#FridayReads, Jan. 18–“God Save the Mark,” Donald E. Westlake and “Going Clear,” Lawrence Wright

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Westlake#FridayReads, Jan. 18–God Save the Mark, a wise-cracking mystery novel by the peerless Donald E. Westlake, featuring a naive young man who inherits a fortune from an uncle he never even knew of, and then tries to keep his hands on it, and away from the lurking no-goodniks who want to fleece him of his windfall. Westlake’s dialogue is street-wise, funny, and real.

Also, just starting to read Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood & the Prison of Belief,Lawrence Wright’s careful dissection and, as the flap copy reads, “deep penetration” of a modern cult. One case Wright reports on is that of Kyle Brennan, a 20-year old whose tragic suicide may have been preceded by his father’s acquiescence to a Scientologist bigwig’s instruction to withhold from the young man medicine prescribed for him by a psychiatrist. The NY Times has already released a review of the book that will appear in this coming Sunday’s Book Review, by Michael Kinsley, who calls it “essential reading.” Should make for revelatory reading this weekend. Going Clear

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Speakerfile, on Stage at Digital Book World

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Thursday Update: Here’s a pic of Speakerfile CEO Peter Evans at the Digital Book World podium yesterday, just after the panel he was part of discussing innovation. Photo by Mercy Pilkington. Today I’ll be on the floor with Peter talking with publishers and agents about how Speakerfile can help their authors be discovered by more readers.DSC_0015

Wednesday Update: Speakerfile has sent out this press release on the wires about CEO Peter Evans’ appearance on a DBW panel later today about innovation:

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It’s not even the middle yet of what’s bidding to be a great week.

Today, Tuesday, I team-taught in a nonfiction book writing seminar at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

Wednesday and Thursday I’ll be attending Digital Book World (DBW), third year in a row I’ve gone to this conference that showcases the evolution of the book world in the sometimes lurching transition into digital reading. What’s more, tomorrow Peter Evans–CEO of Speakerfile, a Toronto company I represent to the publishing industry–will be part of a DBW panel devoted to innovation in publishing. Speakerfile, which has a click-through promo near the upper right corner of this website, is a software platform and website that  connects conference organizers, meeting planners, and members of the media to author experts and thought leaders who do public speaking.

WideSkyscraper(Authors)I began working with Speakerfile in 2012, and one of the first clients I brought them was Movable Type Management (MTM), a literary management firm. Last summer MTM put two dozen of their author clients in to a mini-speakers bureau that resides on Speakerfile’s website, with the same bureau also appearing on MTM’s site. MTM president Jason Ashlock has just recorded a brief testimonial video about Speakerfile in which he says, “Within the first week we had a couple of bookings . . . we’ve now booked over a dozen events for our clients, each of which has paid our clients well and promoted them across the audiences that we’re really hoping that we’ll reach.”

With publishing clients I’ve introduced to Speakerfile finding many new speaking engagements for their authors, I am convinced that this smart Canadian company can become a dynamic engine of discoverability for publishers, bringing authors and their books together with motivated audiences. I’m very pleased that Peter Evans will have the opportunity to share Speakerfile’s story with the questers for innovation at Digital Book World.

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Today’s Work–Teaching Journalism Students at CUNY Grad School

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Enjoyed myself today, team-teaching in a nonfiction book writing seminar with a dozen students at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism on W. 40th Street. I first presented the evolving book world–digital and print–and filled in my book biz background, from retail bookselling to years as an editorial director at major houses publishing topical nonfiction. In the 2nd half of our session, the students presented book project ideas they’re thinking of launching into. With Prof. Glenn Lewis, who’s invited me to join him at least 5 years in a row, we listened to their pitches, hearing some really good ideas. Encouraged them to be in touch going forward, and hope to hear from them again, particularly a few.

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Chuck Hagel is Kryptonite to Shamed Neocons

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The debate over President Obama’s nomination of Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense is prompting unpleasant reminders of the worst of the Reagan and Bush years, with discredited right-wingers attacking Hagel over matters they were catastrophically wrong about only a decade ago. Steve Benen, of the MaddowBlog, read the same James Rutenberg article in the NY Times that I had tweeted about above. He ends his post with this observation:

“Or put another way, the decorated combat veteran [Hagel] who’s reluctant to launch new invasions is being lectured on war-avoidance by the same ‘chicken hawks’ who left their credibility in Iraq–and most of the GOP doesn’t find this odd.
I’m reminded of an on-air conversation Rachel [Maddow] had with Chris Hayes last April about the neocons’ failures: ‘No one [on the right] has ever had to face up to what happened, this sort of magnitude of the error is just completely erased by history. It’s like those old Stalinist books where they just get rid of the people that were disappeared.’
At the time, Chris was talking about folks like Dan Senor taking a leading role in the Romney campaign, despite his role in ‘the worst period of American foreign policy in 100 years, quite plausibly.’ But the problem obviously continues.”

