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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: john steinbeck, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 25 of 25
1. Chapel Hill Public Library Celebrates Banned Books Week With Trading Cards

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2. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Pipe Dream

The seventh of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s stage works, Pipe Dream came along at a particularly vulnerable time in their partnership. After the revolutionary Oklahoma! (1943) and Carousel (1945)—with, above all, two of the most remarkable scores ever heard to that point—they disappointed many with Allegro (1947).

The post Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Pipe Dream appeared first on OUPblog.

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3. What Workday Snacks Can Help Writers?

carrots (1)At the beginning of a new year, many people often make resolutions to follow a healthy diet. mental_floss compiled a list of the “favorite workday snacks” of nine different authors. Jurassic Park novelist Michael Crichton enjoyed ham sandwiches while We Are Pirates author Daniel Handler enjoys raw carrots.

The other seven writers include Agatha Christie, Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac, John SteinbeckStephen King, Emily Dickinson, and H.P. Lovecraft. What do you think? Which snacks help you to stay focused while you’re writing?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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4. Christmas haul containing 4 classic novels

As I pack away my Christmas tree for another year, I took stock today of my Christmas haul of books. I’m planning on reading more classics in 2015 and was fortunate enough to receive a few beautiful clothbound editions for Christmas. I hope you too were lucky enough to receive a book or two at Christmas time, […]

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5. Which Books Must You Read in Your Lifetime?: INFOGRAPHIC

GumtreeHave you ever made a bucket list for books? Gumtree.com has created an infographic called “12 Books You Should Read Before You Die.”

Some of the classic titles being featured include The Catcher in The Rye by J.D. Salinger, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. We’ve embedded the entire graphic after the jump for you to explore further. (via The Mile Long Bookshelf)
(more…)

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6. What’s in a Book Title?

Naming a novel is painstaking, agonizing, delicate. But does the title matter? It certainly feels consequential to the author. After several years' battle with your laptop keyboard, after 100,000 words placed so deliberately, you must distill everything into a phrase brief enough to run down the spine of a book. Should it be descriptive? Perhaps [...]

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7. John Steinbeck Gets Google Doodle For His Birthday

steinbeck doodle

Google has created a Doodle to celebrate John Steinbeck’s 112th birthday. Throughout his writing career, Steinbeck penned many beloved works including East of Eden, Of Mice & Men, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning title, The Grapes of Wrath.

To this day, Steinbeck is a widely respected and read author. According to SFGate, the organizers behind the Steinbeck Festival plan to celebrate the 75th anniversary of The Grapes of Wrath at this year’s event. In April, the Of Mice & Men play starring James Franco and Chris O’Dowd will open on Broadway.

continued…

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8. Before They Were Famous: The Oddest Odd Jobs of 10 Literary Greats

LiteraryMiscellany

by Alex Palmer

Plenty of acclaimed and successful writers began their careers working strange—and occasionally degrading—day jobs. But rather than being ground down by the work, many drew inspiration for stories and poems from even the dullest gigs. Here are 10 of the oddest odd jobs of famous authors—all of them reminders that creative fodder can be found in the most unexpected places.

#1.#2.#3.#4.#5.#6.#7.#8.#9.#10.Alex Palmer

is the author of Literary Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Literature and Weird-O-Pedia: The Ultimate Book of Surprising, Strange, and Incredibly Bizarre Facts about (Supposedly) Ordinary Things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This piece originally ran in Writer’s Digest magazine. For more from WD, check out the latest issue

—which features an exclusive dual interview with Anne Rice and Christopher Rice, and a feature package on how to improve your craft in simple, effective ways—in print, or on your favorite tablet.

 

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9. Jennifer Lawrence To Star in ‘East of Eden’ Adaptation

eastofedenJennifer Lawrence will star in a new adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden.

The Hunger Games director Gary Ross will develop the project and Anna Culp will executive produce. Literary agency McIntosh & Otis negotiated the deal with Universal Pictures/Imagine Entertainment, re-optioning the rights that the studio acquired in 2004. Sample the famous novel at this link:

Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.

