Kenneth Atchity's Blog, page 232

Clint Hill and Lisa McCubbin will give a slide/video presentation in Hyannis, MA on July 15th

MRS. KENNEDY AND ME – Speaker Series

 
... book signing to follow. Click on the link
for details and to RSVP. 

RSVP RESERVATIONS REQUIRED – CLICK HERE FOR RESERVATIONS

space is limited and reservations must be made





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By Clint Hill

Special Agent, United States Secret Service

with Lisa McCubbin



When:

Sunday July 15, 2012

4:00p.m



Where:

Fellowship Hall of Federated Church

Main Street, Hyannis, MA (directions)

Authors book-signing immediately following at the

JFK Hyannis Museum, Main Street, Hyannis, MA (directions)






In MRS. KENNEDY AND ME (Gallery Books; On-sale:
April 3, 2012; Hardcover; $26.00), Clint Hill gives a first hand account
of the four years he spent as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s Secret
Service Agent.




In those four years, Hill was by Mrs. Kennedy’s side for some of the
happiest moments as well as the darkest. He was there for the birth of
John, Jr. on November 25, 1960 and for the birth and sudden death of
Patrick Bouvier Kennedy on August 8, 1963. Three and a half months
later, the unthinkable happened.




Clint Hill is the agent who courageously ran onto the back of the
presidential limousine in the midst of the shooting on November 22,
1963. While he was too late to save the president, he positioned himself
on the back of the car in such a way as to ensure that any remaining
shots would hit him instead of the First Lady and the already fatally
wounded president.




Hill is best known for the role he played that dreadful day, but the
story of his earlier time alongside Jacqueline Kennedy is rich with
amusing anecdotes from within the Kennedy compound, abroad in locations
like India, Pakistan, Greece, and Italy, at the First Family’s country
home in Middleburg, VA, and everywhere else the First Lady traveled
during that time. He was there for it all.




Written with award-winning journalist Lisa McCubbin, MRS. KENNEDY AND ME
gives context to many of the countless iconic images of Jacqueline
Kennedy as Clint Hill was there, behind-the-scenes in most cases. Some
of the highlights and revelations from the book involve: a conversation
President Kennedy had with Hill regarding Aristotle Onassis prior to a
trip to Greece in 1961; Jackie’s attitude towards taking shelter during
the Cuban Missile Crisis; JFK’s last birthday party, aboard the U.S.S.
Sequoia; and many other never before told stories of funny happenings
and tender moments.




An intimate memoir of their unique relationship, MRS. KENNEDY AND ME offers insight into the Jacqueline Kennedy few people knew.

Story Merchant Client Warren L. Woodruff Talks About Dr. Fuddle and The Gold Baton

Author Interview - Warren L Woodruff - On My Addiction Books!




























Dr. Warren L. Woodruff is a passionate music instructor
whose affection for classical music led to the creation of Dr. Fuddle and the
Gold Baton. We are honoured to be able to do an interview with someone of such
talent.






Welcome Warren.






Warren, how long have you been in the classical music industry?

I’ve been teaching for 26 years, but playing classical music for almost 40 years.

What inspired you to cross the boundaries from musician to author?

I’ve
always wanted to inspire others through the joy of great music, not
just through my many students, but in written word. I’ve also faced a
lifelong challenge like Beethoven, a degenerative hearing disorder,
which threatens my musical career, so I wanted to leave a written
legacy, since I am not a genius composer like Beethoven.

Do you find the title of author to merely be an added side to your musical side or do you treat them as separate personas?

They
are definitely separate personas. I will always be, first and foremost,
a musician, even if my hearing disorder has other plans! But being an
author is very important also. Other than writing the series of Dr.
Fuddle novels, screenplays and picture books, I have many other written
projects I would like to complete, all of them musically oriented,
except for one, an unpublished manuscript on religious philosophy.

What is your goal behind this novel of Dr. Fuddle and the Gold Baton?

