Writer's Report 2.0

Mystery novelist, Michael Connelly was doing final research in Hong Kong in preparation of promoting his new novel “Nine Dragons”, when he learned of a real life mystery eerily similar to the one in his book. Unlike his book, this real mystery has not been solved.

The saying goes that life imitates art. But that’s the last thing you want when you write crime fiction. You never want to see the things you write about mirrored back to you in real life.

Chungking Mansions is a well-known place to many travelers to Asia. It is sort of a modern Casablanca, a crossroads of the world. It is several cut-rate hotels housed in one large and old building, and all of it above a world bazaar where dozens of languages are spoken, and food and other comfort items from almost any country in Asia can be found and purchased. It is the kind of place…where I checked my back repeatedly when I walked through while researching the book.

The real mystery as well as the fictional one began in the Chunking Mansions

Ani Ashekian was a veteran traveler who enjoyed solo journeys from Toronto, Canada. She came to Hong Kong after visiting mainland China and stayed in a hotel at the Chungking Mansions.

Ani has not been seen since November 10, 2008.

Read the whole story here

At least in schools.

Let’s face it folks books are on the decline. Like it, love it or be indifferent about it – it is the future. Especially in grade schools, colleges and universities the common book is becoming obsolete and is not the best teaching aid. It is too static and not readily changeable.

As future generations of children grow up and go to school, more and more of them will embrace the newer technologies as normal and text books will pass into history. It is the older generations that will need to adapt to the changes.

See the full article at the BostonHerald.com

Okay, I thought it was impressive to turn out a 75,000 word novel in 30 days as is done during the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November. So how impressive is it to write a 130,000 word book in 48 hours!!!

That’s what two Chinese writers did within hours of the death of Michael Jackson, as reported in China Daily.

Michael Jackson died on June 25th. Within a few hours of his death, writers Jiang Xiaoyu and Xing Han were contacted to write Jackson’s biography; despite never having met the pop star. They turned off their phones, grabbed some cigarettes and coffee and locked themselves in a room.

After 48 hours with no sleep, they emerged with a book titled Moonwalk in Paradise. It was published by Chinese publishing house Xiandai and was on the shelves in Chinese book stores by July 4th.

And here I thought American publishers were moving quickly to get similar books on the shelves by this August.

This type of publishing is called “Instant Books”. To read the whole story and the opinions of young Chinese readers about this type of publication see the China Daily article…

The King of Pop, this master entertainer and tortured soul isn’t even gone a week and the big publisher’s are already cashing in as the Associated Press reports:

NEW YORK – The “instant” books on Michael Jackson are coming soon.

People and Life magazine each are preparing commemorative editions, due in August. Tribute books from Triumph Books and Whitman Publishing, both titled “Michael Jackson,” are due by the end of the week.

Ian Halperin, who has written about such musicians as Kurt Cobain and Celine Dion, had been working on a Jackson book when the singer died last week. Halperin’s book, “Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson,” is due in late July.

Who said the publishing process is a long drawn out affair? I guess not so much when there’s quick cash to be had.

and Zombies???

That’s right, author Seth Grahame-Smith has taken a classic literary novel of romance and humor and turned it into literary hybrid horror novel.

Smith gives top billing to Jane Austen on the cover of the book because as he admits in an interview he retained 85% of the original text of the story, but endowed the Bennet sisters with martial art skills to deal with the shambling undead.

I first heard about this mashup-novel when I was listening to Mike Mennenga and Mike Stackpole on their Dragon Page Podcast. I’m a fan of zombie novels and movies and couldn’t help but smile and think how frikkin clever this is.

Although Mike and Mike had not read the book, they admitted it is probably pretty good as it ranks very high in Amazon, but they think much of that has to do with the novelty of it. In addition, they panned the process of taking a classic novel available in the public domain, and turning it into some sort mashup hybrid. While they think this sort writing may produce a couple of good, fun to read books, ultimately, however, it will churn out a heap of crappy ones as well.

