More on a Million Little Lies...

from PW Daily

Doubleday/Anchor to Reissue AMLP With Notes

After James Frey's painful trip to Oprah's couch this afternoon—the author sat through a live taping of the talk show with a stunned look as journalists and Oprah skewered him for fictionalizing key elements of his memoir A Million Little Pieces—Doubleday/Anchor, announced it will be adding both a publisher's note and author's note to all future editions of the book.

Frey's hardcover publisher Nan Talese, who appeared alongside the author on the Oprah broadcast, made mention of the changes on-air. In its statement, Doubleday/Anchor noted that while it initially stood by Frey, after further questioning of the author, the house has "sadly come to the realization that a number of facts have been altered and incidents embellished." Doubleday/Anchor apologized to the public "for any unintentional confusion surrounding the publication" of Pieces.

The company said that no new copies of the book will be shipped and it will not go back to press for new editions without the two notes. The notes will also be posted on randomhouse.com as well as mailed to booksellers to insert in existing copies. Books with the update could be headed to bookstores by next month. —Rachel Deahl

A MILLION LITTLE LIES...

from the NY Times, January 24, 2006

Treatment Description in Memoir Is Disputed
By EDWARD WYATT

To Oprah Winfrey, the power of James Frey's memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," lay not in whether the author really spent three months in jail, as he claimed, or whether he lost a lover to suicide.

Rather, she said in her now-famous call to CNN's "Larry King Live" on Jan. 11, where Mr. Frey defended himself against accusations that he falsified significant parts of his life story, it was the author's story of recovery, a rebirth that took place within the walls of an addiction treatment center, that provided "the underlying message of redemption" that resonated with her.

But more than three months before questions were raised about Mr. Frey's memoir by the Smoking Gun Web site (www.thesmokinggun.com) - before, in fact, Ms. Winfrey first had Mr. Frey as a guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" - producers at the program were told by a former counselor at the foundation that runs the Minnesota treatment center reportedly used by Mr. Frey that his portrayal of his experience there grossly distorted reality.

Several other addiction counselors who formerly worked for the organization, the Hazelden Foundation, which runs the Hazelden rehabilitation center in Center City, Minn., have also come forward to dispute Mr. Frey's claims about Hazelden. The accusations call into question what Mr. Frey has labeled the "essential truth" of his book, the "420 of the 432 pages" that take place during treatment. It was Mr. Frey's story of redemption that led Ms. Winfrey to make "A Million Little Pieces" a selection for her television book club and propelled it to sales of more than two million copies.

After receiving the information from Debra Jay, a Michigan addiction counselor who herself has been a frequent guest on Ms. Winfrey's program, a senior producer for the "The Oprah Winfrey Show" conducted an extensive interview with Ms. Jay. It is not known if Ms. Winfrey was apprised of the concerns, but she made no mention of the potential discrepancies in her many on-the-air comments about "A Million Little Pieces," including when she called the book "all completely true" on her program and told Mr. Frey, "I don't doubt you."

In response to questions last week about the early warning given to the program, a spokeswoman for Ms. Winfrey, Angela DePaul, said, "We have no comment."

In a statement, Mr. Frey said he was not acquainted with any of the people who were disputing his account. "It's quite possible that different people have different experiences," he said. "There are situations that patients experience that staff know nothing about and which are deliberately kept from them."

Since "A Million Little Pieces" was published in 2003, it has been widely reported that the center described in the book is Hazelden, assertions that neither Mr. Frey nor Hazelden has disputed. Hazelden officials, citing medical confidentiality regulations, say they can neither confirm nor deny that Mr. Frey was there. But Mr. Frey's descriptions of the center in his book, which say that it is a lakeside retreat in rural Minnesota that opened in 1949, leave little doubt that he is talking about Hazelden.

"His description of treatment at Hazelden is almost entirely false," said Ms. Jay, who trained as an addiction counselor at Hazelden's operations in Minnesota and who is the co-author of two guides to treating addiction published by the Hazelden Foundation. She has appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" at least six times to discuss issues related to alcohol and drug addiction.

Ms. Jay said she voiced her objections about "A Million Little Pieces" to a senior producer for Ms. Winfrey's program on Oct. 1, nearly a month before Ms. Winfrey's interview with Mr. Frey was broadcast. "I'm coming forward because his descriptions of treatment are so damaging," Ms. Jay said. "These are things that could not happen to anybody at Hazelden or at any reputable licensed treatment center."

Among the episodes she and the other former counselors have called into question are Mr. Frey's claims of being physically abused by other residents of the treatment center, of being left to sleep on the floor of a common room overnight after an altercation, of regularly vomiting blood and of having his nose rebroken and set by a doctor. "He describes a level of medical care that would not occur at Hazelden," Ms. Jay said. "He would have been taken to an emergency room, and any violent behavior would have been met with a discharge."

"I can surely confirm there were disputes between patients and no one remembers better than I do vomiting blood," Mr. Frey said.

In interviews over the last week, Ms. Jay and the other counselors said they had decided to speak publicly because they feared that Mr. Frey's portrayal of rehabilitation was more likely to scare people away than lead them to seek help. While questions have been raised about the book's depiction of rehab by some critics and in online chatter, this is the first time treatment professionals who have worked inside Hazelden have spoken publicly at length.

None of the former Hazelden employees who have decided to speak out ever met Mr. Frey during his stay at Hazelden; nor could they talk about it if they had. But each of them said the regulations and procedures at Hazelden were subject to rigorous review by groups of counselors, so that the many breaches of protocol described by Mr. Frey would have been unlikely to go unnoticed.

Carol Colleran, who worked for 17 years in the Hazelden system, including two years at the Minnesota locations, said that unlike Mr. Frey's contention on "Larry King Live" that only about 5 percent of his book is in dispute, "98 percent of that book is false" in its descriptions of how Hazelden works.

Ms. Colleran, now a certified addiction professional in West Palm Beach, Fla., said she sent her complaints about the book to the Winfrey program by e-mail in November. Ms. Colleran also posted questions about the book on Amazon.com that month.

"I have had young people say to me that if they had a child who was having problems, they would never send them to treatment after reading that book," Ms. Colleran said.

John H. Curtiss, the president of the Retreat, another inpatient treatment center in Minnesota, worked at Hazelden for more than 19 years, including during the early 1990's, the period that Mr. Frey has said he was in treatment. Though he never met Mr. Frey at Hazelden, Mr. Curtiss did meet the author when Mr. Frey traveled to the Retreat last fall along with Ms. Winfrey's producers to film a segment for the program.

The segment had Mr. Frey greet and talk with a client at the Retreat who had written to Ms. Winfrey saying that his book had convinced her to seek help for her addiction.

Mr. Curtiss spoke to Ms. Winfrey's producers about the book during their visit to the Retreat, but he declined to provide details about the conversation. He also said he spoke to Mr. Frey.

"I told James that I've been there, that I worked there and I've never seen any of those things happen at Hazelden," Mr. Curtiss said. "In a million years those things would not happen at Hazelden. He said that was his recollection, but that he changed the names."

Mic Hunter, a psychologist who worked for four years at Hazelden-related treatment centers in Minnesota, said Mr. Frey's book made him angry. "It's hard enough for people to get accurate information about treatment because of all the confidentiality rules," he said. "So many people have negative feelings about treatment to begin with. Why would anybody want to send anyone to a treatment program where they would be treated like this? He is claiming it is true, but it's not."