My
goal is to create something classic and very different in today’s
market--not something that will just be “hot” for a few years and
forgotten. The driving force behind each story is mystery and adventure,
to engage and entertain young readers. But I also want to pique their
interest in music, particularly classical music, INSPIRE them to
excellence, and to find their lifelong passion, as I found mine at a
very early age.

From
the synopsis I was provided the novel seems to create an adventurous
flow between music and an exciting storyline. Can you please tell our
readers a bit more? What can they expect from reading it?

They
can expect a very fun reading experience, even if they have no
knowledge of classical music. This book is not an educational tool to
promote my art form. It is an adventure from beginning to end, which
happens to be set in the musical, magical land of Orphea. They can also
expect to feel a longing to hear the music described in the book and a
desire to see the whole story played out as a major motion picture,
which is in development.

Does the novel contain some of the beautiful sketches that are beside your characters on your blog? 

Yes. All of the artwork is incorporated into the book at the appropriate places in the storyline.

What age group and genre are you targeting?

This
first book, middle grade, from 6th-8th grade, but I’m quickly getting
feedback that my adult readers are enjoying it every bit as much as the
target age group, just like the HARRY POTTER series. As my series
continues, the protagonists will age, and the target age group will
become Young Adult.









How has the novel been doing in the open market?

We
had thousands of downloads the first weekend and have already gotten
twenty-three five star reviews, plus feedback from many readers saying
they can’t wait to see the movie!

From a little googling I
noticed that there is also mention of another novel called First Lady of
the Organ, Diane Bish: A Biography can you give our readers a bit more
insight to the novel.

This biography was an extension of my
Ph.D. dissertation on the most important and visible female organist in
history. She is still alive, performing and signing these biographies at
her concerts. The book was self-published in 1994, but is still
selling. Talk about a project with longevity!

Where can people find your works?

Right now, DR. FUDDLE AND THE GOLD BATON
is available exclusively as an e-book for one year at Amazon.com, but
the hard copies are also available at Amazon, and other web stores.
Autographed copies will be available through drfuddle.com and           
drfuddlesmusicalblog.blogspot.com.

Are you working on anything else currently that we should be on the lookout for?

Yes.
I’m working on the next book in the Fuddle series, which will be a
prequel to the first book, the back story of how things “got to how they
got in Orphea” in the first novel. I’m also redrafting my stage play
entitled BEETHOVEN. The dramatic rights will be made available to
smaller, off-Broadway type venues. It is the moving account of the life
of Beethoven, my greatest hero, in six scenes, with narration and music.
Eventually, when the timing is right, I will publish my book on
religious philosophy.

How has your journey been on becoming an author?



From
a general public perspective I always assumed it was something easy.
You write and then you send it in, if people like it they go for it, if
they don’t you try someone else. The perception is not at all the case,
writing in its own sense is an art.

I’ve mostly just written with
ease from the heart in a state of inspiration. Oftentimes the writing
experience has seemed--for lack of a better word--supernatural. Parts of
DR. FUDDLE AND THE GOLD BATON
felt as though I was receiving the words from an unseen source, like it
was writing itself. This was particularly true of my book on religious
philosophy, too, as though my fingers were moving rapidly on the keys,
like an automatic dictation for hours on end, as strange as they may
sound. But there were also some times, not often, where writing just
seemed like hard work.

Do you have any messages that you would like to leave our audience with?

Open
your hearts, minds and imaginations to the totally new world of Dr.
Fuddle and Orphea! Be ready to experience literature and music in a way
you never dreamed possible.




Thanks so much for taking the time to do this small
interview. We wish you well in all your future endeavors.

Story Merchant Client Terry Stanfill's Realms Of Gold Book Trailer

 

Available At Beachview Bookstore - St. Simons Island

Seven Ways to Die

Great Review on Cheryl's Book Nook!

The Messiah Matrix





Review by Nancy


In a thriller that rivals anything Dan Brown ever wrote, The Messiah
Matrix threatens to take all your beliefs and toss them into the wind. A
priest is murdered in Rome. His assassin is also shot and killed while
with another priest. A message was delivered. An artifact is found on
the floor of the sea. A Jesuit questions his faith and the history of
his Church. An archaeologist uncovers the find of a lifetime and loses
it.



