books
October 26, 2009
- Fear of failure is a bitch.It’s like the bitch god or bitch goddess – depending on your preferred visualization – covered with dark shaggy hair, snarling, holding sway over so many of us. We learn young – especially in this culture – that people can be either winners or losers, and to be a loser – to Fail – is the worst humiliation anyone could endure, a kind of psychic ...
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October 26, 2009
- The genre crime fiction is to blame for Jessica Mann's refusal to review any more books. She says,"she is is fed up with increasing levels of "sadistic misogyny" in crime fiction and says authors are simply jumping on the bandwagon to get a bestseller."I tend to agree. There is the problem of desensitization to graphic violence. The more it is released into our cultrue ...
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October 24, 2009
- Words fail me. Words cannot express... I can’t tell you how... I wish I could say... I don’t know how to say this... I can’t say. Who can say? What can you say? Be careful what you say. There are no words for...Mere words, empty words, loose talk, psychobabble, happy talk, gibberish, false words, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, running my mouth. Watch your mouth! Don’t say ...
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October 24, 2009
- Dear Fellow Writers -- I spent the weekend of Oct. 23-25 at the Surrey International Writers Conference. What an event! Hundreds of attendees: published authors, speakers, agents, managers, and ambitious writers looking for publication. It was a surprisingly friendly and supportive group of people. Somehow, the swords of competition were left behind and nearly everyone I spoke with was ...
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October 24, 2009
- The day I read a crowdsourced novel is.... Can Fiction Be Crowdsourced? (Coraline As Case In Point) "How is a good story invented? Is it yet another of those decision-based endeavors that can, according ...
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October 23, 2009
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October 23, 2009
- "Unless those massive chains start discounting all hardcover books, the independents will be fine," Murphy said. "We'll just stop selling the New York Times bestsellers, and sell more of the books we love." Liz Murphy, owner of The Learned Owl Book ShopHudson, OH"I'm tickled pink (that Wal-Mart and Amazon.com are fighting), and I'm hoping that they lose a lot of ...
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October 23, 2009
- By Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 10/22/2009 4:30:00 PMIn a letter sent to the antitrust division of the Department of Justice Thursday, the board of directors of the American Booksellers Association requested that the government begin an investigation into what the organization believes is the illegal predatory pricing policies being carried out by Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target in selling 10 ...
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October 22, 2009
- I was doing some laundry this morning before work when it hit me. However, before I explain that statement let me just say that I am a big admirer of the renowned Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield, not least because he is the father of Uma Thurman. No wait, that’s Richard Gere. Still, I am a big admirer of Kornfield, author of After the Ecstasy, the Laundry. I never read the book, but I intend to ...
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October 21, 2009
- A writer writes. He often writes into the dark. but once in a while there's a response, and it turns that solitary gesture into an intimate dialogue. The letter from a college student sent me after she read my book, Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora, is earnest and untempered and well, flattering as hell, not to mention deeply moving... I invite you to read ...
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