Kenneth Atchity's Blog, page 104
December 27, 2018
Guest Post: A little editing leads to happy ending for literary agent by Nancy Nigrosh
During the 10-plus years I was a single parent, I was consumed by my career as a literary agent. This was the kind of job that involved long-range strategies and 24/7 focus. I didn't have the time or energy left over to date. Instead, I devoted myself to many well-intentioned but futile attempts to rein in my troubled teen, who was moving in a perilously rebellious direction.
As a parent, my heart was breaking and yet as a woman I couldn't shake the persistent and inexplicable feeling that somewhere, at some point, I'd actually met the man I longed for, who'd somehow vanished from view. I often had the uncanny feeling he might be right under my nose, maybe even next door or down the block.
L.A. Affairs
I responded to all of this by putting my sorrow aside and going into a free fall, flinging my heart wide across the 'Net. I became "Ms. Aloft" (a lame reference to the fact I lived in a loft downtown) on a plethora of dating sites.
I checked my inbox with regularity but attracted only respondents who lied about everything from relationship status to height, weight and bank account. When I tried to explain all of this to a friend, I sobbed, and he said, "I know an Internet dating coach. Maybe she can help."
I phoned the expert, and to my surprise, she came right over. "No wonder you're attracting weak men," she said. "We have to do something about that profile picture."
"It was taken for an article I wrote for Variety!" I protested.
As she snapped a new photo with her phone, she explained, "You look like a dominatrix in that picture. Let's have a look at your closet."
I pulled out some of my nicest clothes and arranged them on the bed. She responded by tossing them aside and went right for the lingerie drawer. I could feel my heart pound.
"Put these on," she purred, handing me a pair of modest Chinese silk pajamas "then this … and this," referring to combinations I never would have thought of, snapping away with her phone.
Then she instructed me to close my eyes and imagine the man I sought. "Now, tell me how you feel about him. Be really specific." Words, just like the clothes in my closet I'd never imagine pairing, came pouring out for the first time.
Satisfied, she announced, "OK, now let's rewrite your profile." Though I wanted to reveal my true age, she advised against it: "You're a youthful-looking lady. They'll think your pictures are 10 years old and you're being dishonest. Put down that you're 10 years younger, then add you're actually 'somewhat older' … but 'identify with a younger vibe.' Then add that your pictures were taken this month, this year."
To lie and immediately acknowledge it seemed perfectly honest to me.
Next she asked, "How do you feel about him having children?" I sighed, "I assume every man has children." Flinty-eyed, she continued, "That's not what I asked." So I typed: "Though I have a wonderful 17-year-old, I'm not looking to raise any other children." Saying what I wanted suddenly wasn't so hard.
One evening I noticed a nice-looking face and clicked on his profile. I read about the woman he longed for. He described me to a T.
We made a plan to meet at a popular downtown L.A. spot. I immediately felt at ease, settling into the calm he cast over the tiny table we shared. I told him my true age, which was the same as his. We discovered we'd been classmates in the same school in New York in the same program the very same year. We retraced the steps of our separate journeys in migrating West. As I suspected, for many of the years since college, we'd been living less than two miles from each other in Santa Monica. It turned out that his sister-in-law, who lived in Los Angeles, was a longtime friend of mine. His cousin was an East Coast literary agent with whom I'd co-represented an author only a few years earlier.
He'd never married yet he always believed, as I did, that his destiny was out there, somewhere, and somehow he would find her.
He asked me to attend his nephew's engagement party, where I knew more of the guests than he did. We waltzed through our own private nostalgia ball, also becoming engaged.
Months later, at our wedding on our downtown rooftop, our violinist neighbor played sweet notes that seemed to sum up our long journey. I texted my dating coach: "Life is lived forward but understood backward. What could say 'happily ever after' better than an actual fiddler on an actual roof?"
Nigrosh is a consulting editor for authors and screenwriters in Los Angeles and teaches at UCLA Extension's Writers' Program.
Reposted from LA Times
December 26, 2018
December 25, 2018
December 23, 2018
The beautiful Icelandic tradition of giving books on Christmas Eve
Icelanders have a beautiful tradition of giving books to each other on Christmas Eve and then spending the night reading. This custom is so deeply ingrained in the culture that it is the reason for the Jolabokaflod, or “Christmas Book Flood,” when the majority of books in Iceland are sold between September and December in preparation for Christmas giving.
At this time of year, most households receive an annual free book catalog of new publications called the Bokatidindi. Icelanders pore over the new releases and choose which ones they want to buy, fueling what Kristjan B. Jonasson, president of the Iceland Publishers Association, describes as “the backbone of the publishing industry.”
"It's like the firing of the guns at the opening of the race," says Baldur Bjarnason, a researcher who has written about the Icelandic book industry. "It's not like this is a catalog that gets put in everybody's mailbox and everybody ignores it. Books get attention here."
The small Nordic island, with a population of only 329,000 people, is extraordinarily literary. They love to read and write. According to a BBC article, “The country has more writers, more books published and more books read, per head, than anywhere else in the world… One in 10 Icelanders will publish [a book].”
