Honestly, my Latin isn’t what it could be, so I don’t even know for certain that I’ve gotten it right, or right enough, but for author Nujood Ali, even a near-miss at an ancient proclamation of freedom through a book seems somehow fitting.  The book, I AM NUJOOD, AGED 10 AND DIVORCED, is her autobiography.

Hailed as “one of the greatest women” Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has ever seen, and honored in Glamour Magazine as one of 2008’s Women of the Year, Nujood diverted the course of her life, and perhaps the lives of more of her Yemeni sisters, in a covert dash to the local courthouse to demand a divorce from her abusive, molesting husband.  Husband.  Nujood was 10.

The book has gone on to translation in 18 languages, but it is the release of her story in her native Arabic that Nujood anticipates the most; the hope of where it could shake loose the most benefit.

It’s an honor to have simply run across the story of her bravery, with a nod to Patti Wiggington for drawing my attention that way.

Nicholas D. Kristof elaborates in The New York Times‘ op-ed section from this past Wednesday’s edition.

My Valentine’s Day guest-blogging column is now online over at Writer in Waiting. A taste:

Since the mid-1800s, Valentine’s cards have been big business in both England and America, and this commercialization of people’s most intimate feelings has spread to just about every other holiday, homogenizing most of our celebrations, both sacred and secular, to the point of cliché.

Read the whole piece here.

In honor of JD Salinger, The New Yorker is making all thirteen of his short stories they published available online.To access the digital archives at no charge, click here.

From their site:

J.D. Salinger has died. From 1946 to 1965, Salinger published thirteen stories in The New Yorker including such classics as “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters.” There will be much more to come online and in next week’s magazine, but for now, we are making all of his stories available to all readers through our digital edition:

“Slight Rebellion Off Madison” (December 21, 1946)

“A Perfect Day for Bannanafish” (January 31, 1948)

“Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut” (March 20, 1948)

“Just Before the War with the Eskimos” (June 5, 1948)

“The Laughing Man” (March 19, 1949)

“For Esmé—With Love and Squalor” (April 8, 1950)

“Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes” (July 14, 1951)

“Teddy” (January 31, 1953)

“Franny” (January 29, 1955)

“Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters” (November 19, 1955)

“Zooey” (May 4, 1957)

“Seymour: An Introduction” (June 6, 1959)

“Hapworth 16, 1924” (June 19, 1965)

J.D. Salinger Dies at 91: The Hermit Crab of American Letters (TIME)

Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger dies (CBC News)

‘Catcher in the Rye’ author JD Salinger dies (Washington Post)

JD Salinger, 91, Is Dead (NYTimes)

Catcher in the Rye novelist JD Salinger dies at 91 (BBC)

NEW YORK – J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose “The Catcher in the Rye” shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91.

Salinger died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday, the author’s son said in a statement from Salinger’s literary representative. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in the small, remote house in Cornish, N.H.

“The Catcher in the Rye,” with its immortal teenage protagonist, the twisted, rebellious Holden Caulfield, came out in 1951, a time of anxious, Cold War conformity and the dawn of modern adolescence. The Book-of-the-Month Club, which made “Catcher” a featured selection, advised that for “anyone who has ever brought up a son” the novel will be “a source of wonder and delight — and concern.”

Enraged by all the “phonies” who make “me so depressed I go crazy,” Holden soon became American literature’s most famous anti-hero since Huckleberry Finn. The novel’s sales are astonishing — more than 60 million copies worldwide — and its impact incalculable. Decades after publication, the book remains a defining expression of that most American of dreams — to never grow up.

Link

…after more than a century:

NEW YORK (AP) - The journalism trade journal Editor & Publisher is shutting down after 108 years of publication.

Editor & Publisher is being closed as its parent company, the Nielsen Co., sells several of its other business publications such as The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard.

Crime fiction seems to be the topic of the week, what with the flurry of blog commentary and newspaper response to Jessica Mann’s announcement of her intention to abandon the genre over misogyny.  Then there’s my friend, John Hart, taking the Silver Dagger at the CWA Awards.

And now this from CNN, crime-fiction star, Michael Connelly’s research trip to  Hong Kong overlaps a real life case with grim parallels -

…I prepared to publish and promote my latest detective novel, “Nine Dragons,” I learned of a true mystery with eerie similarities and connections to my story and my research. It has been a heart-tugging reminder that while crime novels may be entertaining thrill rides and puzzles, they also skirt the shores of reality for many.

For myself, I do not think we (and that ‘we’ is of the healthy, non-violent collective) feast on literary tragedy and look up from our books, our faces smeared in the grease and gore of a vulture’s banquet, even if the offerings were bloody and terrible.

