Month: July 2016

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Patterson is One of Forbes’ “Top Earning Celebrities” for 2016

July 12, 2016 admin 0

Forbes magazine has published their list of top earning celebrities for 2016. Novelist James Patterson is in the number three spot, outearning Adele, Dr. Phil and even the material girl. Forbes says Patterson made $95 million last year, making him “publishing’s richest penman,” with “over a dozen books a year with coauthors.” In addition various large and small screen adaptations continue to boost the brand. Here are the top ten celebrity earners, according to Forbes: […]

Feeling Malaise, Ennui or Weltschmerz?
Try Some Bibliotherapy

July 11, 2016 admin 0

I used to have an ennui-filled teenager in my life. “I’m bored,” she would whine. “Read a book.” I would invariably respond, understanding instinctively something that Tyee-contributor Shannon Rupp knows for sure: there are ills in this world that can only be cured by one thing. You guessed it: books. From The Tyee: Lest you dismiss bibliotherapy as another form of New Age Wingnuttery or a gag along the lines of wine therapy, retail therapy, […]

SF/F: Edge of Heaven  by RB Kelly

July 6, 2016 admin 0

If I was given a nickel for every dystopian novel set in an embittered, nihilistic future that I’ve plowed through over the past five years, I’m pretty sure that by now I’d at least have made enough to plunk down the deposit for an eerily human-like android that would cure me of all disease, gun down my enemies and never once crack a yolk while cooking a proper morning breakfast. Oh wait, they haven’t quite […]

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Nine-Year-Old Inks Book Deal

July 5, 2016 admin 0

Will this be the youngest author of a book with a significant deal of all time? If not, it’s close. And film rights are following. From Deadline Hollywood: Scholastic has acquired the worldwide rights to four books by nine-year-old Hilde Lysiak (to be co-written with her father, reporter Matthew Lysiak) and now the film/tv rights are being sold off. Lysiak, who rides around on her pink bike in search of stories, recently rose to fame […]

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Non-Fiction: Online Marketing for Busy Authors by Fauzia Burke

July 5, 2016 admin 0

More often than not, first time authors get a real shock. Writing a book worth reading is a very difficult task. And once the book is complete, it’s easy for an author to say, “Well, that was hard. But now I’m done.” The fact is, though, these days, writing “The End” just leads to a new beginning. Or, as many authors will tell you, once the book is done, the real work begins. When it […]

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A Dog in Wolf’s Clothing

July 4, 2016 admin 0

Readers of our sister publication, The Rap Sheet, have long been enjoying J. Kingston Pierce’s ongoing series, “Copycat Covers.” In the series Pierce compares covers of books featuring mostly stock cover images, quite often using the exact same image — or very similar ones — on very different books. Pierce’s latest entry features two brand-new books: Think Wolf (Severn House) by Michael Gregorio and Rain Dog (Serpent’s Tail UK) by Adrian McKinty. The problem here […]

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Facts in Gay Talese Voyeur Story Challenged

July 4, 2016 admin 0

A New Yorker article published in April, a film that’s almost ready to go into production and a book due to come out next month all face rough sailing from the same source: it’s possible that author Gay Talese (Honor Thy Father, Unto the Sons) was a little fast and loose with the facts. Or some of the facts might have been fast and loose with him. At the moment, no one seems really sure […]

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Fiction: Homegoing  by Yaa Gyasi

July 4, 2016 admin 0

Just into the second half of 2016 and we come across what will be one of the major books — and certainly the most significant debut — of 2016. Author Yaa Gyasi was born in Ghana and raised in Alabama. The 26-year-old studied at Stanford and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and here, with her debut novel, Homegoing (Alfred A. Knopf), she begins her writing career on a memorable foot. Two half-sisters are born in 18th-century […]

Cookbooks: Eat It Up  by Sherri Brooks Vinton

July 3, 2016 admin 0

Two things should be kept in mind when approaching the latest book from Sherri Brooks Vinton (The Real Food Revival,  Put ’Em Up). Thing one: reports indicate that, at present, up to a third of the food produced in the United States each year is wasted: as much as 35 million tons. Thing two: as a culture, we now know that the food we process ourselves is better than the stuff that is processed for […]