authors

Good news in the book reviews department:

National Public Radio has expanded the book coverage on its website, adding weekly book reviews, and has hired six new book reviewers—including a graphic novel reviewer—and added more features to an already existing lineup of author podcasts, critics' lists and other book-focused content.

The 'Lord of the Rings' film trilogy has raked in billions for others, but for the heirs of beloved author and creator J.R.R. Tolkien, nothing.

"Three rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne." And not one ducat for the guy who created it all. Stinks.

…last night Nikita Lalwani's Gifted, an ambitious and widely acclaimed debut novel about immigration and the perils of a precocious childhood…[carried]off the inaugural Desmond Elliott prize. But Lalwani will not be carrying home the £10,000 winner's cheque, and plans to donate it instead to human rights campaigners Liberty.

Strange but true…

The suit, filed by Larry Townsend's attorney for copyright infringement, stems from a dispute over unpaid fees allegedly owed the author by his distributor, the Oklahoma-based Nazca Plains Corp. Nonetheless, the suit charges that Mitzel, along with over 40 other booksellers…infringed on Townsend's copyright by selling the author's books in his store.

Indra Sinha, author of a Booker-shortlisted novel about the impact of a loosely fictionalised version of the Bhopal chemical disaster, has begun an indefinite hunger strike in support of survivors still suffering from the effects of the devastating 1984 chemical leak.

Thousands dead, thousands injured, and now it has to come to this.

…book publishers increasingly are counting on their biggest moneymaking writers to crank out books at a rate of at least one a year, right on schedule, and sometimes faster than that. Many top-selling writers…have turned out at least one book annually for years. Now some writers are beginning to grumble about the pressure, and some are refusing to comply.

Authors, this is your life. I’m sure there are more than a few of you out there who can relate to this.

The famously irascible novelist…has rules about rage. Here, in typically forthright language, he tells how to get furious - and survive.

“One solid left jab or headbutt forces the other party to consider a response.” Quite so. :)

Remember the time Fox News pissed on Kurt Vonnegut's grave? The network upheld its belles lettres legacy the other night as Greg Gutfeld and his Red Eye cohorts branded Stephen King "partially brain-dead" and "a raging alcoholic," along with cracking jokes about running him over in a van, because they didn't like the way he phrased his exhortation to teens to read more.

Puleese.

Two years after announcing his retirement, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, master of magical realism, is on the verge of publishing another novel…this one a “novel of love,” according to those in the know. Look for the as yet untitled work to appear before the end of the year.

Awesome news indeed, this.