Browse GalleyCat August 2006 archives - GalleyCat

Scene @ Subway Chronicles Party

Ron Hogan — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 15:24:07 +0000

Boris Fishman and Amy Holman were among the writers who dropped in at the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn Heights last night to celebrate the publication of The Subway Chronicles, a collection of essays about, well, what it’s like on the New York subways. Editor Jacquelin Cangro hosted the reception at the far end of the museum, in a room decorated with old transit signs, while I chatted with author Elise Juska about her recent vacation in Maine, where she completed work on her latest novel, and said hello at the cookie table to Lucinda Rosenfeld, who brought her infant daughter, Beatrice, nestled on her shoulder.

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FSG Enters Book Trailer Arena W/Flourish

Ron Hogan — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 12:52:27 +0000

Lorin Stein hasn’t just acquired, edited, and translated Gregoire Bouillier’s The Mystery Guest for Farrar Straus Giroux—he’s also produced (or conceptualized, if you prefer) a short promotional film for the novel directed by music videomaker David Teague, playing up what Details described as the book’s “Mrs. Dalloway as directed by Woody Allen” aspects:

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Let’s Not Forget the Hugo Winners

Ron Hogan — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:47:35 +0000

John Scalzi emailed last night with a slight criticism of our reporting on the groping incident at last weekend’s Hugo Awards ceremony: “You post about Harlan [Ellison] grabbing tits but not about the results of the Hugos (save for a single small link in the Boob-gate story)? Shame! Shame!” he chides me. “There are some great stories there,” he continues, “such as Tor editor David Hartwell (SF’s very own Susan Lucci) finally getting a Hugo after umpteen million nominations, Betty Ballantine’s grand diva (in a good way) entrance and appreciation, and Robert Charles Wilson’s awesomely deserving and yet surprising Hugo win for Spin, which beat out four really strong contenders, including, uh, my own book. Where’s the love, man?”

Duly noted, and praise for Spin seconded! Also among the evening’s big winners: Scalzi himself, who picked up the John W. Campbell Award, presented annually to science fiction’s “best new writer.” If you haven’t read Old Man’s War and The Ghost Brigades yet, you really should, and keep an eye out in October for The Android’s Dream.

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The lure of the series character

Sarah — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:29:14 +0000

Why do readers crave continuing series where characters appear over and over again? (This is a question that pops up a whole lot over at my own blog, since it applies rather heavily to the mystery field.) The Telegraph’s Helen Brown investigates this phenomenon on the heels of Michel Faber‘s just-published short story featuring Sugar, the character of his bestselling THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE. In his introduction to the collection, Faber quotes from the cardboard box full of letters he received from readers of The Crimson Petal. So many people wanted to know where Sugar and her young charge Sophie went: “Australia? New Zealand? Back up North? Please – if you know – give us an idea. We worry about Sophie!!”

So what’s going on here? Noted SF writer Michael Moorcock explains his own rationale for writing series characters is based on what he read as a child. “I loved [JUST WILLIAM] because I identified thoroughly with him. He was given to asking adults sticky questions, and few red-blooded kids could fail to love him. In a sense, Wodehouse’s characters were the same – rather bewildered by the cruel world, as it were. John Carter came a bit later. With him, it wasn’t so much the character as the landscapes.” Ah yes, the creation of worlds where characters can pop in and out – that’s a popular idea, too.

Series is associated with genre fiction but look how many literary writers – John Updike, David Mitchell, Julian Barnes & Anthony Trollope did recurring characters or series. And then there are the metafiction types, like Jasper Fforde having his way with the classics in his Thursday Next & Nursery Crimes series. But perhaps the most enduring mysteries are those offered up by readers themselves. “I wish I knew what became of some of the readers who took the trouble to write to me. The man who had cancer and read The Crimson Petal in hospital: is he still alive? The prostitute who said she was leaving the game and returning to education: did she? But I will probably never know.”

