Wellywood or what?

What sign should be put on the hillside at Wellington International Airport?

This one?  Or something more local?  A whimsy?  Or a symbol?

Eighteen months ago, the powers that run Wellington Airport announced they were going to put a huge sign on a steep, barren hillside on their land.

It was going to read WELLYWOOD.

International outrage.  Truly.  I wrote about it myself.

Such was the backlash, that our newspaper, The Dominion Post, took a hand.  Suggestions were solicited for alternatives, with various spot prizes offered, and ideas poured in.

Now the suggestions have been culled down to five, and the public is invited to vote for their favorites.

Here are the five suggestions.  Why not have a vote?  And you can like the page on facebook, too, if you wish.  Just remember that voting ends on November 9, when the winner will be faced against that infernal Wellywood proposition.

Which will win?  Only time will tell.

VOTE NOW

Happy birthday Statue of Liberty

Friday marks the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty's dedication.

Slideshow
The statue was a gift of friendship from France, entitled "Liberty Enlightening the World."

"The statue has evolved in meaning since she first graced our shores 125 years ago," said David Luchsinger, superintendent of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, in a release. “She began as a symbol of friendship between France and the United States, evolved into a symbol of our great country, and is known today as an international symbol of freedom for people everywhere. This coming Friday is an opportunity to celebrate her complete legacy.”

Between 1820 and 1920, approximately 34 million persons immigrated to the United States, three-fourths of them staying permanently. For many of these newcomers, their first glimpse of America was the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor.

The statue, sculpted by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, had been conceived of as a gift of friendship from the people of France marking the two nations' commitment to liberty. France provided $400,000 for the 151 ft 1 in. (46.05 m) statue, and a fundraising drive in the United States netted $270,000 for the 89-foot pedestal.

The Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus saw the statue as a beacon to the world. A poem she wrote to help raise money for the pedestal, and which is carved on that pedestal, captured what the statue came to mean to the millions who migrated to the United States seeking freedom, and who have continued to come unto this day.
–The U.S. Department of State

“The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

I wish a few politicians could be forced to read that poem.  And think about it.

Spin-off for Icelandic literature

An unexpected benefit from being Frankfurt Book Fair's guest of honor, 2011

Each year, the organizers of the great Frankfurt Book Fair nominate a country to be their "guest of honor."

It's a huge opportunity, with immense potential -- one that innovative Amazon Publishing has taken, creating yet more headlines to make traditional publishers nervous.

Amazon Crossing, one of Amazon Publishing's six imprints, has teamed up with the Icelandic Literature Fund to publish ten titles by Icelandic authors.

See their press release, below:

AmazonCrossing

With translations of foreign language books from around the world, AmazonCrossing makes award-winning and bestselling books accessible to many readers for the first time. All AmazonCrossing titles are also available on Kindle.

Spotlight on Iceland

AmazonCrossing has teamed up with the Icelandic Literature Fund to release 10 Icelandic titles over the next year, ranging from crime thrillers and historical fiction to award winners and coming-of-age stories. See our first five selections and visit each book's page to download an excerpt.

Lessons from Novels

Self-help from classics

Bookshelves groan with self-help books, from diet for arthritis to how to learn Zen, and Body Mind and Spirit books abound.  If we read them all, we'd be better, healthier people, for sure.

Why not take an easier way, and get advice for life from classic novels, instead?

So posits the renowed Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse in Washington DC, with this very funny facebook slideshow.

Enjoy!

Code of ancient secret society cracked

For three centuries a manuscript called the Copiale Cipher has kept its secrets 

Now a computer program has helped to reveal its hidden mysteries     


US and Swedish researchers have cracked the code of the 300-year-old Copiale Cipher with the help of a new computer program that may help to decipher other legendary secretive manuscripts.

"This opens up a window for people who study the history of ideas and the history of secret societies," computer scientist Kevin Knight of the University of Southern California (which provided the image, above) said in a statement Wednesday.

"Historians believe that secret societies have had a role in revolutions, but all that is yet to be worked out, and a big part of the reason is because so many documents are enciphered."

The 75,000-character Copiale Cipher describes the rituals and political leanings of an 18th-century German secret society, which bound the manuscript in gold and green brocade paper, the USC statement said.

The rituals, encoded in a series of abstract symbols interspersed with Greek and Roman characters, indicate that the secretive group had a fascination with eye surgery but that members were not actually eye doctors.

From the Lebanon Daily Star.

Read more

New Wiki Coffin story

The April issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine is coming out in January 2012

Well, that is mysterious, but very pleasing for me, as the latest Wiki Coffin story will be featured.

Called "Salt," it takes place in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand.

Wiki's flamboyant Yankee father, Captain William Coffin, sails into the Bay with a very strange cargo -- complete with a buried corpse.

