Stewart and Colbert: fake news, real books

A story in Sunday’s New York Times outlines the recent, unexpected discovery made by many authors and book publicists in the U.S.: when it comes to getting interviewed on television, you are better off with the likes of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert than with, say, Regis Philbin or even Charlie Rose.

Take Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi “banker to the poor” who recently appeared on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” on Comedy Central after it was announced that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Tell me about microfinancing and microlending,” Mr. Stewart asked earnestly. “Because there’s a theory that you developed through your work in economics that has really proven to be incredibly effective in fighting poverty.”Mr. Stewart has also interviewed Ishmael Beah, the young Sierra Leonian who just published “A Long Way Gone,” a memoir about his wrenching experience as a child soldier; Jeffrey Rosen, the George Washington University law professor who wrote “The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America”; and Vali Nasr, the Middle East expert who was promoting “The Shia Revival,” an examination of ethnic conflict in Iraq.

Since when did microlending, global poverty, constitutional law and civil wars in Africa become topics for frank discussion on fake-news comedy shows?

When skunks attack

A press release from the Halifax-based Nimbus Publishing announced today that author Lesley Choyce has just uploaded the first installment of his three-part “animal epic film” to YouTube. The Skunk Whisperer was filmed in 2002 – and was subsequently screened at that year’s Maine International Film Festival, apparently – and has since been spun off into a children’s picture book entitled Skunks for Breakfast.
Curious, Quillblog took a look and found a somewhat bizarre – okay, totally bizarre – 10-minute documentary about the Choyce family and how it was stalked and terrorized by a skunk. One by one, each member of the family recounts their part in what will presumably be revealed, in the subsequent installments, as a man-versus-animal donnybrook for the ages.

According to Nimbus, the second installment will be uploaded tomorrow (Feb. 15), and the third sometime before the end of the month.

George W. Bush + “For Dummies” = instant joke

It’s a cheap shot, but it should be noted that the new White House pastry chef was the co-author of … wait for it … Desserts for Dummies.

(from Think Progress)

Baio woof!

Scott Baio – who played Chachi on Happy Days, Charles on Charles in Charge, and … um, that’s pretty much it, actually – is currently shopping around a tell-all memoir, BaioWatch: How I Dated and Loved Hollywood’s Most Beautiful Women and Ended Up Alone, about his life as a former star and notorious ladies’ man. According to a story on canada.com, Baio ended a relationship with Canada’s own Pamela Anderson when she expressed interest in a breast-enhancement.

“One day Pamela came home and said, ‘I’m thinking of getting my boobs done.’ Admittedly, I was surprised. My initial response, ‘Reduced?’ She already had large, beautiful, natural breasts,” [Baio] recalls. “At that moment I knew our relationship would soon begin to crumble. Pamela had finally gone Hollywood – or whatever it is that happens when a woman becomes a hot celebrity.”

Baio also talks about losing his virginity to Erin Moran (who played Joanie on Happy Days) and being asked by Liza Minelli to father her child.

On the evidence, it’s hard to say what Baio will get first: a new girlfriend or a publishing contract, though it’s probably fair to say that no one was sadder to see Judith Regan go.

Looking for lovable losers

When trying to get published, many writers become familiar with the old adage, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” But if that doesn’t work, maybe they should try The Rejected Fiction Writing Contest.

The contest, being held by The Rejected Quarterly (“First in the field of rejection since 1998”), only accepts work that has been rejected at least five times. The submissions require proof of rejection – so no trying to sneak in something that only two publishers have turned down, you haven’t suffered enough.

The contest offers a cash prize, but the real reward is that ever-elusive goal of publication. The top three stories will be published in the magazine. Fingers-crossed, sixth-time’s the charm.

(Thanks for the tip, Bookninja)

The real meaning of publishing

BoingBoing.net directs us to “The Devil’s Publishing Dictionary,” a collaboration between two book bloggers to give a set of common publishing terms more accurate definitions. All of the entries are of the “funny cuz it’s true” sort, but here are some of the highlights:

Advance Reading Copies: A prepublication edition of the book that is distinguishable from regular editions by having no price on the cover, and by costing the publisher more per copy than the reviewers will ever realize by selling them at the Strand or on eBay.

