Current Affairs

New Editor at LA Times Book Review

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Publisher’s Weekly reports that the LA Times has picked David L. Ulin to be the new editor of the Book Review.

Reached for comment, associate features editor Tim Rutten said the Times
had conducted a "very long and very exhaustive" search with about 25 serious
candidates. Rutten said the Times thought Ulin "had the right mix of
credentials" as a freelance book critic whose work has appeared in the book
review he will now edit along with NYTBR and The Atlantic Monthly.
He was also books editor at the weekly LA Reader.

"He has the kind of stature to take the book review to the next level," said
Rutten.

Let’s hope Ulin boots Eugen Weber and finds someone more qualified (and more readable!)  to review mysteries and crime novels.

I Was Wondering the Same Thing…

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William Triplett writes in Variety today:

Is there something in the right-wing water that’s
causing conservative commentators to cross the boundaries of taste and
propriety?

Within the past six weeks, Robert Novak swore and stomped
off the CNN set; Tucker Carlson smiled and praised a fatal police
attack on Greenpeace protesters; and Rush Limbaugh trashed a grieving
mother camped outside President Bush’s vacation ranch as a phony. And on Monday, Christian televangelist Pat
Robertson, on "The 700 Club," said the U.S. should assassinate the
president of Venezuela, touching off a firestorm of criticism and
objections.

When Pat Robertston starts talking like Tony Soprano, you have to wonder what has happened to the Christian Right…

The All-Important Rewrite

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Screenwriting class is in session over at Paul Guyot’s blog, where today he is talking about the importance of rewriting. Lots of aspiring screenwriters don’t give much thought… or effort…to rewriting. They focus all of their attention on having a killer opening. Mistake.

Nobody seems to want to learn to be a great writer anymore. They just want to
learn how to get paid to do it.

But what few seem to grasp is that you
seriously increase your chances of getting paid for it if you’re really good at
it. And one of the best ways to "get good" is to understand rewriting, and know
that when you think you’ve done all you can, you can still do more.

POD People

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The writing team that works under the bestselling nom-de-plume PJ Parrish is blogging today about self-publishing:

So why do I hate POD and SP so much? I hate the way they prey
on dreamers. I hate that they overinflate expectations. But what I really
hate is that they make it possible for people to think there are shortcuts,
ways of circumventing the craft, hard work and legitimate editorial process of
becoming a writer. Becoming…that’s the key word here folks. Like way
Tiger Woods became a great golfer. The way Renata Scotto
became a great soprano. The way your Uncle Morty becamea
doctor. Or the way your mom became a great cook.

Here is what set me off:

At a Mystery Writers of America meeting, a
woman asked, "Should I go POD?" I drew in a long breath so I wouldn’t start
screaming and spewing spittle. Then I asked her: "Do you want to publish a book
or do you want to have a career as a writer?" She looked at me like I was nuts
and said, "Well, the latter, of course!" So I told her: "Then do your homework,
learn the craft of writing, educate yourself about the market place and your
genre, submit your manuscript, get rejected, rewrite, rewrite again, throw out a
book and start over, do it all over again and again and again until you are a
legitimately published writer."

Wash, rinse and repeat. She walked away.
She didn’t want to hear it.

They never do.  Because that would require talent, dedication and hard work, which is a lot more effort than just writing a check.

Fans are a deadly “Cult”

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Variety reports that Rockne S. O’Bannon, creator of FARSCAPE and SEAQUEST, has sold a new pilot to the WB entitled CULT:

The two lead characters try to get to the bottom of a series of mysterious deaths and disappearances that may be linked to fans of a TV show called … "Cult."

The fictional "Cult" is a "very ‘Silence of the Lambs’/’Seven’-like thriller," O’Bannon said.

In addition to the usual die-hard Trekkie-like fan base, the fictional "Cult" also has "a whole other level of people watching and reaching out to each other. There’s a dangerous aspect to it."

Series leads will "try to figure out what this subculture is all about."

O’Bannon certainly knows a thing or two about "fandom."

Book Vending Machines

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Captpar10108191435 The French have developed a new twist on bookselling:  Book Vending Machines.  They are installed in busy metro stations and on some street corners.

"We have customers who know exactly what they want and come at all hours to get it," said Xavier Chambon, president of Maxi-Livres, a low-cost publisher and book store chain that debuted the vending machines in June. "It’s as if our stores were open 24 hours a day."

