I've been Kitsch slapped - specialising in bad taste from a feminist chick's perspective, or so the subtitle goes. It's a great website that offers a female perspective on - well, just about everything.
I was surprised to find an article written around my review of an old copy of the pulp magazine, Ranch Romances -
"Contrary to what Jack Martin/Gary Dobbs says, I do not see Ranch Romance (& Adventures) magazines as primarily for women.
Jack/Gary says they must be “aimed at young women since all of the stories have a romantic element to them.” But come on now, dude, I know this may be difficult for a man who loves Westerns to admit but the whole genre – from books to films — is nothing but male romance novels and dick flicks. Sure, there’s some action in there; but the guns and body counts are there to win the damsel, the dame — the 500 miles he would walk just to fall down at her door.
Stop living in denial."
Check the piece out HERE - And for the record I still reckon Ranch Romances is one for the birds.
Jack the Ripper, Pontypridd, Buffalo Bill - confused?
You need not be after reading my popular eBook, A Policeman's Lot which solves the infamous Ripper killings in a new and unique fashion.
With the increased popularity of eBooks I thought it was time to give the book a dash of publicity. Here are some of the quotes from the Amazon reviews -
"Inspector Frank Parade of the Welsh town of Pontypridd heads a two man police force that is busy enough. When Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show arrives with it's five hundred performers and eight hundred livestock, never mind the thousands attending the shows, things get a lot worse.
Then the murders start up, involving a sixteen year old series of unexplained deaths. Throw in a thief, once arrested by Parade, who had threatened his life and had escaped prison by murdering a guard, a number of home break-ins, and superiors who want a fast, easy solution, and you have a fast moving novel that doesn't let up until the end."
"The author uses Parade and Buffalo Bill to offer his own unique solution to the greatest unsolved serial killer mystery in history."
"Dobbs has done his research and packs a lot into his novel. We become immersed in a time and place on the cusp of the twentieth century. Old methods of law enforcement are yielding with the introduction of new technologies. Economic changes create new problems and social pressures.
And there's the entertaining collision of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show with turn of the last century, coal-mining Wales. Cowboys and Indians wander through some of the scenes, and Bill Cody himself figures into the plot at key points. Well drawn, he is a self-important presence used to being regarded as a living legend. Meanwhile, Inspector Parade is a thoroughly enjoyable creation. Happy he is when he's on duty, which is nearly all the time. Such is a policeman's lot."
"The colour of the setting, the atmosphere and the characterization are all top-class. The story starts rather low-key, but once you get to the killings, everything steps up a notch and grabs you by the throat. A "historical police procedural" is the most effective way I can describe it. The storyline's multiple, concurrent strands reminded me a bit of the J. J. Marric (John Creasey) Gideon books, as did the well-observed "common people" characters. The difference here is the way they're thrown into greater relief by their contrast with the celebrated Buffalo Bill and his show people. Your choice of this background for your first Pontypridd novel was a stroke of genius"
Find it HERE
You'll also find the full reviews of A Policeman's Lot on its Amazon page.
The Black Horse eBook bundle has finally turned up on Amazon and other online retailers - The ever reliable Black Horse Extra offers this report:
Black Horse Extra tells the Archive the BHW ebook is now listed on Amazon! The Extra will be running this news item as a "Hoofprint" in its next quarterly edition, due out mid-February:
At last! The first bundle of BHWs to appear as an ebook showed up at Amazon on the last day in January. At the same time, pressure was mounting on the Conservative-led UK government to scrap an onerous 20% VAT (a sales tax) on ebooks to put them on equal footing with printed books, which are exempt, and with ebooks from elsewhere. Glasgow Labour MP Tom Harris pointed out that ebooks in some other jurisdictions were not subject to similar taxes and therefore enjoyed a huge competitive advantage in a growing industry which should be supported and encouraged within the UK. Harris said he had acted after being approached by an epublisher in Glasgow and could not see why an industry of the future had been singled out for discrimination in the UK. BHW readers and writers had understood one good reason for issuing BHWs as ebooks was to make them more widely available internationally at a lower cost. The effect of VAT on Black Horse Westerns Collection No. 1 was as follows: Amazon US price reduced from publisher's digital price of $13.90 to $9.99: "You save $3.91 (28%)." Amazon UK price reduced from publisher's digital price of £9.99 to £7.99: "You save £2.00 (20%)." The US bottom-line figure of $9.99 converts roughly to £6.29 depending on the currency exchange rate of the day. Thus the Amazon customer who goes to the UK site pays an extra £1.70, as Amazon carries out its duties to the British taxman. Amazon customers who choose the UK site as their seller over the US are told, "Unlike print books, digital books are subject to VAT."