M.J. Rose at Murder on the Beach

It was such a thrill for me to finally meet one of my favorite authors, M.J. Rose. I heard about MJ when her first book, Lip Service, a self-published tome, was picked up by the Literary Guild/Doubleday Book Club in the late 1990's. It was big news in the book business, a first for a self-published novel. Then it went to auction and was published by a traditional house. I snagged myself a copy and fell in love with her unique writing style and I've been hooked ever since.

These days Rose is writing a series of psychological suspense. Her lead character is a sex therapist and single mom, Dr. Morgan Snow, and the books are set in New York City. The first book, The Halo Effect, was terrific and I just started the new one, The Delilah Complex. I've had to reluctantly put it down (temporarily!) to read Steinbeck for school. I'll just say this: Steinbeck may be a great writer, but he's slow going compared to Rose!

This is her first book tour and Rose was impressive. She's very personable and warm and really turned what could have been just another reading and book signing into a memorable event. She spoke about her careers, her books, and the publishing industry and then decided to make the program interactive. Most people believe that at least parts of what they read in a work of fiction are somewhat autobiographical to the author. Rose has proposed a contest: she asks attendees at her signings to guess how many instances of "truth" there are in her newest book. Whoever guesses closest will win a gift certificate to the bookstore they saw her in. And then she took it a step further; there was a small enough group for Rose to turn the tables and ask her fans some questions for a change. She wanted to know about what they read and why, and what makes them stop reading a series. It was a fun and fascinating evening.

Borders(R) Announces 2005 Original Voices(R) Award Winners
19.01.2006 19:12:00

Borders today announced the winners of the 2005 BordersOriginal Voices Awards, the retailer's program that shines a deserving light on emerging and innovative authors and musicians. Winners will receive $5,000 from the company for their outstanding achievement in crafting creative, original books and music. In addition, the winners will be honored at a special breakfast reception during the 2006 BookExpo America convention in Washington, D.C. in May.

Nicole Krauss' "The History of Love," published by W. W. Norton &Company, won top honors in the fiction category from a field of six finalists. According to members of the Borders selection committee, Krauss did "a masterful job of interweaving many story lines, bringing them all together in a moving and meaningful way, and the ending is pitch-perfect, down to the last line." "The History of Love," set in New York, tells the story of the intersecting lives of Leo Gursky, an aging Polish immigrant, and Alma Singer, a 14-year-old girl trying to hold her fragile family together.

"Finding George Orwell in Burma," written by Emma Larkin andpublished by The Penguin Press, was the nonfiction winner among six finalists. Larkin spent a year traveling around Burma, a shuttered military dictatorship in Southeast Asia, using the life and work of George Orwell as her guide. Members of the nonfiction committee said Larkin's story offers "an interesting perspective on how intellect survives the worst of humanity while still retaining a high standard of dignity. It is an eloquent and poetic blend of travel narrative,literary criticism and political commentary."

In the children's picture book category, "Russell the Sheep," written and illustrated by Rob Scotton and published by HarperCollins Publishers, was named the winner from a field of six finalists. This charming story of a sheep that can't sleep won the hearts of the Borders selection committee, who commented that this title is "a playful, unique take on traditional bedtime and counting books and Russell is just plain darling."

"Elsewhere," written by Gabrielle Zevin and published by Farrar,Straus and Giroux, was named the winner in the young adult category. Members of the selection committee found that this novel about life after death offers "a fascinating concept of the afterlife and is ultimately a novel full of hope." "Elsewhere" is where 15-year-old Liz Hall has ended up after dying; a place filled with those who have passed before and where life is lived backward, from the age at your death until you are once again an infant. One committee member commented, "I can only hope that the afterlife contains some of the elements that make "Elsewhere" so special. This is truly a marvelous book for readers of all ages."

For the first time, the 2005 Borders Original Voices program included music selections and from the group of six finalists, "Careless Love" by Madeleine Peyroux on the Rounder Records Group label was selected as the winner. In choosing this title as the award recipient, music committee members said, "It is Peyroux's voice that first catches your ear, but it is her beautiful, laid back, melodic jazz treatments of everything from Leonard Cohen to Bob Dylan to Hank Williams that keeps you listening."

"As in previous years, our committee members reviewed an outstanding selection of books and music for the 2005 Borders Original Voices awards," said Mike Spinozzi, executive vice president and chief product officer of Borders Group, Inc. "Each of the winning titles highlights the amazing new and emerging talent in the publishing and music industries and each represents the best-of-the-best from this past year. We are proud to honor this musician and group of authors for their exceptional works."

The six nominees in each category were chosen by Borders store employees and corporate office employees and the winners were selected by a cross-functional panel of judges at the corporate office, who volunteered to read each book nominated and listen to each CD and serve in several group discussions on the nominated selections.

Throughout the year, the Borders Original Voices program features the works of more than 200 contemporary authors/illustrators and musicians from around the world in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, young adult, picture books, and music. The monthly program highlights innovative and ambitious new work from new and emerging talents, as well as works that represent a new direction for established authors and musicians. All featured titles receive special placement in Borders stores, and are also highlighted in the in-store magazine, "Borders This Month."

City will have own poet laureate
Literary community mounted effort after governor vetoed statewide position
BY CANDACE RENALLS
Duluth News Tribune

Denver, San Francisco and Grand Rapids, Mich., have poet laureates. Thirty-seven states also have one.

Minnesota doesn't have any of such prominence, but that will change in April when Duluth names a poet laureate.

"I'm very excited that the city I live in is taking this step,'' said Duluth resident Claire Kirch, who writes about regional works for Publishers Weekly, a publishers' trade journal.

Kirch said Duluth is known nationally as a hub of literary activity, including being home to several nationally known poets.

"It will make Duluth even more celebrated in the national literary community, a place where poetry is not just being written, it's being celebrated,'' she said of the poet laureate program.

Since last June, Kirch has been part of the poet laureate committee of Lake Superior Writers, a nonprofit organization. With program guidelines and initial funding in place, the committee is accepting poets' applications until March 1.

The poet laureate will be announced during a series of local literary events April 19-22 that include a visit by National Public Radio commentator Terry Gross.

The Duluth effort was spurred by Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto last spring of a state poet laureate program.

"While respectful and appreciative of the arts, I do not believe Minnesota needs an official state poet," Pawlenty wrote in his veto message. "We can benefit from the richness and the diversity of all the poets in Minnesota and recognize and embrace their work as merit and circumstances warrant."

Minnesota already has a state folklorist. And Pawlenty expressed concern that "this will lead to calls for similar positions. We could see requests for a state mime, interpretive dancer or potter. So, I draw the line here," he wrote.

The Duluth idea gained momentum when U.S. poet laureate Ted Kooser visited Duluth in August.

Jim Perlman, who owns Holy Cow! Press in Duluth, first approached fellow members of the Lake Superior Writers Board last June. Research led to a committee that met monthly and expanded to include members from area colleges, universities, bookstores and arts groups.

The 12-member group will choose a poet laureate to serve a two-year term. The post's mission will be to raise awareness and appreciation of poetry in the community through readings, appearances, workshops and other initiatives.

To qualify, poets must live in the Duluth area, be respected by their peers and have written one to three volumes of published poetry in the last 10 years.

"There's probably less than two dozen poets who would be eligible to apply,'' said Perlman, who has published poetry and other works for 28 years and has excused himself from selection discussions involving poets he has published. "This isn't an honor conferred on a poet. It's one that has to be applied for by the poets themselves.''

