Happy Birthday America!
http://ping.fm/AbGpf

All i wanna say is that, They don't really care about us Iranians

It's not just a few people but thousands upon thousands who are protesting the results of the Iranian elections. And now with Michael Jackson's death, Iran has dropped off of the news cycle...and here in the USA it seems as if all the news is talking about is Michael Jackson. So it's fitting to put one of his songs to showcase the plight of the Iranian people.

Four days left to participate in this month's CCF Online Writing Contest: http://ping.fm/F8wNu

Stephen King & Jerry Jenkins: An Epic Conversation on Writing

If you're a writer, and do not already subscribe to Writer's Digest magazine, then articles such as the Stephen King & Jerry Jenkins interview in the May/June 2009 issue might just convince you to do so.

I received the magazine and was surprised to see the photos on the cover. It never would have occurred to me to put Jenkins anywhere near King. Not only are their writing styles different, the writing themes are different as well. You read one of Jenkins' "Left Behind" titles and you've read them all. King, on the other hand, delightfully surprises you each and every time. I just got a Kindle-2 from amazon.com and went in search of available Kindle titles. One of them was "Ur," a short story King wrote exclusively for amazon. In it, a Kindle with a mind of its own is featured and takes the characters on the type of page turning ride King is so adept at delivering. The wit and humor and tension and just plain good old storytelling in this short story were awesome! I kept reading sections aloud to my husband and we both kept shaking our heads and saying "man, that Stephen King is something else!" :-)

Both authors had much to share that totally made this a "must read" article on writing. I can't quote everything they said but here are some of the words that caught my attention the most:

King's response to WD's question on readers suspending disbelief and immersing themselves in imagined worlds: "Making people believe the unbelievable is no trick; it's work. And I think Jerry would agree that belief and reader absorption come in the details: An overturned tricycle in the gutter of an abandoned neighborhood can stand for everything...Of course, none of this means a lot without characters the reader cares about...but the details are always the starting place in speculative or fantasy fiction. They must be clear and textured. The writer must have a good imagination to begin with, but the imagination has to be muscular, which means it must be exercised in a disciplined way, day in and day out, by writing, failing, succeeding and revising."

King's response to WD's question on why the battle between good and evil fascinates readers: "When evil is vanquished in a book, most of us feel cathartic triumph...But writers must be fair and remember even bad guys (most of them, anyway) see themselves as good--they are the heroes of their own lives. Giving them a fair chance as characters can create some interesting shades of gray--and shades of gray are also a part of life."

Regarding the challenge of writing for what King calls "constant readers," an author's devoted fan base: "They just want a good story, and I think they come to crave your voice even more than the story itself. It's like having a visit with an old friend."

Jenkins also had some gems on writing he shared with us in the interview. One that I thought was specially insightful was his take on fiction and nonfiction: "Ironically, the definitions of nonfiction and fiction have flip-flopped these days. Nonfiction has to be unbelievable, and fiction has to be believable. So, to my mind, the task (and I agree with Stephen that it's not trick) of getting readers to buy your premise and temporarily suspend disbelief is to yourself believe your premise with all your heart.

Another good quote from Jenkins was this one, "As to why people like to escape into other worlds, that has to do with this world. People are longing for something beyond themselves and their current circumstances. They want either hope or escape--or both."

Stephen King wrote what I consider to be one of the best books on writing and he talks about it in the interview, "For me, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft felt like both a summing-up and an articulation of things I'd been doing almost entirely by instinct."

Even though I own a good number of books on writing, King's title is a favorite of mine. In King's book you not only learn about writing from someone who knows the art and craft of writing but you also get to know King as a person.

Prior to me reading On Writing, I had pigeonholed King as a writer of horror fiction. He may be that but he's so much more. In the same way that he comes across in his book On Writing, self-effacing and transparent, he also comes across in the Writer's Digest interview. I mean, don't you just love it when the author Writer's Digest calls, "arguably the best-known writer of our time," ends the interview by saying, "Last but not least--we're all amateurs at this job, really. It's always new. For me (to quote Foreigner), it always feels like the first time."

Kudos to Writer's Digest for capturing yet another set of King's words for us. Kudos to them for also bringing two unlikely authors together in one cohesive interview that allows us to, in WD's words, "look closer. A conversation with the two yields both parallels and polarity--and candid insights as well as mutual respect."

I've looked to see where this Writer's Digest interview of King & Jenkins is available online, for a price, but have not found it. Let us know if you find it online or, if you get Writer's Digest, and have read the interview, come on back and share your thoughts with us.

To Kindle or not to Kindle: Tibbetts answers the question

Immediately after I sent a note to the books4children listserve asking for advice on whether buying a Kindle from amazon.com was a good idea, a post from author Peggy Tibbetts came back singing the praises of this little gadget.

