Post from Writers Write
Monday, March 8, 2010, 8:00 pm
Read more: Writing

Geoffrey Fletcher stands next to his Oscar backstage during the 82nd Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre. Geoffrey Fletcher won Best Adapted Screenplay for his adpation of the novel Push by Sapphire. He is the first African American screenwriter to win an Academy Award. Fletcher beat out favorites Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner who wrote the script for Up in the Air. Fletcher is also an adjunct professor of film at Columbia University and NYU.



Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire was nominated in six categories and won two Oscars. The second Oscar went to actress Mo’Nique, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as an abusive mother.



You can find more coverage of the Oscars, including fashion coverage, on our sister site ShoppingBlog.com’s Oscar section.



Photo: Todd Wawrychuk/ (C) A.M.P.A.S.



Permalink | Recent Headlines | Our News Feeds

Post from Writers Write
Saturday, March 6, 2010, 12:00 am
Read more: Writing

The Awl wants to know why so many people hate Dave Eggers. Maria Bustillos did a Google search for the most hated authors and what she found was surprising. While there were only two results for “I Hate Jonathan Franzen” (which is amazing, considering how annoying he is), there are 3888 results for “I Hate Dave Eggers.”

Part of the hate accruing to Dave Eggers is undoubtedly due to crab-bucket syndrome, which is when there are a lot of rivals, e.g., writers who are struggling after success in the form of TED prizes and screenplay commissions, and then one of them actually succeeds, and the rest of his fellow-strivers and former comrades attempt to yank him back down again. In the case of Eggers this is commonly depicted as not just envy, but more like a sense that the litterati just ought to have a better representative. Better, somehow, in some way, than this seemingly self-promoting impresario.



As well, a great divide opened between youngs and olds on the issue of Eggers when Where the Wild Things Are finally emerged. Us olds don’t just detest twee, childish sentimentality. We would douse it in kerosene and throw a match on it, if we could.

Post from Writers Write
Thursday, March 4, 2010, 9:00 pm
Read more: Writing

J.K. Rowling turned down the Oscars producers’ invitation to present the award for Best Adapted Screenplay with Twilight author Stephenie Meyer. Jo said that she’s too busy writing her next book to make the trip.

Rowling writes on her website, “You won’t be hearing from me often I am afraid, as pen and paper is my priority at the moment.”



The movies nominated for the screenplay award are In the Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche), District 9 (Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell), Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire (Geoffrey Fletcher), An Education (Nick Hornby) and Up In The Air (Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner).

Post from Writers Write
Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 3:00 am
Read more: Writing

Salman Rushdie is finally planning on writing
about the decade he spent under a fatwa of death issued by Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The fatwa was issued because Rushdie wrote The Satanic Verses.

“It’s my story, and at some point, it does need to be told. That point is getting closer, I think,” he told reporters at Emory University in Atlanta, where an exhibition of his personal correspondence, notebooks, photographs, drawings and manuscripts is set to open on Friday. “When [the archive material] was in cardboard boxes and dead computers, it would have been very, very difficult, but now it’s all organised,” he said.



Last year marked 20 years since the Iranian leader called for Rushdie’s execution, saying that his novel The Satanic Verses insulted Islam, Mohammed and the Qur’an. The edict, which followed street protests and book burnings across the Muslim world, forced Rushdie to go into hiding under police protection for almost 10 years.

Post from Writers Write
Friday, February 26, 2010, 9:00 pm
Read more: Writing

Bestselling author John Grisham is going to write a series of books for kids. The first book, Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, will be published by Penguin Young Readers Group in May. Grisham’s agent David Gernert explained to Publishers Weekly why Grisham went with a different publisher for the children’s series.

“Since children’s books is a completely different area of publishing than adult, and since John had never experienced any publishing in the children’s area, we went out and spoke to a very, very small number of people we felt were particularly good at children’s books,” said Gernert, adding that Random House, Grisham’s adult publisher, was in the mix. “We tried to figure out who had the vision for launching Theo that most matched John’s, and it ended up being Penguin and Don Weisberg.”

Post from Writers Write
Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 3:00 am
Read more: Writing

J.K. Rowling is furious over what she says is a totally absurd plagiarism lawsuit. The lawsuit claims that she stole the idea of Harry Potter from a deceased author named Adrian Jacobs. The estate found out that the statute of limitations had not run, so it filed suit. The lawsuit claims that in 1987 Jacobs submitted to Bloomsbury a number of stories about Willy the Wizard. Bloomsbury rejected the stories.

