Tina Brown does the Clintons (with forthcoming book)

COMMENTARY


It’s all over the news. Tina Brown, former editor of the New Yorker and another in a long line of authors of books about Princess Di, is writing a book about those darlings of the “intellectuali” The Clintons (the ‘T’ on ‘The’ is capped on purpose). I’m not really sure why we need another book aimed at the populace on a topic as worn as my 10-year-old Birkenstocks, but I suppose the publisher, Broadway Doubleday Publishing Group, thinks it’s a good idea. Plus the Clintons are, like Di, basic royalty I suppose. The book is scheduled for a 2010 release, by which time it is possible Hillary will be Commandress-in-Chief and Bill will be First Spouse.

I tried to read a bio of Hill. After buying the hardcover copy of Carl Bernstein’s A Woman in Charge, I made it through 39 pages. You can only spell ‘boring’ one way. I ranked it right up there with Ian McEwan’s Atonement. If I were placed in solitary confinement and had only those two books on the shelf, I might pick one of them up and try to read them again. Under no other circumstances can I imagine indulging either of these self-indulgent authors’ books. Both of them are just a shade more boring than It Takes a Village, a book that succeeded in convincing some that children are primarily everyone's responsibility instead of the two people who conceived them.

Of course, Brown’s book will be fodder for (1)library orders, (2)book clubs, especially those with female members, and (3)bookstores who hold a Tina Brown event whether she appears in person or on a video screen as so many tony authors do nowadays.

Meanwhile, Clinton fans can take comfort in knowing yet another tome recounting the dandy duo’s interests, pursuits and habits will be served up in glittering prose (Brown always writes glittering descriptives) within two years. The rest of us can go drown our sorrows in the nearest bottle of Scotch and close our eyes when we walk past bookstores in 2010.

Christopher Hitchens offers lively defense of his subtitle: ‘How Religion Poisons Everything’

---

COMMENTARY

The Authors@Google® series is one more in a long line of pleasures from the company that began by offering a better way to search. Christopher Hitchens spoke in August at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California. He set out to defend the subtitle of his book, ‘God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.’ Hitchens employs his characteristic razor-sharp wit and intellect with statements like, “Religion is a distillation of the wish to be a slave.” He posits the theory of a deity watching over you from the moment of birth, and “when you’re dead,” he says, “the real fun begins.”

Hitchens is one of my favorite authors; he is never dull and always makes me think. I may disagree with him about a number of issues, but he always pleases my intellect. He brought up the idea of his ancestors traveling to a holy place, before they believed in God, or at least the God Christians, Jews and Muslims worship. There’s a small bump there because I think mankind has always looked to some deity, if for nothing else as a mean to explain creation or solicit a better harvest. For Hitchens, Science is God (the cap on S is deliberate) and I always find that a wee bit troublesome, because science, from century to century, often contradicts its own manifestos, just as religion has done. Unless we live under a large rock, we know about the Big Bang theory. Science has yet to explain where matter and explosions came from to begin with; some might say religion bears the same burden.

Nevertheless, Hitchens makes excellent points and will surely set the mind on a journey. He will amaze anyone interested in the craft of writing, for in that last regard, no one can top him in my opinion.

Finding the book in you

So I had a meeting with an agent. I pitched a nonfiction book. The agent was positive about the idea. He asked for a proposal and gave me his card.

So I tried. But I couldn’t see the book in my head. And I couldn’t figure out what to do. I wrote about 100 pages. And I still couldn’t see the book in my head. So I dropped it.

I didn’t do the proposal. And of course I worried because I needed to come up with another idea. The agent is pretty high profile.

So then last week I’m doing an interview for a news story. Bam! I run head-on into the book I want to do. I started it and I could probably finish it in a week if I didn’t have a life otherwise. I connected with the passion that will enable me to do the actual writing--the endless hours of tapping the keys, revising, reworking and polishing. You gotta' love your subject, that's all there is to it.

Sometimes you just have to let the book find you—I think it’s a lot like falling in love. Look for it and it will never happen. Turn your back and forget about it and there it is.

Yes, Virginia, there’s a place for you on Facebook even if you’re over 40

Last week I was on the phone, talking business with a meeting organizer. She’s younger than me. When I told her I had a Facebook page, she giggled. I told her age doesn't mean much to me. I forget how old I am; most days I have more energy than I did at 20 because I don’t keep the late (often rowdy) hours I did then.