When the cover closes at our train stop, or for the night, or at having achieved The End, we know ourselves a little better.  We’ve met a few new people and sorted them, and their troubles, into their proper slots — or not, if it’s complicated.  Either way, we have afforded ourselves an opportunity to learn from someone else’s mistakes and also from their triumphs.

But it’s good to be reminded that there is nothing glamorous about real murder or terror or heartbreaking loss.  Pat the wall between your empathy and your mind’s storehouse, with its shelves cluttered or ordered with what intrigues you, and thank God for the luxury of its protection.

On October 21st, Britain’s gala televised event, ITV3’s Crime Thriller Awards, saw the presentation of The Crime Writers’ Association’s Dagger Awards.  The CWA Daggers have been awarded since 1955 for excellence in crime fiction and their index to past winners reads like a Who’s Who of Page-turners.

This year’s Gold Dagger was presented to William Broderick for A WHISPERED NAME.

The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger went to friend-of-AuthorScoop’s John Hart for THE LAST CHILD

And the New Blood Dagger saw Johan Theorin take home the John Creasy prize for ECHOES FROM THE DEAD.

Congratulations all!

The Dallas Morning News say the wait for Pete Dexter’s over due next novel, SPOONER, was well worth the wait.  Sometimes it’s like that.

A century-old Kansas City mystery is revived and reexamined in Giles Fowler’s, DEATHS ON PLEASANT STREET: THE GHASTLY ENIGMA OF COLONEL SWOPE AND DOCTOR HYDE.

Who knew Talking Heads frontman, David Byrne, was an avid cyclist?  Well, you do now.  And if you need more proof, check out his BICYCLE DIARIES.

Debit novelist, Marilyn Chin, converted a rough start to a satisfying finish in, THE REVENGE OF THE MOONCAKE VIXEN.

“M*A*S*H” TV show writer Larry Gelbart dead at 81 (Reuters)
‘MASH’ writer Larry Gelbart dies at 81 (LAT)
Larry Gelbart Dies (NYT)

Flashback to ‘08 “Nothing kills comedy” (Vickie Karp)

StarTribune.com is reporting that homestate humorist and author Garrison Keillor had a “minor stroke” Monday and has been at the Mayo Clinic’s St. Marys Hospital in Rochester since. The good news is:

Keillor, 67, “is up and moving around, speaking sensibly, working at a laptop, and it’s expected he’ll be released on Friday,” Mayo spokesman Karl Oestreich said today. “He plans to resume a normal schedule next week.”

Here’s hoping he fully recovers.

A three-judge appeals panel today heard arguments from Fredrik “JD California” Colting’s legal team that Judge Deborah Batts acted in haste this past July in issuing a restraining order against publication of the so-called sequel to JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.

While there was no immediate ruling issued in today’s proceedings, there was one verdict, of sorts:

Judge Guido Calabresi was sure of one thing though — his opinion of the novel by Swedish author Fredrik Colting. He gave an instant review of the book that’s already published in England, referencing it as “this rather dismal piece of work if I may say so.”

Dominick Dunne: 1925-2009 (Vanity Fair)
Dominick Dunne Dies (NYT)
Dominick Dunne dead at age 83 (LAT)
Crime story author Dominick Dunne, 83, dies in NYC (AP)
Writer Dominick Dunne has died at 83 (USA Today)
Dominick Dunne: Excerpts from his work (LAT)

… oh wait.  I didn’t fly.  I drove.  But as my insufficiently padded little car has about a four hour butt-limit, there’s a pair of tired spots (could actually be closer to pulverized) right in the vicinity of where I’ve been attacked by the driver’s seat.

I attended the Killer Nashville Literary Conference this past weekend and, as usual, it ended too soon.  Wonderful production, Killer Nashville.  Geared towards writers of mystery, crime, and thriller fiction, this annual event features scores of lectures and panel discussions on writing craft, the publishing business, and a string of presentations for source material presented by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and other experts.  This year there were classes on the art and science of surveillance, reconstructing shootings, poisons, real case studies, and an excellent primer on psychopathy, just to name a few.

The TBI also stages a crime scene contest each year, in a light version of the course they use to quiz professional law enforcement.  Yours truly got to help set up this time and it’s probably not hard to imagine how much fun it is playing go-fer for two career sleuths oooh-ing and ahhh-ing over the realistic consistency of their secret-recipe fake blood.  See for yourself the fruits of our labor -

(photos courtesy of C.H. Valentino, because I’m simply too dumb to remember my camera)

I can’t decide if I should say what they used for brains.  You’ll never look at a child’s kitchen playset the same way if I do.

I gained new appreciation for my friend, Butch Wilson, over at www.tech4writers.com.  He’s an angel anyway, but his knowledge of how to get the best freeware/shareware/open source tools for writers easily filled the two presentations he gave during the weekend.  Need nifty technology?  Click above and you will not be sorry.