Jacobs’ family members filed a lawsuit last June, claiming Rowling’s 2000 book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire steals segments of the writer’s novel The Adventures of Willy the Wizard – No 1 Livid Land.
Rowling was named as a defendant in the lawsuit on Wednesday after the trustee of Jacobs’ estate, Paul Allen, realised the time limit to sue the writer had not run out.



But Rowling has moved quickly to slam the accusation, insisting she has never even read Jacobs’ book and will be applying to have the claim dismissed immediately.
In a statement, she says: “The fact is I had never heard of the author or the book before the first accusation by those connected to the author’s estate in 2004; I have certainly never read the book.



“The claims that are made are not only unfounded but absurd and I am disappointed that I, and my U.K. publisher Bloomsbury, are put in a position to have to defend ourselves. We will be applying to the court immediately for a ruling that the claim is without merit and should therefore be dismissed without delay.”

Post from Writers Write
Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 12:00 am
Read more: Writing

There have been many articles written about Apple’s plans to sell ebooks on the new iPad for around $14.99, which is $5 more than the average Kindle price of $9.99. The New York Times reports that it has uncovered a dirty little secret in Apple’s deal with several major book publishers: if a book becomes a bestseller, the book’s price may drop to $9.99.

[A]ccording to at least three people with knowledge of the discussions, who spoke anonymously because of the confidentiality of the talks, Apple inserted provisions requiring publishers to discount e-book prices on best sellers — so that $12.99-to-$14.99 range was merely a ceiling; prices for some titles could be lower, even as low as Amazon’s $9.99. Essentially, Apple wants the flexibility to offer lower prices for the hottest books, those on one of the New York Times best-seller lists, which are heavily discounted in bookstores and on rival retail sites. So, for example, a book that started at $14.99 would drop to $12.99 or less once it hit the best-seller lists.



Moreover, for books where publishers offer comparable hardcover editions at a price below the typical $26, Apple wanted e-book prices to reflect the cheaper hardcover prices. These books might be priced much lower than $12.99, even if they did not hit the best-seller list.

Post from Writers Write
Thursday, February 18, 2010, 9:00 pm
Read more: Writing

Walter Kirn hasn’t been invited to the Oscars and he’s not happy. He’s the author of that novel that was turned into the film Up in the Air starring George Clooney. Up in the Air has been nominated for no less than six Oscars, but Walter wasn’t invited. He has been tweeting his disappointment over the snub. But he still wishes the film good luck.

caution to writers: don’t expect that because you write a novel that becomes an Oscar-nominated film that you’ll be invited to the Oscars


*****


Novelists are like oil in H’wood: they drill us, pipeline us, pump us and then burn us.


*****


sincerely wishes Up in the Air the best at the Oscars, all other matters aside, because art is art and the movie is art, he thinks

“The Academy has a process that we are following and we are respectfully waiting for them to allocate additional tickets. Of course, Walter Kirn is on our wish list for seats, as are producers and executive producers of our film who do not have seats yet.”

Post from Writers Write
Thursday, February 18, 2010, 3:00 am
Read more: Writing

Director James Cameron is writing an Avatar novel. The novel will act as a prequel to the Avatar movie that has made over $2 billion and won the U.S. box office six weeks in a row. Jon Landau, Avatar producer, told MTV news that the novel will act like a prequel.

“It would be something that would lead up to telling the story of the movie, but it would go into much more depth about all the stories that we didn’t have time to deal with – like the schoolhouse and Sigourney [Weaver's character] teaching at the schoolhouse; Jake on Earth and his backstory and how he came here; [the death of] Tommy, Jake’s brother; and Colonel Quaritch, how he ended up there and all that,” Landau explained.



Although Cameron has extensive writing credentials, including the screenplays for everything from the first two “Terminator” films to “Titanic,” the “Avatar” prequel would mark his debut as a novelist.



“I don’t think Jim has ever written a novel before, but his first step of writing a script is often in a novella format,” Landau said. “So this is just expanding that, and I think that he’ll be very adept at it.”

Post from Writers Write
Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 12:00 am
Read more: Writing

Esquire has an interesting article about what life is today for Roger Ebert. The reknowned film critic can longer eat, drink or spreak since he underwent a series of surgeries that included the removal of his lower jaw.