Applications rather than nominations are being used to ensure fairness and to make sure a poet really wants the honorary post, Kirch said.

Nationally known poets from Duluth whose names have come up include Barton Sutter, Connie Wanek, Louis Jenkins and Jim Johnson.

Sutter said he might be interested but would like more information.

"Duluth is a highly poetic place and a lot is going on,'' he said. "It makes some sense to me. I'm happy about almost anything that promotes the visibility of poetry.''

Wanek was flattered but said she didn't think she was in the same league as Sutter and Jenkins.

"I would feel very presumptuous applying for a post like that,'' she wrote in an e-mail response to questions. "Not to mention... I'm one of Garrison Keillor's shy people, and not even Powdermilk Biscuits can give me the courage to be comfortable in a very public setting.''

Jenkins said he's not likely to apply.

"I don't think poets belong in official positions,'' he said. "It may compromise your independence as a poet and that's one of the few things you have.''

While he is critical of government-sponsored poet laureate programs, Jenkins felt better about Duluth's.

"It seems to be a grass-roots movement,'' he noted.

For poets, the post could popularize their work and mean greater book sales as well as be an honor, Perlman said. A $2,000 honorarium was raised in part by a grant from the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation.

"It's an honor to be the first poet laureate in a city in Minnesota,'' Perlman said. "It would be quite an accomplishment to be chosen by one's community.''

Duluth poet laureate

Applications for Duluth's first poet laureate will be accepted by Lake Superior Writers until March 1. The poet will be announced during literary events slated for April 19-22. For more information, visit www.lakesuperiorwriters.org, call 218-722-3094 or write to Lake Superior Writers, Poet Laureate Application, 1301 Rice Lake Road, Suite 132, Duluth, MN 55811.

Qualifications:

• Must be a legal resident of Minnesota and have lived in the Duluth, Hermantown and Proctor area for at least five of the past 10 years.

• Within the past 10 years, must have written at least one published volume of poetry of 48 pages or more or published at least three poetry volumes of 16 pages or more. Self-published and vanity publications are not accepted.

• Has been recognized by peers in the literary community as having made a significant contribution.

• Possesses a willingness and ability to fulfill poet laureate duties.


St. Paul Pioneer Press | 01/10/2006 | City will have own poet laureate

The 50 Top-Selling Books of 2005

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Rowling, J.K. (Arthur A. Levine Books, 0439784549, 7/1/2005, $29.99)

2. A Million Little Pieces, Frey, James, (Anchor Books, 0307276902, 9/1/2005, $14.95)

3. The Kite Runner, Hosseini, Khaled, (Riverhead, 1594480001, 4/1/2004, $14.00)

4. 1776, McCullough, David, (Simon & Schuster, 0743226712, 5/1/2005, $32.00)

5. The Da Vinci Code, Brown, Dan, (Doubleday, 0385504209, 3/1/2003, $24.95)

6. The World Is Flat, Friedman, Thomas L. (Farrar Straus Giroux, 0374292884, 4/1/2005, $27.50)

7. The Purpose-Driven Life, Warren, Rick, (Zondervan, 0310205719, 10/1/2002, $19.99)

8. Angels & Demons, Brown, Dan, (Pocket Star, 0671027360, 7/1/2001, $7.99)

9. You: The Owner's Manual, Oz, Mehmet, (HarperCollins, 0060765313, 5/1/2005, $24.95)

10. Eldest, Paolini, Christopher, (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 037582670X, 8/1/2005, $21.00)

11. The Broker, Grisham, John, (Doubleday, 0385510454, 1/1/2005, $27.95)

12. Your Best Life Now, Osteen, Joel, (Warner Faith, 0446532754, 10/1/2004, $19.99)

13. Blink, Gladwell, Malcolm, (Little, Brown, 0316172324, 1/1/2005, $25.95)

14. Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About, Trudeau, Kevin, (Alliance Publishing, 0975599518, 6/1/2005, $29.95)

15. Freakonomics, Levitt, Steven D. (William Morrow, 006073132X, 5/1/2005, $25.95)

16. The Secret Life of Bees, Kidd, Sue Monk, (Penguin, 0142001740, 1/1/2003, $14.00)

17. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Haddon, Mark, (Vintage, 1400032717, 5/1/2004, $12.95)

18. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Brashares, Ann, (Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers, 0385730586, 3/1/2003, $8.95)

19. The Broker, Grisham, John, (Dell, 0440241588, 11/1/2005, $7.99)

20. French Women Don't Get Fat, Guiliano, Mireille, (Knopf, 1400042127, 12/1/2004, $22.00)

21. Wicked, Maguire, Gregory, (ReganBooks, 0060987103, 12/1/2000, $15.00)

22. True Believer, Sparks, Nicholas, (Warner Books, 0446532436, 4/1/2005, $24.95)

23. The Mermaid Chair, Kidd, Sue Monk, (Viking, 0670033944, 4/1/2005, $24.95)

24. Black Rose, Roberts, Nora, (Jove, 0515138657, 6/1/2005, $7.99)

25. The Penultimate Peril, Snicket, Lemony, (HarperCollins, 0064410153, 10/1/2005, $11.99)

26. The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis, C.S. (HarperCollins, 0066238501, 10/1/2001, $19.99)

27. Mary, Mary, Patterson, James, (Little, Brown, 031615976X, 11/1/2005, $27.95)

28. The Historian, Kostova, Elizabeth, (Little, Brown, 0316011770, 6/1/2005, $25.95)

29. Girls In Pants, Brashares, Ann, (Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers, 0385729359, 1/1/2005, $16.95)

30. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood of Traveling Pants, Brashares, Ann, (Delacorte Press, 0385731051, 12/1/2004, $8.95)

31. My Sister's Keeper, Picoult, Jodi, (Washington Square Press, 0743454537, 2/1/2005, $14.00)

32. Red Lily, Roberts, Nora, (Jove, 0515139408, 12/1/2005, $7.99)

33. The Last Juror, Grisham, John, (Dell, 044024157X, 12/1/2004, $7.99)

34. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Rowling, J.K. (Scholastic, 0439358078, 8/1/2004, $9.99)

35. The Five People You Meet In Heaven, Albom, Mitch, (Hyperion, 0786868716, 9/1/2003, $19.95)

36. At First Sight, Sparks, Nicholas, (Warner Books, 0446532428, 10/1/2005, $24.95)

37. Eragon, Paolini, Christopher, (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 0375826696, 4/1/2005, $9.95)

38. Deception Point, Brown, Dan, (Pocket Books, 0671027387, 12/1/2002, $7.99)

39. He's Just Not That Into You, T, Behrendt, Greg and Tuccillo, Liz (Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 068987474X, 9/1/2004, $21.95)

40. Rachael Ray's 365, Ray, Rachael, (Clarkson Potter, 1400082544, 10/1/2005, $19.95)

41. Honeymoon, Patterson, James, (Little, Brown, 0316710628, 2/1/2005, $27.95)

42. The Tipping Point, Gladwell, Malcolm, (Back Bay Books, 0316346624, 1/1/2002, $14.95)

43. 4th of July, Patterson, James, (Little, Brown, 0316710601, 5/1/2005, $27.95)

44. Why Do Men Have Nipples?, Leyner, Mark, (Three Rivers Press, 1400082315, 7/1/2005, $13.95)

45. Teacher Man, McCourt, Frank, (Scribner, 0743243773, 11/1/2005, $26.00)

46. Team of Rivals, Goodwin, Doris, Kearns, (Simon & Schuster, 0684824906, 10/1/2005, $35.00)

47. Our Endangered Values, Carter, Jimmy, (Simon & Schuster, 0743284577, 10/1/2005, $25.00)

48. Trace, Cornwell, Patricia D. (Berkley, 0425204200, 6/1/2005, $7.99)

49. Bad Cat, Edgar, Jim, (Workman, 0761136193, 10/1/2004, $9.95)

50. Predator, Cornwell, Patricia, (Putnam, 0399152830, 11/1/2005, $26.95)


The Biggest of 2005: The 200 Bestselling Books of the Year: "The 50 Top-Selling Books of 2005"

Publishers toss Booker winners into the reject pile
Jonathan Calvert and Will Iredale

THEY can’t judge a book without its cover. Publishers and agents have rejected two Booker prize-winning novels submitted as works by aspiring authors.
One of the books considered unworthy by the publishing industry was by V S Naipaul, one of Britain’s greatest living writers, who won the Nobel prize for literature.