A connection between Christ and Augustus Ceasar? The wise men following a
star in 17 BC? Curiouser and curiouser! Although you know what they say
about curiosity. The Monsignor searching for the ashes of Christ –
which he was killed before explaining. Does the Holy See condone murder?
Damn Skippy it does!




This book is amazing! The two main characters of Ryan and Emily are the
perfect pair of detectives. Will they be more? You’ll have to read the
book! Emily’s coin is vital to the history of Christianity in the world,
but will they get it back? On the coin, Augustus was wearing a crown
with twelve spikes. What’s up with that?



In this tale we have good guys, very bad guys, the Holy Mother Church,
good priests and very, very bad priests and one red-headed archaeology
professor who, along with one questioning Jesuit and some of his
brothers, may be able to solve the conundrum that is The Messiah Matrix.




Purchase a copy here

Story Merchant Clients Clint Hill and Lisa McCubbin

Mrs. Kennedy and Me Book Tour 




Clint Hill and Lisa McCubbin were guest speakers at retreat for
CounselWorks clients at beautiful East Hampton Point, in East Hampton,
Long Island.

Guest Post: In Praise of Goofing Off by Dennis Palumbo

Hollywood on the Couch






The inside scoop on Tinseltown, USA


by Dennis Palumbo


Day-dreaming as an aid to creativity.









Some
people call it puttering, or screwing around, or just plain goofing
off. Others, of a more kindly bent, call it day-dreaming. Kurt Vonnegut
used the quaint old term “skylarking.”



Then there are the sanctimonious, uptight, non-creative types who call it, simply, wasting time.



What
I’m referring to, of course, is that well-known, rarely discussed but
absolutely essential component of a successful creative person’s
life—the down-time, when you’re seemingly not doing anything of
consequence. Certainly not doing anything that pertains to that deadline
you’re facing: the pitch meeting set for next week, the screenplay
you’ve been toiling over, the important audition that’s pending.



The
concept of down-time, or goofing off, is shrouded in mystery for one
very simple reason: it infuriates the creative artist’s spouse, family,
collaborators, agents and friends. Let’s face it: they just don’t get
it.



Here you are, struggling with a TV pilot re-write that’s due
in two weeks, or behind on the final cut of the short film you’re
submitting to festivals, and your mate finds you spending precious hours
looking out the window, or reading The New Yorker, or watching His Gal
Friday for the fifteenth time.





(In my own case, as a writer
of mystery fiction, I make it a point to read The Great Gatsby every
year, just to revel in its jewel-like prose and striking emotional
economy. As an aid to my own writing, I’ve found reading it the perfect
way to clear out the cobwebs.)



Finally, one salient fact must be
accepted: the creative process is goddamned mysterious. As a kid in
parochial school, I was often chided by the nuns for gazing out the
window, my attention who-knows-where, instead of focusing on the
blackboard.



I was a “day-dreamer,” according to Sister Hillaire,
the principal, in sharply-worded notes routinely sent home to my
parents. “Nothing good,” she warned, “could come of this.” (Nuns, I was
to discover, could be melodramatic as hell.)



The point is, most
creative types start out as kids looking out the window, their heads “in
the clouds,” their minds “a million miles away,” etc.



But one
man’s “day-dreamer” is another man’s “artist-in-training.” No matter how
much we try, it’s impossible to quantify the creative process. It’s
mysterious, even to artists themselves, and it resists all attempts to
explicate its secrets.



Which is why it’s ultimately fruitless to
try to explain to family and friends what you’re doing when—instead of
banging away at the keyboard, or rehearsing that difficult scene, or
re-doing the storyboards for your short film—you’re re-cataloging your
CD collection.



In such cases, I suggest you just give them a knowing, mysterious, “genius at work” smile, and go on about your business.



Not to mention the valuable, potential working time wasted repairing your old bicycle, cleaning out the garage, or organizing your bookshelves according to author and/or subject.