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Petty Larcenist Jeopardizes Literary Vanguard

Ron Hogan — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 08:51:10 +0000

Shame, shame on the thief who walked off with $3,000 from an n+1 fundraiser, as reported in yesterday’s NY Sun. “It was the nicest party we’ve ever had” until the money disappeared, said founding editor Keith Gessen, but then he also told the reporter “our office manager got into a fight with his girlfriend and had to leave the party, and he’s usually the guy who watches the cash box.” So what the heck happens at the not-so-nice parties, we’re wondering? Seriously, though, those funds were earmarked to help pay for the tote bags they gave away at the party (one of which was probably used during the getaway), not to mention “a pamphlet on the avant-garde” the guys were hoping to publish later this year. (Thanks to emdashes for the lead.)

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All China all the time

Sarah — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 08:19:37 +0000

The Beijing Book Fair is underway, so it’s fitting that a number of news stories are filtering out about China and its untapped market for publishing industry to tap into. First out of the gate – what a surprise – is HarperCollins, which announced a series of new cooperative initiatives in China. They include the distribution of select Chinese works overseas, the publishing of Swordbird in the U.S., U.K. and China, and the launch of Cidian.cn, an online Collins English-Chinese dictionary, according to a press release issued yesterday.

“We are committed to working closely with China’s publishing industry and are excited by our partnership with The People’s Literature Publishing House,” said HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, who is in China to speak at the Beijing International Publishing Forum. “As a global publishing company, we see English translation of Chinese literary works as an under-served category and therefore an opportunity. Commenting on the agreement, Liu Yushan, President of The People’s Literature Publishing House, said, “It is our goal to enable people around the world to appreciate and enjoy works of Chinese literature. Our cooperation with HarperCollins will enable this.”

Penguin, too, is taking some of its properties into the Chinese market. The Guardian reports that classics such as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Oliver Twist, Crime and Punishment and Moby Dick would be translated into Mandarin and sold under its logo in the world’s fastest growing book market. The first 10 novels will go on sale in November under a licensing deal with a local partner that could eventually see the UK firm marketing Chinese literature and the works of Marx and Engels to a population of 1.3 billion people.

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It’s a Known World After All

Sarah — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 07:51:58 +0000

Edward Jones‘ THE KNOWN WORLD won a whole bunch of prizes when the novel was published some years back, and for good reason – it was brilliant. So no wonder he and his new collection of stories, ALL AUNT HAGAR’S CHILDREN, is getting rapturous review attention and print media shoutouts from the New York Times, where William Hamilton looks into the semi-reclusive author’s relationship to his native Washington, DC, depicting African-Americans through the ages and his writing ethos, which is heavily dosed with realism.

“When people come to you, characters, and they’re doing or saying something, it’s almost always a particular place that I have to situate them,” Jones said. “I don’t want to create some sort of imaginary street in Washington, because that’s not the world that I knew.” What he did know was a small space that housed his mother and his sister together with him for many years until finally, he moved out in 2004 to a Gothic revival apartment complex on Embassy Row. It’s not about living the rich life, but having comfort. “Because of all the stuff we went through when I was a kid,” he said, mildly hissing the word ‘stuff,’ “I don’t ever want to eat another cabbage sandwich.”

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Michael Tolkin is no Player Hater

Sarah — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 06:21:46 +0000

Otherwise he wouldn’t have brought back Griffin Mill, star of his 1988 novel THE PLAYER, for another go-round in the sequel. And a lot has changed in Hollywood, exemplified by one throwaway line in RETURN OF THE PLAYER: “box office was down, it would never return” that makes executives quake in their books in real life. The NYT’s David Halfbinger talks to Michael Tolkin about his life in the movies, why he’s gone back to Griffin Mill and the seeming death of the heroic structure that supports most “big” movies of late.

“I don’t think America’s had a good movie made since Abu Ghraib,” Tolkin said, before clarifying that he’s talking about big movies, not the minuscule ones that have met the industry’s quotas for unembarrassing award nominees. “I think it showed that a generation that had been raised on those heroic movies was torturing. National myths die, I don’t think they return. And our national myth is finished, except in a kind of belligerent way.”