British Library reinstates Amazon link

Should the BL catalogue direct browsers to Amazon online?

Many people would say, NO!  And booksellers like British Waterstones agree.  However, after crumbling to criticism, the British Library is now reinstating its link to Amazon on online catalogue records.

The link takes readers of the library's catalogue records directly to the sales page for each title on the Amazon.co.uk website.

Waterstone's James Daunt heavily criticised this in The Bookseller last Friday (14th October). He said: "It's disappointing to say the least that a very British institution is driving readers away from local libraries and high street bookshops." The link was removed from the library's catalogue records shortly afterwards.

But now it is back.

The British Library explanation for the link, its temporary removal, and its reinstatement is an astonishing example of administration-inspired-media-speak. 

Read the whole item at The Bookseller.

Jeffrey Paparoa Holman sets sail with Tupaia

Review in New Zealand Books

"One of the great virtues of Joan Druett's style of historical writing in this extensive reassenssment of Tupaia's role in Pacific history, is her ability to make poetry from maritime history, to evoke the world of 18th century sailors and their ships with a lyrical delight," writes Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, who goes on to say, "With a novelist's narrative muscle, she has crafted a readable and convincing tale of a wronged and forgotten Raiatean hero to whom the record has given precious little credit for the success of Cook's first voyage to New Zealand from Tahiti and his subsequent circumnavigation of these islands."

Jeffrey Paparoa Holman (this year's University of Waikato Writer in Residence) may not agree with some of the conclusions I drew from detailed study of the logs and journals, but had much that is good to say.  "What is exciting about this necessary and fascinating study," he writes, "is the picture that emerges of Tupaia as a kind of co-ethnographer with the Europeans, clearly seen in the imaginative placement of his artwork alongside the better-known images of Parkinson ...

"Certainly, his role as a translator and explainer of Europeans to Maori and vice versa in the early and later New Zealand encounters rank him along with Cook as our first genuine ethnographer of Maori.  For this insight alone, Druett's retelling of his life has a value beyond its reiterations of how badly he was wronged: without him, such encounters would have shown up in far less sharp focus in the record of our earliest meetings.

"As is typical of recent Random House New Zealand history titles, the book is beautifully presented and competitively priced: sumptuous would be a fair description.  Lavishly illustrated in colour, with charts and maps, it is a pleasure to behold and explore.  There are no page references in the text (the typical scholarly apparatus), but this is cleverly circumnavigated with all citations listed and discussed in a commentary section, divided into chapters, at the end of the book.  I found it quite simple to skim through these after reading each chapter.  It's a good compromise between the Michael King Penguin History of New Zealand model (no references given at all) and the rather more pointy-headed footnote system (a la Judith Binney et al). ...

"I'm no great fan of inflated book titles that tell me I'm about to read "a remarkable story": if it is one, the reading of it will let me know.  Yet this truly is, and we're the richer for Druett's being captured by its potential, and her dogged persistence in doing the hard yards tha have given us a readable and thoughtful portrait of Tupaia and his times. ..[T]he historiography of Pacific exploration needs many more hands on deck like hers."

WikiLeaks forced to suspend leaking

WikiLeaks closes down

The cause?  Simple lack of crucial funding.

Follwing a boycott spearheaded by Visa nad Mastercard, dating back to December, funding for the trouble-making operation has plunged to almost zilch.

Julian Assange (pictured) stated that, "In order to ensure our future survival, WikiLeaks is now forced to temporarily suspend its publishing operations and aggressively fundraise in order to fight back against this blockade and its proponents."
"If WikiLeaks does not find a way to remove this blockade, given our current levels of expenditure, we will simply not be able to continue by the turn of the New Year."

The influential Australian newspaper has condemned the embargo as politically motivated.

Michelle Obama to publish her first book

Inspirational, and what's more, it's about gardening

Jason Boog of GalleyCat @ mediabistro.com, reports that Michelle Obama's  American Grown: How the White House Kitchen Garden Inspires Families, Schools, and Communities will be luanched by Crown Publishers next April. The four-color hardcover is the first book written by the First Lady.

Mrs. Obama will not earn an advance for the book, and plans “to donate all net or after-tax author proceeds to a charity or charities to be named later.” Crown Publishing Group publisher Maya Mavjee made the announcement today.

Here’s more about the book: “Through telling the story of the White House kitchen garden, Mrs. Obama will explore in American Grown how increased access to healthy, affordable food can promote better eating habits and improve health of families and communities across America. Mrs. Obama will describe how her daughters Sasha and Malia were catalysts for change in her own family’s eating behavior, which inspired Mrs. Obama to plant an edible garden on the South Lawn – the first since Eleanor Roosevelt’s ‘Victory Garden’ planted during World War II. The book will be inspirational and instructive and will provide ideas and resources for readers to get involved in the movement to create community, school, and urban gardens, support local farmers’ markets, and make small lifestyle changes to achieve big health results.”