Stocked with 25 of Maxi-Livres best-selling titles, the machines cover the gamut of literary genres and tastes. Classics like "The Odyssey" by Homer and Carroll’s "Alice in Wonderland" share the limited shelf space with such practical must-haves as "100 Delicious Couscous" and "Verb Conjugations."

"Our biggest vending machine sellers are ‘The Wok Cookbook’ and a French-English dictionary," said Chambon, who added that poet Charles Baudelaire’s "Les Fleurs du Mal" — "The Flowers of Evil" — also is "very popular."

Regardless of whether they fall into the category of high culture or low, all books cost a modest $2.45.

(Thanks to Bill Rabkin for the tip)

The Untold Story

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I’m visiting my Mom in Palm Springs and read a terrific article in Vanity Fair in the bathroom. No, not the Jennifer Aniston interview, but a Michael Wolff column on the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plume’s identify to various journalists by Karl Rove. Wolff looks at the scandal from an entirely different perspective — that to tell one story, the press conspired to cover up a much, much bigger one.

While President Bush and Karl Rove were issuing denials that the White House blew Plume’s cover, TIME Magazine and the New York Times both knew it was a lie — and said nothing to protect the identify of their source in the original story.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but what they knew was something of such news value, of such moment, of such certain consequence that it might, reasonably,  have presaged the defeat of the President, might hafve even — only to be slightly melodramatic — altered the course of the war in Iraq. So possibly changed history, saved lives…hmmm.

Not only did highly placed members of the media and the vaunted news organizations they worked for know it, not only did they sit on what will not improbably be among hte bigges news stories of the Bush years, they helped cover it up…

Wolff argues there was no excuse for their actions, that the implications of the bigger story trumped the ethical issues of keeping the sources private for the smaller one.

As soon as it becomes clear that an event had occurred that, if exposed, might change the course of government, one which you, the gallant news organization have got the skinny one… you print the story.

How do you rationalize doing otherwise? To whom do you owe your greatest allegiance, source or readers? Again, the greatest news organizations in the land had a story about a potential crime that reached as close as you can get to the President himself and they punted, they swallowed it, they self-dealt.

It’s the most compelling take 0n the scandal I’ve heard yet…and curiously, one no one else seems to be talking about (at least not on the front pages. I’m sure Bill Rabkin, among others, will say this POV has been discussed in a number of opinion pieces…but I don’t read the Opinion section)

UPDATE:  Reporter Warren Olney had Wolfe, among others, on his KCRW radio show today to discuss the article and the questions it raises.

News Views Schmooze

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You might have noticed two blogs on my blogroll with the same title…News, Views and Schmooze.  One belongs to mystery novelist Rochelle Krich, the other to writer/producer Bryce Zabel. Both are well worth a visit each day. Today, Rochelle talks about the common practice of auctioning off character names in books.

I’ve participated in four charity auctions and have named several
characters after real people. The challenge, as a writer, is forgetting
that the characters are, in fact, based on real people.

At Left Coast Crime in Pasadena, a fan bid successfully to make his wife a character in Grave Endings.
When the book came out, he threw a surprise party for his wife, who
joined me in signing copies of the book that her husband gave each
guest.

Today, Bryce talks about his experience seeing a one-night-only staging of CAMELOT at the Hollywood Bowl.

The entire time I sat in those incredible seats, however, my mind
kept wandering away from the music (which was above average), away from
the story (which was below average), away from the staging (which was
less than the usual school play) to thoughts of how unique this night
was.  All these talented people, all this effort, all for one night.

Or, as Arthur would describe Camelot, and Jackie would describe her husband’s administration — "one brief, shining moment."

Where are the TV Themes?

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If you’ve bought any episodes of BONANZA on DVD, the first thing you’ll notice is that the show’s classic theme music is missing.  The same is true on some episodes of BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, ANDY GRIFFITH and THE LUCY SHOW, among others.

According to DVD Exclusive Magazine, that’s because some individual episodes of those series have inexplicably fallen into public domain — but the music has not. The companies who are issuing the cheapo DVDs don’t want to pay for the theme music and scores, so they change them… leaving buyers feeling confused and ripped off (Okay, this buyer).

Reel Media International, which holds 2,500 public domain,
or PD, films and TV episodes in its library, regularly hires composers to cook
up new theme songs for its DVD clients. 

"We’ll replace every bit of music–the front and the end, into the commercial
break–that way our clients aren’t going to have to pay," Reel Media president
Tom T. Moore said.