Amazon are announcing that over the Christmas period eBooks actually outsold paperbacks. This is another pointer to the future of mass market fiction and comes after Amazon's announcement earlier in the year that eBooks were actually outselling hardback books. The company also cracked the milestone of $10 million US dollars in profit in one quarter, but the results might have been better if Amazon hadn’t needed to slash prices in order to match those at competitor Walmart.
Google are reported to be developing an eReader of their own in order to tackle Amazon and its hugely successful Kindle device.
The writing is, it would seem, on the wall - eBooks are going to crave a bigger and bigger market share of the publishing market. Events that have traditional publishers as well as agents terrified but at the end of the day the new system should give more power to those all important writers.
Judges for the prestigious Man Booker Prize have for the first time been given eBooks rather than traditional books to read. Publishers entering books for the £50,000 Man Booker prize are now being asked to make all submissions available both as physical books and in digital form. This year's judging panel – which includes writers Susan Hill, Matthew d'Ancona, and politician Chris Mullin as well as the Daily Telegraph's head of books Gaby Wood, and is chaired by former M15 chief Stella Rimington – have been issued with eReaders. The move will help them prepare for the 2011 prize longlist, to be announced in July, without hauling around back-breaking numbers of submissions.
Fed up of all the talk about eBooks -CAMBO has been set up to protect paper books and encourage people to buy more books - (From the CAMBO AD)
Spending time and money in a good bookshop is one of life's greatest pleasures. By joining the Campaign For Real Books you can get 10% discount on new and old books from your favourite independent bookshops simply by showing them your membership card. It's like a book token that lasts all year round!
You'll also become part of a huge community of book lovers who will have a real say in the future of real books. Too many local shops have closed down - let's make sure we keep the ones we have and encourage new ones to open.
CAMBO will make a fuss, make the news and make a difference, and the more members we have the more good we can do. As a not-for-profit company we will:
Support new and secondhand independent bookshops across the UK.
Support threatened bookshops and libraries.
Support independent printers, publishers, papermakers, binders, private presses and the 100,000+ British jobs that depend on paper books.
Hold or sponsor book fairs, literary festivals and other events.
Organise prizes for authors, shops, independent publishers, designers, illustrators and others associated with the book trade.
Make sure paper books are never seen as second best to ebooks.
You'll get a lot more than your CAMBO card, too. You'll get free or discounted admission to all CAMBO events, from small gatherings in local shops to big national fairs and festivals. You'll also receive a newsletter and of course access to our website as it evolves with news, views, interviews, a forum, links to shops, old and new books for sale and much, much more.
Issue 17 of Paperback Fanatic is out now and on the way to subscribers. I must admit I wasn't overly pleased when the magazine moved to A5, but the new size suits the magazine and is definitely growing on me. Of course it helps that the page count has been increased and the inclusion of colour into the magazine really helps the images stand out.
The current issue is packed cover to cover with great articles - I found Andrew Decker's piece on the Nick Carter series to be particularly interesting, but then back in the day I was a sucker for the Nick Carter series.
There's also a great article looking the the blaxploitation novels of Joseph Nazel. And that's not all - the mag is well worth checking out by anyone interested in the twilight world of paperback. Check it out HERE
Clint issue 5 finally goes on sale and should be popping up everywhere over the next few days - the lead article this time out is an interview with Samuel L. Jackson, billed as the coolest geek on the planet in which the actor talks about his role as Nick Fury in the forthcoming Avengers movie. The mag's done away with the Sezy Chavs page this time out which was at least entertaining, and for some bizarre reason they have replaced the page with a bizarre section called Sexy Pets - I kid you not.
Of the strips there is at least some development in Kick Arse 2 and Nemesis comes to a blistering conclusion. Jonathon Woss's strip, Turf has become boring. Thankfully Rex Royd has been rested and is replaced by Pro which is a massive improvement. American Jesus is shaping up nicely and is easily my favourite strip in the entire magazine.
Clint needs to solve its distribution problems and get future issues out on time or it is going to lose readers.
The Archive is saddened to report that Book and Magazine Collector is no more - the mag ceased publication last month after more than twenty years. The magazine was not making a loss but had failed to move with the times and as such was failing to pick up new readers.
On a more positive report next month will see another British comic magazine aimed at mature readers hitting shops - Look out for Strip which looks enticing with its mixture of all new and reprint material.
Lancaster-based Print Media Productions has agreed a deal with UK publisher Egmont to feature Hookjaw in the Magazine, re-publishing the strip in colour – and also has an option to publish Dredger, the hard-nosed secret agent who also featured in Action. I was a huge fan of the Dredger stories as a kid so I am especially looking forward to this one and Hook Jaw in colour too - WOW!