A Curious Fellow

Another book for writers of historical fiction

Son of a scientifically-minded Scottish aristocrat, Basil Hall joined the Royal Navy at the age of 13 in 1802. His first naval engagements in America and Spain during the Peninsular War are described, as are his travels in India and the Far East. His renowned interview with Napoleon, while still a prisoner on St. Helena is featured. He was a confidante of Sir Walter Scott, Dickens and many other distinguished authors of his day.

Renowned for his curiosity and energy, he became a popular writer himself based on his world-wide travels and adventures, including his involvement in the liberation of Peru and friendship with General San Martin. He embarked on an epic, 10,000-mile journey with his family in North America and twice journeyed across the sub-continent of India under the patronage of the Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, providing delightful vignettes of Indian life of the time. Subsequent travels in Europe introduce personalities such as Lord Byron and the eccentric Countess Purgstall.

Although the narrative of his journey in the United States earned him great opprobrium from Americans for his conservative attitudes, his support in Edinburgh to the great American bird painter, John James Audubon, was greatly appreciated by the artist.

As an amateur scientist, Hall made important contributions to nautical astronomy, geology and naval technology, being a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Among his scientific friends were Sir John Herschel, Mary Somerville, and Sir Humphrey Davy, among many others.

He was in the unusually privileged position of moving among the upper echelons of British society’s distinguished writers, scientists and politicians thus providing a fascinating insight into the mores and manners of high society in Edinburgh and London. The inclusion of previously unpublished and often revealing correspondence has contributed to the first full biography of a very colourful individual and his times.

The author, mysteriously unnamed in this press release from the publisher, Whittles, is James McCarthy.

Forgotten crime writers

What do Robert Twohy, Dennis Lynds, Leon Comber, and Barry Perowne have in common?

They've all written at least one highly original detective story, and I have never heard of them before.

Long ago, some English lecturer at Wellington's Victoria University ran a course on popular crime fiction, and so the library holds a shelf of ancient whodunits alongside the serious tomes of literary criticism.  Curious about what was popular back in those days, I was scanning the faded titles, and found a collection called Best American Detective Stories of the Year (15th Series) that was edited by a wellknown name, Anthony Boucher.

A wellknown name in science fiction.  It was a great surprise that he had anything to do with crime fiction at all.  However, it seems the great fantasist also wrote detective novels, at least one of them under the pseudonym "H.H. Holmes," which was the name of a late nineteenth century serial killer.  (Anthony Boucher" wasn't a real name, either: he was actually Christened William Anthony Parker White.)

Boucher was also a noted editor and critic, so I borrowed the book with high expectations of finding originality, substance, and style in this 1966 collection.  About half of the stories were dated, possibly because they have been imitated so often since, but the handful of names cited above proved most rewarding, in their different ways.

Robert Twohy's Routine Investigation wasn't even crime fiction -- it really belongs in a fantasy collection, but boy, what a story.  It's a way-out plot, deftly presented, evoking an incredulous laugh and an "OMG" from the reader at the end.  Definitely worth hunting down, if you want an original read, but who was Robert Twohy, and where is he now?  A frequent contributor to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, he was nominated in 1984, 1985, and 1989 for various awards, and seems to have edited (or maybe wrote) five anthologies, the last being Silver Screams in 1994, but since then he has dropped out of sight.

Dennis Lynds's No Way Out is a classic locked room mystery, though in this case the room wasn't empty, being full of alert guards when the crime was committed.  It may even have been the inspiration for part of Silence of the Lambs ... but who was/is the author, and what else did he write?

Well, surprise, surprise, he has a Wikipedia page ... under the name of Michael Collins, the moderately wellknown science fiction writer, and also the creator of the sleuth Dan Fortune. 

The Temple by the River by Leon Comber got full marks from me for its beauty.  It is a classic the-female-of-the-species mystery, but takes place in old China, with Chinese characters, and is truly most exquisitely written.  I find that he produced a collection, The Strange Cases of Magistrate Pao, which I will hunt down swiftly -- and I also find (if I have the right Leon Comber, that is) that the story of his life would make a rousing book on its own.  After serving most of World War Two as an officer in the Indian Army, he served in Malaya's secret police during the Emergency, then went on to a prominent role in publishing in the East.  Now in his 80s, he can be located in an undoubtedly booklined office at Monash University, Melbourne, famous as the author of A Historical Survey of Sino-Malay Relations.

He was also, for a while, married to Han Suyin.  Remember A Many-Splendoured Thing?  Rather daunting for an author, I should imagine.

That brings us to Barry Perowne.  Papa Tral's Harvest has a wonderful sense of place -- the Provencal setting is picturesque and evocative -- and has a most unusual moral theme.  Unusual in a crime story, that is.  For once, the reader has absolute sympathy with the criminal.  But who was the author?

