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…

San Francisco Chronicle journalist Pia Chatterjee has written a great article offering writer’s advice on what it takes to write the first draft of a novel.

The novel that I am working on right now, sitting by the heater in single bedroom in Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, started in March 2007, in a cafe in the sunset district. I had been saving money for years by that time, not really knowing what I was putting it away for, until one day my dreams for myself came head to head with the reality of my working life. Much happened in those months in early 2007, but here’s the exciting part…Read More

Frank McCourt, a former New York City schoolteacher who turned his miserable childhood in Limerick, Ireland, into a phenomenally popular, Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, “Angela’s Ashes,” died in Manhattan on Sunday. He was 78 and lived in Manhattan and Roxbury, Conn.

Read the complete story in the New York Times

It seems Alice Hoffman didn’t like a review done by Boston Globe freelance book critic Roberta Silman.

Besides giving a critical review of Hoffman’s The Story Sisters, saying, “This new novel lacks the spark of the earlier work. Its vision, characters and even the prose seem tired.” Ms. Silman also gave away much of the story plot.

This so angered Ms. Hoffman, she got on her Twitter account and tweeted to her considerable following of readers that, “Roberta Silman in the Boston Globe is a moron.”

Now Hoffman didn’t start out this way, she at first defended herself saying, “Girls are taught to be gracious and keep their mouths shut. We don’t have to,” and continued, “And we writers don’t have to say nothing when someone tries to destroy us.”

But it seems the more she wrote the angrier she got and then went on the offensive. Besides the “moron” comment Hoffman also stated “Now any idiot can be a critic,” and even tweeted Silman’s phone number and e-mail address, encouraging her readers to “Tell her what u think of snarky critics.”

Once Ms. Hoffman cooled down, she obviously regretted her knee-jerk reaction to the review.

Come Monday morning she deleted her Twitter account and in a prepared statement in part said, “…in the heat of the moment I responded strongly and I wish I hadn’t. I’m sorry if I offended anyone. Reviewers are entitled to their opinions, and that’s the name of the game in publishing. I hope my readers understand that I didn’t mean to hurt anyone and I’m truly sorry if I did.”

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.

A Spanish grandmother who became an Internet sensation after dubbing herself the “World’s Oldest Blogger” has died at 97.

Maria Amelia Lopez, who died Wednesday, began blogging from her home in Galicia two years ago, winning over a large fan base of readers with her eclectic mix of commentary and nostalgia infused with a sharp wit.

Maria Amelia Lopez

She was introduced to the Internet when her grandson set up the blog as a gift to mark her 95th birthday.

“Today it’s my birthday and my grandson, who is very stingy, gave me a blog, when I was 95 years old … and my life changed … now, I can communicate and interact with the world.” she wrote on her first post on amis95.blogspot.com on December 23, 2006.

It proved a great escape for Lopez writing about personal health problems, from trips to the doctor to bouts of dizziness, to her opinion on current events and modern day life.

Using a mix of humor and nostalgia she shared her experiences of getting old and enlightened readers about life during the long dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

Lopez blogged from her seaside home in Muxia, on the Galician coast, where she was born in 1911. Her musings quickly earned her followers from across the world and she clocked up more than 1.5 million visitors to her blog. Her fame even saw Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero drop in for a chat.

In recent months Lopez was increasingly posting video messages on her blog instead of written texts because cataracts impaired her vision.

In one of her last postings in February she said: “When I’m on the Internet, I forget about my illness. The distraction is good for you — being able to communicate with people. It wakes up the brain, and gives you great strength.”

Her family left a posthumous post, thanking readers for their support. “[There were] 880 days when her blog made her happy… the support she needed to enjoy her last days of life,” they wrote.

“When somebody leaves after 97 years, living with joy from the beginning to the end, we can’t be sad. Wherever you are, grandmother, you will read these comments, all of them without doubt. She will laugh at some, will learn with others, she might get annoyed at the specific ‘language’ used in some … but she will be happy reading all of them.”

This article from CNN: Worst Places to be a Blogger, is a stark reminder to let us not take for granted the fundamental Freedom of the Press we enjoy here in the U.S.

“Myanmar — also known as Burma — is the worst place in the world to be a blogger…A military government restricts Web access and throws people into jail for posting critical material…”

“… One Burmese blogger, Maung Thura, is serving a 59-year prison term for circulating video footage after Cyclone Nargis in 2008, the Committee to Protect Journalists says.”