Running on Chrome until further notice.
The erratic, unpredictable, unreliable, inconsistent, irregular, changeable, intermittent, uneven, fitful, variable* whims (not to mention the crashes and hiccups and slowdowns and what-nots) of Firefox finally drove me away.
(* Thank you to MSN Encarta online for the synonyms. …)
I was disappointed in the book the-ladies-who-read chose for this month’s reading: Books: a memoir by Larry McMurtry. Oh, I wasn’t disappointed when we chose it. I was, after all, the person who had come up with the list of about six titles we chose from. I’d even read the first pages that Amazon offers before I added it to the list. Seemed like a readable memoir from a writer I wanted to know more about.
First pages can be misleading.
For someone who writes fiction so well — Pulitzer Prize winning Lonesome Dove, Terms of Endearment, Horseman, Pass By (the book that became the movie Hud), Last Picture Show, and many more — his book seemed a tedious conglom of memories written on 3×5 cards and then reshuffled for coherence. Each card was then expanded a tad to fill a very short (one- or two- pages usually) chapter. The memoir consisted of a rare few noteworthy bits of gleam caught up in a tubload of mud.
Not to be dissuaded (and because I’d picked up the book when I was down at the Mechanics Institute Library to pick up Books), I continued on with the second in his trio of memoirs. The first of the trio covered his book selling/book seeking yen. Yesterday I finished Literary Life: a second memoir, which covered his memories of life as a writer. Although marginally better than BOOKS, the prose was still pedestrian, the stories colorless. Surely this man must tell a good story at a party. Why can’t he translate that into prose?
Hollywood: a third memoir, which covers his days in Hollywood and his life as a screenwriter, came out Wednesday. I’m not going to bother. …
Our perambulations yesterday took us to Pier 14 and the party to celebrate the newest “temporary public art” installation, sponsored by Black Rock Arts Foundation. Gavin stopped by. The crowd included Burners in costume, or perhaps that’s the way they always dress.
The murder of crows shows up in late afternoon, after the pandemonium (squabble?) of parrots has flown off to the night roost. The crows hang out in the trees down near where Levi’s Plaza meets the Embarcadero when they’re not having “walking practice” on the roof of Levi’s headquarters.
Ah, yes. Walking practice. Crows sit along the railings and watch others walk around on the roof. They caw and critique (“Hey, Max! You’re knock-kneed again!” “You walk like Mrs. Crow, Stanley!”) and caw again.
Then they’re off in a big whirl of black wings, reminiscent of THE BIRDS. Minutes later, they’re back again, plotting to take over the neighborhood, as soon as they learn to walk properly.
200-plus! Crows
Fresh wind rippled the bay. Coast Guard station on Yerba Buena Island. Mount Diablo in the background.
Sail boat. Saturday morning.
J.A. (Joe) Konrath announced May 17th that he had signed a contract with AmazonEncore, Amazon’s publishing imprint, to publish his latest mystery, Shaken, the 7th in his Jack Daniels series.
Big news? You bet! The news flew around the Web. Blogs, Facebook and Twitter updates, Publishers Weekly and the Wall Street Journal covered the news. Why? Although AmazonEncore is now a year old, Konrath’s latest is the first time AmazonEncore has signed a contract for a new book from a popular series by a known author. (AmazonEncore publishes, they note on their site, “exceptional, overlooked books and authors with more potential than their sales may indicate.”)
Konrath reported that the Kindle edition will be available for $2.99 in October, 2010, and the paperback edition version will be available next February.
Why did Konrath go with AmazonEncore rather than a traditional print publisher? Hyperion published his first six books in the Jack Daniels series, but when his agents, Jane Dystel and Miriam Goderich, pitched Shaken to traditional publishers, they were unsuccessful. Amazon made an offer, and, as Konrath put it on his blog: “I signed a print deal with a company that can email every single person who has ever bought one of my books through their website, plus millions of potential new customers. I’ve never had that kind of marketing power behind one of my novels. I’d be an idiot not to do this.” His agents, he reports, were with him all the way and negotiated a contract he’s happy with.
As for those traditional publishers? Konrath writes, “They passed on it. Their loss. Their big loss. Their big, huge, monumental, epic fail.”
Konrath has been making serious hay with Kindle editions of his works. (Read his blog to find out how.) Amazon was happy to snag him.
MWA member Jason Pinter wrote about the deal and what it means to other writers in his column at Huffington Post. Pinter’s conclusion? What Konrath is able to do with AmazonEncore and with Kindle books is definitely not what everyone is able to do. Joe also has “Whoa There” advice on his blog.
Read the transcript of the live internet chat hosted by HWA’s Nick Mamatas in October 2003, after Konrath had a contract for his first three Jack Daniels books. (Last item here.) If you do, you’ll understand what everyone who reads his blog, his Facebook updates or his Twitterfeed knows. Konrath is a self-promoter extraordinaire, works hard at what he does, has put in the time to master his craft, and doesn’t take no for an answer.
For a humorous take on the Konrath news see this post from ireaderreview.com.
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