I know what you’re thinking: the above examples sound suspiciously like procrastination. I understand your confusion. But there’s a very subtle difference between procrastination and creative, productive, process-nourishing goofing off.



Procrastination, as I see in my therapy practice every day, is a product of an artist’s inner conflicts around his or her creative gifts. Fears about failure, questions about one’s sense of entitlement, doubts about competence, concern about the potential for shameful exposure.



With rare exceptions, I’ve found that artists procrastinate to avoid the pain of discovering what they feel will be inadequacies in their art—and often, by extension, in themselves.



I remember, from my days as a screenwriter, the painful, embarrassing feeling that procrastinating brought to the most trivial and pleasant of diversions. Hanging around a bookstore, walking on the bluffs in Santa Monica, indulging in three-hour lunches with other writers—all these activities were tinged with anxiety, with the awareness that I should be elsewhere, back at my desk, writing.



In other words, these were all things I was doing instead of writing, instead of grappling with problems in plot and character. Instead, moreover, of examining what might be going on inside my head about my ability to solve these problems.



How different in feeling this miserable state is from the liberating pleasures of goofing off, or skylarking, or puttering! In my experience, when an artist is working well, these same side-activities—hanging pictures, reading, cleaning out your files—serve as an adjunct to creativity. They provide necessary down-time for letting your thoughts percolate, for letting a sudden new idea simmer in the pot for a while.



Think of it this way: You’re not watching the entire first season of Mad Men merely to avoid working. Rather, you’re allowing that part of your brain that creates to labor away unconsciously, filtering and sorting, selecting and discarding.



Equally important, I think, is that there are often analogs between seemingly non-creative activities and creativity itself. Who’s to say that clearing out your desk isn’t a way to help organize your thinking? That talking with other artists about their ideas, goals and troubles isn’t a way to help re-invigorate your own creative ambitions, or to get perspective on a particular concern?



Let’s take writers, for example. Certainly reading others is a path to clarifying your own writing goals and issues. Many screenwriters find both inspiration and motivation in reading noted screenplays like Chinatown or The Social Network. Smart television writers know the value of reading each season’s best pilot scripts.

Guest Post: How to Keep Your Website Optimized for Google: An Interview With Simon Heseltine by Penny C. Sansevieri

I spent a bit of time recently with Simon Heseltine. He is the
director of search engine optimization for AOL and Huffington Post. I
met Simon at an event a few months ago and I have been eager and looking
forward to this interview. 




PS: I was talking to you before we started recording about an
article that you wrote about making sure your website is up to snuff,
and doing what it needs to be doing. A lot of us build our sites, and
then forget about them. If somebody had a site up for about a year or
so, what are the kinds of things that need to be done? Things that we
may not look at enough on a regular basis?




SH: Well, Google makes so many changes to the
algorithm on a regular basis. In 2010, it was over one per day. Now,
some of those you are never going to notice, it is moving the strength
of a certain element from .01 percent to .015 percent; but some of those
really big ones you do notice. Last year we had some huge updates that
really did hit a lot of different websites. If you are not really taking
a close looks at your website and not looking at the analytics on a
regular basis, you will not notice the impact some of these smaller ones
have had on your site. You could be getting pecked away at piece by
piece if you are not continually looking back to make sure that you are
in fact up to date with your search engine optimization efforts. Then of
course you have the issue of your competitors out there; they are
building links or modifying their sites. You need to make sure that you
are on top of that and can identify with what is going on with them. 




PS: Business owners are out there listening to this saying,
"Yeah, I get it, you're right." With Google changing their algorithms, I
remember there was a time when it was once or twice a year. Now, if a
month goes by and they don't do it, it is surprising. How does a
business owner know what to do with their site to keep it up to par?




SH:There are many different sources to read to find
out about the latest news. Google Webmaster blog now puts out a monthly
report that gives you a high level overview of some of the changes in
the previous month. It is not going to give you in-depth details, but it
is going to let you know that they have made modifications. It will
give you an idea of what kind of things you need to look at.