HookJaw, inspired by the classic blockbuster movie Jaws, was created by comics legend Pat Mills, scripted by Ken Armstrong and drawn initially by Ramon Sola, followed by Felix Carrion and Eric Bradbury. Consistently topping reader polls, it was Mills who decided to make the shark the star of the strip which tackled environmental issues and corporate greed with equal relish.
The strip also caused controversy on publication, one of the stories that rapidly saw Action become a target of campaigners outraged by its violent content — and its social commentary. The controversy Action created saw the comic ‘banned’ after just 37 issues, returning to the news stands only after its characters had been toned down and effectively emasculated by management demands on the editorial team.
The entire controversy was documented in Martin Barker’s book, Action – The Story of a Violent Comic, published in 1990 by Titan Books.
There you are slaving away for years trying to produce something that will give you fame, wealth and standing, and all the while the sands of time countdown.
Never give up though -
(Reuters) - A 99-year-old woman writing about love, dreams and hanging on to hope has touched the hearts of Japanese worn out by years of a lagging economy, propelling her self-published poetry book onto bestseller lists.
Toyo Shibata's success with her first anthology, titled "Don't be Too Frustrated," is all the more surprising because she only picked up her pen at the age of 92.
"I'm alive to this age thanks to support from my families, friends, care-givers and doctors and am transforming my gratitude into poetry to tell them, 'Thank you. I'm really happy,'" said Shibata, who turns 100 in June, in written answers to questions.
Her collection of 42 poems, which include messages such as "Everyone is equally free to dream" and "Don't try too hard," has been the most popular book on the closely-watched Oricon charts for the last two weeks and was one of the top 10 sellers for 2010, according to Touhan, one of Japan's biggest publishers.
"Although 98, I still fall in love. I do have dreams; one like riding on a cloud," Shibata confesses in one poem with the title of "Secret."
Last week, helped by a late boost of publicity from a television documentary in December, the book hit 1.5 million copies in print, said publisher Asukashinsha. Printing 10,000 copies is often seen as a success for poetry books in Japan.
Shibata began her literary journey at 92 when she could no longer continue with her decades-long hobby of classical Japanese dance due to back pain. Her son Kenichi, currently in his mid-60s, recommended she try poetry writing.
"When my first poem was published in a newspaper, I was very, very happy. I sent them another one and that also got published. So I kept on writing," she said.
She jots down her poetic inspirations whenever they strike, whether she is in bed or sitting at her home in the Tokyo suburbs, where she lives alone. Much of her writing is done at night, after her home helper leaves.
"I think of various things: memories of my past and my family, my current life. I immerse myself in those memories and write from them," Shibata said.
Written in what reviewers have termed a down-to-earth style with "sprightly" words, her poems have proven encouraging to thousands of readers.
"I received the courage and dreams to live on from you," a 70-year-old reader said in a letter to Shibata's publisher.
Another fan, a man who was being shunned by colleagues, said "I take your poems out to read when I'm frustrated."
Shibata hopes her success presents a living example of a late bloomer, giving some hope to Japan's rapidly ageing society.
"A flower bloomed from a century-old tree, and it's all because of your support," said Shibata, who is writing poems for a new collection to be published ahead of her 100th birthday.
"Now I have a souvenir to bring to the after-world and boast about to my husband and my mother there," she added.
That question is asked of all writers at one time or another, and the answer is never really simple. Ideas come from anywhere and at any time, but with my July hardback, The Ballad of Delta Rose I can trace the genesis of the idea back more than thirty years. I'm not saying I've carried the idea around with me all this time (thought it could have been stewing at the back of my mind, alongside my desires for Angelina Jolie, all that time. Who can say?) but the thing that influenced the most important aspect of the novel was a story in a comic book I used to read as a kid. That story was called D-Day Dawson and it told of a character called Steve Dawson who was injured on the 6th June 1944 during the Normandy Beach Landings. Dawson survived the injury but was left with a bullet lodged too close to his heart to be removed and, knowing that one day the bullet will kill him, he vows to keep his injury secret and fight on.
And fight on he did, taking more and more outlandish risks to keep the men who fought alongside him safe. Dawson was forever getting dizzy turns or temporary paralysis as the bullet inside him shifted yet closer to the heart, but he always managed to pull himself together in order to save the day. In one story from October 1975 Dawson thinks, "I've had another warning today that I'm not coming out of this war alive." In another story Dawson, convinced that he only has moments to lives, storms a German machine gun nest single handily. He did however live to fight on for another few dozen or so issues.
