The New (Yorkers) Economy of Book Marketing

Check out this hi-sterical New Yorker magazine piece by Ellis Weiner on the current state of book marketing.

Shouts & Murmurs: Subject: Our Marketing Plan: newyorker.com

Book Industry Turns a Page

Check out this compelling discussion of the future of book publishing on NPR's Talk of the Nation. Guest is the Lit Brit Tina Brown.

So You Think You Can Act?

The perfect stocking stuffer for the drama queen in your life.

Just got an advance read of FINE ON ACTING: A Vision of the Craft by Hollywood acting teacher Howard Fine (with Chris Freeman and foreword by Michael Chiklis).

"Fine" is the operative word for this fantastic book. For all of you aspiring thespians, I can not recommend this book strongly enough. You should buy it, read it, and tape it to your head for the rest of your career.

Fine's students include the likes of Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Diana Ross, Simon Baker, Chris Pine, Jennifer Connelly, Justin Timberlake, Lindsay Lohan, and hundreds of others.

But he's no Ivory Tower guru. Fine's book is wonderfully readable. Although stuffed full of useful tool for the actors, it sometimes reads like a fantastic story. Consider that his family escaped the Nazis in a dazzling and daring escape from Europe to China - crossed Sibera and landed in the US. Or, that his best friend won the lottery which enabled them to get to Hollywood.

Simply perfection. Available nationwide and on Amazon.com from Havenhurst Books end of this month. If you want a sneak peak, Back Stage magazine will be running excerpts from FINE ON ACTING starting Oct. 29th.

You are Remembered

Happy Thanksgiving - 

I am grateful for our nation's men and women in uniform who serve so faithfully around the world and for their families who endure daily sacrifices.

Southern Comforts

If you haven't noticed,  our once unthinkably unshakeable economic foundation has turned to quicksand.  The holidays are coming and the weather is as inhospitable as Mr. Dow Jones.  

A little Southern Comfort is in order. No, not that kind. The literary variety.

Our friends from Tennessee know better than most how to spin a good yarn.  Although quite different personalities, these two TV favorites each have something to say about living, laughing and loving.

DIXIE CARTER 

Everyone's favorite Emmy Award nominated designing woman, Dixie Carter's 1996 memoir Trying to Get to Heaven: Opinions of a Tennessee Talker (Fireside) will warm your heart. It's one of the most precious and rewarding reads around. An instant bestseller the moment it hit shelves, Carter's homespun Southern grit and old-fashioned countrified wisdom will still carry you through the bleakest months ahead.  Set the book aside on December 20th to watch her in the Hallmark holiday movie Our First Christmas. 

Check out the video: Remember her great turn as the firebrand Julia Sugarbaker on the mega hit series Designing Women?

LESLIE JORDAN 

Leslie Jordan won an Emmy Award for his recurring role on Will & Grace and is one of America's most prolific character actors. Jordan's new book My Trip Down the Pink Carpet (Simon Spotlight, 2008) chronicles his precarious rise in Hollywood. It is a veritable minefield of candid revelations:  Addictions, personal demons, tattletale stories on his Tinsel town contemporaries and frank talk about being an out gay actor.   

Ms. Carter as steel magnolia Julia Sugarbaker in Designing Women:

Marketing is for Kids

Book Evangelist of the Day: Kevin Gerard

When San Diego author Kevin Gerard first introduced his fantastic fantasy series Conor and the Crossworlds in 2004, he knew he had something special. His readers, primarily composed of middle school kids, loved and related to the story of ten-year old Conor and his out-of-this-world adventures.

Now on this fifth book, Gerard has found a way to keep his core fans engaged and attract a whole new audience for the series. 

Besides his full-time job writing, Gerard teaches at Cal State University. As any good teacher understands, it is about students getting involved - participating.

A golden apple to Gerard who has devised an intricate and intriguing contest for his savvy readers. 

Drawing from the Five Keys of the Creators storyline found in the third book of the series, Gerard is launching a nationwide treasure hunt in January.

He's hidden the custom-designed Five Keys of the Creators across America and spreading the word on YouTube and beyond. 

The prizes are pretty epic.

Five lucky adventurers will win an Apple laptop computer, an iPod, signed copies of all five books and $500 bucks.  

You want to find them?  Start reading book three.

Kudos to Gerard who not only writes great stories, he brings them to life.

For more info on Gerard and the Conor and the Crossworlds series:  www.conorandthecrossworlds.com 

Things We Lost in the Fire

At dawn this morning, Christopher Lloyd wandered glassy-eyed through the smoldering cinders of what remains of his multimillion dollar home.  

The actor, best known for the Back to the Future movies, is one of 50,000 Southern Californians displaced by the fires that are raging from Santa Barbara to southeast of Los Angeles.  The flames have engulfed nearly 37,000 acres. 800 homes -from modest to mansion - have been destroyed without prejudice. 

On this fifth day of fires; soot and debris choke the Los Angeles skyline.  Ash swirls through the hot air, kicked up by the rush of traffic. It lands on cars like a cruel frost.

Lloyd lamented to ABC's Good Morning America that he had procrastinated on sorting and storing his Hollywood memorabilia.  
Now, he says, it doesn't matter anymore.

As he meanders through the ruins, Lloyd seems unsure of what to do with himself or where to turn.  He has, quite literally, lost his place.

Today, sort out what needs sorting out. Make amends where they are due. Start an adventure. Write something extraordinary and share it with the world. 

Time burns mercilessly.

We are all equal in the force of nature. 

Rain soaks. Wind pushes . Sun parches. Oceans rise and fall.

Fire, can even touch the stars.