So how, then, can Hollywood be a “positive force in nature,” as Tolkin attests? “I do think the movies help bring people together,” he said. “If there was an Arabic cinema that was as good as the Asian cinema, there’d be less tension in the world. I believe that. When the movies were good, America was more popular in the world. The movies showed the world something really powerful, and that vision was so powerful that the movies were restricted, totalitarian regimes tried to keep the movies out because they were so powerful. The American myth is the little tailor that could, the yeoman who can grow up to be president, the humble log cabin leads to the emancipation of the slaves. That’s the most threatening idea in the world.”

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IPPY Nomination Season Kicks Off

Ron Hogan — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 12:27:18 +0000

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2007 Independent Press Awards, which will recognize the best books of 2006 from independent, university, and other small presses, including self-publishers. Thare are 63 separate categories, from general fiction to short stories to something called “visionary fiction” (presumably because “story loaded with New Age cliches” didn’t sound quite as impressive), and nonfiction categories from history and science to coffee table books. There’s also two categories for the best print and online marketing campaigns, and ten regional awards for fiction and nonfiction. Nominations will be accepted for a $70 registration fee until April 2007; winners will be announced at BookExpo next summer.

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B&N Stock Dips As Feds Announce Probe

Ron Hogan — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 11:26:52 +0000

The Forbes website has an item about Barnes & Noble’s acknowledgment of a federal inquiry into its stock option practices, with Justice Department attorneys making an official document request last Friday. “The company is one of many suspected of backdating its stock options to boost profits for those receiving them,” according to Forbes. The Wall Street Journal has more on this alleged malfeasance, following up on its coverage of the issue from last month, when B&N announced its own internal investigation in the wake of a shareholder lawsuit. “A review of securities filings shows that Barnes & Noble granted stock options to senior executives at monthly lows,” the paper reported then; the two examples they cited were option handouts involving chairman Leonard Riggio and CEO Stephen Riggio.

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Naghib Mahfouz, 1911-2006

Ron Hogan — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 10:22:04 +0000

The Associated Press and Reuters file two of the first dispatches on the death of Nobel winner Naghib Mahfouz. Egypt’s most famous writer had been in generally poor health since an assassination attempt in 1994 by militant Muslims offended by his writing, and had been hospitalized for the last month. “Many classified him as a 19th century-style novelist,” his biographer told an AFP reporter, “but in my opinion he surpassed many of the greats from the West.”

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Sci-Fi Awards Show Marred By Boorish Groping

Ron Hogan — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 08:11:04 +0000

The members of the World Science Fiction Convention (i.e., everyone who ponied up the registration fees) gathered in Anaheim last weekend for their annual meeting to hand out the Hugo Awards for the year’s best science fiction, but soon after the awards ceremony ended Saturday the online chatter over who won what turned ugly as word spread that when Harlan Ellison accepted a special committee award—roughly the equivalent of the lifetime achievement Oscar—he took the opportunity to grab the breast of the woman who handed him the prize, awards show master of ceremonies Connie Willis (who, coincidentally, was also the recipient of a Hugo for best novella that evening). As audience member David Goldfarb described the incident:

“The two of them hugged, in what I assume was a pre-scripted moment—although I could easily be wrong. As they came together for the hug, Ellison moved his hand so that it would land on Willis’s breast. Willis immediately grabbed the hand and moved it to her shoulder. The whole thing was over very quickly. There was a little bit of rumbling from the audience; but by the time I (and, I guess, much of the audience) realized what had happened, Willis was already continuing as though nothing untoward had occurred.”

By the next day, however, another fan reported, “At the closing ceremony Connie said something like ‘If someone wants to start a petition for Harlan Ellison to keep his fucking hands off of me, I’d be willing to sign it!’ Or something like that.” (We tried to reach Willis to confirm or clarify this, but our phone call has so far gone unreturned.)

Tor Books editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden was the first major industry figure to condemn Ellison on his blog, while author Rachel Manija Brown posted about how she’d fended off Ellison’s wandering hands earlier that day. “I was a big fan of his writing when I was a misunderstood teenager,” Brown added in a later comment, “but he does not seem to have matured at all since he was a misunderstood teenager—and most teenagers have a much better sense that other people should be treated with respect.”