Agents: Even the best authors will eventually write themselves out and fall from favor. Even the best editors will lose their jobs to corporate mergers. But successful agents go on forever, and the really successful ones have lovely summer homes. Try to impress this on your children’s minds when they’re planning their future careers.

Earn Out: To the author, proof that the publisher didn’t pay enough for the book.

Mid-list: What other authors are who sell as well as you do, but don’t have your inherent talent or obvious commercial promise.

And, closest to Quillblog’s hearts:

Reviewer: A person who by virtue of their position must either disappoint their readers, or the authors they review. The ones who satisfy their readers keep their jobs.

Read Ambrose Bierce’s original The Devil’s Dictionary here.

Undercover reading

Stephen King is the U.K.’s favourite guilty pleasure read, as reported in The Guardian. In a survey conducted for the Costa Book Awards 2006, King topped a list that included J.K. Rowling, John Grisham, and Dan Brown (the latter two tied).

The article includes a quote from Simon Trewin, a contributing author to The Encyclopaedia of Guilty Pleasures: 1001 Things You Hate to Love, noting that in general we prefer to read a book in public “that makes us look good.” And Quillblog noticed that Guardian reporter Peter Bradshaw’s own blog included a New Year’s resolution to finish reading Proust’s In Search of Lost Time and a future goal of tackling Hermann Broch.

But if guilty reading pleasures are ruling the day, perhaps it’s Bradshaw who will need to mask his high-brow literary tastes with the faux book covers Costa provided for download.

Revenge: the healing journey

Elvis Costello once said his work was mainly driven by “guilt and revenge.” That apparently goes for Michael Crichton, too, if you replace “guilt” with “environmental catastrophe denial.” As The New York Times reports, Crichton has apparently used his new novel, Next, to settle a score — in the most ham-fisted manner possible.

Earlier this year, Washington political columnist and Yale grad Michael Crowley wrote a piece in The New Republic criticizing Crichton’s attempts to influence public policy regarding the environment. And now, the newly published Next features a throwaway reference to a character named “Mick Crowley,” who just happens to be a Washington political columnist and Yale grad. Oh, and who also just happens to be awaiting trial for sexually assaulting a two-year-old. Oh, and who’s also, um, poorly endowed.

Well, maybe Crichton feels better now, anyway.

Crowley has written about the “literary hit and run” on the New Republic site, but you need a subscription to read it. The Times also has a recap.

Related links:
Click here for the New York Times piece
Click here for the New Republic piece

Personal ads of bookish Brits

The London Review of Books boasts some of the most hilariously bizarre personal ads. David Rose, advertising director at the twice-monthly literary journal, has compiled “some of his favourite ads” in They Call Me Naughty Lola: Personal Ads from the London Review of Books. As the New York Times reports, the following ad made the cut:
“Bald, short, fat and ugly male, 53, seeks short-sighted woman with tremendous sexual appetite. Box no. 9612.”

While the ads are “weird in the extreme,” the Times suggests “they are also peculiarly English.” Kate Fox, a cultural anthropologist who wrote Watching the English, spoke to that: “‘An advertising campaign focusing exclusively on the disgust people feel for your product strikes a lot of people as perverse,’ Ms. Fox said in an interview. But when Britons exaggerate their faults, she said, they are really telegraphing their attributes.”

Related links:
Read the Times story here
Click here to explore the London Review of Books personals

O.J. — now with singing and dancing!

With his “confessional” book scrapped, O.J. is turning to musical theatre to get his story out.

Okay, no he’s not. But at this point, would anyone be shocked if he was?

In any case, Ben Greenman at McSweeney’s has created “Fragments from If I Did It! The Musical” for those interested in wickedly funny musical satire.

Related links:
Sing along with McSweeney’s