There was something heroic about this man who had nothing to lose that appealed to us schoolkids. He was the ultimate soldier since he didn't fear death and was in many ways already dead.
The story was a favourite of mine and it ran originally between March 1975 and May 1976 and then returned for a final series between August 1976 and January 1977. Dawson did eventually die but not from the actual bullet but by an extreme act of self sacrifice that saved his comrades. It was a bleak, downbeat ending to a reader favourite but then Battle Picture Weekly was always unpredicatable.
"He had to die,' said Eric Hebden, the writer who eventually killed Dawson. "It was a chronological story, we couldn't prolong it any further. Once he reached Berlin it had to end."
I remember being upset at the time, as were other Battle readers. In fact one reader, Derek O'Byrne of Dublin even wrote a poem and had it printed in the Comic's 5th November 1977 issue. And if by some chance a grown up Derek does read this article, there is a scan of your tribute illustrating this article.
At the time schoolkids all across Britain went into mourning, for just as grown men where shocked into mourning when Sherlock Holmes supposedly died after his battle with Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, we too were deeply affected by the loss of our hero.
Now I've a collection of Battle comics that I'd kept since I was a kid and a couple of years back when rereading some of these old issues, I suddenly thought the idea of a man doomed by a bullet lodged close to his heart had some mileage. And thus the idea for my third Black Horse Western, The Ballad of Delta Rose was born.
Like Dawson, Delta Rose has a bullet lodged inside him, one that can't be removed and will eventually kill him, but it is there that all similarity and debt to D Day Dawson ends. I approached fellow western writer, Dr Keith Souter and asked him about the effects a bullet lodged inside a human body, checking if it was feasible and indeed possible. I was told it was and was also give some documented evidence of this actually happening. And the novel grew from there. What's more I think it's the best thing I've ever written - the style is much more hardboiled than anything I've ever done and perhaps because I always had this beloved comic strip at the back of my mind, I managed to create something much larger than life, but at the same time keep it credible and grounded in a kind of fictional reality.
Delta Rose will be published on the 29th of June 2011 by Robert Hale LTD on its Black Horse Western imprint. The Black Horse Titles are primarily intended for the library trade and as such have limited print runs. My past titles have sold out quickly and Delta Rose is currently topping the pre-order western charts at Amazon and also at no 2 in the western charts proper. Pre-ordering means you are guaranteed a copy and no money will be taken from accounts until the book is ready to be shipped in July. Order it HERE
Below find an exclusive extract from The Ballad of Delta Rose
Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd (29 July 2011)
ISBN-10: 0709091885
ISBN-13: 978-0709091882
It had been quite an evening, Delta thought as he stumbled towards the barn. Stumbled because he had maybe drunk too much, which wasn’t really saying anything. These days he wasn’t a regular drinker and the three glasses of beer he’d consumed during dinner had just about finished him off. He felt light headed but comfortable with it. It had been some time since he’d felt this good.
In the distance an owl called out and Delta paused for a moment to look at the milky night sky, thin wispy clouds, illuminated by the moon, drifted across the vast expanse. Standing here, looking at all this, one could truly believe that God was in his heavens.
Delta took in a deep breath of the mountain air, hoping it would clear his head somewhat, and then continued towards the barn. It was a warm night, sultry, and he was suddenly very tired.
The thought of bunking down in the barn, while Etta was back in the ranch house didn’t bother him none. He was, after all, at this precise time closer to her than he had been for many a year. And that in itself was more than he felt he deserved.
Delta went into the barn and threw the blankets onto a pile of straw to the left of the doorway. He guessed he would be out of any drafts and although he felt perfectly safe here, old habits died hard. If someone came in during the night, hoping to catch him unaware he’d spring up behind them. Not that he expected anything of
the kind but the years of living by his wits had made him maybe a little over-cautious. He guessed he wouldn’t even curl up next to his own mother without a six-shooter beneath his pillow.
Delta had expected an intimate dinner, just himself and Etta, but the ranch foreman, Steve had also been present. He’d sat there, giving Delta ill concealed looks of contempt. Apparently Steve had been working for Etta for over ten years, had spent more of his life with her than Delta ever had, and although Delta didn’t think there was anything other than business in their relationship, it was obvious they were friendly enough and also that Steve would have liked to have taken that friendship further. Delta showing up like this sure didn’t meet with the ranch foreman’s approval.
And who was to blame him? Etta was still a good-looking woman and the fact that she owned so much land would make her more attractive still. She would offer not only the companionship of a good woman but also wealth and standing in the community. Land was highly sought after these days and its call could be as alluring as that of any woman.