It seems there is more value placed on physical, paper books than in North America, where e-books have grown in popularity. One bookstore manager told NPR, “The book in Iceland is such an enormous gift, you give a physical book. You don't give e-books here." The book industry is driven by the majority of people buying several books each year, rather than the North American pattern of a few people buying lots of books.
When I asked an Icelandic friend what she thought of this tradition, she was surprised.
“I hadn't thought of this as a special Icelandic tradition. It is true that a book is always considered a nice gift. Yes, for my family this is true. We are very proud of our authors.”
It sounds like a wonderful tradition, perfect for a winter evening. It is something that I would love to incorporate into my own family’s celebration of Christmas. I doubt my loyalty to physical books will ever fade; they are the one thing I can’t resist collecting, in order to read and re-read, to beautify and personalize my home, to pass on to friends and family as needed. Combining my love for books and quiet, cozy Christmas Eves sounds like a perfect match.
Read more at Treehugger.com
December 22, 2018
December 21, 2018
Mary Ann and Joseph Anselmo's "Through the Fire" tells the Inspirational story of her fight against Cancer.
Researchers treat brain cancer patient with skin cancer drug
Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) are exploring a new form of clinical trial called a basket trial, which is designed to examine responses to drugs based on specific mutations in patients’ tumors rather than where their cancer originated.
The study, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, consisted of 122 patients from 23 cancer centers around the world, and participants were diagnosed with either non-small cell lung, colorectal, ovarian or brain cancers. Each patient had his or her tumor genome sequenced so doctors could determine which mutation to target through precision medicine, according to a news release.
One patient in the study, MaryAnn Anselmo, had been diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma in 2013. Anselmo’s physicians decided to target the BRAF mutation in her tumor, and treated it with a drug recently approved for BRAF mutations in melanoma patients, TIME reported. Two years later, Anselmo is tumor free.
“This study is the first deliverable of precision medicine,” Dr. Jose Baselga, study author and MSK physician-in-chief and chief medical officer, said in the news release. “We have proven that histology-independent, biomarker-selected basket studies are feasible and can serve as a tool for developing molecularly targeted cancer therapy.”
“While we can— and should— be cautiously optimistic, this is what the future of precision medicine looks like,” he said.
Hyman told TIME that the basket study focused on BRAF mutations allows for researchers to study cancer patients as a group, despite their different diagnoses. The results found that 70 percent of patients with non-small cell cancer saw their tumors shrink by at least 30 percent in length, with the best response rate among patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
Researchers noted that the results of the study demonstrated that drugs can reach patients beyond the current approved use, but do not work for everyone. They suggest the results show the benefits of basket studies and call for more work to be done with these types of trials.
“One of the things that gets lost when we talk averages and medians is how many patients benefit and for how long,” Hyman told TIME. “There is a tremendous range and a concern that promoting the best successes sets the bar very high. But it also lets people know that things are not entirely hopeless, that there are people who have tremendous benefit from therapies and not get completely caught up in medians and averages.”
Reposted From Fox News
Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) are exploring a new form of clinical trial called a basket trial, which is designed to examine responses to drugs based on specific mutations in patients’ tumors rather than where their cancer originated.
The study, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, consisted of 122 patients from 23 cancer centers around the world, and participants were diagnosed with either non-small cell lung, colorectal, ovarian or brain cancers. Each patient had his or her tumor genome sequenced so doctors could determine which mutation to target through precision medicine, according to a news release.
One patient in the study, MaryAnn Anselmo, had been diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma in 2013. Anselmo’s physicians decided to target the BRAF mutation in her tumor, and treated it with a drug recently approved for BRAF mutations in melanoma patients, TIME reported. Two years later, Anselmo is tumor free.
“This study is the first deliverable of precision medicine,” Dr. Jose Baselga, study author and MSK physician-in-chief and chief medical officer, said in the news release. “We have proven that histology-independent, biomarker-selected basket studies are feasible and can serve as a tool for developing molecularly targeted cancer therapy.”
“While we can— and should— be cautiously optimistic, this is what the future of precision medicine looks like,” he said.
Hyman told TIME that the basket study focused on BRAF mutations allows for researchers to study cancer patients as a group, despite their different diagnoses. The results found that 70 percent of patients with non-small cell cancer saw their tumors shrink by at least 30 percent in length, with the best response rate among patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
Researchers noted that the results of the study demonstrated that drugs can reach patients beyond the current approved use, but do not work for everyone. They suggest the results show the benefits of basket studies and call for more work to be done with these types of trials.
“One of the things that gets lost when we talk averages and medians is how many patients benefit and for how long,” Hyman told TIME. “There is a tremendous range and a concern that promoting the best successes sets the bar very high. But it also lets people know that things are not entirely hopeless, that there are people who have tremendous benefit from therapies and not get completely caught up in medians and averages.”
Reposted From Fox News
December 19, 2018
Music of the spheres!
