BIBLIOGRIND
The Life of a Wordsmith — Read … Live … Write
Archive for December, 2010
December 31, 2010 at 12:59 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
English Music by Peter Ackroyd: the story of a boy who has healing powers, and whose dreams conger the lives and stories of English authors, musicians, painters, and architects. Well written and highly engaging, although completely unexpected from reading the first few pages.
The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood: A young woman working in a Canadien city is beset with oddball friends, an overbearing boyfriend, and the roommate itching to have a baby without the help or use of a father (so to speak). This is Atwood early effort, from the sixties, and her humor, characterization, and storytelling showed that she would go on to greatness.
Blue Angel by Francine Prose: a college professor, after twenty years in the trenches, finally sleeps with one of his female students, corresponding to perhaps the worst time in history to do such a thing, as political correctness has a stranglehold on the nation.
December 30, 2010 at 5:43 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
AsiaMark have been waking early to get some reading done, and trying to avoid the whole holiday habit of sleeping late and then not being able to get back to the normal 5:45 a.m. routine. Today is a typical illustration of our success:
We turned on the lights at 6:55, got some detox lemon-water drinks, sat with our books, READING, and at 8:17 Asia lay on her side (which means she’ll be asleep in –10 minutes), and soon Mark fell asleep. The alarm went off at 9. Asia turned it off. At 10 a.m. we woke, fully rested.
That has been our week.
Happy holidays, everyone.
December 29, 2010 at 10:18 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
Asia found THE VILLAGE WIT on the bookshelf at Shakespeare & Sons in Malastranska (just off Charles Bridge). She couldn’t resist taking a photo of it, sitting next to Ambrose Bierse (and near Bulgakov!).
And now the (short) wait begins to see how soon someone buys the books from one of the Prague bookstores. When I dropped off two copies at Big Ben books, the shop assistant immediately put the books out on the “new titles” table.
December 28, 2010 at 11:51 am · Filed under The Prague Blog
At the pool hall, Cal took lots of pics; I took some, but have been lazy in downloading them from my camera.
December 27, 2010 at 8:24 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
Today I went Old School: with no distribution team, I walked Prague’s cobblestones to visit the city’s three English language bookstores. I’m happy to report that THE VILLAGE WIT is now on the shelves at Shakespeare and Son books, Big Ben books, and The Globe bookstore. There’s nothing like having your own imprint, a quality-printed book, some business acumen — and a good novel — to help yourself as author.
December 26, 2010 at 6:34 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
We were in Shakespeare & Son bookstore, Malastranska, today for a bit’o excursion. I asked the proprietor if he would be able to stock my novel (as a local writer, and author w/American publisher). He said yes, and to bring three or five copies (“to start”) to put on the shelves.
This is very good news. Now the book can be seen, in hand, by the public.
Prague has four English language bookstores. I’m making a trip to them all tomorrow, with a suitcase full of books. Perhaps, I suppose, I should feel like one of the old time whiskey drummers, plying his potent potables from town to town.
December 25, 2010 at 10:31 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
Yesterday, Asia & I went for a walk (in the rain), and found a group of carol singers in the Namesti Miru subway entrance. Lots of people had gathered to watch; most of those people held a drink in their hand; a few had a shot glass strung around their necks and were pouring rum punch for shooters every few minutes.
After our turkey dinner, we opened up presents that had been under the Christmas Bonzai Tree. Asia likes her new winter hat, all furry and warm.
Today I made pork tenderloin with a small tomato-onion salad, and the fabulous veggie salad Asia made on the 23rd. We scarfed more food that imaginable. Then we went on a walk to Cal & Anne’s, where we had drinks to celebrate the holiday.
The second half of It’s a Wonderful Life has pulled it all together. And the warm fireplace makes home this little palace apartment in Prague. Merry Christmas.
December 24, 2010 at 8:11 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
Mark gave Asia:
A furry winter hat
Black & Blue striped tights
A Girl-Cupid Voodoo Doll
A red negligee (with black lace piping)
Asia gave Mark:
After Eight chocolates
Lavender night armotic thingy to put me to sleep
A desk organizer
A red leather wallet
Assorted moisturizers
Dark chocolate!