Good lord, more pseudonyms!  Barry Perowne was one of the pennames of William Philip Atkey (1908-1985), another being Pat Merriman.  Atkey was mostly known, it seems, for continuing the Raffles series after the death of Hornung.

Why all these pseudonyms?   Was the way to make a tad more cash in those days?

It's a mystery in itself.

Rare naval uniform found in attic

A boon for naval historians and writers of historical fiction

Describing naval uniform in both nonfiction and fiction can be quite a problem, as I have found out for myself. In Tupaia, my biography of the Polynesian genius who sailed with Captain Cook on the Endeavour, I wanted to picture John Gore after he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, as he would have looked as he strode up the gangway. I faced a similar challenge when George Rochester, a major character in the Wiki Coffin mystery series, was promoted to the same rank in the United States navy.  In both cases, I had to resort to portraits of lieutenants at the time.

Now, it is possible to go the the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, and study a real uniform from the era of Nelson, because of a serendipitous discovery in an attic.

A rare Royal Naval uniform worn by a British survivor of the Battle of  Trafalgar has been unearthed after spending decades in the attic of one of the sailor's descendants, Hicks's great granddaughter Carolyn Hammond.  Luckily, it was in a plastic bag.

Dating from around 1812, is an important find for military historians as it is believed no other lieutenant uniform of that era is left in existence.

Read more at the Daily Mail

Self-pub eBooks on NYT bestseller list

The Mill River Recluse and The Abbey maintain ratings

Print and eBook Fiction Combined List:

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1. THE BEST OF ME, by Nicholas Sparks. (Grand Central Publishing.) Twenty-five years after their high school romance ended, a man and woman who have gone their separate ways return to their North Carolina town for the funeral of a friend.
			2. THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett. (Penguin Group.) A young white woman and two black maids in 1960s Mississippi.
			3. THE AFFAIR, by Lee Child. (Delacorte.) For Jack Reacher, an elite military police officer, it all started in 1997. A lonely railroad track. A crime scene. A cover-up.
			4. THE MARRIAGE PLOT, by Jeffrey Eugenides. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux.) Three Brown graduates in the early 1980s wrestle with love, religion and coming of age.
			5. THE MILL RIVER RECLUSE, by Darcie Chan. (Darcie Chan.) Only one man knows an abused widow, which revealed will change many lives in her small Vermont town. Eighth week on the list.
			6. SHOCK WAVE, by John Sandford. (Penguin Group.) Virgil Flowers investigates bombings directed against a superstore chain seeking to open a store in a Minnesota river town.
			7. SNUFF, by Terry Pratchett. (HarperCollins Publishers.) In this Discworld fantasy, the commander of Ankh-Morpork’s City Watch solves a crime while on vacation in the country.
			8. LETHAL, by Sandra Brown. (Grand Central Publishing.) A woman and a man accused of murder evade the authorities as they search for her dead husband’s secrets.
			9. CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?, by Sophie Kinsella. (Random House Publishing.) A woman reveals the most intimate details of her life to a man who turns out to be the C.E.O. of the company for which she works.
			10. THE ABBEY, by Chris Culver. (Chris Culver.) Against orders, a former homicide detective begins an investigation into his niece's murder.   Eighth week on the list.
			11. CROSS FIRE, by James Patterson. (Grand Central Publishing.) Detective Alex Cross’s wedding plans are put on hold when an elusive gunman begins picking off crooked Washington politicians.
			12. A KILLING TIDE, by P. J. Alderman. (P. J. Alderman.) An Oregon fire chief becomes entangled with a woman whose brother is a suspect in a deadly shipboard arson blaze.
			13. KILL ME IF YOU CAN, by James Patterson and Marshall Karp. (Little, Brown & Company.) A young man who finds a bag of diamonds is stalked by competing assassins.
			14. THE NIGHT CIRCUS, by Erin Morgenstern. (Knopf Doubleday.) Two young rivals at a magical circus become collaborators as they fall in love.
			Sunday Book Review | Excerpt
			15. SUICIDE RUN, by Michael Connelly. (Little, Brown & Company.) The Los Angeles detective Harry Bosch is on the scene in three never-before-collected stories.

Kindles for Japan

Another Frontier for Kindle: Japan

Both the Nikkei business daily and Jiji press in Japan report that the company is close to launching a Japanese Kindle store, "hoping to start the business in time for the Christmas sales season."

Japanese publishers expressed concern about eBook pricing, but Nikkei says Amazon has been discussing "a framework in which the timing and scope of price cuts would be discussed with publishers in advance." Japan's electronic content market is already estimated to comprise $850 million, which is considered small since that's only about three percent of their total market for books and magazines.