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10. Book Titles

The title of a book is so important – and not many people have titles as consistently good as Gabriel Garcia Marquez (in my humble opinion) – and I suppose that is linked to the fact that not many people write as well as he does (again … in my humble opinion..)

Think of these:

Love in the time of Cholera

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Chronicle of a Death Foretold

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World

No-one writes to the Colonel

Memories of my Melancholy Whores.

The General in his Labyrinth

General

Other titles I like, from other authors

Up in Honey’s Room – Elmore Leonard

The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver

Of Mice and Men – Steinbeck

And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street – Dr Seuss

Death is a lonely business – Ray Bradbury

Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury

Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe

Looking for Transwonderland – Noo Saro Wiwa

Looking for Transwonderland

OK I’ll stop now … but it is a hard thing getting a title right, and it does matter!


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11. Books That Belong Together

I'm a big believer that books, like people, can have partners: there are pairs of books that complement each other and belong together. With some books, as soon as you mention one, someone is bound to mention the other. Obviously, this applies to sequels and prequels. If you say you like Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, [...]

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12. Learning from John Steinbeck Letters

Novelist Thomas Steinbeck received a mountain of letters from his father, John Steinbeck. Over at The Hairpin, the son of the late Nobel Prize winning author talked about what he learned from these letters.

Follow this link to read a letter Steinbeck wrote about relationship advice. Thomas has written a number of books, most recently The Silver Lotus. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

my father sent me this very long letter, and he had very tiny handwriting — he wrote by hand — and it was like an 18-page letter. It took me a week to decipher this thing, because of his handwriting, primarily. And when I got to the very end of it, I noticed at the very bottom, he said, “Son, I want to apologize. I would’ve sent you a note but I didn’t have the time!”

Meaning, that ultimately, the greatest amount of time in all writing is spent editing. My father said there’s only one trick to writing, and that’s not writing, that’s writing and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. Like sculpture. I mean, the first thing off the top of your head isn’t the most brilliant thing you ever thought of. And then when you’re writing about it, when you want others to understand what you’re still talking about, then it really requires that you edit yourself really, really well, so that other people can comprehend it.

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13. What’s the single best piece of writing advice? Harper Lee, John Steinbeck and Carl Sandburg weigh in

What's the single best piece of writing advice?

Every week, I spelunk into the Writer’s Digest archives to find the wisest, funniest, or downright strangest moments from our 92 years of publication.

Harper Lee’s birthday is tomorrow, so today I went on a hunt to find some Harper Lee quotes somewhere in our archives. I didn’t exactly troll up an entire interview (no surprise there, given her lack of media appearances since To Kill a Mockingbird was published*), but I did stumble on this gold mine from 1961.

For a cover story interviewing Lee and a slew of other writers—John Steinbeck, Rod Serling, Carl Sandburg, James Thurber—we posed the question, “What advice would you offer a person who aspires to a writing career?” and asked for a single response.

Here’s their writing advice. I’m in the process of geeking out and printing Sandburg’s right now so I can place it above my desk.

As for our swag drawing, thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts on Janet Evanovich and outlining last week. We dipped a hand into the random WD swag hat, and a name emerged: Sharon Vander Meer. Sharon, can you email [email protected], ATTN: Zachary Petit, and I’ll send you a list of free books to choose from?

Happy Friday!

*Here’s to hoping it wasn’t because we cited Lee as the author of To Kill a Hummingbird. Oy. Some 50 years later, WD still regrets (and still heavily cringes at) the error. Sorry, Harper!

What's the single best piece of writing advice?

Erskine Caldwell, Carl Sandburg, William Inge, Robert Fuoss

What's the single best piece of writing advice?

Erle Stanley Gardner, Herb Mayes, Paul Engle, Richard Gehman, Francois Sagan

What's the single best piece of writing advice?

Thomas B. Costain, Harper Lee, John Steinbeck, Rod Serling

What's the single best piece of writing advice?

Stirling Silliphant, Allen Drury, Paul Scott Mowrer, James Thurber

 

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14. Great Books: Of Mice and Men

I love teaching Steinbeck's short novel (go ahead, call it a novella) of friendship and dreams during the Great Depression. Students tend to love it, too--at least those who read it.