We opened presents after a turkey & stuffing dinner, with Asia-made veggie salad, and champagne. For desert: coffee with homemade cheese cake.
We may need to crawl to bed … or just crash on bearskin rugs in front of the fireplace. 
))))
December 22, 2010 at 8:53 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
I published “The Village Wit” on my own, using my interior design and cover art with design by my friend, Lia Gallegos, in September of this year. This was after nearly nine months of sending out query letters to agents and publishers in America and the UK.
Now, if you were to ask an agent, or a publisher, about that rate of rejection, they probably would say the book is unpublishable. But of course they would, just as they’re about to publish another book about teenage vampires in love. Great stuff, that.
Yet, there’s another side to self-publishing. The least of that side is standing behind one’s work. And the other is seeing that publishers are terribly frightened of spending money without some sure sign of getting a large return. But, the most appalling aspect of dealing with publishers is their dilatory response — positive or negative news notwithstanding.
I sent, last April, a query to The Dalkey Archive Press, and a few days ago I received their reply. “Sorry for the delay” they said. Anyway, they don’t want to see the book (the already-published book, that is). This kind of business creates a dilemma for the writer.
Firstly, many publishers don’t want simultaneous submissions (when an author sends his book to multiple publishers or agents at the same time). They seem to think that this practice is discourteous, at the least, and disingenous at the worst. A writer should stand behind his work, they say. Only someone who is not sure of his work sends it to many at one time, they think.
Of course, if a writer sends one query out per publisher, and the said publisher takes eight months to respond, anyone can see (including said publishers and agents) how long it could take for a book to find the light of day. Their crassness is indefensible. They’re arrogance is despicable.
December 21, 2010 at 10:55 am · Filed under The Prague Blog
“Let the Great World Spin” by Colum McCann, won the 2009 National Book Award. I don’t know why; no clue; I’m flabergasted.
McCann is a good writer, good sentences and images and characters. This is not a good book. He’s trying too hard, I think, to make an impression on the present by using incidents from the past. His method makes for un-credible concidences, forced dialogue, and a cast of characters chosen just precisely to get the United Colors of Benetton feel for NYC during the 1974 season in which the famous wire-walker, Philippe Petit, walks from one World Trade Center tower to its twin.
This is all supposed to, I’ve gathered from interviews with the author, strike a comparison between those days and today (or, precisely, to Sept 11, 2001 in NYC). Meaning, there is no striking difference: people still live, eat, die, shit, fuck, cry, do crimes, make mistakes, and generally “spin” around in their isolated world as the Earth spins on its axis. This could be profound, but not as McCann has done it.
Case in point: a group of early-day hackers (a word used in this 1974 book but not invented as such until 1983) sit in Palo Alto, CA, phoning up pay phones in lower Manhattan, looking for someone who can see the wire walkers. They get several people on the phone, all of whom seem to have hearing problems (What? Who? Where are you calling from?) or don’t wish to communicate (Did he fall? Who? The wire walker? The wire walker?? Yes, man, the walker? Oh, him! … No, not yet. Are you sure? Am I what? Are you SURE? Ah, yeah, I can see him.) Reading such dialogue reminds me of the printed material from Nixon’s secret tapes. Absolute boredom.
Okay, there’re ways to capture the verisimilitude of human life, but dipping your reader in mud is not the best way.
And, finally, a story such as this becomes somehow a morality play because it needs to make that past-present connection, where moralizing is more key than anything else. There’s a bit of a problem here, too: the 9/11 attacks are themselves in the past, a distant past vis-a-vis most people’s attention spans.
So, the book wins the USA’s 2nd biggest literary award. The front matter lists no less than 20 quoted reviews. I’m at a loss to see what they are looking at that I’m not seeing. Even if I weren’t a writer, I would be setting this book aside. It just doesn’t work, and for the over-riding reason that it is sentimental. The cardinal sin for any book.
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