Delta mulled it all over as he set out his bed, making a pillow of one blanket and placing the other so he’d be able to wrap it around him. He removed his hat, boots and gun belt but placed both guns beneath the makeshift pillow. He lay down then and closed his eyes, knowing that as soon as he found sleep he would start to dream about the man who had killed him.
The archive recently interviewed Chris Scott Wilson HERE, and we were pleased to receive the following press release.
Yorkshire Author Aims at Western Readers
Today January 26th 2011, Boson Books ofRaleigh, North Carolina USA announces the release of the next two titles of their exclusive six ebook contract with the Yorkshire author Chris Scott Wilson to be distributed world-wide. Both rooted in the old West, The Quantro Story is a hard tale of revenge, while in The Fight at Hueco Tanks a band of renegade Apaches break out of the San Carlos Reservation, determined to preserve their way of life. The US cavalry has other ideas.
Well-known western author Randy D. Smith writes of The Fight At Hueco Tanks, “Wilson credibly depicts the mind-set, fears, and prejudices of both the white and Native American cultures during the turbulent Apache wars era of the 19th Century,” and adds, “If you want to read an intriguing story of the West with a touch of realism and a bunch of adventure, The Fight at Hueco Tanksis well worth your time.” Reviewer Mary Williams states more simply, “The author is a novelist and he knows how to tell a story...”
Chris Scott Wilson, who lives on the North Yorkshire coast, reveals. “I’ve been out to what was the frontier, and it took tough, resilient men and women , who did whatever they had to in order to survive, to carve out a life and build a future for their children. It can be a harsh and unforgiving land out there in the west.”
A spokesman for Boson Publishers said, “We believe Westerns have been much neglected of late, and unlike any other form of American fiction, they vividly portray the hardships and challenges settlers faced and conquered in founding America. They are stories which deserve to be told.”
The Fight at Hueco Tanks & The Quantro Story by Chris Scott Wilson are available now from Amazon and other leading on-line retailers. To read sample chapters, please visit Boson Books website : http://www.cmonline.com/boson/ then choose Fiction, Westerns
I believe the New Yorker summed it up best - As for the relative box-office success of the two films: “True Grit” has, so far, brought in $138.6 million; “The Social Network,” $94.9 million. Who’s a more bankable heartland star, Jeff Bridges or Jesse Eisenberg? Who is a likelier American hero, a cowboy or a Harvard computer nerd?
You must pay for everything in this world one way or another,” says Mattie, the protagonist of True Grit. “There is nothing free except the grace of God.”
The runners for best picture at the 2011 Oscar's are:
BEST PICTURE (10 nominations): Black Swan
127 Hours
The Fighter
The Kids Are All Right
Toy Story 3
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
True Grit
Winter's Bone
Jeff Bridges is also up for best actor BEST ACTOR:
Colin Firth, The King's Speech
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
James Franco, 127 Hours
Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
While his amazing young co-star is nominated for: BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham-Carter, The King's Speech
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Jacki Weaver , Animal Kingdom
It's been awhile since a western's had a true fighting chance on Oscar night so let's hope True Grit kicks ass.
I've just heard that the BBC's Lark Rise to Candleford has been axed, with the BBC saying it was time to quit while ahead. Senior BBC executives believe the family drama, starring Julia Sawalha as postmistress Dorcas Lane, Mark Heap as postman Thomas Brown and Richard Harrington as lovelorn Gabriel Cochrane, has reached a natural end after four series.
The programme's large audience, who have stuck with the series even when it went head to head with ITV's Dancing on Ice, have just a handful of episodes left before it bows out for good on February 13.
BBC1 controller Danny Cohen said last night: "Lark Rise to Candleford has been a truly wonderful part of the BBC1 schedule over the last few years but after four series we feel that the time is right to make room for new dramas which we hope will be taken to the nation's hearts in just the same way.
Me and me mucker!
I am especially saddened by this news as I've worked on all four series of the show, appearing in the background of scenes as one of the villagers. There was a great family atmosphere on the show and I'll especially miss all the friends I made on the show. Still it's no real surprise as there were rumours floating on set last year that the writer wasn't going to do anymore and the curent series was cut from thirteen to six episodes.
On the bright side no more driving to Bath at four on freezing cold mornings.
Britain's extreme right wing newspaper, The Sunday Mail, oft known as The Sunday Racist is in trouble for taking online content from the Spoof website and passing it off as their own - It seems that two writers for satirical on-line publication TheSpoof.com have finally had enough of the Mail On Sunday and are planning a sit-in next Tuesday in a venue yet to be determined in protest at the MOS's blatant spoof Sherlock Holmes story.
