Warren Adler's Blog, page 46

SHORT STORY: The Mean Mrs. Dickstein

(Story featured in “New York Echoes” by Warren Adler )

 

Mrs. Dickstein, age seventy-five, sat on her favorite bench in Central Park overlooking the lake on a lavishly sunny May day reading Stendhal’s The Red and the Black, which she had read three times over the course of her life.

A widow, she loved this exercise in delicious tranquility, and in the spring, when the weather was perfect, she would revel in this particular spot with the special view of the lake and the trees in bloom around her. Weekdays were best, for the crowds were sparse and most children were in their strollers pushed by chatting moms or nannies.

Looking up from her book, she would observe the rowboats quietly cutting through the slate-colored lake waters and people reclining on the grassy knolls, lovers embracing and oblivious, a lone man or woman, lying supine or sitting cross-legged Indian style, perhaps like her, enjoying the optimism and glory of spring.…

Adorable Letters from Famous Authors to Their Children

(Source: Emily Temple, Flavorwire)

You’ve heard it before, but we’ll say it again: it’s a shame people don’t write letters anymore. Especially writers, whose missives are often so beautifully composed and simply inspiring that we hoard them in volume upon volume… We were inspired to dig a little further into the letters writers send their own children. After the jump, read loving, advice-filled, gentle parental love letters from some of our favorite authors to some of their favorite people — their kids.

From Sherwood Anderson to his 17-year-old son John, 1926:

The best thing, I dare say, is first to learn something well so you can always make a living. Bob seems to be catching on at the newspaper business and has had another raise. He is getting a good training by working in a smaller city. As for the scientific fields, any of them require a long schooling and intense application.…

America is watching ‘War of the Roses’ 2013-style starring Obama and Boehner

The most famous talked-about couple in Washington needs serious therapy. No, not Michelle and Barack – I’m talking about the  President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.

Watching those two guide the country through difficult times is like witnessing “The War of the Roses” – the film variety. 

Unfortunately, instead of the relatively trivial matter of managing household finances, our elected leaders need to come together on solving our country’s dire fiscal problems. Most immediately, they need to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.

Read more: Liz Peek, Fox News…

Misreading the Facts on E-Books

The reported decline in e-reader sales is being misread as an indication that consumption of the e-book itself is in decline. This false conjecture has given authors and publishers hope that the printed book will return to the economic dominance it enjoyed before the technological innovation of the e-reader device.

Libraries See Opening as Bookstores Close

(Source: Karen Ann Cullotta, The New York Times)

At the bustling public library in Arlington Heights, Ill., requests by three patrons to place any title on hold prompt a savvy computer tracking system to order an additional copy of the coveted item. That policy was intended to eliminate the frustration of long waits to check out best sellers and other popular books. But it has had some unintended consequences, too: the library’s shelves are now stocked with 36 copies of “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

Of course, librarians acknowledge that when patrons’ passion for the sexy series lacking in literary merit cools in a year or two, the majority of volumes in the “Fifty Shades” trilogy will probably be plucked from the shelves and sold at the Friends of the Library’s used-book sales, alongside other poorly circulated, donated and out-of-date materials.

“A library has limited shelf space, so you almost have to think of it as a store, and stock it with the things that people want,” said Jason Kuhl, the executive director of the Arlington Heights Memorial Library.…

Interview with Warren Adler, author of “War of the Roses”

(Source: Two Ends of the Pen)

Warren, you have been a part of the literary scene for nearly half a century. At the age of 84, you are one of the elder statesmen for the publishing industry. Where do you see the book industry heading? As I have been predicting ever since I first digitalized all my work more than a dozen years ago, and as I said when I introduced the SONY reader in 2007, as the first stand-alone reader at the Las Vegas Electronics Show, the publishing business will morph massively to cyberspace and considerably shrink the number of stores selling printed books, all of which has come true. What I did not foresee was the number of self-published books that would hit the marketplace and offer hard competition for traditionally published books.

What is coming long-term, in my view, is a massive number of fiction books available on the Net, where it will be a challenge for any writer of fiction to be discoverable.…

Publishing: The Road Ahead

“Thanks for reiterating what I have been saying for more than a dozen years when I took charge of my then output of 27 novels, now 33 and still going. The challenge for the “real” writer, at least in the mainstream novel “genre” will be marketing, meaning discoverability. How does one’s work get noticed in an infinite sea of competition where no books will ever go out of print. I’ve lots of ideas and am experimenting to see what works best. Best of all, I’m willing to share my experiences with serious writers facing this enormous task to find readers for their work. That is the real challenge for the author. It will be a tough slog requiring great skill, innovation and imagination. Stay tuned.” – Warren Adler, Facebook, 12/27/12

 

Publishing: The Road Ahead

Article by John Biggs, TechCrunch.com

With the closing of Spin Magazine’s print edition alongside the failure of the print edition of Newsweek (not to mention the shuttering of countless newspapers and magazines around the world) you’d be hard-pressed to say that publishing – particularly in the news space – is doing well.…

What Classics Will Our Century Produce?

Will 21st century authors of fiction produce any classics?... Out of his hodge podge one wonders whether the classics of the 21st century will come out of the genre fiction of romance, fantasy, graphic novels, mysteries, eroticism, vampire zombie, etc. categories, where books like Fifty Shades of Grey will be raised on the same pedestal as, say, War and Peace and Ulysses.

What’s Warren Adler reading?

Adler is best known for penning the book-turned-movie The War of the Roses (1989), which starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. After finding success in Latin America and Europe, the stage production of War of the Roses will debut on the North American theater circuit in 2013. Adler, 85, grew up in Brooklyn and received a degree in English literature from New York University.

He is the founder of the Jackson Hole Writers Conference in Wyoming and has written more than 30 novels, short story collections and screenplays.

After being published by such houses as Viking, Putnam and Warner Books, Adler became a proponent of e-book publishing several years ago when he re-acquired his complete backlist to convert to digital formats published now by his company, Stonehouse Press.

What’s on your nightstand?

Ian McEwan’s latest book, Sweet Tooth. Ian is a terrific novelist. I enjoy reading Ian, along with Philip Roth.…

Jerry Seinfeld: How to Write a Joke

For the aspiring comedy writers, Jerry Seinfeld shares some fantastic insights on how to write a joke and gives us a glimpse of his longhand writing process.

Enjoy! Video courtesy of The New York Times.

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