The exercise by The Sunday Times draws attention to concerns that the industry has become incapable of spotting genuine literary talent.

Typed manuscripts of the opening chapters of Naipaul’s In a Free State and a second novel, Holiday, by Stanley Middleton, were sent to 20 publishers and agents.

None appears to have recognised them as Booker prizewinners from the 1970s that were lauded as British novel writing at its best. Of the 21 replies, all but one were rejections.

Only Barbara Levy, a London literary agent, expressed an interest, and that was for Middleton’s novel.

She was unimpressed by Naipaul’s book. She wrote: “We . . . thought it was quite original. In the end though I’m afraid we just weren’t quite enthusiastic enough to be able to offer to take things further.”

The rejections for Middleton’s book came from major publishing houses such as Bloomsbury and Time Warner as well as well-known agents such as Christopher Little, who discovered J K Rowling.

The major literary agencies PFD, Blake Friedmann and Lucas Alexander Whitley all turned down V S Naipaul’s book, which has received only a handful of replies.

Critics say the publishing industry has become obsessed with celebrity authors and “bright marketable young things” at the expense of serious writers.

Most large publishers no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts from first-time authors, leaving the literary agencies to discover new talent.

Many of the agencies find it hard to cope with the volume of submissions. One said last week that she receives up to 50 manuscripts a day, but takes on a maximum of only six new writers a year.

Last week, leading literary figures expressed surprise that Naipaul, in particular, had not been talent spotted. Doris Lessing, the author who was once rejected by her own publishers when she submitted a novel under a pseudonym, said: “I’m astounded as Naipaul is an absolutely wonderful writer.”

Andrew Motion, the poet laureate, who teaches creative writing, said: “It is surprising that the people who read it (Naipaul’s book) didn’t recognise it. He is certainly up there as one of our greatest living writers.”

While arguing that the best books would still always find a publisher, he added: “We need to keep the publishers on their toes as good books are as rare as hens’ teeth.”

Middleton, 86, whose books have a devoted following, wasn’t surprised. “People don’t seem to know what a good novel is nowadays,” he said. Naipaul, 73, said the “world had moved on” since he wrote the novel. He added: “To see that something is well written and appetisingly written takes a lot of talent and there is not a great deal of that around.”

“With all the other forms of entertainment today there are very few people around who would understand what a good paragraph is.”



Publishers toss Booker winners into the reject pile - Sunday Times - Times Online

Ali Smith's 'Accidental' Wins Whitbread Award

Associated Press
Wednesday, January 4, 2006

LONDON, Jan. 3 -- Scottish writer Ali Smith's "The Accidental" has been named novel of the year by Britain's prestigious Whitbread Book Awards.

Smith -- best known as a short-story writer -- won the best novel category Tuesday for her first full-length novel, the tale of an enigmatic young woman who disturbs a family's uneventful holiday in an English town.

Finalists included Nick Hornby's "A Long Way Down" and Salman Rushdie's "Shalimar the Clown."

The panel of judges described the book as "a glorious work of fiction that inspired both laughter and sadness and that none of us could stop reading."

Smith, 43, said it was "as great a surprise to have reached its final list as it was to be listed at all, especially on such a tough and wide-ranging shortlist and in a year when there's been such strong fiction."

"I still can't quite believe it. I've been very lucky," said Smith, who has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

The Whitbread prizes are awarded in five categories -- novel, first novel, poetry, biography and children's book. Each category winner receives $8,700. One of the five will receive the $43,000 Whitbread Book of the Year Award on Jan. 24.

The first-novel award went to Tash Aw for "The Harmony Silk Factory," set in his native Malaysia in the 1930s and '40s. Christopher Logue won the poetry category for "Cold Calls," a modern reworking of Homer's "Iliad." Hilary Spurling took the biography prize for "Matisse the Master," while Kate Thompson's "The New Policeman" won the children's book award.

The British retail and leisure group Whitbread Group PLC announced last year that it would no longer sponsor the prizes, which were founded in 1971 and are open to residents of Britain and the Republic of Ireland. A search is underway for a new backer.

Ali Smith's 'Accidental' Wins Whitbread Award

2nd Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival

January 20-22, 2006

Old School Square, 51 North Swinton Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33444

Couple of comments: This year the Poetry Festival was fortunate to get Susan Mitchell to do a reading. I took a class with her at FAU a few years ago and she is brilliant and so very interesting, I'm sure her reading will be fabulous. And returning this year is Sharon Olds - I was thrilled to get to see her last year and she is funny and passionate and a pleasure to listen to. There are many other incredibly talented poets as well, I highly recommend attending as many of the readings as possible.

Schedule of Events:

Friday January 20, 2006 Crest Theatre (Book Signings: Ocean Breeze Room)

1:15-2:30 PM Laure-Anne Bosselaar and Kurt Brown Read; followed by book signings
Introduced by Myra Shapiro

Laure-Anne Bosselaar grew up in Belgium, where her first language was Flemish. She is the author of a book of poems in French, Artemis (1973), and two collections of poems in English from BOA Editions: The Hour Between Dog and Wolf (1997) and Small Gods of Grief (2001), which won the Isabela Gardner Award. She is also editor of three anthologies, Outsiders: Poems about Rebels, Exiles and Renegades (Milkweed Editions, 1999); Urban Nature: Poems about Nature in the City (Milkweed Editions, 2000), and Never Before: Poems about First Experiences (Four Way Books, 2005). With her husband, Kurt Brown, she co-edited the anthology Night Out: Poems about Hotels, Motels, Restaurants and Bars (1997), also from Milkweed Editions. She teaches poetry workshops at Sarah Lawrence College.

Kurt Brown is the author of five chapbooks: The Lance & Rita Poems, which won the Sound Post Press competition in Columbia, Missouri (1994); Recension of the Biblical Watchdog, which won the Anamnesis Poetry Chapbook Competition (1997); A Voice in the Garden: Poems of Sandor Tádjèck published by Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center (1998); Mammal News, Pudding House Press (2000); and Fables from the Ark, which won the Woodland Press Poetry Chapbook Competition (2002). Two full-length collections of poems, Return of the Prodigals, (1999) and More Things in Heaven and Earth (2002) were published by Four Way Books. He teaches a graduate poetry workshop at Sarah Lawrence and is the founding director of the Aspen Writers’ Conference and Writers’ Conferences & Centers (a national association of directors.) His poems have appeared in many literary journals and he has edited numerous poetry anthologies.