By Tuesday afternoon, Ellison appeared to realize he’d screwed up, though several observers interpreted the string of apologetic remarks posted to his official website as self-serving. “I’ve called Connie. Haven’t heard back from her yet. Maybe I never will,” he says. “What now, folks? It’s not as if I haven’t been a politically incorrect creature in the past.” (True enough: Ellison is as famous for his public behavior as he is for his writing.) For younger writers like Alan Deniro, that just might not be good enough. “How must a woman just entering the field feel about this? Younger female readers?” Deniro asks. “What could they possibly think about this? Could they possiblly think anything good about SF/F? As a field? A community?” His publisher, Gavin Grant, adds that people like Ellison are “taking all the fun out of being in the genre and not inspiring anyone with anything but horror and the urge to vomit and throw out their books.”

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Brad Meltzer’s Humble Beginnings as “Guinea Pig”

Ron Hogan — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 07:00:44 +0000

Two of the biggest names in comic book writing trade notes with each other at the Wizard website as Brian Michael Bendis interviews Brad Meltzer, who explains how he got his start writing for DC Comics:

“Green Arrow at that point in time was their number-one superhero book, thanks to [the title's first writer, filmmaker] Kevin Smith… And they said, ‘Brad, if we put you on the book, you might sell some novels, but no one knows you in comics. So everyone will stop and say, “Who’s this guy Brad Meltzer, and why did DC just give him their number one superhero book?”‘ As Schreck explained it, I was a guinea pig. He told me, ‘If you fail, you fail on a huge stage—and if you succeed, you succeed on a huge stage.’ And at that point, it’s all about the writing. And I’ll take that challenge any day.”

Well, he succeeded, as you’ll remember from recent news items noting the cross-promotion of his latest novel and comic book series. Bendis gets Meltzer to talk about hanging out with Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush to research that novel, The Book of Fate, finds out how he wound up in the background of Woody Allen’s Celebrity, and delves into the nitty-gritty of writing flagship superhero team books (Bendis is, after all, the scriptwriter for Marvel’s New Avengers and the forthcoming Mighty Avengers).

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But when will the biographer see the money?

Sarah — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 11:43:08 +0000

David Bret has a penchant for writing celebrity bios, including those of Rock Hudson, Elvis and Judy Garland. So it’s no surprise that he’s mining similar territory for his next work, but what’s more intriguing is that the deal’s been announced – but the pub date is, to put it one way, open-ended.

The Bookseller reports that Bret’s biography on Elizabeth Taylor has been signed up by Mainstream, but they won’t publish till after the actress’s death. “A glance at the blurb suggests why Mainstream will not publish until the subject cannot sue: the publisher promises a portrait including ‘many spiked interviews and information which other biographers have shied away from revealing’.” Of course, considering Randy Taraborrelli‘s new bio (cover at left) reveals quite a few dishy details about La Liz, how much can Bret really dig up at this point?

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Chick Lit Writers Embrace Their “Literary” Peers

Ron Hogan — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 10:53:27 +0000

Nanny Diaries co-authors Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin (center and far right) were among the chick lit luminaries who went to Housing Works last night to toast Sarah Mlynowski (left) and her co-author, Farrin Jacobs, on the publication of See Jane Write: A Girl’s Guide to Writing Chick Lit. I also spotted Harlequin executive editor Magaret O’Neill Marbury (Jacobs’ former boss back when she was editing Mlynowski’s novels for Red Dress Ink) in the crowd, and asked her what she thought about this whole chick lit/not chick lit furor. “I was never offended by the term,” Marbury said. “I’ve chosen not to let it become a dividing line.” Mlynowski was equally inclusive: “All these writers in both collections are fantastic writers,” she said during the evening’s Q&A session, “and I’m glad to see they’re all getting read.” Jacobs, meanwhile, seemed to have had her fill of the debate: “I think the not chick lit writers and chick lit writers should face each other in a dance-off,” she quipped as she signed her book for fans.

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