April 10, 2009
a fountain pen of good repute
Letter from Joseph Conrad to his agent, J.B. Pinker
Hotel Continental
place de la Comedie
Montpellier
21st Febr ’06
My dear Pinker.
I send you the first 13 pp of Verloc partly that you should see what the story is going to be like and partly as evidence that the Capri fatality is not likely to overcome me this year. After all, considering that we have been just a week here and that it takes some time to feel settled I haven’t done so badly. There is a good bit more MS actually written but I can’t part with it yet. I’ve also worked at the text of the M of the Sea. That and the balance of Verloc you’ll get in the course of a week. Meantime I hope you won’t think I am stretching the point unduly if I ask you to send me £20 on the day you receive this — which I imagine will be Friday — either in English notes or by draft on the Credit Lyonnais who have a house here — whichever is less trouble.
Don’t imagine that the story’ll be unduly long. It may be longer than the Brute but not very much so. What has delayed me was just trying to put a short turn into it. I think I’ve got it. I haven’t done anything to Chance of course. I imagine it would go easiest at the Pent. But that or some other MS you are sure to have from here. I feel well and have a few ideas.
Yours always
Conrad.
PS Would you have the extreme kindness to buy for me and send out by parcel post a fountain pen of good repute — even if it has to cost 10/6. I am doing much of my writing in the gardens of Peyron under a sunny wall and the horrible stylo I’ve got with me is a nuisance.
===========
n.b. Verloc became The Secret Agent
KCBS – South Bay Phone Outage Likely Caused by Vandals
KCBS – South Bay Phone Outage Likely Caused by Vandals
Way to make people sympathetic to your cause, CWA.
Idiots.
April 9, 2009
Los Angeles Times Staff: Fake News Story ‘Embarrassing and Demoralizing’
Los Angeles Times Staff: Fake News Story ‘Embarrassing and Demoralizing’ – Peter Kafka
Newspapers are losing money. What to do? What to do? What to do?
Think outside the box. Revisit the dominant paradigm. Make people pay for online content. Make people pay for premium content. Make people pay more for subscriptions. Only put premium content in paper version. Cut the newsroom staff. Stop home delivery. Stop the presses and go 100% online.
Sell ad space on Page One?
The LATimes ad was clearly marked as such. It was below the fold. I =do= have some understanding about the uproar from staff, but …
How will papers survive as papers? Would you rather the LATimes fold than sell clearly marked ad space on Page One?
Any ideas for our friends in the daily paper business?
According to the article: UPDATE: I’m told publisher Eddy Hartenstein is supposed to be addressing the staff this afternoon.
Write Your Nonfiction Book
New blog from Crawford Kilian: Write Your Nonfiction Book … Online!
The blog is new (only three posts so far) but I’m expecting some interesting content. Currently online, the book proposal.
Blog also includes links, links, links to blogs, links to online magazines, links to a collection of Kilian blogs, links to Web writing resources, more.
Query Shark
How an agent =really= feels. Query critiques for the strong-at-heart.
e.g. Please don’t ever put I look forward to hearing from you soon in a query letter. It sets my teeth on edge. Other agents may not have quite the ..ah…toothy! reaction that I do, but why risk they do. Be safe. Don’t say it.
Hosted by Janet (Jet) Reid at FinePrint Literary.
Her voice may sound familiar to you.
Shhh.
Alexander McCall Smith (Lost in Fiction – WSJ.com)
Lost in Fiction – WSJ.com: Alexander McCall Smith on the intense personal relationships readers form with characters and the ways that complicates the lives of authors.
[...]
It can be very inhibiting for an author if he or she knows that what happens in fiction is going to be taken so seriously. I write serial novels in newspapers and have learned the hard way that people will readily attribute the views expressed by characters to their authors. In one of my “Scotland Street” novels a character called Bruce, a rather narcissistic young man, made disparaging remarks about his hometown. Although these were not the views I hold about that particular town, I was roundly taken to task, with the local member of the Scottish Parliament suggesting that I should be forced to apologize to the offended citizens. I pointed out that these were the views of a fictional character, who was just the type to make such remarks. That did not help.
In another novel, I had Isabel Dalhousie give up breastfeeding rather too quickly for the liking of the leader of a pro-breastfeeding organization. Again I was told that I should make a public apology to those who believed in persisting with breastfeeding. That sort of thing is quite alarming, and it is such people who need to be told, politely but firmly, that it is just a story.
[...]
Book Promotion Tips from the Pros: Featured Author: Marc Acito
Book Promotion Tips from the Pros: Featured Author: Marc Acito
Some interesting insights.
Latest Morford
Fear the rainbow! / A storm is gathering. Are you afraid, Christian? Are you afraid *enough*?
The best part? It’s only been just over three months. These adorable hyenas can’t possibly sustain such a silly froth; in terms of extreme vitriol, there is nowhere left to go. Really, how do you top calling Obama a Satan Hitler Mussolini Lenin Iran-loving dictator hell-bent on taking away our guns and destroying capitalism as he forces everyone to drive a pink Prius to the Commie Hut to pick up our gay Chinese babies?