And at just under 30, 000 words*, most students will give it a try.

Steinbeck's language is beautiful but straight-forward, his dialogue and voice spot on. Of Mice and Men is a great vehicle for teaching characterization, foreshadowing, and theme.

I love this book, and I'm fortunate to have the opportunity to read it every year.

*How would Steinbeck have pitched a 30K novel in today's publishing world? Would he have self-published on Kindle because the big 6 were looking for 100K novels? Sorry--couldn't help myself. But just think of the gap in American literature if Of Mice and Men never saw print.

11 Comments on Great Books: Of Mice and Men, last added: 4/26/2011
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15. Quote of the Week


"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen."
~ John Steinbeck

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16. Betty White on Writer’s Block

How does television star Betty White avoid writer’s block? The same way as her old friend John Steinbeck.

We obtained a copy of her new book, If You Ask Me (set for a May 3 release)–and it has a whole chapter dedicated to “Writer’s Block.” White has already written a few books over her career, including The Leading Lady: Dinah’s Story and Here We Go Again: My Life In Television.

Here’s an excerpt from the upcoming book:  “John Steinbeck, who was Allen [Ludden]‘s and my good friend, did his writing standing up at a drafting table–in long-hand, his white bull terrier, Angel, lyign across his feet. People always seem amazed that I write in long-hand. Well, if it’s good enough for Steinbeck, it’s good enough for me! I really can’t communicate to a machine–the thoughts want to go from my brain down my arm to my hand to the page.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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17. Do You Want to Write and Blog More?


Do you want to string together some effective blogs or poems? There's only one way to do it: Putt butt on chair, and do it. There's no magic potent or silver thread. I now have Jim Denney's essential habits of writing hanging right near my computer. Maybe it will inspire you too:


Seven Essential Habits ofa Working Writer are:


  1. Write Daily
  2. Cultivate the Art of Solitude Amid Distractions
  3. Write Quickly and With Intensity
  4. Set Ambitious But Achievable Goals
  5. Focus!
  6. Finish What You Start and Submit What You Finish
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18. Depressing Effects of the Steinbeck Groupies

I had the good fortune of meeting John Steinbeck’s son Thomas this weekend.  He said a lot of inspiring things that will eventually make their way into future blog posts, but his fans have so distracted me that I must first dedicate a post to them.

The first one who caught my attention was a sweet old lady who needed help walking and carrying her books.  I offered assistance.  Less because I’m nice and more because I like old ladies.  They’re like Yoda.  I’d hoped she’d share a nugget of wisdom that would alter my worldview into something more…peaceful.  She didn’t.

She ignored my outstretched arms and thrust her books at the event coordinator.  Why? Because this was the inroad to Mr. Steinbeck.  Not long afterward, I overheard my Yoda telling the star of the show that she knew someone who knew someone that lived on his dad’s old street.

“That’s an awkward introduction!”  I wanted to yell.  “You sound desperate!” But I had no supporters.  Every person around me was clambering to get a piece of the Pulitzer Prize winner’s son.

A grown man virtually begged for the phone number of the career-groupie in attendance (otherwise known as a Steinbeck biographer).  Is there anything more pitiful than stalking a stalker?  I soon discovered yes.  Because before long, some college-aged long-hair got in Mr. Steinbeck’s face and waxed poetic about his undying passion for the cypress tree (the cypress tree, folks) and isn’t that a coincidence?  The word cypress appears in the title of Mr. Steinbeck’s first novel!

It depressed me.

I’ve been studying Buddhism recently because a major player in my novel misinterprets Eastern philosophies to tragicomic results.  Perhaps I will suffer her fate.  But for now, I hold dear a Buddhist teaching that has set me free:  the accomplishments of those you hero-worship are within your potentiality.

We’re all a little guilty of hero-worship.  I am obsessed with Kundera’s philosophical musings.  Nabokov’s unrelenting prose.  Guillermo Martinez’s conviction to thwart his characters’ goals to the brutal end.

Who do you hero-worship?  Why?  Now go accomplish it yourself!


