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Even though the novel is almost 300 years old (at the time of this post), it is still relevant and exciting. While the language does reflect the prejudices of the 18th Century, it is still a product of its time and well worth reading.
American crime novelist Elmore Leonard (11 October, 1925 – 20 August, 2013) has been recently lost to the literary world. While his earlier novels were westerns, Mr. Leonard specialized in crime fiction putting cops and crooks in bizarre situations to get themselves out of. Books by Elmore Leonard While working at an advertising agency in Detroit during the 1950s, Mr. Leonard started writing western fiction and sold more than 30 short stories to magazines. Mr. Leonard’s nickname was “Dutch” after a major league journeyman pitcher named Emil “Dutch” Leonard. Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quite on the Western Front was a huge inspiration for Mr. Leonard. Mr. Leonard served 3 years in the U.S. Navy. Elmore Leonard never owned a computer. While writing City Primeval, Leonard spent a lot of time with Detroit homicide detectives. For years and years Mr. Leonard maintained a disciplined writing schedule starting at 09:30 and ending at 18:00. When he started writing, Elmore Leonard could produce a page an hour, later on he slowed down to four pages a day. He was once told by a literary agent not to give up his day job. Newsweek labeled the author as the “Dickens of Detroit”. Books by…
The Reich’s brainwashing of racial purity was so successful many didn’t question it. If you wanted a job or a promotion you “did your duty” even if that meant mass murder. However, this is not an excuse, in war time perception of “right” and “wrong” get muddied, but that usually occurs on an individual scale, not when it comes to the assist and/or participating in genocide or a bastardized form of euthanasia (killing your own soldiers who were left mentally or physically injured in battle).
My family members heard the story and were amazed. “You have to write about it,” my mother determined. I had my doubts. This is the problem with true stories: they aren’t credible. Readers would consider the story absurd if they read it in a novel. “Give me a different story,” I asked my sister. “That’s all I’ve got,” she said, and took a bite of chicken.
Star Wars Reads Day returns today, 5 October, for the second time. Various stores will hold events all over the country, these stores include Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million as well as independent book stores and public libraries.. The event, which was created in 2012, was founded by George Lucas who partnered with Dark Horse, Scholastic and other publishers.
Edward Stratemeyer (4 October, 1862 – 10 May, 1930) was a beloved author Children’s fiction and the creator of very popular book series such as The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew among many others. Books by Edward Stratemeyer Stratemeyer was born and died in the great state of New Jersey. Stratemeyer did not go to college, he started writing juvenile fiction after he graduated from high school. Stratemeyer had his own printing press. Writing short stories, Stratemeyer distributed them among friends and family. The first story Stratemeyer sold was Victor Horton’s Idea. He sold it to Golden Days, a popular children’s paper, for $75 in 1888. Stratemeyer introduced the fifty cent novels. Kids loved Stratemeyer’s stories for their escape and entertainment values, other popular books of the time were more series carrying a moral tone. After his success Stratemeyer delegated a lot of the writing & illustration work to others while he busied himself editing and negotiating with publishers. During his lifetime, Stratemeyer produced over 1,300 books and selling around 500 million copies. After his death, Stratemeyer’s daughter Harriet Stratemeyer Adams continued the series he developed with new storylines. Harriet expanded on Nancy Drew and was the…
To celebrate the recent release of Steven Luna’s latest book, Booktrope, the publisher is giving away an eBook of Songs from the Phenomenal Nothing to two winners! Why Rock Stars Make Great Dads Starting ten minutes ago when I realized I have a guest post I need to write, I’ve begun wondering what it would like to have a rock star as a dad. It’s probably not something rock stars themselves think about much while they’re rocking out on the Casino-and-State Fair circuits, but there are many aspects of these musical Peter Pan figures that lend themselves to fatherhood. Self-restraint in public and an ability to control their substance consumption may not be on the list of those, but none of us are perfect. Try reading this run-down and wishing YOUR dad wasn’t a rock star. I bet you can’t do it. They know how to have a good time. It wasn’t a stodgy blowhard who wrote, “I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day.” Likewise, it wasn’t a stick-in-the-mud who penned, “Ma-mama weer all crazee now.” So imagine having a rock star roll out at a birthday party between the bounce house and the balloon twister dude,…
Liad Shoham is a successful Israeli author who recently had his book, Lineup, translated into English. As we all realize, being a successful author in one country does not necessarily mean you’ll be able to cross over to another countries especially if they have difference languages and cultures. Publishers don’t like to take chances and one must be an excellent author and present their case in order to even be considered. Q. What prompted you, a successful attorney, to start writing crime/mystery books? A. Well, when I started writing I was hardly a successful attorney. I was 26 years old and just graduated a master degree from the University of London. I came home to Israel and started working as a lawyer. The notion that this was the “first day of the rest of my life” depressed me. So in the evenings when I came back from work I started writing short stories based on my experiences in London. I never wrote before and discovered that I enjoyed it very much. I initially had no thought of publishing but when the pile got bigger and bigger; I decided to try my luck and sent it to a few publishers in Israel….
Mr. Shapow survived several labor camps and even Rikenau. How did he ever survived the Nazi killing machine, especially due to his habit of stealing food (a crime punished by execution, even if it’s moldy bread) is a testament to the human spirit.
