His Long-Delayed Book

It's a Red Letter Day for Laura Caldwell

Poet Jim Carroll Has Died

Laura Albert Settles Film Company's "Fraud" Suit

Candace Bushnell's Recession

Homer Finally Joins Facebook

Read Like a NY Times Columnist

Ernest Hemingway's "Suicidal" U-Boat War

Publisher Reacts Strongly to Author's Royalty Debate

Author vs. Publisher Debate Heats Up

Journalists Write North Korean Prison Story

Where in the World Is Sarah Palin?

Author Jenna Bush Joins Today Show

Lindsay Patterson, 1934-2009

"The Shock Doctrine" Adaptation Divided

Joyce Carol Oates' Literary Look at Ted Kennedy

Remembering Dominick Dunne on the Menu

Author and Journalist Dominick Dunne Has Died

Politico Writer on Ted Kennedy's Legacy

Frustrated Novelist Julia Child Finally Tops Bestseller List

Senator Edward M. Kennedy Has Died

Mary Gaitskill's Real Life GalleyCat

Beach Reading with President Barack Obama

Day Job Survival Tips

Gawker's Hunter Walker Investigates J-School

How To Break into Comic Book Writing

Elizabeth Gilbert Gets "Committed"

TV Journalist Don Hewitt Has Died

Frank Bruni's Audiobook Revelation

Glenn Beck: Advertisers Flee, Audience Flocks

Author and Journalist Robert Novak Has Died

The Dark Side of Crossword Puzzles

Historical Novel Questions "Incredibly Misogynistic Record"

Literary Politicians Lead Health Care Debate

New Yorker Releases Dave Eggers Excerpt

Novelist Wendy Walker on Recession Lit

Vanity Fair Imagines Werner Herzog's Diary

Dick Cheney Memoir to Reveal "Heated Arguments" with George W. Bush

Collected Works of Arlen Specter

Thomas Pynchon Confirmed as Book Trailer Narrator

Mystery Novelist Sandra Brown on Writing Conferences

AvantGuild: Julie Powell on Avoiding the Blogging Trap

Screenwriter Blake Snyder Has Died

Lev Grossman: Fantasy Goes Mainstream

Senate Confirms Perry Mason Fan

Thomas Pynchon, Your Humble Narrator?

First Glimpse of Vladimir Nabokov's Final Manuscript

Welcome to Methland

Booker Longlister Fights Wikipedia Critics

Drawing Thomas Pynchon

GalleyCat's Pynchon Party Program

Ashton Kutcher and David Pogue Publish Twitter Fans

Nancy Drew Reader Endorsed by Senate Judiciary

Publicity Lessons: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and Richard Yates

Novelist E. Lynn Harris Has Died

Author Appeals J.D. Salinger's Legal Victory

Simon Karlinsky, 1924-2009

Hitchhiker's Guide to Sequel Writing

From Mad Men to Designing Spaces

Henry Louis Gates Jr. Charges Dropped

Author Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrested

Suzan Colon's Advice for Laid-Off Publishing Workers: "Don't Be Discouraged"

Norman Mailer on the Moon

Daniel Asa Rose: Family & Life-or-Death Comedy

Frank McCourt Has Died

Newsweek's McCarter: Fairlie Appreciative

FBLA: Walter Cronkite and the Web Stuff

Salman Rushdie's Dinner with Thomas Pynchon

Filling the Gaping Void with Purple Cows

Author and Poet Phyllis Gotlieb Has Died

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