12 Comments on Depressing Effects of the Steinbeck Groupies, last added: 4/26/2010
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19. Cannery Row


Cannery Row. John Steinbeck. 1945. Penguin. 208 pages.

Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses. Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, "whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches," by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said "Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men," and he would have meant the same thing.

I enjoyed this John Steinbeck novel. Steinbeck certainly has a way with words, details, and images. Even if what he is describing is more ugly than beautiful. He has a way of saying it so that it matters. So that you, the reader, care. It does help that this one has a good deal of humor. Not that humor is quite the way I'd put it. (Since early on, we see a suicide or two. But still. It's Steinbeck.)


Lee Chong's grocery, while not a model of neatness, was a miracle of supply. It was small and crowded but within its single room a man could find everything he needed or wanted to live and to be happy--clothes, food, both fresh and canned, liquor, tobacco, fishing equipment, machinery, boats, cordage, caps, pork chops. You could buy at Lee Chong's a pair of slippers, a silk kimono, a quarter pint of whiskey and a cigar. You could work out combinations to fit almost any mood. The one commodity Lee Chong did not keep could be had across the lot at Dora's.
What is Cannery Row about? It's about a surprise party gone wrong. And the men (and women) who come together to make everything right again in the end. Mack and a few of his friends want to do something nice for Doc, one of the town's favorite guys. They think the best way to say that they appreciate him is by throwing him a surprise party. But since they're always down on their luck (in other words low on cash, and not trustworthy enough to extend credit to) they're a bit stumped as to how to go about it. What plan will they come up with?


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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20. The Moon Is Down


The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck. 1942/1995. Penguin. 144 pages.

By ten-forty-five it was all over. The town was occupied, the defenders defeated, and the war finished.

A novella by John Steinbeck published in the spring of 1942. Set in an unnamed country, an unnamed town even, it features a conquering but-again-nameless army. Of course, it's easy to read between the lines, to see the setting as Northern Europe, and the conquering enemy as the Nazis. And the message of this one is fairly simple. Resist. Resist. Resist. Ordinary people can in very small ways make a difference.

The reader meets a handful of characters on both sides. We get a portrait of those town folks who have been conquered but are determined to fight for their freedom. We get a portrait of the soldiers, the invaders. These soldiers are not as heartless and cruel as evil as you might expect. The picture Steinbeck paints is more human, more complex than that. They are men. Ordinary men who have been given orders, who have been assigned a job to do. For the duration of the war, they have to turn off their emotions, or else go crazy trying to stay on top of them all. The mental crises these soldiers face as the war continues....well, it's disturbing. We see the effect of war on everybody concerned.

How do I feel about this Steinbeck? I liked it. It reminded me of why I love Steinbeck. Of why I love the experience of reading Steinbeck. I love his descriptions, for example.


The paintings on the wall were largely preoccupied with the amazing heroism of large dogs faced with imperiled children. Nor water nor fire nor earthquake could do in a child so long as a big dog was available. (4)


Doctor Winter was a man so simple that only a profound man would know him as profound. (4)


Joseph habitually scowled at furniture, expecting it to be impertinent, mischievous, or dusty. In a world where Mayor Orden was the leader of men, Joseph was the leader of furniture, silver, and dishes. Joseph was elderly and lean and serious, and his life was so complicated that only a profound man would know him to be simple. (4-5)


This is a small book--a novella--about what it means to be a hero; what it is like to fight a war...whether you're a soldier or not.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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21. The Book You Can’t Outgrow

Guest blogger Liana Heitin has taught students with special needs for the past five years as a public school teacher, reading specialist, and private tutor. She has a master’s degree in cross-categorical special education and is a freelance Web editor for LD OnLine, the leading website on learning disabilities and ADHD. LD OnLine offers research-based information and expert advice for parents, students, and educators. Liana’s writing has been featured in such publications as Education Week, teachermagazine.org, and the recent book, The Ultimate Teacher (HCI Books, May 2009).

Last week, on a whim, I began to re-read my favorite book from middle school: Lois Lowry’s The Giver.  As I turned the pages, I kept expecting to have a new adult reaction to the story—to see the allegory as simple or recognize the protagonist’s dilemma as trite.