It’s easy to see why hopeless characters like Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, and Bill Kristol are showing such an aversion to Chuck Hagel. He didn’t hesitate to call them out for their  specious arguments justifying the invasion of Iraq, and they can’t get over it. Oh, well, the bigger the pig poked the louder it squeals.

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Earl I. Turner, a Happy Man

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Earl in CA Rockies, 1082My late father Earl I. Turner (1918-92) on a trip he made to the Canadian Rockies, 1982. He went by himself and had a great adventure. On the back of the photo is written in his familiar printing, “10 Peaks, Moraigne Lake, July 1982”. Dad loved dramatic scenery, maybe one of the reasons I’ve always been partial to landscapes like this one in Canada, as well as Scotland, the Southwest, and New Hampshire’s White Mountains, where I went to Franconia College.

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#FridayReads, Jan. 11–“Zero” by Collinson Owen & “The Troubled Man” by Henning Mankell

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#FridayReads, Jan. 11–“Zero” by Collinson Owen. Enjoyed this engrossing late-Edwardian (1927) potboiler about a novelist who welcomes the opportunity dealt him by a train wreck that leads his wife and friends to believe he’s been killed. Notwithstanding a new life under a nom de plume that shoots his career as a writer to new heights, he discovers a powerful urge to somehow go home again. It has lots of London publishing and theatre world material. According to the inside, Owen wrote at least 5 other books: The Adventure of Antoine; The Rockingham Diamond; The Battle of London (as “Hugh Addison”); C.O’s Cameos; and Salonica and After, a travel narrative. It’s easy to see why this was a popular entertainment in its day. I (gently as possible) reread my 1927 copy (it’s mostly disbound).Zero insideZero

Have moved on to The Troubled Man, another Kurt Wallander police procedural novel in my recent binge of books by Henning Mankell. This is one of the last of his Wallander novels, with the taciturn detective investigating the inexplicable disappearance of his in-laws. This book also features his daughter Linda, a police captain herself. It is the father and mother of her beau that have gone missing. I know from the sequence of these novels that Wallander is going to retire soon, plagued as he is by diabetes and terminal ennui, a fear that he’s wasting his life in futile pursuit of lawbreakers. I love these books for Mankell’s loyalty to his characters.Troubled ManMankell

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Announcing #R3NYNJ, the NYC/New Jersey CBCRadio3 Fan Group

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NYNJR3With my friend Steve Conte–owner of FunnyBooks, the comics store in Lake Hiawatha, NJ–we are today announcing the launch of R3NYNJ, a fan group in the NYC metropolitan area to celebrate Canadian indie rock n’ roll, borrowing our name from CBCRadio3, the fabulous Internet radio station based in Vancouver that is such a rich portal for the work of 100s of great Canadian musicians, many of whom have international followings, or will have fans worldwide. Under the banner of this new logo (inspired design by Steve), and the Twitter hashtag, #R3NYNJ, we will
* promote upcoming live shows, post showtimes & info;
* spread word of US releases of new albums by Canadian artists;
* share coverage from The Great Gray Bridge blog of shows we’ve attended;
* invite new fans–denizens of Gotham and Canadian transplants–to join us in the group and at live shows;
* be a rallying point for Canadian artists touring in the NY area;
* cover the venues where the bands often play;
* inform Canadians in the NY area who want to stay connected with all the great music now being made by the seriously great bands, singer-songwriters, and performers of our dear neighbour to the north.
More details on #R3NYNJ will follow in coming days. We’re starting to use the hashtag and logo today. For contact with us, please follow me personally on Twitter and contact me there. My handle’s @philipsturner. This would be a big help, as I will naturally be using Twitter to make the hashtag hum and grow. [Please note, this is an “unofficial” group, not formally affiliated with the CBC.]

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The Arkells’ Great Show in NYC Jan. 9

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PST & Max
Hanging w/Max Kerman, charismatic lead singer of the Arkells, after the band’s great live show in NYC Jan. 9, Webster Hall. Please click here to see four more photos from their show.

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