Would you want to write like Gay Talese?

From a very old issue of The Paris Review (Issue 198, Summer 2009) Gay Talese reveals some of his writing quirks:

Here is just one excerpted example...

"Usually I wake up in bed with my wife. I don't want to have breakfast with anyone. So I go from the third floor, which is our bedroom, to the fourth floor, where I keep my clothes. I get dressed as if I'm going to an office, ... What I am really doing is going downstairs to my bunker. In the bunker there's a little refrigerator, and I have orange juice and muffins and coffee. Then I change my clothes."

Publishers Weekly launches BookLife, for self-published books

Galley Cat reports today that... "Publishers Weekly is getting into the self-publishing business with launch of a new site dedicated to self-publishing.  The site is a joint venture with PWxyz and Mediapolis, a technology firm co-founded by Pritzkat.

BookLife, which will go live on May 29, 2014 at BookExpo America, will focus on three main subject areas: book creation which includes editing and cover design; publishing which is all about the physical manufacturing of a book; and book marketing, which will include information on distribution, publicity and sales.

“Self-published books and authors are having more and more impact on readers and the publishing industry,” stated Carl Pritzkat, the president of BookLife and VP of business development for PWxyz LLC."

Source: Galley Cat article

Read "The Telling Room"

Flip on over to the Book Review page for a great book recommendation.

Already read The Telling Room? Please add your comments below.

Oh, to write like David Brooks...

In a recent New York Times op-ed page essay, David Brooks wrote about an interesting passage in a biography of Isaiah Berlin. It was in Leningrad in 1945 when Berlin was invited to meet a pre-revolutionary poet, twenty years past his age. The next four paragraphs are a mini-movie, as Brooks teases us to read on and on. Let me just share the beginning line of each paragraph, like so...

Berlin was taken to her apartment, and met a woman still beautiful and powerful, but wounded by tyranny and the war...

By midnight, they were alone, sitting on opposite ends of her room...

By four in the morning, they were talking about the greats...

Deeper and deeper they talked, baring their souls...

In the next seven paragraphs of this thin newspaper column, Brooks discusses how spiritually ambitious people can experience that sort of life-altering conversation, and the "ideal of a certain sort of bond... that happens once or twice in a lifetime."

Please read David Brooks' essay, and enjoy the opportunities for real communication among friends or strangers who become friends, and perhaps capture "the numinous magic of that night" in your own life.

Net Galley reviews get results

For two years now, I've been reviewing books via Net Galley.

Publishers make their books or galleys available electronically and Net Galley        In addition to reading and review the top new books in genres of interest to me, I'm taking the Net Galley 2014 Wellness Challenge, providing feedback to publishers as well as informing my loyal readers.

Introvert? Extrovert?

Introvert vs. Extrovert Writers

In a travel piece on World Hum, Sophia Dembling states:

"Introversion and extroversion are inborn traits, and the difference between them is not that one is gregarious and at ease in the world and the other shy and awkward. Rather, extroverts are outwardly motivated and gain energy from interaction with the outside world while introverts are more inwardly directed and drained by interaction with others. Introverts’ thinking tends to be deep and slow, we require copious time alone, we prefer probing conversation to shallow chitchat, and our social lives are geared more towards intimate one-on-one interactions than “more the merrier” free-for-alls."

Most writers and bloggers share the extremes of introvert or extrovert tendencies in writing as well as in social interaction.

If you love the quiet, prefer to write alone, shun the questions about your writing, and run fast when the conversation turns to critique groups, you're a darn good introvert.

If you're an extroverted writer you probably prefer to hear people tell you their stories, and you write in public, enjoy sharing your work-in-progress, and trading stories with other writers about the craft.

Either way, you're doing what's right for you, of course, but its nice to recognize your tendencies and take comfort in silence or among friends, as long as it feeds your hunger to write and helps you write well.