Instead, I experienced just what I had as a 6th grader. I felt the excitement of entering the science fiction world and exploring its rules. The main character’s curiosity and loss of innocence became my own once again.  And upon reaching the abrupt ending, I had a familiar emotional rush—shock, a twinge of frustration, and ultimately satisfaction.

Lowry is an adept storyteller, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the only reason I reverted to my 6th grade self. When I first read The Giver, it changed me. It made me think and feel in a way words on pages never had—and guided me toward many other books, many more ideas and feelings.  It made me into a reader. I will never outgrow The Giver because it was part of such a formative moment in my life.

A few years ago, I was teaching a gifted 9th grader with a learning disability in reading. Demetri had never finished a chapter book on his own. The two of us had been working on fluency for months, starting well below grade level, when I brought in Of Mice and Men.  We began reading together, making slow but steady progress.

Over spring break, I asked Demetri to read at least five pages a night. I gave him a homework chart and a pep talk but worried he wouldn’t follow through—Demetri was a hard worker but some days it could take him 20 minutes to finish a page.  He returned the next week and sat down, a quiet grin spreading across his face.  “I finished it,” he said, and launched into an explanation of how the book had become a movie in his mind and he hadn’t been able to stop reading. “The end was such a surprise! I never would have guessed!” Of Mice and Men had changed Demetri, like The Giver had me. We began to make a list of other books he would enjoy.

Demitri was 15 years old when he found the book that inspired him—the one he’ll read with equal fervor and delight if he picks it up a decade or two down the road.  Some people find their book at a younger age—and some unlucky readers never find it at all.  If you know a child who hasn’t discovered her The Giver or Of Mice and Men, take the summer to explore topics and genres that interest her.  Read together. Talk about your own favorite childhood books.  Comb through library shelves. And guide your child toward the book that will turn him or her into a reader.

For more tips on summer reading and learning activities, particularly for students with learning disabilities, check out the LD Online Summer Beach Bag.

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22. Process Talk

My dear Seattle-transplanted-to-the-big-apple friend Lisa Bishop (over at HarperTeen) has posted some of my recent musings on process. Here again we meet up with the ever-wise John Steinbeck while bumping up against the ever-churning yours truly.

If you have some time, I hope you'll visit. You'll get to meet Anna Godbersen, Ellen Schreiber, Carol Snow, and Susan Juby while you are there.

http://www.myspace.com/harperteen

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23. The Grapes of Wrath and The Trouble with Prosperity

I have taken The Grapes of Wrath down from the shelf, and I am reading about that other great devastation that we as a country found ourselves in. Tom Joad and his woes. Dust like a dry, dirty cloud that has fallen and stayed. The pitch of power against the laboring masses. Uncertainty, heartache, panic.

Newsweek has a Robert J. Samuelson column this week called "Good Times Breed Bad Times." It begins by recalling the James Grant book The Trouble with Prosperity, summarizing it this way: "Grant's survey of financial history captured his crusty theory of economic predestination. If things seem splendid, they will get worse. Success inspires overconfidence and excess. If things seem dismal, they will get better. Crisis spawns opportunity and progress. Our triumphs and follies follow a rhythm that, though it can be influenced, cannot be repealed."

I never read The Trouble with Prosperity, but I have modulated my life according to its thesis—choosing that safe middle ground, buying a house with two bedrooms because, well, we only needed two, and putting nearly every dollar I made or had against the mortgage and my son's college fund. I live on the vaunted Main Line of Philadelphia (where gardens and farms still loll between trees, where the schools are good, where the communities are fine), and my decisions have frankly often set me apart. Smallified me, if you will. I lost a friend because of what I would not buy, because of what I did not have. She stopped inviting me to her parties.

I have, I realized, lived my literary life the same way. I have said no to TV and film adaptations of my nonfiction, shutting the door to some version of income and notoriety (but also, I thought and still think, opening the door to peace of mind). I have sought the right editor above the right advance in every case save for that of my second book, when I was enticed to go with a house that ultimately did not care about my future as a writer. Lesson learned. Mistake not to be repeated. All I've ever wanted as a writer is the chance to publish again, the chance to commune with other readers and writers, a reason to keep writing. I have wanted, desperately, sometimes consumingly, the editorial yes, we will publish this and you, and even now, 11 books in, it's not so easy.