And finally there was me.  On Sunday morning, I gave a talk, Write What You Know - Learn What You Don’t, and if I was a little long-winded on the philosophical side of telling the truth in fiction, I did at least leave the attendees with a list of internet resources that is by no means complete.  It’s reprinted here, at Tech4Writers, and I hope more than anything, it sparks a notion of all the things we could get right, if only we’d ask.  My little group of Sunday morning diehards battled their (and my) party fatigue and made something quite fine of the whole affair.

Special thanks to a few people, out of a terrific group as a whole, who made the bruising to my tailbone more than worth it:  Beth Terrell; Clay Stafford; Philip Lacy; Butch Wilson; Special Agent Mike Breedlove, TBI; Special Agent Dan Royse, TBI; Addie King; C.H. Valentino; and Dr. Stephen Benning, Vanderbilt University.

Only three hundred and fifty-some days until next year’s Killer Nashville.  See you there!

Friend to AuthorScoop, Kim Michele Richardson, has to be pleased that the current issue of Writers Digest has included THE UNBREAKABLE CHILD in their Writer’s Workbook feature.  ‘Master The Memoir Basics: 5 Essentials’ references Kim’s story as a wonderful model of how to craft a hopeful ending.

“It’s a gut-wrenching book, but two things save it from being merely depressing… It delivers what the title promises…”

Excellent endorsement, and an helpful example to those in the throes of their own life’s story.

William T. Vollman—the gun-toting, globetrotting, eyebrowless writing machine whose new book, Imperial (released tomorrow), weighs in at 1,300 pages—gets a thoroughly fascinating profile in the New York Times, courtesy of Charles McGrath.

McGrath describes him as “a loner, a bit of a recluse, despite being married and the father of a daughter, and a throwback: a wandering, try-anything writer-journalist in the tradition of Steinbeck or Jack London. Some people think he’s a little nuts.” Gawker, who rarely compliments anyone without using the back of their hand, says he’s “probably the last of a dying breed: The badass literary figure.”

The figure struck by the profile is at once reckless and calculating, intimidating and generously polite.

The most interesting comment, for me at least, is his acknowledgement that the length of his new book might cost him some readers: “The world doesn’t owe me a living, and if the world doesn’t want to buy my books, that’s my problem.”

Check out the entire piece here.

From The Guardian:

The Booker prize-winning author of Holiday, Stanley Middleton, has died aged 89, his publisher Hutchinson said today.

Middleton, who lived in Nottingham, jointly won the Booker in 1974 for his quietly skilful novel in which a lecturer retreats to a seaside resort to escape the death of his son and the failure of his marriage. Ronald Blythe, reviewing the book at the time, said that “we need Stanley Middleton to remind us what the novel is about. Holiday is vintage Middleton. The result of Mr Middleton’s analysis is so satisfying that one has to look at 19th-century writing for comparable storytelling.” He shared the prize with Nadine Gordimer’s The Conservationist.

Further down the article, an interesting experiment and an hilarious response:

In 2006, the Times sent the first chapter of Holiday to publishers and literary agents to test their reactions. All but one of the 21 replies were rejections. Middleton, contacted about the story, was unsurprised. “People don’t seem to know what a good novel is nowadays,” he told the Times.

R.I.P.

“This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.”

- Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO

If your answer is Dan Brown, you’re wrong.

This has to be one of the most audaciously deceptive and insulting marketing campaigns ever. And that’s saying something…

(Thanks to the lovely and talented Lisa Spangenberg for the link.)

Gawker, the snarkiest bunch of snarkers to ever snark, has launched a book club. No real details yet, other than to say they’re kicking it off with Scott Rosenberg, author of Say Everything. And Scott is brave enough to be hanging out in the comments section.

This could be interesting. Whether that means “intellectually stimulating” or “watching a slow-motion train wreck” remains to be seen.

.

via MediaPost:

A law firm known for bringing class-action suits on behalf of consumers against Internet companies says it’s readying a case against Amazon for deleting George Orwell books on users’ Kindles.

“This is an incredible situation,” says Jay Edelson of the law firm KamberEdelson. “What Amazon did was plainly illegal.”

Last week, Amazon stunned consumers by deleting copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Big Brother* from users’ Kindles after learning of a copyright problem. The company, which sold the books for 99 cents each, discovered last week that the books had been added to its catalog by a company that didn’t have the rights to them.

Amazon gave customers refunds, but Edelson says that’s not a sufficient remedy. “Imagine Amazon had shipped a book to someone’s house that it wasn’t supposed to ship. It can’t climb into the person’s window, take it back, and leave a $1.57.”

* Alas, Orwell never wrote a book called “Big Brother” (though he seems to permeate this particular situation).