In her blog, Kindle Spirits, Tibbetts addresses many of the questions I had about the Kindle. She also provides links to further information and suggests the two "must have" accessories: the Kindle travel case and the Mighty Bright Light.

One thing Tibbetts mentions also helped seal the deal for me: the fact that I can edit manuscripts in the Kindle! I'm now blaming Tibbetts for this last minute addition to my Christmas 2008 list. I had to wait until March'09 to get it, as it was on back order. The good thing is that amazon.com sent me the Kindle-2 without me having to pay extra for it so it was worth the wait.

Now that I have been using my Kindle for about amonth I can tell you this little gadget has won me over. I love using it, love how easy it is to put my own manuscripts in it. I can either email them to my kindle email and for $0.10 a manuscript, regardless of how small or big it is, amazon.com will put it in kindle-formatting and automatically send it to my kindle within seconds... literally! If I want to get this done free of charge then all I do is email my manuscript to my free.kindle email and amazon.com and I'll receive an email from them with my manuscript in kindle-format so all I have to do is upload it to my kindle.

I'll keep adding more things that I like about the Kindle as I continue to explore its abilities. I'll also post my wish list for things it's not presently doing. In the meantime, I'd love to hear from visitors who own a Kindle. Let me know what you think of them!

Slumdog Millionaire: a MUST see movie

If you haven't seen SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE already, you must, you just MUST go see it while it's still playing in your area. It's one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. I can't get it off my mind. It is awesome! It touches your heart on so many levels. Tender and chaotic, realistic and romantic, fast paced, yet with an exquisite sense of timing.


It's only playing in selected theaters, so google "showtime slumdog millionaire" for your city and run and go see it before it stops showing. Here are just some of the accolades the film has received...and this film lives up to them:

• WINNER! People's Choice Award at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival and Official Selection of the Telluride, Chicago, Austin and AFI Film Fests
  
• "Explodes with narrative force, wrapping in a poignant romance...Danny Boyle's SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is a triumph!- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
  
• "A soaring, crowd-pleasing fantasy that's a tale of unswerving love."- Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal
  
• "A buoyant hymn to life, and a movie to celebrate."- Richard Corliss, TIME
  

Key Sunday Cinema Club has posted a good synopsis of the film:

"The story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai...he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show's questions." --Key Sunday Cinema Club

Go see this movie and don't leave before the end credits roll or you'll miss a wonderfully exhilirating dance sequence. Then come back and tell me what you thought about it.

Fabricated Memoir Sparks Anger, Sadness

Re: News of Fabricated Holocaust Memoir Sparks Anger, Sadness

How does the saying go? Oh yeah! "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." And good intentions is what Herman Rosenblat and his wife had when they told a tall tale to those in the publishing world. The AP article quotes Rosenblat as saying, "I wanted to bring happiness to people...I brought hope to a lot of people. My motivation was to make good in this world." So, the Rosenblats stretched the truth to fit their good intentions.

According to the AP article, "Rosenblat's believers included not only his agent and his publisher, but also TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey, film producers, journalists, family members and strangers who ignored, or did not know about, the warnings from scholars that his story did not make sense."

Related news were also listed in today's Publishers Lunch, which talked about the repercussions of this fabricated tale in a children title. This 12/29/08 edition of Publishers Lunch tells us that, "Lerner Publishing Group, also duped into publishing Herman Rosenblat's fake Holocaust love story in the children's book ANGEL GIRL (released this September), is recalling the book. The company is "issuing refunds on all returned books" and "no longer offering the book for sale."

This is a financial hit to the publisher...at a time when publishers are having to watch the bottom line more than ever. And, by default, it's also a hit to authors everywhere wanting to get their manuscripts to press. Publishers Lunch quotes the author of the recalled Lerner Publication title as saying, "throughout the development of this book, the Rosenblats reviewed my manuscript and assured me of the authenticity of the details of their story. Unfortunately, I, like many others, am disappointed and upset to now learn of Herman's fabrications."

Regardless of who's to blame for yet another publishing misstep, with the Rosenblats being the primary culprits on this one, the result is the same and it's not a good one. The AP article is right when it states that, "Publishing, the most trusting of industries, has again been burned by a memoir that fact-checking might have prevented."

Whose responsibility is it to vet information sources prior to acquiring or publishing a manuscript? I always thought it was the author's responsibility. The literary agent and publisher can and probably should require backup research from the author. But must they now add the role of detective to their already overloaded job descriptions? What could the various gatekeepers within the publishing world have done to guarantee that what they were hearing from the Rosenblats was true information? Write back and let me know what you think.