PS: Please talk more about what is in your blog; you
mentioned "search yourself." How is that useful when you are trying to
figure out if your site is still up to snuff?

SH:Well, when you go out there you do need to take a
look every now and again to see what people are seeing when they search
your key terms. Is it the brand or the key terms? Now more often than
not you are going to be focused on those key brand terms, you have got
to be focused on whatever it is you are trying to sell, or the title of
your latest post. You might forget to go and take a look at your brand
itself. It is possible that something may have atrophied on your site.
Some plug-in may have failed; some code may have been inadvertently
pushed-out there. Suddenly you have lost your description tag. Suddenly
what is being shown in the search results is not a good call to action.
Or it could just be that your site links, which is when somebody
searches for you, they get six to 10 different blue links directly below
your name that link to specific pages on your site. Google considers
them to be good pages on your site, but they are not always the best
pages on your site. They are not the pages that you are trying to direct
traffic to; so you want to go in there and see what ones you don't want
in there. You then have the ability to go in to you Google Webmaster
tools and say that I do not want that particular site link in there.




PS: The other piece on your blog was "Eat your own dog food."
I love that phrase! Please talk to us about what you mean about that. 




SH:Every now and again go through your order
process. Order some of your own product. Figure out if it is as
intuitive as you think it is supposed to be. Have somebody on your staff
who is not involved with development, go in and place an order for your
product. Watch them, see how it goes with them, and see if anything has
changed. It could be that something is not as intuitive as you think it
is. In my past life as a developer, I knew how the users were going to
use the site. It didn't mean they were going to use it that way, but I
knew how they were going to use it. So you do need to go through and
actually eat your own dog food. Run through your entire process yourself
to make sure it is as intuitive as it needs to be. 




PS: That is such a good idea. We try to do it once a quarter
and I am horrified when I see the "404 page not found." The other issues
are the plug-ins. A lot of people are using Wordpress as a platform.
Our site is built entirely in Wordpress and plug-ins sometimes give us a
lot of issues with the loading of the site and what not. 




SH:The thing about relying on a third party is, are
they reliable? Is that plug-in going to give you what you need from it,
is it going to be there, or is it going to fail? Is it going to continue
to be up-to-date with the newest versions of wordpress? 




PS: Have you been seeing a trend with virus issues? Not
necessarily getting hacked, but last week we had a situation where
someone loaded our site and something came up that said there is a
virus. Somehow it embeds itself into the site. Have you been seeing
that?




SH:Yes, I have been seeing a bit of that. In fact I
did an article in February on Search Engine Watch. It talked about
somebody who had been running for state senate, her wordpress site had
been hacked and displayed information on Canadian pharmaceuticals. When I
did a search on some of the key phrases I found on her site, I found a
large number of sites that used the same version of wordpress that her
site was using, and they had the same issue. They had been hacked and
the Canadian pharmaceutical stuff was embedded, you could not actually
see it on the page, but links were hidden in the background of her site.
If you are using Wordpress, you need to make sure that you are using
the latest version. They will let you know when they are having security
issues, so make sure you have updated as soon as you can. 




PS: What is the best way to inspect yourself? Going through page by page? How do you recommend somebody do this?




SH:There are different crawlers out there that allow
you to do a crawl on your website, they will come back and say what the
issues are that they found. Whether it is broken links or incorrect
links, missing descriptions or multiple tags, they will come back and
let you know what these issues are. You can then determine whether or
not they are worth fixing. One tool that I use is Microsoft's IIS SEO
toolkit; it is a great little tool. You run it and it crawls up to a
million pages, and then gives you a list of errors on the site.

I will tell you a little story about inspecting your site regularly;
there was someone that I was talking to the other week who was having an
issue with their site. Their rankings started to drop off and they
could not understand why. I took a quick look at their site and found
that every page had no index on it. This tells the search engines to not
put this page in to their search index. They were telling the search
engines that we do not want to be found, and that is why their rankings
were dropping. This impacted them quite heavily, and it was not them
that did it. There was a third party that was hosting their website.
That is why you need to keep an eye on things, look at your analytics
regularly with daily or weekly reports. 