8:00-10:00 PM Marilyn Nelson and Thomas Lux Read followed by book signings.
Introduced by Denise Duhamel

Marilyn Nelson Named Poet Laureate of Connecticut in 2001, her books include Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem (2004), a Coretta Scott King Honor Book, and Carver: A Life in Poems (2001), a Coretta Scott King Honor Book, a National Book Award finalist, and a Newbery Honor Book; A Wreath for Emmett Till (2005); The Cachoiera Tales and Other Poems (2005); The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems (1997) a Poet’s Prize winner, a Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize finalist, a National Book Award finalist, and a PEN Winship Award winner; Magnificat: Poems (1994); The Homeplace (1990), an Annisfield-Wolf Award winner and a National Book Award finalist; Mama's Promises (1985), and For the Body (1978). Since September 2004 she is Emeritus Professor at the University of Connecticut and director of Soul Mountain Retreat, a writers' colony. Other honors include two Pushcart prizes, two creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship, the 1990 Connecticut Arts Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Thomas Lux holds The Bourne Chair in Poetry and directs the McEver Visiting Writers Program at Georgia Tech. in Atlanta. His books of poetry include The Cradle Place (Houghton Mifflin, 2004); The Street of Clocks, (2001); New and Selected Poems, 1975-1995, (1997), a finalist for the 1998 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; The Blind Swimmer: Selected Early Poems, 1970-1975, (1996); Split Horizon, (1994), winner of the Kingsley-Tufts Poetry Award. His distinguished teaching career includes twenty-seven years on the writing faculty and Director of the MFA Program in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence. Lux has taught poetry writing at Emerson, Warren Wilson, and many other universities. He has been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award in Poetry and has received three National Endowment for the Arts grants and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Saturday January 21, 2006 Crest Theatre (Book Signings: Ocean Breeze Room)

1:30-2:30 PM Laure-Anne Bosselaar Craft Discussion: The End…. right? Right!

There are countless ways to end poems, and yet the great majority of endings do one of two things: greatly contract the focus of the poem, or expand it wider than any first time reader could anticipate. By taking a close look at some poems we’ll discover how the use of imagery, line-breaks, focus, leaps, surprises and other “tricks” lead to their satisfactory conclusions. This will be an inter-active workshop: participation in the discussion is most welcome.

2:45-3:45 PM Kurt Brown Craft Discussion: Restraint in Poetry

The word ‘restraint’ may suggest many things: humility, decorum, tact, breeding and good taste, as well as moral, political, or ethical discretion, but I mean to infer none of those social graces—except, perhaps, tangentially. Instead, I will deal only with matters of craft and aesthetic restraint in poetry—those formal, thematic, conceptual, and emotional checks on passion and self-indulgence that can overburden the reader and sink a poem.”

4:00-5:30 PM Readings by Campbell McGrath and Susan Mitchell
Introduced by Nick Carbo

Campbell McGrath is the author of six full-length collections: Capitalism, American Noise, Spring Comes to Chicago, Road Atlas, Florida Poems and Pax Atomica. He has received numerous awards, including a MacArthur Genius award, the Kingsley Tufts Prize, the Cohen Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Witter-Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress. McGrath lives in Miami Beach with his wife and two sons and teaches in the M.F.A. program at Florida International University.

Susan Mitchell is a poet, essayist, and translator who has won many awards, including fellowships from the NEA, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Lannan Foundation. She is the author of three books of poems, including Erotikon and Rapture, which won the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Her poems have been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The American Poetry Review, The Paris Review, the New Republic, Poetry London, and The Yale Review, as well as in five volumes of the Best American Poetry annual anthologies and the Best of the Best American Poetry. She lives in Boca Raton, and teaches in the MFA Writing Program at Florida Atlantic University.

7:30-9:30 PM Readings by Jane Hirshfield and Tony Hoagland
Introduced by Barbara Hamby

Jane Hirshfield is the author of six collections, including After (HarperCollins, Jan 2006), Given Sugar, Given Salt (finalist, 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award, winner of the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award), The Lives of the Heart, and The October Palace, as well as a book of essays, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry. She also edited and co-translated The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Komachi & Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan, Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, and Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems. Other honors include The Poetry Center Book Award; fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Academy of American Poets. In 2004, she was awarded the 70th Academy Fellowship for distinguished poetic achievement by The Academy of American Poets. She has been a visiting professor at UC Berkeley and elsewhere and a member of the Bennington College MFA faculty.

Tony Hoagland has published three collections of poetry: Sweet Ruin (a winner of the Brittingham Prize), from the University of Wisconsin Press, Donkey Gospel (a winner of the James Laughlin second book award), and What Narcissism Means To Me, (2003). He is the 2005 recipient of the Mark Twain Award for his contributions to humor in American Poetry, and has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment on the Arts, and the Academy of Arts and Letters. His poems and essays about poetry have appeared widely. He currently teaches in the graduate writing program of the University of Houston and in the Warren Wilson MFA program.

9:30-11:30 PM Poetry Café in the Vintage Gymnasium

Join us for coffee, cordials, desserts and a raucous fun-filled slam competition between festival poets and local Delray Beach Poets. Bring a poem to read at the open microphone. $5 admission at the door.

Sunday January 22, 2006 Crest Theatre (Book Signings: Ocean Breeze Room)

1:15-5:00 PM High School Contest Awards Ceremony followed by Open Microphone

Awards Ceremony: The Palm Beach Poetry Festival has sponsored a county-wide poetry contest open to high school students enrolled in public and private high schools throughout Palm Beach County. Dr. Jeff Morgan, Chair of the Department of English at Lynn University, judged the contest. A winner and four runners up have been chosen. Join us for the presentation of their awards, prizes and for their readings that will kick off the open microphone session.


Open Microphone: Workshop participants and others who hold tickets to attend this event are invited to read a poem, not to exceed thirty lines. Due to the popularity of this event, we must strictly enforce the limitation on the length of the poem. Ticket holders who wish to read must place their names in the box provided near the door. Workshop participants names will be entered by staff for each workshop. We will draw names randomly and will proceed so long as time permits.

7:00-9:00 PM Readings by Sharon Olds and Galway Kinnell
Introduced by David Kirby

Sharon Olds former Poet Laureate of New York State, was born in San Francisco in 1942. She studied at Stanford University and received a master's degree from Columbia University. Her numerous honors include a National Endowment for the Arts grant; a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship; the San Francisco Poetry Center Award for her first collection, Satan Says, (1980); and the Lamont Poetry Selection and the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Dead & the Living, (1983). Her other books of poetry, all published by Alfred A. Knopf are Strike Sparks (2004); The Unswept Room, (2002); Blood, Tin, Straw, (1999); The Gold Cell, (1997); The Wellspring, (1995): and The Father (1992). Her poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Ploughshares and many other literary journals. She teaches poetry workshops in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at New York University and was one of the founders of the NYU workshop program at Goldwater Hospital on Roosevelt Island in New York.

Ms. Olds was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2004.