Amazon opened their French Kindle store earlier this month, their second store in a language other than English, after launching Kindle in Germany in April. Kindle stores for Brazil, Italy and Spain are all known to be under discussion with publishers.

ePublishing conference in San Francisco

Hopefully the next step is a conference in Australasia (we wish!) or a CD to sell

Publishers Launch San Francisco: eBooks for Everyone Else
Wednesday, November 2
9:00 – 5:00

StoryWorld Conference + Expo
Parc 55 Wyndham — Union Square

Register now!

This show is a West Coast version of the very successful conference we presented in New York to a packed audience of agents, publishers and other professionals:

“By far the best digital publishing conference I’ve ever attended and I try to go to all of them in the NYC area. It was a day packed with cutting edge info and insights into the new technologies that are changing traditional publishing in ways we could hardly even imagine four or five years ago. Absolutely exhilarating.”

Betty Sargent, Freelance Editor

(See the general introductory page for even more enthusiastic testimonials from the New York show.)

**NEW: Best-selling author Bob Mayer will join eBooks for Everyone Else in San Francisco to discuss epublishing, self-publishing, and how he’s used his extensive backlist to build a successful publishing operation and loyal readership.**

eBooks for Everyone Else

9:00
Welcome and opening remarks

Mike Shatzkin, Founder & CEO, The Idea Logical Company

9:05
ePublishing Isn’t Free
The costs and requirements of professional ebook publishing

David Wilk, Booktrix

9:20Distribution and Understanding the Markets

Choosing Your Path & Maximizing Your Market

How to think about publishing directly, or using vendors, intermediaries and new companies –who does what and who can get you everywhere you need to beMichael Cader, Publishers Lunch and PublishersMarketplace.com

70 Percent Isn’t Always What It SeemsUnderstanding distribution deals and sales modelsPerseus Books Group

9:50Put Your Book on the Map with Book CountryA new writing community and service offering from an established player

Molly Barton, VP Digital Publishing, Business Development & Strategy, Penguin USA and President, Book Country

10:05eBook Creation and Conversion

Making Simple eBooks & Making eBooks SimpleMark Coker, Founder & CEO, Smashwords

Finding the Right Approach for eBook Production and DesignJoshua Tallent, eBook Architects

App, Meet eBook.Approaches for interactive, multimedia ebooks and new product formsRon Martinez, Founder, Aerbook

10:45MORNING BREAK

11:15Digital Marketing and Discovery

Understanding Metadata
Getting it right from the startBill Newlin, Avalon

Making the ConnectionHow to increase your discoverabilityPatricia Payton, Senior Director of Publisher Relations & Content Development, R.R. Bowker

Your eBook Marketing Punch ListExplore, Observe, EngageRich Fahle, Founder & CEO, Astral Road Media

Social MediaMaking the best use of the new toolsIris Blasi, Coordinator of Digital Media, Hilsinger Mendelson East

12:15Self-Publishing as a Second LifeA bestselling author takes himself digital

Bob Mayer, Author & Publisher

12:30Insights from an eBooksellerPricing, DRM, self-publishing, enhanced ebooks, and more

Michael Tamblyn, EVP, Content, Sales and Merchandising, Kobo, Inc.

12:45BREAK

Box lunch will be provided.

1:30-3:30Learning from the Experts: Get your questions answered

Meet in small groups with these leading providers of digital services:

Bowker, Constellation, Copyright Clearance Center, Ingram, INscribe Digital, PubIt!, and Vook.

And join our publishing experts for discussion groups on :

* Publishing business advice* Metadata and discoverability* Online marketing and social media* eBook creation and conversion
* Enhanced ebooks and apps

3:30AFTERNOON BREAK

3:45How Different Agents Are Approaching ePublishing Opportunities

Moderated by Charlotte Abbott, Publishing Journalist and Digital Strategy Consultant

Deidre Knight, Senior Agent and President, The Knight Agency

Laura Rennert, Andrea Brown Literary Agency

Scott Waxman, Principal of the Waxman Literary Agency, Chairman and Co-Founder of Diversion Books

Ted Weinstein, Ted Weinstein Literary Mgmt

4:30Acting on What You’ve Learned
Developing an ebook strategy

Michael Cader, Publishers Lunch and PublishersMarketplace.com

Mike Shatzkin, Founder & CEO, The Idea Logical Company

Into the Battle of the E-Readers, Superheroes Fly

The Tablet Wars have Begun

Or so David Streitfield reveals, in today's New York Times.

Superheroes are the prize, he says — or perhaps the victim.

Amazon, seeking to make its coming Kindle Fire tablet as appealing as possible, negotiated a deal with DC Comics for the exclusive digital rights to a hundred popular graphic novels. Among the series: Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, the Sandman and Watchmen.

