Writer's Report 2.0

He died suddenly today. He was 77.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/01/mystery_novelis.html

I used to walk past his beautiful and unique home almost every day when I worked in Cambridge. I was lucky enough to meet him once several years ago.

It was a beautiful early summer day. He was walking towards me on Ash St., with a small bag in his hand looking as though he had come from one of the local shops on Brattle St. It just so happened that we ended up face-to-face at the front gate to his home.

I said, “Hello Mr. Parker. I don’t want to bother you other than to say I really like and appreciate your novels.”
He said, “Thank you, it’s never a bother when someone likes my work.” He shook my hand as he said it. He then added, “Enjoy this beautiful day.”
I said, “I will and hope you do the same.”
“I will from the comfort of my writing desk”, he said.

With a wave it was over. He went into his house and I continued up the block. I then stopped short. I wanted to kick myself. I had always promised if I ever got a chance to meet Robert Parker, I’d ask him why he only had one gargoyle on the second story balcony. Now I’ll never know…

This pic is the front gate at which we met. Notice the lone gargoyle on the right side of the upper balcony.

Home of Robert B. Parker

On Maria Schneider’s blog (of Writer’s Digest), she describes Stephen King’s recent New York Times essay about the state of the American short story. The essay is about what it took King to find stories for the newly released The Best American Short Stories 2007, which he edited.

You can read the NYT Essay here, but it may require you to subscribe (free) to the Times. Be sure to check out all the comments – they are as interesting as the essay itself.

Angela Hoy’s Writer’s Weekly has a good article about a woman who took a very different path to getting the word out about her book by marketing it using her MySpace.com account.

Many of us read this Tolstoy tome in high school or college. Publisher’s Weekly looks at two new releases of this literary classic where each author claims that their translation is the “original version”.

In a departure from his work in thrillers, Grisham’s 20th book focuses on a washed-up NFL quarterback, playing American style football in a country crazy for soccer.

Podcast: Tom Occhipinti at AmericanWriters.com looks at two different kinds of protagonists: the fallen and the redeemed. Properly handled, tragedies and redemption stories become very powerful character-driven pieces. Time 38:35

Blog: Novelist Susan Hill offers a free Creative Writing course on her blog. It’s in progress, so you may have to play some catch-up. Be forewarned Susan is the self-described “Simon Cowell of aspiring writers”. She is.

Publisher’s Weekly reports a libel lawsuit has been filed against John Grisham and three other authors, based on books published about a 1982 murder of a cocktail waitress in Ada, Oklahoma.

Amazon and Borders launch two new Novel Contests. The Amazon contest is looking for the ‘Next Breakout Novel’ in fiction. The winner will receive a $25,000 advance from Penguin. The Borders Group contest is looking for the ‘Next Great Crime Novel’ with the winner receiving $5,000 and a publishing deal through Border’s.

The secret? Dumb down. It’s really amazing what people consider to be a good read.

You’ve gotta love the British. They make being blunt an art form. The Observer analyzes the book Crystal and figures out how to write such a blockbuster.