 Literary Spotlight: Falklore: Happy New Year Break Free from the Ghosts that Haunt You Split Ends: Banned Books |
Issue 25
Dear Lee
| Dear Lee, Blog, blog , blog, blog, blog, blog, blog. What the hell is wrong with these people who would rather spend every waking hour blogging with strangers in some make believe world than spending time with their family and friends in the real world? I’m asking because my best friend is about to lose his wife to the Vampire Bloggers. How can we save her? -When a Stake in the Heart Won’t Work |
| Dear Stake in the Heart, Get her some professional help. I’m not referring to a vampire slayer, but to a psychiatrist. Like gambling, blogging can be an addiction. When bloggers go bad, they hurt more than just themselves. Get yourself an S!BAN button today and wear it proudly. Stop! Blogging Addiction Now. |
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| Dear Lee, I have money saved to begin my new career path in publishing. I just finished the last set of rewrites and was about to start marketing my work to agents and publishers. I was always wiling to pay my way because I know it takes money to make money. Now I’m worried that with all the financial problems we’re experiencing in the United States, that maybe I should just forget my dreams and go quietly into retirement. You have any words of encouragement? -Torn Between Two Worlds |
| Dear Torn, It has been my experience that life offers to us what we want the most and what we fear the most. Everything else passes by unnoticed. You are at a crossroads: Two questions: What do you fear most? Going quietly or living your dream? Sorry I couldn’t be of more help. Let me know what you decided to do. |
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| Dear Lee, I work for a large publishing company, and I find myself growing more and more unhappy with the industry. Granted, I’ve been around for a long time. I’d say I had more successes than failures. I’m pretty proud of both. There was a time that I was proud to be a part of the publishing and literary world. However, today there are far-reaching problems, that frankly, have me disgusted and worried about the future. In my day, the “new-guard” were honorable people, eager to make their mark. They were respectful of the “old-guard” and sought out their experience and wisdom. The old was always ready to pass the torch to the new. Today, there is a new breed of literary agents that prosper by attacking the established agents. Here’s an example: I was attending a writer’s retreat where I meet with a lot of agents who pitch their projects. I inquired why my old friend who is an agent was taken off the presenter’s list. I was told that several Internet sites and some agent reporting site listed my buddy as a scam. A scam! Furthermore, the organizers of the event were threatened that if they did not drop this agent from attending the retreat, that an Internet campaign would be launched to “expose” that event as a venue to help scammers scam new writers. Unbelievable. This event was sponsored by a very high profile and respected industry publication. How can they let themselves be bullied by these Internet thugs? -Disappointed in New York |
| Dear Disappointed, Many times a week I am asked the same question. The best I can figure is that the industry had a choice to put a quick end to the thuggery when it first began, but instead they allowed and even assisted the Internet thugs. Now the beast is out of control. If I had an answer for how to end this mess, I would make a fortune. Sadly, I once thought that the law would protect us people. Yes, people. Not websites. Websites are not to blame for this malignancy, people are. I suppose the only solution to stop the spread of this smelly waste is for people to stop visiting toxic websites. |
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Submit Your Questions to: dearlee@writersnewsweekly.com.
Book Review: "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild & Got a Life" (Little, Brown and Company, 2006) by Kaavya Viswanathan
By Amanda Linsmeier
How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life (Little, Brown and Company, 2006) by Kaavya Viswanathan is a fun and funny look at a young woman who will do anything to make her dreams come true. Opal Mehta is not your average 17-year old. Besides speaking several languages, being student council vice-president and founder of the Science Bowl Team, she’s got a perfect GPA and her test scores are out of this world. And it’s all been with one goal in mind: Getting into Harvard. Opal and her parents will do anything to make sure she gets into the prestigious school. There’s just one problem: Harvard isn’t sure about her. She is at a loss for words when the Dean of Admissions asks the question, “What do you like to do for fun?” For fun? Everything in her life has been in preparation for Harvard, to make her a better candidate, more successful, so they could not reject her. And now? Opal doesn’t know what to do. She and her parents launch HOWGAL (How Opal Will Get A Life); a strategic plan to make her the most popular girl in school and surely turn her into a more well-rounded teenager, someone Harvard couldn’t possibly say no to. The Mehtas apply their determination to this new idea. They learn teenage slang, watch MTV round the clock, get Opal a new wardrobe and study Vogue. Opal starts her senior year of high school with a fresh perspective and an array of miniskirts and designer shoes. How can the popular kids resist her? More importantly, how can Harvard?
How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life is a great novel. I thought Opal’s parents were hilarious. A little bit unrealistic perhaps, when they left her alone to have a party, but still charming. It was fun to see the transformation of Opal from total geek to one of the most popular girls in school. I don’t remember girls’ being that catty when I was in high school, so this story is either an extreme case or life really is right out of the movie "Mean Girls". Either way, this novel was an interesting character study,and all in all, a lot of fun. I wish Opal would have gotten a little revenge on the snotty cliquey girls or at least told them what was what, but I still liked it. There’s romance, humor and some deep questions for Opal. What is really important in life? Is it possible to be smart and pretty? Who is she? What does she want? You’ll find yourself rooting for Opal the way I did. If you’re past that stage in your life, you’ll recollect high school with fond memories, a bit of disgust, sheer relief that it’s over or even sadness that it’s over. And quite possibly, a combination of them all.