Galway Kinnell was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1927. He studied at Princeton University and the University of Rochester. His volumes of poetry include A New Selected Poems (Houghton Mifflin, 2000), a finalist for the National Book Award; Imperfect Thirst (1996); When One Has Lived a Long Time Alone (1990); Selected Poems (1980), for which he received both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; Mortal Acts, Mortal Words (1980); The Book of Nightmares (1971); Body Rags (1968); Flower Herding on Mount Monadnock (1964); and What a Kingdom It Was (1960). He has also published translations of works by Yves Bonnefoy, Yvan Goll, François Villon, and Rainer Maria Rilke. He retired this year as the Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Creative Writing at New York University and is currently a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

The Barnes & Noble Palm Beach Poetry Festival Bookstore is located in the Ocean Breeze Room
and is open for business during the following hours:
Friday, January 21: 1:00-10:00 pm
Saturday, January 22: 1:30-9:30 pm
Sunday, January 23: 1:00-9:00 pm

Festival Pass Tickets admit one to readings, craft discussions, high school awards & open microphone and you SAVE up to $140 compared to individual event prices!

Reserved Seating (orchestra center) $85
General Admission (orchestra side & balcony) $75
General Admission Discount $60
Discount applies to seniors (65+), full-time college & high school students with ID, and groups (10 or more)

Individual Event Prices per Event
Reserved Seating (orchestra center)
Readings: $25 afternoon / $35 evening
Craft Discussions: $25
High School Contest Awards & Open Mic $20
General Admission (orchestra side & balcony)
Readings: $20 afternoon / $30 evening
Craft Discussions: $20
High School Contest Awards & Open Mic $15
General Admission Discount*
Readings: $15 afternoon / $25 evening
Craft Discussions: $15
High School Contest Awards & Open Mic: $10
* For seniors (65+); full time college/high school students with ID; groups of 10 or more

'Magical' writing outshines the mundane

A non-fiction title about Chairman Mao was strangely compelling. But did anyone really read all the way through the novel that won the National Book Award? USA TODAY's book reviewers look at what they loved — or loved to hate — this year.

USA TODAY's book of the year

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. The ultimate test of any book is whether it will endure. Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking (Knopf, $23.95) will be read as long as people look for ways to deal with the loss of a loved one. Written after the death of Didion's husband, fellow writer John Gregory Dunne, and the critical illness of their only child, the book is a poignant, candid and heartbreaking account of grief, loss and love. In a year of notable non-fiction and several outstanding novels, it stands out above all other books.

And the rest of the top 10...

2. The March by E.L. Doctorow

3. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

4. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman

5. The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt

6. The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq by George Packer

7. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

8. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

9. French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano

10. The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt'sDarkest Journey by Candice Millard

Best book by a celebrity

My Life So Far by Jane Fonda. Well-crafted, thorough, suitably regretful about that trip to Vietnam and her lack of parenting skills as a young mother. Tantalizing without being tawdry.

Worst book by a celebrity

Goldie: A Lotus Grows in the Mud by Goldie Hawn. Tame, tiresome and self-congratulatory, a tell-nothing that makes little mention of her divorce from Bill Hudson, glosses over her relationship with Kurt Russell and repeatedly salutes her own achievements.

Best book for kids not yet ready for Harry Potter

Leonardo, the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems. A picture book with simple drawings about a lonely boy who scares easily and a monster who can't scare anyone.

Best example of fair and balanced reporting

Sorry, Fox News, but the award goes to John Harris' The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House, the best book yet on the president and the person, his successes and failures, impressive talents and equally notable flaws.

Best proof that comic books aren't just for kids anymore

Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Andy Kubert. An exotically beautiful graphic novel, out in paperback, set in the England of Queen Elizabeth I and starring variations of the X-Men, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four.

Best unmasking of a historical monster

Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. The authors write that the Chairman was responsible for killing more than 70 million of his fellow citizens. And that was in peacetime.

Best second act

A decade after Wicked, which imagined a misunderstood, not-so-wicked Witch of the West, Gregory Maguire revisited Oz in his equally imaginative Son of a Witch.

Most disappointing second act

Two years after her debut best seller, The Devil Wears Prada, Lauren Weisberger's Everyone Worth Knowing was really not worth knowing at all.

Most overstated title

A tie between Bill Press' How the Republicans Stole Christmas and Bernard Goldberg's 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken Is #37)

Biggest disappointment

Bob Woodward's The Secret Man, which revealed few secrets about the man who was Deep Throat, Woodward's key source during the Watergate scandal.

Most dubious best seller

Kevin Trudeau's Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About, best-selling health advice for readers afflicted with conspiracy theories.

Most overrated novel

William Vollmann's Europe Central. Upon receiving the National Book Award for fiction, Vollmann said of his 800-page opus of intertwined stories about World War II: "I'm very happy it's over, and I don't have to think about it anymore." So are we (and we didn't get past page 200).

Book most in need of an editor

Until I Find You, the seemingly endless 820-page novel by John Irving. Even the subplots had subplots.

Best whodunit

Michael Connelly's The Lincoln Lawyer. Best known for his L.A. cop dramas, Connelly has written his first legal thriller, and it's one heck of a ride.

Best reminder that history could have turned out differently

David McCullough's 1776, page-turning history about how close Americans came to losing the American Revolution.

Best barroom reading

J.R. Moehringer's The Tender Bar, a bittersweet memoir about coming of age in a barroom full of surrogate fathers.

Most scurrilous book

Ed Klein's The Truth About Hillary, an unflattering portrait of Sen. Clinton that relied so heavily on anonymous sources that even political conservatives, no fans of Hillary, questioned its value.

Best title not printable in a family newspaper

On Bull ————by Harry G. Frankfurt, a Princeton philosophy professor, who, in his 67-page best seller, argues that bull ———— is more dangerous than lying.

Biggest (literally) best seller

The Complete Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. It weighs in at 23 pounds and has every cartoon (all 3,160) in the series.

Goodbye and hello

Light from Heaven, ninth and last in Jan Karon's popular Mitford series, came out in November. Not to worry, Mitford maniacs: The Father Tim novels launch in fall 2007.




USATODAY.com - 'Magical' writing outshines the mundane

Put your title to the test

Want to know if you’ve got a killer title for your novel? Now, for the first time in literary history, you can put your title to the scientific test – and find out whether it has what it takes for bestseller success.

The Lulu TitleScorer has been developed exclusively for Lulu by statisticians who studied the titles of 50 years’ worth of top bestsellers and identified which title attributes separated the bestsellers from the rest.

They commissioned a research team to analyse the title of every novel to have topped the hardback fiction section of the New York Times Bestseller List during the half-century from 1955 to 2004 and then compare them with the titles of a control group of less successful novels by the same authors.

The team, lead by British statistician, Dr Atai Winkler, then used the data gathered from a total of some 700 titles to create this “Lulu TitleScorer”: a program able to predict the chances that any given title would produce a New York Times No. 1 bestseller.


Lulu Book Title Analyzer

I ADMIT IT - I'M A RACHAEL RAY FAN!

I don't watch much TV but it's always on, and usually on the Food Network. I really enjoy Rachael Ray's Thirty Minute Meals, and she has a line of cookbooks to go along with the show. I got to play with two of them: Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Get Real Meals: Eat Healthy Without Going to Extremes and her latest, Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats--A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners (A 30-Minute Meal Cookbook).


Lots of great recipes - but I must admit, while I really believe Rachael can get these done in thirty minutes, I usually can't. I don't chop as fast as she does, and her ingredients are always right in the front of the pantry or refrigerator - I can spent ten minutes looking for the fresh Italian parsley that somehow got buried in the produce crisper drawer. But even if it takes me a little longer, I don't mind because they really are easy, and always delicious.

