Entries Tagged 'fiction' ↓

I’ll be reading a new piece at the Hugo House on November 20th under the theme of ‘visiting hours’.
The poet Elizabeth Austen, actor Matt Smith, and musician Molly Rose will also be performing.

The Hugo House has an interview with me here.
I’m taking some fun risks and building some software specifically for the reading, just to really push the ‘how many things can fail at once’ potential as high as it can go. I’m enormously enthusiastic about the project at the moment.

The next day I’ll be teaching a class at the Hugo House, and then immediately after that I will be doing this:

Where I’ll be for several months. First to go to the wedding of my brother-in-law (yay Mark & Tati!) and then to work on a book (yay!).

If you have any Brazil advice, stories, places to see, people to meet — I’d love to hear it.

My friend David pointed me to: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6695002.html?industryid=47146

In which James Patterson got a 17 book deal with Little, Brown and Co. If I’m reading that correctly, all of those books need to be written by 2012 which is a scant two years and some change away.

Wow.

I remember getting a quantity vs. quality lecture from a family friend when I was about 8 years old. At the time, I think it was an argument about whether to eat at Dick’s Drive-in or not. His argument at the time was to favor quantity over quality (he was 16), and it made perfect sense to my 8-year old brain. Not that I’m comparing James Patterson to Dick’s Drive-in. I think their burgers were 49 cents each. It didn’t say how much James Patterson will get for his deal.

James said: “I love writing stories.”

Phew! (wipes brow), good thing. Otherwise, that’d be a nightmarish job. His books average around 400 pages, so for the math-inclined: (400 pages * 300 words/page * 17 books) / 2.5 years =  a bafuckzillion.

I’m definitely going to be asking Small Beer Press for a 17 book deal. Guys? How about we ease-in slow with a six pack?

Today is launch day for a book I’ve been quite excited to read — written by friend (and editor!) Jedediah Berry (seen looking entirely the wrong direction in this photo):

There are a number of reasons why this promises to be a most excellent book, not the least of which is: the lead character is a bicyclist who rides with his umbrella! While Jed lives in Northampton, this book was obviously written for bikey, rainy Portland.

Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief said:

“Jedediah Berry knows magic. The Manual of Detection combines the intricacy and thoughtfulness of Borges and Kafka with the page-turning excitement of a detective thriller. . . . It made me laugh, thrill, think, and wonder.”

This book might be extremely important reading in case you accidentally find yourself a detective in a complex mystery. (no affiliation!)

There is a great website for the book (www.manualofdetection.com) built by the same guy who does a ton of great websites for books -  Jefferson Rabb.

A publisher who did not publish the book,  the curiously named ‘Small Beer Press‘ – is hosting a mystery contest to win signed copies of the book. I’ll be picking mine up tonight at Powell’s Books (I’m going to see TC Boyle read – see you there?). Here’s The Manual of Detection at Powell’s.

Best of luck, Jed!