I’ve never read anything by Peter Vansittart, but after reading his obit in the New York Times, I think I’m going to have to look him up (The Guardian‘s is good too). Nothing overly fancy, just sounds like good solid historical fiction writing. I mean, being compared to Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a good thing, I think. It’s a shame that I only picked up on him due to his passing.
Category Archives: Authors
Philip Roth Live Simulcast
On September 16th, at 6:30pm, The Alabama Booksmith will play host to a live simulcast with author Philip Roth. The Booksmith is one of a handful of venues that will be dialed into the event, allowing visitors to watch Philip Roth and participate in a Q&A with the reclusive author.
According to their site, the Booksmith will have copies of all 29 Roth titles available and will be serving wine (to help fortify your courage to throw out questions to Roth, on this national stage).
Roth’s new title (with a ho-hum so-so cover) drops a couple of weeks from now and is titled Indignation.
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Merging Media
The creator of CSI and Dutton are teaming up to produce a new three-book series of “digital novels”. Let me preface this move with a quote from the CSI guy, Anthony Zuiker…
“I personally don’t have the attention economy to read a 250-page crime novel from start to finish.”
So that’s where he is coming from, on this. Zuiker goes on to say that these suspense-thillers will “reward” readers with rich media and video to enhance the reading experience. Basically, Zuiker will write an outline, then a ghost-writer will crank out 100 chapters and then Zuiker will back in and write 20 “cyber-bridges” (how lame-o is that phrase? Is this 1980? -ed.) for people to watch, before continuing on to the next chapter.
Of course, the example they give is a reading up to a crime, then log-on to watch a sex snuff film, and then go back to the book. I do have to concede this to the Hollywood folks… you’ll probably sell more books if you are including websites to watch sex videos.
To be fair, I am all for this type of convergence. It’s interesting how all these media formats merge and play off each other. I just think that this one pitch misses the mark on just about all of it. They really should have planned to do more and dig deeper.
(from Variety)
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National Book Festival Podcasts
This September 27, nearly 70 authors will swarm the mall in D.C. for the National Book Festival. Organizers are getting the word out about who will be there and already have started posting podcasts with some of the notable names and authors involved. They promise more podcasts soon with authors and famous faces.