PS: What do you feel is the best analytics program out there?




SH:There are all kinds of different ones. I am from
Yorkshire where we are careful with our money, so you know Google
Analytics is a very good price at free. 




PS: After speaking to various people who have said that they
do not know how to read their analytics, the better question is "Which
analytic is easier to understand?




SH: It comes down to comfort really. Getting in
there and playing with them and seeing which one is more intuitive. I
have worked with Webtrends, Omniture, and Google Analytics, Clicktracks
and WebSide Story, there are lots of them out there. It is a matter of
which one you find works the best for you. There are other tools that
you plug on to the analytics that can present the data in different ways
for you. Again it is a matter of your own comfort level.




PS: Two more quick questions on analytics. What is the most
important number to look at on the analytics? The second question, what
is a reasonable bounce rate? That tends to be pretty confusing for a lot
of people.




SH:To the first one, a really good answer is "it
depends." It depends on what your business is. If your business is
e-commerce ,then what you care about is your conversions. Then you will
want to look at the whole conversion funnel, see exactly what percentage
you are getting through, what your click rate is coming in, what your
conversion rate is on the end. See if there are ways to funnel more
people through. If you are not an e-commerce site, but purely a
CPM-based advertising site, "it's about getting bums on seats." It is
about getting the eyeballs on your site, getting that traffic there and
that is what you are looking for. You are looking at your page views,
you are looking at your organic traffic and that is what is most
important for you. 




As far as bounce rate goes it depends on the type of site and page
you have. Obviously anything that is 85-plus is not good. I had somebody
ping me about a site they were working with that had 100 percent bounce
rate -- which is not good at all. It does depend on the site and
content on that page. It is possible to have a page with a high bounce
rate that is still performing well for you. If the terms the people are
coming to that page for are really broad, then potentially you are
hitting that percentage of the traffic that did want to find you. In
that case you need to look at the keywords that are driving the traffic
to that page, and really tighten that page up so that it is more focused
around those particular keywords, and you can ignore the rest of the
stuff that is not driving your traffic or conversions for you. Or if you
do want to grab that broader traffic as well, then create another page
that is targeting that more specifically.




PS: It is an important number for business owners to look at
when they are trying to figure out how effective their site is. Not just
pretty, but actually working for you.








 


This Blogger's Books from

Two Rivers Reviews Hysteria

Scene
On Film: “Hysteria”



By
Joan Ellis



How often are you delighted by both the story and the look of a comedy? In
grand collaboration, director Tanya Wexler and writer Stephen Dyer have managed
to get everything right in Hysteria. Playing it straight
with a giant wink in the collective eye, they have turned a true bit of history
into a wonderfully wacky movie that is lifted high by Maggie Gyllenhaal’s
madcap performance.






In this comedy about the invention of the electro-mechanical vibrator, an
inspired cast generates amusement and charm in the stiff formality of Victorian
England. Dr. Granville (Hugh Dancy) is a handsome young doctor disillusioned by
the dismal medical practices in the hospital where he works. He quits in
despair. His new job search lands him in the formal townhouse of Dr. Dalrymple
(Jonathan Pryce), an older physician in dire need of a junior partner who can
help him handle his burgeoning practice of grateful women who line up for
“pelvic massage,” his personally administered relief from the common diagnosis
of the era: hysteria.



The good doctor has two daughters. The proper Emily (Felicity Jones) is an
admirable choice as a mate for his handsome new assistant. Charlotte (Maggie
Gyllenhaal) drives her father mad with her passionate devotion to all things
progressive. The clever setup presents Emily as a metaphor for aristocratic
England – cultured, musical, bright, accepting – and Charlotte as a strident
symbol of justice for women and the poor. She will help them all, at any cost.