And I'm not the only one in my house who's a fan - my husband is enamored of Ms. Ray. So when I heard she would be signing books at the Barnes & Noble store in Wellington, Florida, we made arrangements to go. Of course, that didn't turn out as easy as I thought it would be. I understand that Rachael is a big star but I've been to a lot of book signings and have rarely run across this many rules and restrictions. I blame B&N for part of it, they blamed the publicist, and either way there were a lot of angry people left outside. Let me backtrack...

The signing was scheduled for 6:00 pm. Rachael had another signing earlier in the day across town, and the day before, and so forth, so I'm sure she must have been exhausted. I called the store around 1:15 and spoke to a bookseller I knew from my Borders days. She told me to get my butt up there, that there were already about 50 people lined up. The publicist dictated no more than 225 people were to have books signed, not an unreasonable number.

B&N decided to start giving out wristbands to the first 225 people in line at 3:00. Not 6:00 as advertised. Although to be fair, apparently in their ad in the local newspaper there was some fine print about the 3:00 time, but most people did not know about it, including some that had been in the store early in the morning purchasing several copies of Rachael's cookbooks to be signed later in the day. They were not informed about the 3:00 wristband thing and they were angry. They were also not informed that she would only sign 3 books per person, and only the three books that had been released by her new publisher - her older cookbooks from her previous publisher could not be signed.

I tried to pull some strings and have my friend secure me a wristband, but nothing doing - I was told that no staff members could reserve places for friends, and that even staff were not guaranteed they would get their books signed. So I headed up there, figured I'd get my wristband, head back home, pick up my daughter from school, get my husband, and go back to get the books signed. But after waiting in line for an hour and a half for my wristband, I saw all the people that had been waiting ahead of me were now lined up outside the store. The wristbands were not numbered so another line was necessary. Well, actually they were numbered but they weren't using the numbers. And imprinted on the wristband was an ominous warning that having one didn't guarantee anything.

There were some lovely employees working that day

I got in the new line, called a friend to pick up my daughter, called my husband so he could leave work early, and they met up with me a couple of hours later. I met some lovely people in line, two teachers from NY, a canine cop (well, the human half of the partnership) and some old Borders friends who had jumped ship to B&N. After waiting for half an hour outside, B&N employees realized that there were people waiting in the line who didn't have wristbands and they threw them out. Then they let the rest of us into the store to wait.

A few friends tried to get in around 4, but were turned away at the door. They let in anyone who said they just wanted to shop, and my friend JP managed a glimpse of Rachael for his trouble. Bev said she couldn't get near the mysteries because of the line - it snaked up and down most of the rows of books, making shopping an impossibility except for the strongest willed reader.

When Rachael finally appeared, the crowd let out a roar, there were people screaming "I love you Rachael!" and general madness ensued. Protected only by a handful of booksellers, it had to be a little scary for her to run the gauntlet across the store to where they had a table set up for her signing. Most people behaved, but there were a few incidents, including some booksellers who were threatened with physical violence. One confided that perhaps a real security force might have been more appropriate than just some very non-threatening booksellers.

After waiting for five hours, we finally approached the front part of the line, nirvana, where an overtaxed, overwhelmed B&N employee informed me that I was only allowed to bring one person with me. My husband immediately banished our 13 year old daughter , who acted very nonchalant about the whole thing, but I was annoyed. I told the woman that I had spoken to Lauren (the B&N community relations person running this nightmare) and that she had said it was okay. Defeated, she let the three of us through. By the way, I lied - I spoke to Lauren but not about that. The things mothers will do for their children. Yech.

As we got closer to the promised land, we were informed that only staff members were allowed to take photos - they would use our camera and take one picture. No posed shots. No one allowed behind the table with Rachael - they had to lean in across the table while Rachael signed their book. She would only personalize her newest cookbook, and just sign the other approved titles.

Ahead of us in line was a woman with her young daughter. Paige was probably about 9 years old. She clutched an obviously well used but unapproved-for-signing Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals for Kids: Cooking Rocks! cookbook and chattered excitedly about Rachael. When it was finally her turn, Rachael invited her behind the table, explained who Isaboo is (her new puppy) and to her credit, not only looked through the cookbook with the little girl, she signed it, personalized it "Paige Rocks!" and made that little girl feel very special, and very happy. It was lovely to see after such a hectic afternoon.

Then it was our turn. My camera was confiscated, my husband and daughter told to lean in, and a bad photo snapped while Rachael signed our books. She never even picked up her head. We were ushered away immediately - my five hours in line garned us thirty seconds in the presence of Rachael Ray.

Was it worth it? For the smile on my husband's face, yes. And the cookbooks are ...definitely worth it - great stuff. I really like the new one, 365 No Repeats, which she says just about killed her, that is a lot of recipes! But it's really laid out well and they are easy to follow. The cookbooks read like she talks - she's not real big on measuring so while there are measurements in there, there are also her comments - a palmful of this, E.V.O.O. (extra virgin olive oil) around the bowl four times, etc. Some favorites are Boo's Smoky Chicken Patties on Buttered Toast (I eliminate the toast though), Turkey Saltimbocca Roll-Ups, and my daughter's favorite, Honey Nut Chicken Sticks. From Get Real Meals we like Pork Loin Chops with Sweet & Hot Peppers, Chicken Cacciatore with Rigatoni, and we love the Portobella Pizzas. Fun, fast, easy and delicious!

Fiction Writer Reaches Readers by E-Mail
Eugene, Oregon
November 23, 2005

Bruce Holland Rogers, a multiple award-winning writer, has been taking his work directly to his readers for nearly four years. Three times a month, he sends new short-short stories by e-mail to over 600 paying subscribers in some 60 countries.

"Writers complain that conglomerate ownership of media makes it harder for anyone but the bestsellers to find an audience," Rogers says. "In fact, there has never been a better time for writers to build their audiences, starting small and gradually expanding."

The key to this literary distribution model is the Internet. Sending stories by e-mail costs very little, and sending a story to South Africa costs no more than sending it across town. Also essential, according to Rogers, is micro-payments. "An electronic payment service lets me process small subscription fees from other countries without bank fees for currency conversions." The service that Rogers uses is PayPal.

The subscription stories are very short, ranging from 200 words to two-thousand. Rogers believes that literary brevity suits the busy lives of his readers. "Anything longer, you wouldn't want to read as an e-mail," he says. Indeed, some readers find that they don't want to be reading for pleasure at the computer at all. "I enjoyed the stories," wrote one non-renewing subscriber, "but my inbox is choked." Another noted, "When I'm reading e-mail, I'm just not ready for fiction; it's a bit jarring."

Receiving entertaining e-mail at work can have other drawbacks. "With this one, you not only show your writing skills, you demonstrate that you are a comic genius," wrote one Seattle subscriber. "Good thing I moved into an office from a [cubicle]. If I laughed any louder, it would have hurt."

At five U.S. dollars a year, the subscriptions aren't going to allow Rogers to retire any time soon. "Short fiction doesn't pay very well in any case, so the money is something of a side issue," he admits. "The great thing about running this service is that I have direct contact with my readers. I still publish in traditional magazines and anthologies, but most of my fan mail comes from e-mail subscribers."

The service has doubled in each year of operation, so the money may not be a side issue forever. Most new subscribers join because of word-of-mouth recommendations from existing subscribers, or because they have been given gift subscriptions.

Over 600 subscribers now pay $5 a year for the stories. Sample stories by Bruce Holland Rogers can be found at http://www.shortshortshort.com. For more about Bruce Holland Rogers, see his web page at http://www.sff.net/people/bruce/.

