Towse: views from the hill

Folio Literary Management

Scott Hoffman (PMA Literary & Film Management, Inc.), Jeff Kleinman (Graybill & English) and Paige Wheeler (Creative Media Agency) have teamed up at Folio Literary Management, LLC.

No news as to what clients they might have lured away from their previous agencies. (Paige Wheeler owned her agency, so all her clients probably are still with her…)

The site has contact e-mails and snail addresses. Submission requirements aren’t yet available.

Various sites have news bits:
Karen A. Fox
Booksquare
slushpile.net
galleycat

moleskinerie is a blog for fans of Moleskines.

I’ve always wanted a Moleskine notebook. Archival quality paper. Smooth Moleskine cover. Elasticized band to keep it shut. So pricey, though, and how can I justify one when I have stacks of unused composition books in narrow rule, quadrille and blank? What style would I choose, if I were to choose one?

Should I walk over to the Blick Art store on Van Ness and browse the aisles … and doublecheck one more time whether they’re just really too pricey right now for me to justify the expense when I already have all these blank books?

I’m almost absolutely positive I’d get there and drool over the notebooks and then decide, nope, too pricey. Should I just get on with writing and promise myself a Moleskine as a reward … some day?

The two mile walk over there would be good for me …

Update: I walked over. Checked out the Moleskine notebooks. Bought some.

Hah! But I had a plan. I took our youngest with me. The Moleskine notebooks I bought were for him for an early bday present. I fed my yearning for Moleskine by giving some away. (No. I couldn’t justify the cost of the notebooks, knowing how many blank composition books I have stashed away.)

Carl Nolte covers the Beat Museum at 1345 Grant Avenue, just a couple blocks up from City Lights bookstore.

Free admittance! Grand opening tonight! Carolyn Cassady (now age 82) will be there!

Alex Whalen on his recent stint of jury duty.

Mind you I have never once filled out a character chart, but I keep thinking maybe I should.

Over at her storytelling blog, Rosina Lippi describes a main character.

To do so, she uses the following profile.

Name:
Home:
Hair:
Eyes:
Height:
Favorite foods:
Won’t eat:
Favorite things to drink:
Favorite Music:
Likes to wear:
What her living space is like:
Methods of transport:
Politics:
Magazine subscriptions:
Favorite Book:
Favorite TV Show:
Favorite Movie of the last few years:
Expression:
Movie star crush:
Pets:
Creative outlet:
Favorite Muppet:
Favorite ice cream:
Favorite desert:
The thing she’d never do:
The thing she’s always wanted to do:
Childhood toy that’s still in her room:

Sound interesting? Follow the comments thread to see what other questions readers want to ask about the characters.

Only comment, “Favorite Muppet”?

I don’t have and never had a favorite Muppet. Sesame Street is way past my time and we didn’t have television when the now-twentysomethings were young. I =know= most of the Muppets but was never involved enough to have a favorite.

Now, if you’d been asking my favorite Mouseketeer c. 1958: Cubby O’Brien.

Other character charts to peruse and use:

• Charlotte Dillon’s Character Chart
• Rebecca Sinclair’s Fiction Writer’s Character Chart
• Carol McLeod’s Character Chart
• Sandy Tritt’s Character Trait Chart and personality components
• R.J. Hembree’s Character Building Workshop

If you decide to use character charts, choose one of these, or make your own using elements from these.

We’ve seen this ship down at the southern piers, where ships go for rehab and maintenance, for the last week or so.

Big! we’d say. What ship is that? But we’d be speeding down the highway and didn’t take time to look.

Whatever they were working on is finished. The Royal Caribbean Visions of the Seas left port this morning.

Big!

Room for 2,435 passengers. Ten decks. A rock climbing wall!

The priciest digs? The Royal Suite: “Separate bedroom with king-size bed, private balcony, whirlpool tub, living room with queen-size sofa bed, baby grand piano, refrigerator, wet bar, dining table, entertainment center, private bathroom, vanity area, hair-dryer, closed-circuit TV and phone. (1,140 sq. ft., balcony 131 sq. ft.)”

If you book the Royal Suite, you also get free (hah!) concierge service and access to a private lounge so you don’t have to sit in a deck chair next to ruffians.

The Smoking Gun sez James Frey fibbed a bit.

The Man Who Conned Oprah:

[...]

… and the blogs is all a-buzzy.

On the subject of the truth or fiction of memoirs, I loved Haven Kimmel’s A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana.

The memoir was a funny, funny book with a disclaimer up front that her family and friends might not quite remember the events and circumstances as she does, but this book is about her (probably embellished) memories of growing up.

What a voice Kimmel has.

Frey’s problem is that the hype over his story was predicated on how absolutely rotten his lying, boozing, druggy, criminal life was.

… and he seems to have um. fibbed a little.

I’m interested to see what the consequences will be.

[via Miss Snark]