Which they insist was rush released on the back of their stunningly successful Shylock Humes spoof stories. Which were published in the popular on-line organ's Magazine section.
Enjoying huge critical success.
Erskin Quint, a rum northerner with a dandified turn of surreal phrase, and armfeetandtoe, a rum southerner currently studying how to become a rum northern southerner with a Yorkshire accent and a bag of Pontefract cakes in the pocket of his donkey jacket, vowed to fight to the last breath, the last bullet, and the last Pontefract cake.
"This is shameful behaviour from a so-called reputable news organ," Quint said from the well appointed study/library in his ancestral home in Cumbria. "The blighters have plagiarised our intellectual property and we aren't going to jolly well stand for it - I can tell you. I can, can't I? Surely I can. I just did. Didn't I? Of course I did. In no uncertain terms. It was arm and I, not arm and hammer - which is some sort of tooth polish and merely clouding the isssue - who reintroduced the great detective to the British public, and then the MOS chips in with a spoof of its own - riding the wave of our success with a Spoof article entitled "The Pit Bull Of The Baskervilles" and making Mrs Hudson Polish. Then talking about Twitter and pit bull terriers. We started all that. The MOS just jumped on our shirt tails. We're not standing for it - we shall stage a sit-in in protest. If we allow them to take liberties like this, they'll be talking about narwhals and snoods next. We're bally well not having it."
Armfeetandtoe then chipped in:
"Tha'll atter forgive th'accent for nah. As not gorrit perfected yet, burram workin' on it dahn't pit wit faceworkers. Reet, and sethee, it's not reet that yon twats can eye-jack us tales o' t' great detective wit big pipe an' that beerstalker 'at wot he wears. Innit. Oops. Sorry abaht that - just addon identity crisis an that like. T'southern sometimes slips aht. Ollus appens when I've bin eating Pontefract cakes. Anyroad, we int standin' forrit. We's benner 'ave a sit in at t' mill, or summat. Bastids them is. But we'll 'ave 'em up an' under. No probs."
Mail On Sunday hack, David Thomas, apologised to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle over the article. But that won't cut any ice with Erskin Quint or armfeetandtoe because Conan Doyle is dead.
The chances of working out a compromise seem limited. At best.
A Sherlock Holmes related 'dead giveaway' is expected at some point, possibly endorsed by the Mail On Sunday, but some observers consider it unlikely.
An interesting development in Australia may point the way for independent bookstores to survive in the digital future.
From the Sydney Morning Herald
(Jason Steger)
THE digital era is often seen as a threat to the existence of the traditional bookshop. But the launch yesterday of Readings's ebook store, using new technology developed in Melbourne, could lead the way for independent bookshops to thrive in a brave new world.
The technology, developed by Melbourne company Inventive Labs, allows readers to buy their digital editions and read them on any device that has a web browser. The Readings store is initially offering titles from smaller publishers but negotiations to stock editions from larger ones and multinationals are under way.
Large bookchains such as Angus & Robertson and Dymocks already sell ebooks for specific reading devices. Readings managing director Mark Rubbo says his new store is a way of giving independent booksellers and publishers a presence in the new environment. ''Eventually it will be available to other booksellers to recreate in a digital space the bricks and mortar bookshop. Instead of being locked into (ebook brands) Amazon or Kobo, readers will have some choice.''
Mr Rubbo says prices are substantially lower than the print editions. There are now 150 titles on the site but he expects to have thousands of titles available by March.
Inventive Labs co-founder Joseph Pearson says there are two elements to the system, Booki.sh, which is a distribution platform for the ebooks and where your digital titles are stored, and Monocle, which is the system that allows you to read them. This latter is ''open source'', which means that anyone with a web browser can use it. In the US, the Starbucks chain of coffee shops is using Monocle for its in-store digital reading network. Mr Pearson only discovered this on a recent visit to San Francisco.
''We want to promote it as a way for anyone to read their books. You don't need to purchase a special device,'' Mr Pearson said. ''We are trying to lower the barriers of entry for ebooks. There is a perception that the infrastructure has to be huge but we are promoting a different idea.''
Australian Booksellers Association president Jon Page, who runs the Sydney bookshop Pages & Pages, calls the development significant.
He says selling ebooks has been a question of volume and market, which independent bookshops find difficult without grouping together.
''This is something we can build on. It shows publishers and others that independents shouldn't be ignored,'' he says.
Writers come in all shapes and sizes, a statement which may seem descriptive of their physical form but refers to their output. We can start at the top with the professionals, such as Stephen King and James Patterson and work our way down to the first-timers and the wannabes as may be showcased in NaNoWriMo or even to small as the drabble.