Publishers Assess the Fall Season's Winners and Losers
By EDWARD WYATT

When Rodale Books signed Martha Stewart to a $2 million contract in the summer, it was betting that the queen of domesticity was back and as popular as ever, unstained by the stock-trading scandal that sent her to prison for five months.

It appears to have been a bad bet.

"The Martha Rules: 10 Essentials for Achieving Success as You Start, Build, or Manage a Business" has sold roughly 37,000 copies since its publication in early October, according to Nielsen BookScan. That's a major disappointment for a celebrity author like Ms. Stewart, and it leaves Rodale, which planned an initial printing of 500,000, with a financial loss on the book, at least so far.

Ms. Stewart's book is not the only one that has fallen short of publishers' expectations in 2005. Indeed, a look back at the fall publishing season, when publishers typically release their biggest books hoping to cash in on the holidays, reveals that the publishing industry is still struggling.

There are, of course, surprise best sellers: Joan Didion's "Year of Magical Thinking," published by Alfred A. Knopf, has sold more than 200,000 copies, according to the publisher, making it her best-selling book ever in hardcover. And "The Silver Spoon," a 1,200-page cookbook from Phaidon Press, a company better known for lavish books about art and architecture, is such a hit that some stores and online sellers are sold out of it until after Christmas.

Still, the Association of American Publishers reported last month that sales of adult hardcover books, sluggish for several years, have fallen by 2 percent so far this year. Similarly, the American Booksellers Association, a trade group representing bookstores, said that overall bookstore sales in the first nine months of 2005 declined 2 percent from a year ago.

Some much-anticipated novels have fallen short this fall. Salman Rushdie's "Shalimar the Clown" sold just 26,000 copies, according to BookScan, and "Wickett's Remedy," Myla Goldberg's follow-up to her heralded 2000 novel, "Bee Season," sold only 9,000.

BookScan records sales at bookstores, online booksellers and some mass merchandisers, which together typically account for 70 to 80 percent of a new hardcover's sales, meaning that actual sales of a new book are usually about one-third higher than the BookScan number. For books like "The Silver Spoon," which has sold thousands of copies through nontraditional outlets like cooking Web sites and specialty stores, sales could be double the BookScan number.

"If there's any theme to the year," said David Rosenthal, the publisher of Simon & Schuster's flagship imprint, "it's that people only want to read the truth." So while nonfiction sales are generally good, he said, fiction sales are best defined, in Mr. Rosenthal's usual plain-spoken manner, by an expletive.

This continues a trend that began at least four years ago, when, after 9/11, a large segment of readers seemed to give up on fiction, flocking instead to nonfiction works, first about 9/11 itself, then about Islam, the Middle East, Iraq and United States politics.

Two books that are selling well ahead of expectations this fall fit that mold: "Our Endangered Values," by Jimmy Carter, an assessment of the country's current political and religious debates, published by Simon & Schuster; and "A Man Without a Country," by Kurt Vonnegut, a series of essays leavened with the author's trademark humanist view, published by Seven Stories Press.

"Both of these men have a moral profile" that is helping their books, said Jim Harris, an owner of Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City. He added that the authors' "authoritative voices" have attracted buyers who do not place themselves at one political extreme or the other.

Mr. Carter's book has sold nearly all of the 310,000 copies in its initial printing, said Mr. Rosenthal of Simon & Schuster, and the company has since pushed the number in circulation to 675,000. Mr. Carter has had best-selling books before, most notably his 2001 memoir, "An Hour Before Daylight," which sold 300,000 hardcover copies.

Mr. Vonnegut, too, is no stranger to the best-seller lists, but he has more often arrived there with works of fiction. His latest book, his first best seller since the 1997 novel "Timequake," has sold nearly 100,000 copies, according to the publisher, and spent six weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. It is also the first entry on the Times list for Seven Stories Press, an independent publisher that in 2000 published a previous book of essays by Mr. Vonnegut, "God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian."

Gerry Donaghy, an inventory supervisor at Powell's Books in Portland, Ore., said Mr. Vonnegut's book had attracted buyers because, at a time when political dialogue is increasingly polarized, "he is not as strident as Michael Moore or Al Franken." Besides, Mr. Donaghy added, while many new hardcover books are priced as high as $35, Mr. Vonnegut's has a relatively low list price of $23.95, and "many people are buying multiple copies to give as gifts."

Publishing, it is said, is one of the few businesses where a company makes bigger headlines for how much money it spends than for how much money it takes in. Little, Brown & Company got a fair amount of press when it paid $2 million for "The Historian," the first novel by Elizabeth Kostova, which retells the Dracula legend. In this case, the wager seems to have paid off. Booksellers lined up to have Ms. Kostova sign their advance copies at Book Expo America, the industry's annual summer convention, and BookScan has recorded sales of more than 485,000 copies.

Another big surprise is a Civil War saga that weaves intimate portraits of historical figures with real-life events. It is not, however, E. L. Doctorow's much-anticipated novel, "The March," published by Random House. It is "The Widow of the South," the first novel by Robert Hicks, published by Warner Books. According to BookScan, each book has sold just over 100,000 copies.

Jamie Raab, the publisher of Warner Books, which like Little, Brown is part of the Time Warner Book Group, credits much of the success of both "Widow of the South" and "The Historian" to a series of dinners that the publishers arranged with booksellers around the country just as early copies of the books were being shipped to stores. Such early meetings between authors and bookstore representatives have become as important to a book's marketing as the traditional author tour and book signing after a book is released, Ms. Raab said.

Many booksellers might have welcomed a similar chance to meet Ms. Stewart, but consumers exhibited relatively little interest in her book on how to build a business.

"We only sold three copies, and we had it prominently displayed," said Greg Smith, a bookseller at Page One Bookstore in Albuquerque. "It's not that the book is not being promoted, but I don't think it's the kind of thing people associate with her."

"The Martha Rules" spent just one week on The Times's five-place advice, how-to and miscellaneous best-seller list before dropping off. But Liz Perl, the publisher of Rodale Books, said the company had an "innovative and comprehensive plan to market and promote the book through the holiday season and into next year."

Readers have not lost all of their appetite for Ms. Stewart, however. Mr. Smith said Ms. Stewart's latest cookbook, "Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook," published by Clarkson Potter, a unit of Random House Inc., was selling briskly.

Food critic Coren wins British bad sex award

Friday December 2, 2005
Guardian Unlimited

It was the shower hose that clinched it. A passage from his debut novel, Winkler, describing a male character's genitalia as "leaping around like a shower dropped in an empty bath" won the 13th annual Literary Review award for Bad Sex in Fiction for food-critic-turned-novelist Giles Coren last night.

Coren beat off heavyweight competition for the prize with an unpunctuated 138-word description of coitus, followed by the two-word sentence, "like Zorro". Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Paul Theroux and John Updike were among the 11 contenders for this year's prize, with Rushdie, Theroux and Updike all boasting previous nominations.

The prize was launched in 1993 by the late editor of the Literary Review, Auberon Waugh, in an attempt to "draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel". Winners of the award receive a statuette and a bottle of champagne - but only if they show up. While most do, last year's champion Tom Wolfe boycotted the ceremony, claiming that judges had failed to recognise the irony in a passage from his novel I Am Charlotte Simmons beginning "slither slither slither slither went the tongue".

Coren, however, seemed delighted with his win, and accepted his prize with aplomb from the Turner Prize-winning artist, Grayson Perry. Of the other shortlisted passages, he said "I wish I'd written them all."