New Literary Agent Listing: Sally Ekus
firstwriter.com – Monday April 15, 2024
Represents a wide range of culinary, health, wellness, and lifestyle talent, from first-time cookbook authors to seasoned chefs, RDs, professional food writers, bloggers, online creators, and journalists.
Ernest Hemingway’s Advice to Aspiring, Young Writers (1935)
openculture.com – Thursday April 11, 2024
Here in the twenty-twenties, a hopeful young novelist might choose to enroll in one of a host of post-graduate programs, and — with luck — there find a willing and able mentor. Back in the nineteen-thirties, things worked a bit differently. “In the spring of 1934, an aspiring writer named Arnold Samuelson hitchhiked from Minnesota to Florida to see if he could land a meeting with his favorite author,” says Nicole Bianchi, narrator of the InkWell Media video above. “The writer he had picked to be his mentor? Ernest Hemingway.”
What Hemingway offered Samuelson was something more than a literary mentorship. “This young man had one other obsession,” Hemingway writes in a 1935 Esquire piece. “He had always wanted to go to sea.” And so “we gave him a job as a night watchman on the boat which furnished him a place to sleep and work and gave him two or three hours’ work each day at cleaning up and a half of each day free to do his writing.” To Hemingway’s irritation, Samuelson proved not just a clumsy hand on the Pilar, but a fount of questions about how to craft literature — something Hemingway gives the impression of considering easier done than said.
Nevertheless, in the Esquire piece, Hemingway condenses this long back-and-forth with Samuelson into a dialogue containing lessons that “would have been worth fifty cents to him when he was twenty-one.” He first declares that “good writing is true writing,” and that such truth depends on the writer’s conscientiousness and knowledge of life. As for the value of imagination, “the more he learns from experience the more truly he can imagine.” But even the most world-weary novelist must “convey everything, every sensation, sight, feeling, place and emotion to the reader,” and that requires round after round of revision, so you might as well do the first draft in pencil.
Peter James announced as special guest for Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival
thebookseller.com – Monday April 8, 2024
Peter James has been announced as the final “special guest” for the 2024 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, taking place from 18th to 21st July in Harrogate.
James is the author of the Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series (Pan Macmillan), which has been adapted into an ITV drama starring John Simm. He will mark his 20th Roy Grace book at the festival with an exclusive preview of One of Us is Dead, which will be published by Pan Macmillan in September 2024. The author is scheduled to be in conversation with TV presenter Louise Minchin, and will also talk about his new standalone novel, They Thought I Was Dead (Macmillan), revealing the fate of Roy Grace’s missing wife Sandy.
What’s On: Bournemouth Writing Festival, various venues
advertiserandtimes.co.uk – Monday April 8, 2024
AUTHORS, poets and amateur and professional writers are invited to join more than 100 workshops and events organised as part of the Second Bournemouth Writing Festival.
Writers appearing this year include award-winning author Kathleen Whyman, editor and writer Gary Dalkin, self-publishing success Matt Shaw and bestselling author Alex Stone. The writers will be discussing a range of topics from plotting a novel to choosing the best publishing options.
Following the success of its inaugural event, the Bournemouth Writing Festival returns from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th April, bringing together a diverse community of local and UK-wide writers, authors and professionals for a weekend of learning and collaboration.
The Importance of a Great Setting in Crime Fiction
crimereads.com – Monday April 1, 2024
Some years ago, I was working on a draft of my first real mystery thriller. In the opening pages, I included a bit of description meant to establish the location of the story (my hometown, Gainesville) and the time of year (late spring, the most miserable season in Central Florida). When I submitted the chapter to a writing workshop, one of the more experienced writers in the group immediately commented: “You need to cut all this setting stuff. Thriller fans don’t care about setting. They want to get to the action, quick.”
Like most writers, I passionately despise criticism of any kind, but this rankled more than most. It rankled, of course, because I knew that the writer who had made this comment (a very elegant and smart older lady with a couple of published novels under her belt) was partially right. Not about the “thriller readers don’t want to read about setting” part (I totally disagreed with that portion of her response; my disagreement is, in fact, the topic of this essay), but with the fact that I was rendering my novel’s setting improperly. That is, I was describing the setting in a very lazy and arbitrary manner, disconnected from what was actually happening in my main character’s mind or, for that matter, in the plot.
Japan publisher threatened over publication of trans-skeptical book
english.kyodonews.net – Sunday March 31, 2024
A Japanese publisher has received threats over its plan to publish a translated version of a controversial U.S. book questioning an increase in young women seeking gender transitions, its parent company said Saturday.
Sankei Shimbun Publications Inc. received an email threatening arson against bookstores that carried the book unless its publication was canceled, noting the work could promote discrimination against transgender people.
The conservative Sankei Shimbun newspaper's book-publishing imprint, owned by Sankei Shimbun Co., filed a police report alleging forcible obstruction of business.
"To threaten bookstores, where many people gather, is an unforgivable act. We will publish the book and not bow to this malicious pressure," Sankei Shimbun Publications said.
Not everyone has a novel in them
thecritic.co.uk – Friday March 22, 2024
Mrs Secret Author, who knows her onions, recently drew her husband’s attention to a Facebook post that, or so she claimed, simultaneously epitomised all that was best and all that was worst about the modern literary marketplace.
In it a woman — thankfully unknown to us — had decided to file her new year’s resolutions. One of them was to write “a Romance novel”. Clearly this was going to take a bit of time, but the aspiring novelist was confident that if she started now it would be possible to plan for a pre-Christmas launch.
All this, it turned out, had gone down a storm with the poster’s friends. To a man — well, actually to a woman — they rushed to assure her what a terrific idea it was. Several of them confided that they, too, had always wanted to write “Romance novels” and it was great that at least one of their number was about to get on with it.
And who was lined up to publish the darling work? Naturally, in this age of limitless technological horizons and level playing fields, the author was going to publish it herself.
A3 Alums Andy Patman, Martin Spencer & Martin To Join Innovative Artists Literary Department
uk.movies.yahoo.com – Friday March 22, 2024
Innovative Artists is beefing up its literary division with the addition of veteran agents Andy Patman, Martin Spencer and Martin To. The trio recently got on the market following the shutdown of A3 where they helped reestablish a literary division, with Patman serving as head of Television Content.
This is the third consecutive agency where Patman, Spencer and To will be working together following stints at Paradigm and A3, which they all joined in 2020. Bringing their roster of clients, they will be based at Innovative’ Los Angeles office. They join agents Jim Stein, Michael Pio, Joe Arciniega, Susan Sussman, Emily Cameron, and Ethan More in Innovative’s literary department.
Lit Agents Alysia Thomas, Kelsey Roberts Exit Paradigm
uk.finance.yahoo.com – Friday March 22, 2024
Paradigm and a pair of literary agents, Alysia Thomas and Kelsey Roberts, have parted ways, sources tell Deadline.
Paradigm declined comment.
Thomas has already made her exit, and we’re told this was entirely amicable. What prompted Roberts’ exit is unclear, but she’s still finishing up her time at the agency.
New Publisher Listing: McNidder & Grace
firstwriter.com – Thursday March 21, 2024
We specialise in non-fiction and fiction titles for adults. With a particular emphasis on popular culture, our non-fiction list includes books on photography, art, music, biography, history, country pursuits and more recently health and well-being. Our fiction list concentrates primarily on Crime and Thrillers.
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