I agree, but it does sound like a lot of fun though doesn’t it? Just imagine the spin you could put on a story like Othello?

When I started looking into Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, it was fun reading how many people enjoyed this modified classic, never having even considered touching a classic beforehand. It was equally fun seeing the literary crowd howling in outrage over this “abomination”.

My daughter has the patience and zeal to read the old classics and is a HUGE Jane Austen fan. I sent her a couple of links about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies thinking she might come down on the side of the outraged crowd – but was interested to hear her opinion.

To my surprise she was receptive of it thinking it’s “very cool” and would get a copy once she finished with her finals in a couple of weeks.

The original version of Pride and Prejudice is classic regency chick lit – which I would never read, but being a Zed-head, I think I’ll get a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and take a chance. Who knows, I might even like it…

Heather Armstrong began blogging in 2001. She was fired after writing about her job and co-workers on her blog. After eight years, more than 6,900 posts and 1.5 million visitors a month, Heather’s brutally honest and often hysterical musings have been turned into the memoir, ‘It Sucked and then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita’ published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment.

It’s a humorous look at life, relationships, dealing with depression, childbirth and parenthood.

In this recent USA Today interview, Heather talks about her blog and the new book:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2009-03-25-blogs-heather-armstrong_n.htm

Or listen to Heather on this Podcast interview from the bat segundo show:
http://www.edrants.com/segundo/heather-armstrong-bss-276/

Even better, read Heather’s daily blog entries and pics at Dooce. You are guaranteed to be entertained.

Coraline may be 3rd in the box office, but it’s Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book that caught my interest.

I recently read an article about The Graveyard Book receiving the Newbery Medal for children’s literature. Having grown up reading stories about ghosts and ghouls, I just had to check it out. However, it would only add to my ever growing stack of books to read – so I decided to get the audio book version and listen to it during my commutes to and from work.

The audio version of The Graveyard Book is wonderfully narrated by the very capable Neil Gaiman himself.

It is the story of Nobody Owens – Bod for short – who is orphaned when his family is killed by an assassin. He escapes to an old graveyard where he is protected and raised by its ghostly inhabitants.

This is pure story at its best. It is thrilling, clever, sinister and yet tender. The story’s language and humor can seem sophisticated, and is reminiscent of storytellers from long-ago, weaving a tale of haunting enchantment.

Bod reminds me of a young version of Dean Koontz’s, Odd Thomas. Although classified a YA novel, I enjoyed it immensely. Once I was so engrossed listening to the story that I missed making a scheduled stop at a local market to pick up dinner for the family. I only realized it when I was most of the way home. So I had to turn around and go back…which enabled me to listen to more of the story…

Whether you read or listen to it, I highly recommend The Graveyard Book.

Associated Press
By CHRIS TALBOTT

“One Night Stands and Lost Weekends” (HarperCollins, 384 pages, $14.95), by Lawrence Block: Beware the book whose author admits in the introduction he’s afraid to read the stories that follow:

“I’m scared I’ll decide not to publish them after all, and it’s too late for that. So an uncharacteristic attack of honesty compels me to advise you that I am in the curious position of introducing you to a couple of dozen short stories which I myself haven’t read in forty years.”

That’s from one of three introductions Block writes in “One Night Stands and Lost Weekends,” a fun if warmed over collection of the author’s early work, which had already been published in separate collectors’ volumes at the turn of the century.

The stories are just what the title suggests. Quickies sold to pulps and their descendants in the late 1950s and early 1960s in the first part of the book and easily digestible hard-boiled novellas in the second. They’re all easily forgettable — Block, in fact, forgot about a few — but curiously compelling.

Though they mirrored the dreck of the day — full of rapists, murders with semi-plausible twists and an unending line of bombshell blondes pulling a double-cross — Block shows the early promise that would lead him to Grand Master status with the Mystery Writers of America and four Edgar and Shamus awards.
(more…)

By LEAH DUMOUCHEL
Ann Arbor News

Cassandra Carter is one to make you think, “Hmm . . . what the heck was I doing with my teenage years?”