Is outer space really the silent and lifeless place it's often depicted to be? Perhaps not. Astrophysicist and musician Matt Russo takes us on a journey through the cosmos, revealing the hidden rhythms and harmonies of planetary orbits. The universe is full of music, he says -- we just need to learn how to hear it.
December 16, 2018
Therapist Dennis Palumbo on the Writer’s Inner Life
This is from an interview for Shrink Rap Radio:
Initially, when you start writing, or at least when I started writing, you think the reward is, wow! It’ll be so great to see my words on screen, to see my name on screen…
I think what happens over time when, because you’re a writer – especially once I became a screenwriter – you’re very powerless as a screenwriter.
And what happens – and it’s a subtle change, but I think it’s the one that most mature writers go through – is the gratification becomes personal… the process of writing becomes its own reward… you tell the story the way you want to tell the story, and then hope for the best…
The frustration, I think, boils down to the fact that I believe screenwriters are the most crucial aspect of a movie, and they’re the ones with the least power and the least control.
via The Creative Mind Continued in article Therapist to the Hollywood Stars.
December 15, 2018
December 13, 2018
This is dedicated to the one I love
I thought I’d reprint Gary Wenkle Smith’s “Dedication” page as a great example of the evolving relationship between an author and his faithful “tough-coach” editor, in this case his wife, Pat Rearic Smith! May everyone evolve in this direction.
DEDICATION
To quote a song from my generation: “This is dedicated to the one I love.”
My wife, Pat Rearic Smith, has been my best friend, lover and wife for forty-six years. It hasn’t been easy being married to me, I assure you. Not all have been blissful years, and I am responsible for most of the unpleasantness. Yet, the good times have put those other days in the distant fog, and we have a great life today, without remorse or recriminations.
During these past several years while I have become serious about my writings, she has been the one person who has steadfastly stuck with me. She has been unbending in her desire to guide me past my many faults, as a writer and a man. When I tried to mold myself into the stories I wished to tell, she removed the frill and repetition written by someone who really hadn’t a clue about half the time. When I did know what I was doing, I still needed to ask her to help me do it much more simply.
Having trained to write as a lawyer made writing for enjoyment an onerous task. Lawyer’s are repetitive in our legal briefs. We are taught: tell them what you are going to tell them; then tell them; then tell them what you have told them. The best legal story tellers repeat themselves with eloquence.
My first editing with Pat was a war. I had asked her to help me with The Last Midnight, my first published novel. Then I rejected her many suggestions to the point of turning her away. After begging her to give me a second chance, I wasn’t much better at accepting her proposals that I give up significant amounts of my writing and live without it. I remember feeling betrayed at her intimation that she declared such a large amount of my precious words unworthy of publication. I confess to being burdensome and defensive.
I praise her for her amazing patience, and love. She has stuck with me in editing all that I have written. She can take long paragraphs I have labored over for hours and turn them into three sentences that say everything I was trying to convey. She can read an entire novel in a few days and make all the necessary corrections. It took a while, but now I don’t ask that she edit it so that I can see what she has changed. I accept her work without question and move forward with completion of whatever I have in progress.
So, to you my dear, love of my life, best friend, my Woman-Girl, I thank you for staying with a guy like me. I am truly grateful.
DEDICATION
To quote a song from my generation: “This is dedicated to the one I love.”
My wife, Pat Rearic Smith, has been my best friend, lover and wife for forty-six years. It hasn’t been easy being married to me, I assure you. Not all have been blissful years, and I am responsible for most of the unpleasantness. Yet, the good times have put those other days in the distant fog, and we have a great life today, without remorse or recriminations.
During these past several years while I have become serious about my writings, she has been the one person who has steadfastly stuck with me. She has been unbending in her desire to guide me past my many faults, as a writer and a man. When I tried to mold myself into the stories I wished to tell, she removed the frill and repetition written by someone who really hadn’t a clue about half the time. When I did know what I was doing, I still needed to ask her to help me do it much more simply.
Having trained to write as a lawyer made writing for enjoyment an onerous task. Lawyer’s are repetitive in our legal briefs. We are taught: tell them what you are going to tell them; then tell them; then tell them what you have told them. The best legal story tellers repeat themselves with eloquence.
My first editing with Pat was a war. I had asked her to help me with The Last Midnight, my first published novel. Then I rejected her many suggestions to the point of turning her away. After begging her to give me a second chance, I wasn’t much better at accepting her proposals that I give up significant amounts of my writing and live without it. I remember feeling betrayed at her intimation that she declared such a large amount of my precious words unworthy of publication. I confess to being burdensome and defensive.
I praise her for her amazing patience, and love. She has stuck with me in editing all that I have written. She can take long paragraphs I have labored over for hours and turn them into three sentences that say everything I was trying to convey. She can read an entire novel in a few days and make all the necessary corrections. It took a while, but now I don’t ask that she edit it so that I can see what she has changed. I accept her work without question and move forward with completion of whatever I have in progress.
So, to you my dear, love of my life, best friend, my Woman-Girl, I thank you for staying with a guy like me. I am truly grateful.