Yesterday, reading the magnificent introduction to the Penguin Classics version of Steinbeck's book, I came upon these words from Steinbeck, which seem both timeless to me and extremely prescient. They are about writing, yes, but they are also about the way we live our lives, about the need, perhaps, not to want overly much. To be satisfied.

"I have always wondered why no author has survived a best-seller. Now I know. The publicity and fan-fare are just as bad as they would be for a boxer. One gets self-conscious and that's the end of one's writing."

1 Comments on The Grapes of Wrath and The Trouble with Prosperity, last added: 10/22/2008
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24. Hearing Voices

This is what happens after 1: overdosing on two drinks, linguini with white clam sauce, and a Veal Francaise at the The Park Side Restaurant in Queens, where tuxedos and GODFATHER-types meet, 2: a sinus headache, 3: a snoring husband ruining any chances of a good night's sleep and 4: the curse of having a television in your bedroom and a remote control to keep you company, jumping from channel to channel until your eyes rest upon a 4 AM showing of THE GRAPES OF WRATH and you know you're not going anywhere until the credits roll.

I think, therefore I write.

You have anything better for me to do with my time in the middle of the night?

Don't answer that unless your thoughts are PG-rated. ;>

And hell if I didn't think so hard that I turned to keyboard and screen. Damn you, wretched and tempest-tossed writers. Can never keep these things to yourselves, can you? ;>

Great Characters Make Great Stories. These are the books we remember. The characters that transcend the page. The iconic voices we carry with us, speaking to us from beyond the confines of the novel and remind us, time and again, why literature is a powerful link between generations. These are the voices that inspire me to write. To paint words into life, to connect reader to reader, to be "a little piece of a big soul." Not just for today but for tomorrow.



[info]citycatinwindow introduced me to ARTISTS FOR LITERACY, an organization that promotes music inspired by great characters and great literature. Their mission is to make literature more accessible, to marry music and the written word in order to "open doors" to a more critical analysis of a book that might otherwise be daunting to a young reader.

TOM JOAD from John Steinbeck's GRAPES OF WRATH stands tall in my pantheon of literary heroic characters. His "I'll be there" soliloquy has moved many to tears, to action-- and to music. I know. Woody Guthrie was right there, compelled to create a homage to Tom Joad after Guthrie saw the movie, THE GRAPES OF WRATH. Fast forward to another great writer who found truth and beauty in this quintessential American literary hero. Enter Bruce Springsteen. (Ah, there's always a tie that binds my words to Mr. Springsteen.)

It may not be the first question I ever ask should I have the chance to have a one-on-one moment with my muse (and, should that day ever come, I highly doubt any intelligible sounds would make it past my quivering lips), but this writer would love to ask that writer what about Steinbeck's Joad inspired him to paint his musical portrait of the Joad character in Bruce's GHOST OF TOM JOAD. Steinbeck's novel identifies a cultural war that is seeped in the soul of the American dream. After stuttering and stammering for 23 minutes in Bruce's face, telling him what hismusic has meant to me (everything), oh how I would love to ask him: "How do you see your music as a source of characters questioning what is wrong and what is right in America? Who are your characters speaking to? The choir or the disenfranchised- the believers or the estranged and alienated? Are your characters uniquely American and why? Would you rather sing to the church or a confused, wandering congregation?"

I suspect this would be his answer:



Then I would fall faint to the floor.

And... end scene!

Speaking of Page Turners: Here's to 2008-- and to you and your characters and the life you give them. (Or is it the other way around?)



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25. Facing The Digital Reality

Evan Schnittman wrote an article for Publishing News last week entitled “Facing The Digital Reality.” Schnittman writes in his article that,

“…at the 500-year-old publishing house where I am employed book sales still make up the lion’s share of our income. Yet, as print-oriented as we may be, we have successfully launched many digital products - all into institutional and library markets. Until recently, however, the boundaries of e-content success seem to have stopped at journals, reference, and STM content in institutional and library markets.” (more…)

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