Archive for March 2009
Fighting with my agent (sort of)
I’ve spent the last week working on revising my second book using notes from my agent, Taryn, who, by the way, recently launched her own literary agency. It took me all of two seconds to decide to stick with Taryn. While forever grateful to Sandy Dykstra and her agency for signing me on, Taryn plucked…
Read MoreSource material
I was speaking to a friend who said that his head is full of stories, but he lacks the chops to get them down on paper, lamenting his lack of writing skill. He wondered aloud if someone would be willing to write them down for him and craft them into books, at which point his…
Read MoreDream sequences suck
Here’s a pet peeve of mine: Dream sequences in books, films, or television. I can’t stand it when I am forced to suffer through a character’s dream, particularly when it occurs in a novel. Though many writers seem to employ this tactic, I cannot imagine why. It strikes me as a lazy, less-than-subtle means of…
Read MoreTournament of Books
The fifth annual Tournament of Books began a couple of weeks ago, pitting the sixteen best novels of the year against one another in order to determine a champion. The first-round match-ups were thus: 2666 vs. Steer Toward Rock Netherland vs. A Partisan’s Daughter The White Tiger vs. Harry, Revisited Unaccustomed Earth vs. City of…
Read MoreLies
A recent survey of British readers found that “George Orwell’s 1984 tops the list of books that people pretend to have read in a survey carried out for World Book Day 2009. Of the 65% who claimed to have read a book, 42% admit to having said they had read the modern classic without having…
Read MoreAcknowledgements page
In the American Spectator, Jonathan Black wrote a piece about the Acknowledgements page (or pages) in novels, declaring that “The Acknowledgments page cannot make a bad book better, but it can ruin a good one.” How utterly ridiculous. First, if Black truly believes that an acknowledgment page can ruin a good book, why would he…
Read MoreTrade paper
The decision has been made to publish Something Missing as a trade paperback original rather than a hardback. Doubleday’s marketing department believes that the book will do better in trade paper. My agent explained it to me this way: The price point would be lower (paperbacks sell for about $14 while hardbacks sell for $22).…
Read MoreLoving the Germans
More news from my German editor: The major publishing magazine, Boersenblatt, published their first announcement (not quite a review, but a kind of “best of upcoming novels preview”), and Something Missing (Der Gute Died in Germany) is among them, including the cover. My wife has suggested that I could become the next David Hasselhoff. I…
Read MoreDo you like writing?
The Guardian published a story asking various authors if they thought writing was a joy or a chore in response to Colm Toibin’s recent warning that he does not like writing despite his enormous success. I found it quite interesting to discover how these authors feel about their craft and were pleased to see that…
Read MoreLunacy or brilliance?
A new idea for a book has lodged itself in my head, and it’s now competing for space with the idea that I am already pursuing. Is it crazy to consider writing two books simultaneously?
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