Barnes & Noble, with a tablet of its own to nurture, did not like this one bit. Two weeks ago it removed all the copies of the physical volumes from its 1,300 stores, saying it would not carry any book if it were denied the right to sell the digital version.

Books-a-Million, the third-largest bookseller with 231 stores, followed suit last week, making the same argument

Obviously, like Macmillan in the past (after Amazon removed the buy button from their books), they ae determined that the internet sales giant should not throw its weight around.

Read the full discussion here

Want to become immortal?

It's easy -- once your name becomes a noun

Or a verb

Or even an adjective.

What do

Henry Shrapnel
Jules Leotard
Robert Bunson
Samuel Maverick
Amelia Bloomer
Lord Cardigan
Earl of Sandwich
Duke of Wellington

have in common?

Easy.  Their names all became nouns.  Samuel Maverick, for instance, was a fellow who refused to brand his cattle.  Amelia Bloomer, the suffragette, promoted loose bloomer pants for women, though she didn't wear them at all often.  That great general of armies, the Duke of Wellington, wore tall boots, with the result that Englishmen (and women) call what we call "gumboots" "wellingtons."  The first Earl of Sandwich toyed with the name "Portsmouth" when he first became a lord, and if he had clung to that idea, two slices of bread with a filling (which one of his descendants designed in a hurry while playing billiards) would have been called a "portsmouth."

Now, that's a scary thought.   Though not as scary as the idea of becoming immortalized by a disease.  Poor Dr. Altzheimer is an example that leaps to mind.

Even Achilles, hero of The Iliad, has been reduced to a tendon.

And then there are verbs inspired by people's names  Charles Boycott did not actually do any boycotting himself (but was boycotted, instead), but gave his name to that popular pursuit.

And finally, there is the Marquis de Sade, who inspired sadism, which is a sadistic way to be remembered.

Listen to a hilarious musical NPR discussion here

Simon's cat has a blog

Well, to be accurate, the creator of Simon's cat has a blog

In today's post, Simon meditates about the rising habits of his cats.  If he wants to sleep in, it seems that the cats can't wait to be fed.  If he needs to get up early, the last thing they want is breakfast.

It sure does sound as if his cats rule the house.  And do I like his blog?  I surely do.

Pay a visit here

New eReader echoes the tablet

Kobo and the Vox

Kobo is joining the ereader/tablet movement with their just-announced Vox, dubbed "the People's eReader." Selling for $199.99 and shipping as of October 28, it runs Android 2.3 and promises easy web browsing, e-mail, and access to "over 15,000 hot music, video and game apps." It weighs 14.2 ounces (lighter than Nook Color or Kindle Fire), and a vibrating Kobo pulse icon signifies pages with more social activity. Kobo says it comes with three free color ebooks.

Personally, I wonder about the internet and apps.  To get absorbed in a book, I have to get as far away as possible from the computer, as the constant impulse to check for email is so distracting.  And the last thing a reader needs is social activity!

But here, for your edification, is the promotion ....

• Kobo Vox

  • Vivid 7" multimedia screen
  • Brilliant color books for all ages
  • New social reading experience
  • Web, email and apps for Android^™!

  Coming Soon Online

World's richest literary prizes

Literary prizes worth $100,000US or more (Wikipedia)


Nobel Prize for Literature: 10 million krona.

Premio Planeta de Novela (winner): €601,000

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award: kr 5,000,000

Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja: €360,607

The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (Open to all artists.): US$300,000

Premio Primavera de Novela: €200,000

Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature Book Prize (split between author(s) and publisher): AD1,000,000

Poplar Publishing Grand Prize for Fiction: ¥20,000,000


Sheikh Zayed Book Award: AD777,777 ( 9 awards for a total of AD7,000,000)

Premio Planeta de Novela (runner-up): €150,000
Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award: US$200,000


Premio Iberoamericano Planeta-Casa de América de Narrativa: US$200,000
Miguel de Cervantes Prize: €125,000


Premio Alfaguara de Novela: US$175,000


Premio de Novela Fernando Lara: €120,000


Lannan Literary Awards: US$150,000  (Composed of three awards of $150,000 each.)

Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes: US$150,000( Composed of seven to nine awards of $150,000 each.)

International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: €100,000
Premio Novela Histórica Alfonso X El Sabio: €100,000


São Paulo Literary Award: R$200,000 (Two awards of R$200,000 each.)

Yokomizo Seishi Prize: ¥10,000,000


Australian Prime Minister's Literary Award: AU$100,000 (Composed of four awards of A$100,000 each.)

Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize : US$100,000


Pritzker Military Library Literature Award: US$100,000


Nigeria Prize for Literature: US$100,000


Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature: US$100,000
Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award: kr 500,000
Man Booker International Prize: GB£60,000

Man Booker Prize: GB£50,000

Shine removed from finalists list

As the world knows, Lauren Myracle's YA book was named in error

First the National Book Awards committee added the right book (Chime) to the list, making the unusual number of six finalists, and then they changed their collective mind, and asked Myracle to withdraw her sound-alike, Shine.

