Christopher Meeks's Blog, page 24
July 10, 2009
THE LAST HURRAH
After William F. Buckley and his wife had died within the same year, their son, the humorist Christopher Buckley, had a hard time dealing with the loss, and he wrote, "One realization does dawn upon the death of the second parent, namely that you've now moved into the green room to the River Styx. You're next. Another thing about parental mortality: No matter how much you've prepared for ...
July 8, 2009
Today's Economics for Dummies: What We Need to Know
Each of us is feeling the pinch, if not the stranglehold, of our present economy. We drive less, eat out less, and worry about the future. You may blame "the banks," the way people in the Great Depression did and why John Dillinger became a folk hero. (And the film Public Enemies with Johnny Depp taps right into our outrage of greedy bankers.) Or you might blame AIG or its CEO. Or ...
July 3, 2009
"AWAY WE GO" AND NOOKIE NEWS
I happen to be writing a mystery about a man who's been faithful in his marriage for twenty-two years, but after a passionate misstep one evening in Las Vegas with an acquaintance, he finds her dead in the morning. Someone murdered her, and the police think it's him. As I'm writing, I'm exploring what relationships are, what it means to be less than perfect, and what redemption might be, if it's ...
June 26, 2009
INTERACTION--The Beautiful Sparks Between Writer and Reader
A couple of months ago, Wendy at the literary website Musings of a Bookish Kitty asked if I'd like to write a guest blog just before her review of my novel, The Brightest Moon of the Century appeared. I wrote about the connection between author and audience. I include the posting below.--As a professional writer, I started as a playwright first, before becoming a novelist. Never did I think the ...
June 22, 2009
CATCHER IN THE RYE
The 1951 iconic novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger has been in the news recently because of a new book out, Sixty years Later: Coming Through the Rye, by Swedish author Fredrik Colting. Salinger's lawyers filed a lawsuit, saying the book is a sequel and infringes on Salinger's copyright. Colting has responded, saying that his novel is not a sequel but rather "a complex and ...
June 14, 2009
Social Networking--A New Wheel or a Tar Pit?
I've joined Facebook. I've plunged it. I'm still figuring out what it means.I've always been fascinated by new inventions, often jumping in on a trend without thinking about it. In high school, I bought four large state-of-the-art Acoustic Research speakers and a quadraphonic system, which surrounded me in music like a thank-you card in a tight envelope. I bought a Betamax VCR before the war ...
June 10, 2009
The Value of Life
My grandfather collected every single issue of Life, the weekly magazine that began November 23, 1936, and ended December 8, 1972. He bound most of them in hardback volumes, four volumes per year--127 volumes total, and the rest wrapped in craft paper by quarter year. It's something like sixteen hundred pounds of magazines. My mother inherited them. Now that she's selling her place, I'm in ...
June 5, 2009
GLIMPSES OF LIFE AT ITS OWN SPEED
Someone recently told me that life was like a roll of toilet paper--it goes so much faster at the end. While I may have twenty to thirty years left, barring a quicker surprise, those numbers are starting to feel definite. This feeling of mortality started, ironically, at the Edvard Munch show that I saw in Chicago in February. I say ironically because Munch had become obsessed with mortality, and ...
May 19, 2009
GROWING UP WRIGHT
A number of years ago, looking for something in a rarely used cabinet at my mother's house, I came across drawings of a young child, around two years old with short, neatly parted hair. My name showed that I was the subject. I took them to my mother and asked, "Who drew these?"She said, "I did." "You draw? Or drew? I never knew you drew.""I was an art major ...
May 18, 2009
On Bookstores--and Barnes and Noble Availability
If you strive to get a book published, getting published is a huge enough challenge, but perhaps an even bigger hurdle is getting your books into bookstores. Amazon and other online venues are happy to carry and sell your book, but online bookselling is only 21% of the market. If you want your book to sell more, get it into stores. Getting your books in stores also helps in being reviewed, ...