The 18-year-old’s own reply involves a nationally published book and two more in the works.

Her debut novel, “Fast Life,” was published in July as part of the “Tru” series from Kimani Press, a division of Harlequin that focuses on African-American young-adult fiction.

Carter started the book when she was just 14, after getting the idea from, of all places, a dream.

“I woke up and – I hate telling people this because it makes me sound crazy – but I heard a voice . . . saying, ‘Cassandra, you should write a book about that.’ So I created this character. It was about this girl and she’s . . . got to go and move real quick, and everything else just kind of came.”

There’s a lot of “everything else,” since the move is over in the first 50 pages. What follows is a fast- talking, high-rolling rumble following Kyra Jones between Chicago and an island in the Bahamas, complete with gorgeous guys, sniping girls, friendships gone horribly bad, scandalous wealth, the illegal drug industry and a few more page-turners.

Carter worked on it all through the summer she was 15, and when it was done she mentioned it to her grandmother, Sandee Grassi.

“I wasn’t at all surprised,” Grassi said. “Cassandra has always impressed me with her dream of and enthusiasm for writing.”

Grassi encouraged her to get it published, but Carter balked: “She was afraid it would change (the family’s) opinion about her or that people might think the book was about her life. But hey, it’s a book and it’s fiction – now, someone’s got to read it, right?”

Grassi talked her into at least taking it to an uncle in the book business, though Carter was still nervous.

“He’s a blunt person, and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, what is he going to think?’ ” she said.

He thought it was a darn fine book. He passed it along to a friend who was a literary agent who ended up taking Carter on as a client.

She’s still taken a little aback by the book’s success. The online reviews at both Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble’s Web site have been overwhelmingly positive, and the comments on her MySpace page are fairly bursting with praise.

“This is so surreal almost, sometimes, like going online to look myself up, and having people contact me telling me they like my art and my book,” she said.

She’s finished her second book, “16 Isn’t Always Sweet,” which is due for publication in March, and is working on a sequel to “Fast Life.”

“I’m excited to work on it. I’ve even thought about carrying (Kyra Jones) on through a series. . . . I’ve started planning things that happen to her in, like, volume 5. Trust me, I have a million ideas. I just need the time to sit there and get ‘em out, that’s all.”

And it’s time that she’s taking. Even though she graduated from Huron High a semester early with honors in January, she’s decided to put off college for a while and give this dream some hot pursuit.

“I know it’s such a risk putting school off the way I am, and it weighs on me. . . . They say that people who are successful at creative ventures like this are the ones who’ve been doing it since they were born, and that’s me right there, so I’m willing to take the risk.”

By MARIA SANMINIATELLI, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK – Christopher Hitchens believes it is time to rid people of several notions.

Mark Twain did not believe in God, Americans are not uncritically devout and an atheist can be elected president of the United States.

In fact, the extent of religion’s hold on people, the British-born author, journalist and provocateur says, has been vastly exaggerated. Despite polls that suggest differently, people are not as religious as many think, he says.

“I knew that the zeitgeist of religion was changing, that the parties of God would … (anger people) in their various forms: Republican or Shiite,” Hitchens says. “But I had, I think, underestimated how much of this there was.”

He was referring, in part, to the comments he received following the April release of his best seller, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, in which he lambasts religion as illogical and dangerous, and blames believers for centuries of war, persecutions and other ills.

A new anthology published earlier this month, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever, continues to press the case.

Witty and feisty, the Oxford-educated Hitchens is known for his contentious stances that make him difficult to typecast. A former Trotskyist who published regularly in British and American left-wing publications, he has bitterly criticized Mother Teresa — he testified against her before Vatican officials when then-Pope John Paul II prepared to beatify the nun — former President Clinton and former national security adviser and secretary of state Henry Kissinger. (more…)