Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 750

Acknowledgements page

Jonathan Black wrote a piece in the American Spectator about the Acknowledgements page (or pages) in novels, declaring that “The Acknowledgments page cannot make a bad book better, but it can ruin a good one.”

How utterly ridiculous.

First off, if Black truly believes that an Acknowledgements page can ruin a good book, why would he ever read one? It’s not like the acknowledgements are essential to the story. Just skip the page or two and preserve the sanctity and potential greatness of the boo

Trade paper

The decision has been made to publish SOMETHING MISSING as a trade paperback original rather than as a hardback. Doubleday’s marketing department believes that the book will do better in trade paper. My agent explained it to me this way:

The price point would be lower (paperbacks sell for about $14 while hardbacks sell for $22). This means more people can afford to buy the book, which is particularly important in today’s economy.

Advanced orders from bookstores like Barnes and Noble would more t

Loving the Germans

More news from my German editor:

The major publishing magazine, Boersenblatt, published their first announcement (not quite a review, but a kind of "best of upcoming novels preview") and SOMETHING MISSING (DER GUTE DIEB in Germany) is among them, including the cover. 

My wife has suggested that I could become the next David Hasselhoff.

I begged her never to say those words again.

Do you like writing?

The Guardian published a story in which they asked a variety of authors if they thought that writing was a joy or a chore, in response to Colm Toibin’s recent admonition that he does not like writing despite his enormous success.

I found it quite interesting to discover how these authors feel about their craft and was pleased to see that most did not find writing to be as dispirited as Toibin.

For me, writing is about three-quarters joy and one quarter pain. In the rare instance that I am stuck

Lunacy or brilliance?

A new idea for a book has lodged itself in my head, and it’s now competing for space with the idea that I am already pursuing.

Is it crazy to consider writing two books simultaneously?

News from the German front

My German editor was kind enough to contact me after seeing this website in order to cast some light on the reasons why the name of SOMETHING MISSING was changed in Germany.  I'm posting a portion of her email here, with her permission:

You mention that SOMETHING MISSING apparently doesn't translate well into German; it indeed doesn't - it would have had a rather negative connotation if we'd translated it literally - but there is more to it.  In Germany we have a law, Titelschutz (Title Protecti

First sentences

I have a friend named Charles who is a biophysicist, a professor, a songwriter, a musician (guitar, bagpipes, and God knows what else), a poet, and a writer of short fiction. He reads James Joyce and Jose Saramago for fun. He’s been known to brew his own beer.

He’s not a great poker player, but he’s probably not trying very hard.

Charles is also responsible for the title of SOMETHING MISSING. Though he doesn’t know it yet, he also makes a brief appearance as a character in MILO, a novel that pe

A new start

On Wednesday night, I sent MILO onto my agent. It was both thrilling and a little scary to send the manuscript off like that, and waiting to hear what Taryn thinks is always a little nerve-wracking. So when I went downstairs on Thursday morning and sat down in front of my laptop, I realized that I could no longer work on the manuscript, even though I already had a couple small ideas for revisions.

I had actually close the Word document, the first time I had done this in months.

After fourteen mo

More kind words

Another blurb for SOMETHING MISSING came in yesterday, this one from David Rosen, author of I JUST WANT MY PANTS BACK.  He writes:

“A funny, suspenseful and thoroughly original debut that will keep you up to the wee hours flipping pages, having to explain your bloodshot eyes the next day.  Damn you, Matthew Dicks -- now everyone thinks I've been crying.”

I've already ordered Mr. Rosen's book.  He blurb struck me as amusing, so I'm hoping that the book will do the same.

goodreads.com

If you are interested in checking out the books that I am reading and have read, as well as my reviews of some of them, you can sign up for a free account at goodreads.com and request to be my friend. 

You can find my profile under my full name: Matthew Dicks.