According to Myracle's statement, released by publisher Amulet, she "was asked to withdraw by the National Book Foundation to preserve the integrity of the award and the judges' work" on Friday.  Being a decent sort, she didn't make a fuss, but agreed.

In recognition of the error, the NBF "has agreed to donate $5,000 to the Matthew Shepard Foundation." (The organization works to protect gay youth and "replace hate with understanding, compassion and acceptance."

Well, at least there has been heaps of publicity.  This is the book, in fact, that more people are likely to be able to name than any of the other contenders (with the possible exception of Chime.) Publisher Susan Van Metre says that Shine is "a beautiful and important book," and that they are very proud of their author, "not least for her grace in such a difficult week."

Hardback sales boom, seemingly

Jason Boog of GalleyCat reports that hardback sales have increased by 33%

 

According to the Association of American Publishers (AAP) net sales revenue report, hardback sales rose nearly 34 percent over the northern summer, compared to the same period last year.

At the same time, adult paperback sales declined almost 30 percent. As you can see by the Year to Date chart embedded above, adult paperback sales have declined 20 percent and adult hardcover sales are down nearly 18 percent compared to last year.

Once again, eBooks posted massive gains. Here’s more from the release: “In the midst of the summer books season, Adult Hardcovers enjoyed a significant year-to-year monthly net sales revenue increase of more than 30%. E-Books continue a consistent monthly triple-digit percentage growth track while Downloaded Audiobooks also show another month of increased revenue.”

As Publishers Lunch points out, however, it must be borne in mind that this is the data from the limited set of publishers who reported monthly to the AAP, and should not be confused with the larger pool of annual data and estimates reflected in the new Book Stats program, which debuted in August.

A tale of two sound-alike titles

US book awards announce wrong shortlist


The two novels' similar-sounding titles were blamed for the mistake.

Organisers of the National Book Awards in the US have mistakenly announced the wrong shortlist at their launch night.

A "miscommunication" led to Lauren Myracle's Shine being listed for the young people's literature category, instead of Franny Billingsley's Chime.
Judges decided to let the sound-alike titles compete together, with the category expanded to allow six titles.

It would be very interesting if the "sound-alike" won the prize!

Crime writers, take note

Complete with jazzy video, a countdown to the launch date (down to the moment), a new digital outlet for crime books is fast appearing on the horizon.

Crime writer and literary agent Allan Guthrie and digital media entrepreneur Kyle Macrae are launching Blasted Heath, a digital publishing company devoted to crime fiction, on November 1 with five titles, with plans to publish 30 books per year annually in ebook formats. In addition the launch titles will be available as a physical product for the gift market that offers readers a branded USB stick in a presentation pack.

Blasted Heath website

Macmillan's backlist to reappear digitally

From Publishers Lunch:

Pan Macmillan's Digital Imprint, Now Called Bello, Kicks Off With Curtis Brown UK Backlist

Pan Macmillan's previously announced digital imprint devoted to backlist titles which they suggested would debut at Frankfurt has been renamed Macmillan Bello (supposedly for "hidden talent discovered and admired") and acquired a marquee partner: Curtis Brown UK. The program will launch in November with 120 ebooks drawn exclusively from the agency's backlist, with a further 400 titles to follow later next year. The launch list includes novels from Gerald Durrell, Vita Sackville-West; Francis Durbridge, D J Taylor, and Eva Ibbotson.

"At Curtis Brown UK we have been researching the best ways to revive our authors' out-of-print books, and were hugely impressed with Macmillan's plans, their ambition, vision and commitment to neglected writers," said head of book contracts and agent for literary estates Anna Davis in the release. "We've greatly enjoyed partnering with them on the launch of Macmillan Bello, and are excited about the future and making available great writers from yesteryear." Macmillan digital director Sara Lloyd added: "We have had such a lot of fun working with Curtis Brown UK to get the business underway and are looking forward to working with them further to grow the list and the business in the coming months." When the venture was first announced, Lloyd told us "we are offering enhanced terms for books... -- these deals are on the basis of a new style partnership and not on a traditional 'acquisition' basis."

Does that mean that my first novel, the highly acclaimed Abigail, which was published by Macmillan in both the UK and NZ, just might see the light of digital print? 