Roger Ebert can’t remember the last thing he ate. He can’t remember the last thing he drank, either, or the last thing he said. Of course, those things existed; those lasts happened. They just didn’t happen with enough warning for him to have bothered committing them to memory – it wasn’t as though he sat down, knowingly, to his last supper or last cup of coffee or to whisper a last word into Chaz’s ear. The doctors told him they were going to give him back his ability to eat, drink, and talk. But the doctors were wrong, weren’t they? On some morning or afternoon or evening, sometime in 2006, Ebert took his last bite and sip, and he spoke his last word.

Post from Writers Write
Monday, February 15, 2010, 9:00 pm
Read more: Writing

Retired British jockey and New York Times bestselling author Dick Francis has died at the age of 89.

Had he remained in the racing world as a trainer or thoroughbred expert after retiring from riding in 1957, Dick Francis would have been remembered as one of the most successful jockeys of his era.



Mr. Francis, who died Sunday at age 89, would also be remembered as the jockey who spectacularly managed to lose in the 1956 Grand National, Great Britain’s most famous steeplechase. A photograph of him within a whisker of the finish line, aboard Queen Elizabeth’s horse Devon Loch, flat on its belly with four legs helplessly splayed out, is one of racing’s strangest images. To “do a Devon Loch” is a still a byword for losing a race from a seemingly unassailable position.



But the disaster actually helped launch Mr. Francis’s subsequent career as a journalist and then as horse racing’s most eloquent writer of thrillers. Almost all his books became international best-sellers, and they made Mr. Francis a wealthy man.

After the death in 2000 of Mary Francis, his wife of 53 years and a close collaborator on his books, Mr. Francis expressed doubts that he would ever write another novel. “She was the moving force behind my writing,” he said. “I don’t think I shall write again other than letters now. So much of my work was her.”



Indeed, he didn’t write another novel until Under Orders in 2006. That novel brought back Sid Halley, the retired steeplechase jockey who was his champion sleuth.

Post from Writers Write
Friday, February 12, 2010, 12:00 am
Read more: Writing

Kirkus Reviews got rescued by a white knight from the NBA. The New York Times reports that Herb Simon, the owner of the Indiana Pacers, purchased Kirkus because he loves to read. The sale caught most of the literary world by surprise. Mr. Simon is chairman emeritus of shopping mall developer Simon Property Group and also co-owns an independent bookstore in Montecito, California. He will create a new company called Kirkus Media, which will be run by Marc Winkelman.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Winkelman, who co-owns Tecolote Books with Mr. Simon, said that the company would retain its current editorial leadership, with Elaine Szewczyk as editor and Eric Liebetrau as managing editor.
Mr. Winkelman said that Mr. Simon was “an inveterate and unquenchable and voracious reader” who was a longtime subscriber to Kirkus, which was founded in 1933. “The idea that Kirkus was leaving was a real shame for him,” Mr. Winkelman said.



In a statement, Mr. Simon said: “With the growth of e-books and e-reading devices, no one can really see the future of publishing. But turmoil like this creates opportunities. At a time when even the definition of a book is changing, my love of books makes me want to be part of the solution for the book publishing industry.”

Post from Writers Write
Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 3:00 am
Read more: Writing

Claremont Graduate University has announced D.A. Powell won the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and Beth Bachmann won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. The Kingsley Tufts prize was established in 1992 to honor work by a midcareer poet. The Kate Tufts Award is given to a poet for their first book of poetry.



D.A. Powell’s books include Tea, Lunch and Cocktails. His most recent book, Chronic: Poems, is also a finalist for the NBCC Award in Poetry, and was named a Best Book of 2009 by Publishers Weekly and the Kansas City Star.



Beth Bachmann won the Kate Tufts Award for her first book of poetry, Temper.



Permalink | Recent Headlines | Our News Feeds

Post from Writers Write
Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 3:00 am
Read more: Writing

Neil Gaiman confirmed
that he’s written a Dr. Who episode. Neil Gaiman sent this message to SFX Weekender about winning Best Comic at the SFX Awards the following message:

“Over the years SFX, and its readers and their votes in the polls, have always been very kind to me. I thought I’d return the favour with what used to be called, in journalistic circles when I was a boy, a scoop.



