Lev Raphael's Blog, page 42

PEN America Protestors Ignore Brutal Anti-Semitism

Today, May 5th, the authors' association PEN America will give a freedom of expression award to Charlie Hebdo, the wildly iconoclastic Parisian journal. For those who've forgotten, ten of their staffers were gunned down along with two police guards back in January. This was followed by an attack on a Jewish supermarket resulting in the death of four Jewish hostages.

The award has prompted angry exchanges between literary heavyweights Salman Rushdie and Francine Prose and a letter of dissent...

PEN/America Protestors Ignore Brutal Anti-Semitism

On May 5th, the authors' association Pen America will give a freedom of expression award to Charlie Hebdo,the wildly iconoclastic Parisian journal. Ten of their staffers were gunned down along with two police guards back in January.

That award has prompted angry exchanges between literary heavyweights Salman Rushdie and Francine Prose and a letter of dissent from about two dozen famous authors in which they protest that they're not against freedom of expression but against targeting French M...

How Can Jews Ignore Jewish Suffering?

On May 5th, the authors' association Pen America will give a freedom of expression award to Charlie Hebdo.

That's prompted a letter of dissent from about two dozen famous authors in which they protest that they're not against freedom of expression but against targeting French Muslims:

Power and prestige are elements that must be recognized in considering almost any form of discourse, including satire. The inequities between the person holding the pen and the subject fixed on paper by that p...

Learn the Secrets of Publishing Stardom!

It's never too early or too late:

Throw out every writer's guide you've ever bought or downloaded.

Shred all the notes you ever took at all those writing workshops.

Forget everything your writing teachers told you in school.

You wasted a lot of time and money.

And don't even think of NaNoWriMo.

E.L. James, author of the blockbuster Fifty Shades of Grey, has published a writing guide that's back in the news again, or at least making waves on social media: Fifty Shades of Grey: Inner God...

Ignore the Critics! Woman in Gold Shines Brightly

I went to see Woman in Gold because I'm a Helen Mirren fan and have admired the Gustav Klimt painting at its heart since college, but wasn't aware that it had been widely panned by critics until fellow Second Generation writer Helen Epstein deplored the reviews this past week.

For those who don't know the story the film tells, it revolves around an Austrian Jewish woman living in America who's trying to get back Gustav Klimt paintings stolen from her family by the Nazis, decades after the Ho...

Ignore the Critics: Woman in Gold Shines Brightly

I went to see Woman in Gold because I'm a Helen Mirren fan and have admired the Gustav Klimt painting at its heart since college, but wasn't aware that it had been widely panned by critics until fellow Second Generation writer Helen Epstein deplored the reviews this past week.

For those who don't know the story the film tells, it revolves around an Austrian Jewish woman living in America who's trying to get back Gustav Klimt paintings stolen from her family by the Nazis, decades after the Ho...

Ripped From the Headlines: My Ferguson Novel

I once introduced a best-selling thriller writer at a reading here in Michigan and mentioned -- among other things -- that he was a finalist for some award. When he got to the podium he quipped, "You know what a finalist means, don't you? It means you didn't win."

Everyone laughed at his self-deprecating humor. He wasn't as famous then as he is now. He hadn't made multi-million dollar deals with his publisher, hadn't seen movies of his books, and hadn't become a kind of go-to guy when writer...

My 'Ferguson Novel'

I once introduced a best-selling thriller writer at a reading here in Michigan and mentioned -- among other things -- that he was a finalist for some award. When he got to the podium he quipped, "You know what a finalist means, don't you? It means you didn't win."

Everyone laughed at his self-deprecating humor. He wasn't as famous then as he is now. He hadn't made multi-million dollar deals with his publisher, hadn't seen movies of his books, and hadn't become a kind of go-to guy when writer...

Teaching Is Not a Blood Sport

I do a lot of speaking at colleges and universities around the country, and faculty tell me many behind-the-scenes stories. Properly disguised, such stories make great material for my Nick Hoffman academic mystery series: tales of petty infighting, squabbling committees, ridiculous vendettas -- all the simmering snarkiness that Borges called "bald men arguing over a comb."

But I also hear stories from students that aren't as amusing, stories about what it's like for them to be in a classroom...

Of Course Jake Ballard Was Alive

Last week Scandal fans saw one of Poppa Pope's assassins stab Jake Ballard in the gut a handful of times and leave him bleeding out on the floor of Olivia's empty office. The moment had deep irony, because Olivia's father is very good at fixing her up with bad boys; she's currently sleeping with the guy who killed Jake -- maybe.

The teaser for last nightt's show had Jake's bloody body on the conference table and Quinn screaming "Jake is dead!" I'm a mystery author and reviewer, so I instan...