Literary Spotlight: William P. Young
William P. Young, self-published author of the novel The Shack was raised among a stone-age tribe by his missionary parents in what was New Guinea. He worked as a former office manager and hotel night clerk in OR. His book debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times trade paperback fiction best-seller list.
Q: What accounts for the popularity of your book?
A: It is a little outside the box like a parable. It’s the truth inside a story. It appeals to the heart as well as the brain. There is a lot of sadness out there and people have questions and want to have them discussed in the open. People speak out of pain, and this is a positive message that grace extends to anybody.
A lot of the success has come from word of mouth. And what has surprised me are the people who send e-mails describing its transformational impact. The people it helps are those who are hurt and broken. I’ve seen it help those in prisons and those in grief counseling.
Q: You have succeeded in creating a marketing success by self publishing. What was that like?
I am an accidental writer. I wrote this for my children as a gift. There is a huge group of readers not being written to. We tried twenty-six major publishing houses. The answers were either ‘too much Jesus’ or ‘we don’t’ have a niche for it; its too edgy.’ No one wanted us. There is an unspoken rule in publishing; if nobody else is doing it we can’t do it and if everybody else does it, we can’t.
So we printed fifteen copies at a local printer and gave some to people we loved and asked them to give it to people they don’t know. We learned a lot from the feedback. In sixteen months, there were four major revisions. I was very open to conversation about the book. The response was great, and we formed Windblown. Without intending to we shook up the publishing industry in a good way.
Q: You have said the shack is a metaphor for the house you build out of your own pain. Explain.
A: The shack is a metaphor representing the heart and soul of a human. We all build the inner house where we hide our secrets, shame and addictions; lot of us don’t let anybody in and fake the house on the outside. We live in two worlds; the world of shame in the shack and the other world of façade.
Q: How do you respond to the criticism of some Christian leaders?
A: This is a work of fiction. There are people who try to turn it into a theological conversation and they are missing the point. They see what they are looking for and it supports their own baggage. The interesting thing is that some of the angriest people who are against the book haven’t even read it.
Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.
Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.
Guest Editorial
By Eddie Correia
During the campaign season, we are reminded daily of the power of political speech to persuade, to inspire and to mislead. It is not clear if writers are more immune to manipulation by political language than others, but at least we should be more sensitive to its uses and abuses. Let’s review some of the years’ highlights and examples of the great range in the quality of political discourse.
On rare occasions, political language is especially powerful and intellectually provocative. Senator Obama’s speech on race earlier this year is arguably an example. One can also think of historical examples that reflect the best use of political language. In honor of the current economic crisis, consider FDR’s famous line about the risk of financial panic in his inaugural address in 1933: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” What makes that statement so memorable? Like poetry, the sentence is structured to be read aloud – four introductory beats, followed by the climactic two beat conclusion, coupled with the double use of the word “fear.” The result is a sentence that is comforting and pleasant to hear at the same time. But the real magic is in the content. Substantively, it is the rough equivalent of: “Just don’t panic.” Rhetorically, however, it creates the image of fear as separate from ourselves, as if we are at one end of the room and fear is at the other. All we have to do is stand up to it, and we can defeat it.
The statement has held up well over the years, but alas, its descendants have not. During the Democratic primary campaign, Senator Clinton attacked Senator Obama for being all words and no substance. Obama countered by quoting FDR’s famous line and asking: “Are these just words?” Clinton countered by accusing Obama of plagiarism for using the “Just words?” phrase because the Governor of Massachusetts had already used it. To follow the spiral down further, one of President Bush’s responses to the current financial panic was: "If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down.” Among other flaws in this statement, the antecedent of “this sucker” is ambiguous. Is it the banking industry, the American economy or our entire way of life?
A unique example of the abuse of political language is a statement that is the precise opposite of the facts. This technique turns language on its head so dramatically that the listener may miss the distortion entirely, not unlike a person who hears a siren and cannot tell whether the ambulance is directly behind him or in front of him. This brings us to this week’s nomination: Senator McCain’s announcement that he is suspending his campaign to come to Washington in order to “take politics out” of the enactment of bailout legislation. Everyone in Washington, indeed everyone with a high school education, knows that that he really intends to inject politics into the debate. It is a tribute to the state of political discourse in our country that no one is shocked.
The views expressed in this editorial are not necessarily the views of the WritersNewsWeekly staff, its advertisers, columnists or SterlingHouse Publisher. If you have any questions or would like to submit a rebuttal, please email editor@writersnewsweekly.com. Submitted editorials and queries will automatically become the property of WritersNewsWeekly and may be used in any future publications.