As anyone who’s read my blog knows, I’m a big fan of a certain long-running British SF TV series. One that started watching — from behind the sofa — when I was three. And while I know it’s cruel to make you wait for things, in about 14 months from now, which is to say, NOT in the upcoming season but early in the one after that, it’s quite possible that I might have written an episode. And if I had, it would originally have been called “The House of Nothing”. But it definitely isn’t called that any more.

Post from Writers Write
Friday, February 5, 2010, 9:00 pm
Read more: Writing

ABC News reports that the West Australian Government has scrapped the $110,000 Australia-Asia Literary Award.

The Arts Minister John Day says the prize has now been scrapped. Instead, he says the government will increase the prize money for the Premier’s Book Awards.



“The State Government is now under a lot more pressure than was the case two years ago and there is simply not the ability to continue that sort of prize in the longer term.”



“So we’ve made the decision to increase the funding that will be going into the WA Premier’s Book Awards and to increase the status of those awards and I think that that is really the best outcome.”

Post from Writers Write
Friday, February 5, 2010, 12:00 am
Read more: Writing

So what does Stan Lee, the co-creator of Spider-Man, think about the studio’s decision to dump Tobey Maguire and do another origin story with Peter Parker as a teenager? He loves it. He talked to Access Hollywood about why he thinks change is good. He also talks about his cameo in Iron Man 2. Take a look:

Permalink | Recent Headlines | Our News Feeds

Post from Writers Write
Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 9:00 pm
Read more: Writing

Variety reports that the Writers Guild of America West will honor Invictus screenwriter Anthony Peckham as recipient of its Paul Selvin Award. The award honors work which promotes civil liberties and constitutional rights.

Peckham will receive the kudo at the Writers Guild Awards’ West Coast ceremonies on Feb. 20 at the Century Plaza. Previous recipients include Allison Cross, Gary Ross, Cynthia Whitcomb, David E. Kelley, Eric Roth, Michael Mann, Jason Horwitch, Don Payne, Robert Eisele & Jeffrey Porro, and most recently, Dustin Lance Black for “Milk.”



“Anthony Peckham’s screenplay for Invictus perfectly illustrates what the Paul Selvin Award stands for, expertly conveying how only a few men can unite to impact positive change, and have that change resonate around the world,” said WGA West president John Wells.

Post from Writers Write
Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 12:00 am
Read more: Writing

The Oscar nominations were announced this morning by Anne Hathaway. Here are the nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay:

Adapted screenplay:

District 9 (Sony Pictures Releasing), Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
An Education (Sony Pictures Classics), Screenplay by Nick Hornby
In the Loop (IFC Films), Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony [...]

Post from Writers Write
Monday, February 1, 2010, 9:00 pm
Read more: Writing

Bestselling British author Terry Pratchett will deliver the Dimbleby Lecture tonight on the BBC. His topic is a controversial one: euthanasia. Pratchett, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, argues that there should be euthanasia panels which would rule yea or nay on proposed assisted suicides. Pratchett believes that those with incurable illnesses have the right to [...]

Post from Writers Write
Saturday, January 30, 2010, 2:00 am
Read more: Writing

Deadline Hollywood Daily reports
that this spring — probably at the Cannes film festival — a new documentary about J.D. Salinger will be released. The project has been kept under wraps — it took five years to make and has extensive new information about the recently deceased author of The Catcher in the Rye. Mike Fleming, who has actually seen the film, had this to say about some of the film’s revelations:

There also are details of: his WWII soldiering in Normandy and interrogation of Nazi prisoners; his love affair with Eugene O’Neill’s daughter Oona, and the crushing disappointment of losing her to Charlie Chaplin while Salinger fought in Europe; Salinger’s habit of locking himself away in his New Hampshire cinderblock bunker for weeks at a time to write; his penchant for taking a week to craft a single sentence; the damage his silences caused his family; the futile efforts of friends to re-introduce him to the world; Salinger’s protectiveness towards his work; his refusal to sell anything to Hollywood, turning down 8-figure offers and first-class filmmakers like Billy Wilder and Steven Spielberg; his determination to maintain total control over his prose (so that when a New Yorker editor once added a comma, Salinger never spoke to him again).



Even more intriguing, Salerno’s documentary also reports on what J.D. Salinger literary works might be in the famed secret vault, where 45 years of unpublished writings are rumored to be kept.