National Book Award Finalists

Fiction

Andrew Krivak, THE SOJOURN (Bellevue Literary Press)
Tea Obreht, THE TIGER'S WIFE (Random House)
Julie Otsuka, THE BUDDHA IN THE ATTIC (Knopf)
Edith Pearlman, BINOCULAR VISION (Lookout Books)
Jesmyn Ward, SALVAGE THE BONES (Bloomsbury)

Non-Fiction

Deborah Baker, THE CONVERT: A Tale of Exile and Extremism (Graywolf)
Mary Gabriel, LOVE AND CAPITAL: Karl & Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution (Little, Brown)
Stephen Greenblatt, THE SWERVE: How the World Became Modern (Norton)
Manning Marable, MALCOLM X: A Life of Reinvention (Viking)
Lauren Redniss, RADIOACTIVE: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout (It Books)

Poetry

Nikki Finney, HEAD OFF & SPLIT (Triquarterly)
Yusef Komunyakaa, THE CHAMELEON COUCH (FSG)
Carl Phillips, DOUBLE SHADOWS (FSG)
Adrienne Rich, TONIGHT NO POETRY WILL SERVE: POEMS 2007-2010 (Norton)
Bruce Smith, DEVOTIONS (University Of Chicago Press)

Young People's Literature

Debby Dahl Edwardson, MY NAME IS NOT EASY (Marshall Cavendish)
Thanhha Lai, INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN (Harper)
Alfred Marrin, FLESH AND BLOOD SO CHEAP: THE TRIANGLE FIRE AND ITS LEGACY (Knopf)
Lauren Myracle, SHINE (Amulet/Abrams)
Gary D. Schmidt, OKAY FOR NOW (Clarion/HMH)
SHINE by Fanny Billingsley, published by Dial

Swallow first, then maybe Amazons

A famous little ship sails the Lake District once more

A childhood favorite was Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons, and all the wonderful books that followed in its wake.  Indeed, the fandom has spanned three generations -- our sons loved the series, and now grandsons eagerly collect the books.

So it was heartwarming to read on the Guardian blog that an authentic facsimile of the sailing dingy that gave its name to the first book has put into Wild Cat island.  As Guest Blogger Eileen Jones pondered: Can the Amazon be far behind?

A cluster of Arthur Ransome fans picnicking on Coniston's Peel Island had a big surprise when the writer's famous literary creation Swallow sailed into the tiny scrap of land's 'secret harbour'.


The gaff-rigged dinghy, the actual boat used in the 1974 film version of Ransome's masterpiece for children, had sailed to the islet – known more excitingly as Wild Cat island in the book – for the first time for 38 years.

For the rest of the story, hit the link to the right.

eBook pirates condemned at Frankfurt Book Fair

Germany's book industry association is calling for tougher action against pirated copies of e-books.


Gottfried Honnefelder, head of the group that represents publishers and booksellers, said at the fair's opening news conference that around 60 percent of e-book downloads in Germany are pirated through Internet sources such as filesharing sites.


The e-book market remains tiny in Germany, with about 0.5 percent of the market. E-readers have not caught on as they have in the U.S., but there is plenty of potential there.


Some 7,400 exhibitors are expected for the fair Wednesday through Sunday, gossiping, sharing ideas, promoting their books, and trading in publishing and translation rights.

Iceland is this year's featured guest, with some 35 writers presenting their works.

Amazon launches SF/F imprint

Amazon's long-expected science fiction, fantasy, and horror imprint has finally arrived.

Publisher's Lunch reports that in keeping with the company's tradition of incorporating geographic elements into imprints' names, this one is called 47North, (Seattle's latitude.)


The imprint launches with 15 books, including the republication of Neal Stephenson & Greg Bear's Mongoliad series, the Dead Man series created by Lee Goldberg & Bill Rabkin, and other titles by Stephen Leather, B.V. Larson, and Chris Roberson.


Trade print distribution is offered through Ingram and Baker & Taylor, just in case. Also notable is that Victoria Griffith's title is now publisher of Amazon Publishing, West Coast Group, presumably to distinguish her domain from Larry Kirshbaum's New York-based division.

Dennis Lehane to have his own imprint

A bold new trend in marketing

William Morrow has announced that Dennis Lehane, whom they have published since 1994, will now have an imprint of his own. Dennis Lehane Books will "help identify and acquire literary fiction with a dark urban edge." The announcement did not specify a launch title or a release date beyond saying Lehane would oversee publication of a "select number" of fiction titles annually and that he would work with his longtime editor Claire Wachtel. Lehane's agent, Ann Rittenberg, negotiated the arrangement.

Lehane said, "My goal is to call attention to worthy writers, who for some unknown reason aren’t as popular as they deserve to be. That's a reason to get out of bed every morning."

William Morrow publisher Liate Stehlik added: "In a world where computer algorithms and screen placement often replace in-store recommendations, having a line of books with a talented and highly regarded writer like Dennis is a great way to help readers discover what to read next. The list will be made up of the kind of high-quality writing that Dennis most admires and that readers would associate with his name."

It's an interesting new ploy.  Maybe they will go retrospective. Anyone in the market for "Agatha Christie Books"?