Many who are pouring their hearts out on the Net have personalised their prose in a literary vehicle known as the blog. This means of expression is shorter with a content that is as varied as any possible form of writing: diary, short story, newspaper report or poetry. The rule is that there are no rules and the author is free to do anything he or she wants.
NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month was created with the idea of promoting writing, specifically writing a novel. It would follow that somebody would get the idea of promoting the writing of blogs as a separate endeavour. After all, a blog does have an ultimate objective quite a bit different from that of penning the great American novel. By the way, that actually does happen. Although statistically few out of the total number signing up for NaNoWriMo get published, the web site does list the lucky or should I say talented few who have passed the test and gone on to have their work picked up by a legitimate publisher.
So, what's NaBloPoMo all about? National Blog Posting Month started with the idea of updating your blog every day for the month of November, following the idea of NaNoWriMo. However it seems that people have gotten into it so much, the official organisation has now modified this to cover all months. All you have to do is update your blog every single day for a full month. [chuckles] I guess if you're going to pick a month, we're just coming up to February so here's your chance to select the shortest month of the year! Ha!
Final Word
The gauntlet has been thrown down. Who out there will pick it up and accept the challenge? Whether it's NaNoWriMo or NaBloPoMo, I see that anybody has to gear themselves up to the challenge of setting aside the time each and every day for an entire month to complete the requisite number of words slash blog posting. Is one harder than the other? Or are the two just different with their own unique trials?
A bit of non news this but I quote from the official press release -
"The estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has granted permission for the first new Sherlock Holmes novel in 96 years, to be written by Anthony Horowitz and published later this year"
The Tainted Archive deduces an untruth there.
TV's new Sherlock - that's me forefront
Whilst this may indeed be the first time a Sherlock Holmes novel has been officially commissioned by the Doyle estate it is far from the first new Sherlock Holmes novel in 96 years. Many writers, some of them big names, have produced works featuring the great detective since Doyle's work is now in the public domain. And of course the Holmes character has been used (paid homage to) in TV series as diverse as Doctor Who and Star Trek and pretty much everything in between. And that's not to mention the squillions and willions of movies that have used the character in one form or another over the years. Sherlock Holmes is something of a constant in popular culture which even the death of his creator could not hold back. There have even been books written about other characters from the Holmes universe - Moriarty, Irene Adler, John Watson,
However given the success of the Sherlock Holmes movie and the Sherlock TV series (I appeared in an episode, you know!) and the huge sales gathered by the James Bond continuation novel, Devil May Care, the Holmes people no doubt smell a lucrative game afoot.
The press release continues:
"The new Holmes book will be out in September, and details are being kept under wraps in a show of mystery designed to whet fans' appetites, although it seems that Horowitz's take on Holmes will retain Conan Doyle's Victorian setting. Horowitz himself said he had aimed to produce "a first-rate mystery for a modern audience while remaining absolutely true to the spirit of the original". Orion publisher Jon Wood promised the author's "passion for Holmes and his consummate narrative trickery will ensure that this new story will not only blow away Conan Doyle aficionados but also bring the sleuth to a whole new audience."
Currently topping the western preorder charts on both Amazon and the Book Depository, my forthcoming novel, The Ballad of Delta Rose is now available at 24% off the regular retail price and free worldwide delivery from the Book Depository. Publication date is the 29th July 2011 and by preordering now you will guarantee your copy and no monies will be taken from bank accounts until the book is ready to ship.Another good thing about pre-ordering is that there is a pre order price guarantee and as the books are produced in a limited print run you will ensure your copy of what is my most hardboiled western adventure.
."After more than twenty years of living a life on the road, Delta Rose returns to the ranch he once owned with his fiancee, Etta James. A bullet wedged close to his heart has dealt Delta the dead man's hand. He soon discovers Etta has a secret: they have a son who, by now a young man, is in trouble. He is charged with both robbery and murder. Can Delta redeem himself for a past ill spent and save the life of the son he never knew he had?"
The hot rumours are that the title for Bond 23, which will be released on Nov 9th 2013, is Red Sky at Night - this is a play on an old English rhyme of which there are several variations but its origins are with mariners - red sky at night, mariner's delight, red sky at morning mariner's warning.
The only other star who it is known for sure will be in Bond 23 is Dame Judy Dench, once more reprising her role as the disapproving M. One name been thrown around as a potential baddie is Simon Russell Beale, the British theater star who has worked with Sam Mendes on and off for over a decade. There was also speculation the Craig’s current girlfriend Rachel Weisz is in line for a role, but that may just be the active imaginations of the British tabloids working overtime.