When finally Charlotte discusses hysteria with Dr. Granville, she reminds him
that this condition – for which the doctors of the day prescribed hysterectomy
– is instead the result of the fearsome oppression of women who are thought to
be ineligible for life on any level outside the house. So the lines are drawn:
oppression of women and the poor vs. the world of privilege enjoyed by rich
men.



When Dr. Granville and his best friend (Rupert Everett) invent the vibrator,
all things become possible. Is the cure for hysteria at hand? Can the
settlement house survive its financial woes? Will the good doctor marry Emily
or Charlotte? The pleasure in this story lies in the predictability of the
outcomes and the charm of all the characters.



The beautiful filming of Dr. Dalrymple’s stately townhouse where his
professional and family life unfolds is the perfect backdrop for the
lighthearted performances. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Charlotte is a passionate
progressive without bitterness. On the run always, she flies in and out of the
house annoying her father and enchanting the young doctor. Hugh Dancy’s Dr.
Granville is bowled over by the doctor who has revolutionized women’s medicine
and by the daughter who is as determined as her father to right a wrong. Beware
social injustice when these three pick their targets. And all hail the women
who line up for the new treatment for their oppression-induced hysteria. Their
expressions are irreverently ecstatic, their cure sublime. Stay for the credits.

RANDOM HOUSE’S CENTURY ACQUIRES NEW SELF-PUBLISHED TITLE

RANDOM HOUSE’S CENTURY ACQUIRES NEW
SELF-PUBLISHED PHENOMENON HUGH HOWEY WITH FILMS RIGHTS SNAPPED UP BY
RIDLEY SCOTT AND STEVE ZAILLIAN FOR 20th CENTURY FOX

 

After
a fierce bidding war reminiscent of Fifty Shades of Grey, 20th Century
Fox has just acquired the film rights. Ridley and Tony Scott’s Scott
Free are partnering on the deal with Film Rites’ Steve Zaillian and
Garrett Basch. Kassie Evashevski at United Talent Agency brokered the
deal on behalf of Kristin Nelson at NLA.

In the spirit of The Hunger Games, Wool is a high-concept novel set
in a stark future; the air outside is no longer breathable, so the last
community on Earth lives underground in an enormous silo. Survival is
everything, and some will do anything to ensure it. The upcoming Shift
Trilogy is a prequel to the story of Wool.

After a hotly contested 5-way auction, Jack Fogg, Editorial Director
at Century has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Wool and The Shift
Trilogy by Hugh Howey from Jenny Meyer at Jenny Meyer Literary Agency
on behalf of Kristin Nelson, president of The Nelson Literary Agency
(NLA).

Much like EL James’s Fifty Shades trilogy, Wool has become a
word-of-mouth sensation since the author self-published on Amazon.com,
garnering over 600 five-star reviews and selling over 140,000 copies
through e-book in just under six months. Century is the author’s only
English-language publisher as the author will continue to self-publish
in the US. Century will publish in hardback in January 2013 with an
Arrow paperback in August. Ebook will be available immediately.

Foreign rights deals have also been struck in Spain, Brazil, Taiwan,
Poland and China and offers are pending in Germany and other
territories.


Hugh Howey says ‘I couldn’t be more thrilled and honoured to find a
home with Century and Random House. And I hope I spelled honoured
right.’

Jack Fogg says, ‘Wool drew me in from the first page. It’s such an
intricately realised world – both incredibly visceral and visual – but
for me, and for the many fans here at Random House, what really
captivated was the book’s compassion and care for its characters. Wool
is many things, but at its core it is a novel about relationships and
therein lays its brilliance.’

Kristin Nelson says, ‘We did have conversations with US publishers
and although we received several six-figure offers, we decided that the
partnership didn’t make sense yet given the current electronic royalty
rate being offered. We certainly have not closed the door to interested
US parties.’

Hugh Howey spent eight years living on boats and working as a yacht
captain for the rich and famous. It wasn’t until the love of his life
carried him away from these vagabond ways that he began to pursue
literary adventures, rather than literal ones. Hugh also wrote and
self-published his first young adult novel, Molly Fyde and the Parsona
Rescue.