The title, at the moment, has not been confirmed and several James Bond websites are discounting the rumours which were broken in the Sun newspaper. However I must be honest I think I like the title - it seems something Fleming would have used and scans nicely alongside such titles as Live and Let Die, Diamonds are Forever and You Only Live Twice. It's certainly got more of a ring to it than Quantum of Solace in any case.
"I have witnessed and participated in the transition of the newspaper industry from letterpress (hot type), to offset (cold type), to computer pagination (no type)." Says John Hayden in an interesting post looking at the future of publishing in a digital landscape. HERE
There is a handy complete beginners guide to eBook HERE
Books are gradually beginning to lose their magical hold over people. Although at first this might seem like an extremely sweeping and highly improbable statement, with every new Kindle purchased or every batch of ebooks either downloaded or uploaded, it gains an additional bit of weight. A article looking at the phyiscal V digital debate HERE
ast year was the year that firmly placed ebooks in the public mind and yet surprisingly it was the Romance segment that was the fastest growing of all genres within this market – at least according to research done by Bowker (as reported by the NYtimes). As an example of this, Barnes & Noble, the popular American retailer, was previously considered a non-entity in the romance market, yet they have recently taken 25% of the segment for ebooks. Quite impressive. The Romance genre was the biggest growing sector of eBook publishing last year. Full story
If you’ve visited any of the popular eBook forums/blogs over the last year or two you’ve likely seen plenty of debates discussing how eBook Readers will only hit the mainstream once they get down below $100, although in more recent months a $50 number has been bantered around (£50 on our side of the pond). This article questions the possibilities of eReaders ever dropping below the £50 mark. HERE
Most people in the industry seem to think that moving over from print to digital is cheap -
The publishing world is going digital, well, its trying. When we think of the costs involved in this the reaction from many people is, “cool, we’ll save loads of money”, but is this really true? Dominique Raccah from Sourcebooks says not.
Dominique has talk before about how Sourcebooks is finding it very costly to go digital and at this years Frankfurt Book Fair, she is making these comments again. I’m not a publisher myself, and I certainly don’t have experience with print publishing. FULL STORY
ePub is the universal format for eBook and yet Amazon do not allow the format on their Kindle. Over the last 12 months there has been a huge shift in the eBook world with the introduction of a brand new eBook format called EPUB. It is based on open standards, XHTML, XML, CSS and the ZIP archive container. As a result almost every publisher has adopted this format which now means that when the consumer buys an eBook, they can read it on many different devices now and many many more in the future – good news for the consumer. FULL STORY
Hard Case Crime have announced details of their first four new titles which will be published under their venture with Titan Books. Check out the hot cover in the Hard Case tradition below where you will also find details of four of the upcoming titles. Visit Hard Case for more details.
GETTING OFF: A Novel of Sex and Violence by Lawrence Block (writing as Jill Emerson) -- The story of a beautiful young woman who sets off on a mission to kill every man she's ever slept with (and she's slept with quite a few). For this book, Lawrence Block is reviving a pseudonym he hasn't used in almost 40 years, under which he wrote seven particularly sexy books back in the day. When he saw how sexy this new one was coming out, he thought...that's the Jill Emerson in me coming out again...
* THE CONSUMMATA by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins -- In the late 1960s, Mickey Spillane announced he was writing a new novel featuring the star of his bestseller THE DELTA FACTOR, but after writing half the book, he set he manuscript aside. Twenty years later, he handed the unfinished manuscript to his friend Max Allan Collins, suggesting that Max might finish it someday. And twenty-some years after that...it's finally done. It's the story of one thief going after another against the backdrop of Miami's Cuban-American community, and it's classic Spillane. Anyone who misses the Good Old Stuff will find plenty to love here.
* QUARRY'S EX by Max Allan Collins -- This is one I know you've been waiting for a long time, the next story in the saga of the hit man known as Quarry (star of THE LAST QUARRY, THE FIRST QUARRY, and QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE). This time, Quarry sets out to protect a movie director who's been marked for murder...only to discover that the director is married to Quarry's ex-wife, the woman whose infidelity pushed him into a life of crime in the first place.
* CHOKE HOLD by Christa Faust -- Another long-awaited title, this is the follow-up to Christa's Edgar Award-nominated MONEY SHOT. Ex-porn star Angel Dare is back; when a old co-star is gunned down in front of her, it's up to her to get his 18-year-old son, a hotheaded MMA fighter, to Las Vegas in one piece while two separate groups of killers are gunning for them.
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