My older daughter, a grad student at a Florida university, actually talked me into doing the Facebook page. I’ve already had lots of fun (her friends have become mine in many cases), but I’ve also discovered two interesting poetry groups, a magazine group, an animal lovers' group, and linked up to several other freelance writers. There's even an over 40 Facebook group. A daily newspaper reporter did an interview with me about my Facebook experience, and the story was in the business section Monday.

Major publishers use social networks to promote their book titles ahead of the title’s release date. Journalists like me use social networks to glean quotes for articles, to dig up stories, and to stay on top of trends. When my new book comes out, my page will be the first place I announce the release. I’ve already turned up two stories I’ll write, based on my interaction within this social network. I also post links to stories I've written for magazines, Web sites and newspapers.

I wrote an earlier article here at Creative Writer US about a poem inspired by my Facebook experience.

I’ve received virtual plants that grow and bloom over a period of several days, and friends have gifted me cyber-beers and a cup of coffee.

So even if you’re over 40, you can still have fun and benefit professionally by using social networks like Facebook.

Related links:

Florida Times-Union story by J. Elliott Walker about Facebook

Creative Writer US column about Facebook poem

My article at The Writer, ‘Networking with Other Writers’, for my column ‘Web Savvy’

The Jesus Family Tomb: exquisite marketing and MOB

I’ve followed the saga of the new book The Jesus Family Tomb and the related documentary produced by the Discovery Channel.

Headlines have been impressive—Jesus’s Tomb Found! The mystery of Christianity is now cracked!

And just in time for Easter, no less.

We have a book out, a documentary, and even a Discovery Channel Web site just for this topic, set up where visitors can quiz a high profile academic, Dr. James H. Charlesworth (A.B., B.D., Ph.D., ET, Litt.D. [hon]), Princeton’s George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature.

Visitors to the forum at the site are enjoying banter about topics like DNA, ancient languages spoken, and the vacuuming of certain bones from ancient ossuaries.

Simcha Jacobovici, one of the authors of the book, remarked in a Time Magazine interview (3-12-07) on the criticism he’s encountered since writing it. He cites mobilization of bias—“certain questions cannot even be asked, and certain answers are not conceivable.”

Americans are well acquainted with the thought processes producing what sociologists call mobilization of bias. We are the greatest myth-buyers in the world. After all, we pay ridiculous prices for water in little plastic bottles. And if a theory is cloaked in any kind of science, many of us bite down on it with the enthusiasm of a dog chewing on his very first bone. We may not be able to comprehend the science, but by Jove, we believe it.

The idea of matching anyone’s DNA when it is two millennia old is a little quirky, in my book. I’m no Bible thumper, but trying to locate the DNA of the Christian savior says it all. Where's your standard for comparison?

The book is at the moment #39 on amazon.com’s list.

Now what I’d like them to do is find the DNA of Beowulf and Grendel. If we come up with a match there, imagine the rewrites we’d have to do on the first Christian epic.

Are book festivals beneficial to authors?

I was talking to a writer friend last week. She asked me if I planned to be at any book festivals once my new books come out.

I did a dozen or so festivals when the poetry book was released and did a few more when the memoir came out.

I came to the conclusion that some festivals are beneficial; others aren’t. It depends on the type of book you have, and your readers.

I was the first poet to present at Girlfriends’ Weekend two years ago. This festival is put on by Kathy Patrick. Patrick is a book dynamo. The festival was held in Jefferson, Texas that year. My plane landed in nearby Shreveport and tornado watches were being issued. It rained cats and dogs on one of the days. But the gathering was definitely worthwhile; I sold books and had a room full of readers come to hear me. The thing about Patrick is she attracts a diverse sort of reader. I had a ball. She and her Pulpwood Queens are a large network of book clubs; they kicked off Good Morning America’s book club.

State festivals and city festivals don’t impress me very much in terms of benefits, but the exception to that is the Texas Book Festival. I guess they just do everything bigger down there. Last year Amy Sedaris, Gore Vidal and Frank McCourt were there. Not many festivals can lay claim to an assembly like that.

Many state and city festivals have volunteers who select the authors, and those volunteers may or may not be well read. Or they may invite their friends who write books. It’s a luck-of- the-draw kind of thing. I told my writer friend to ask other authors about any festival she plans to be part of. And ask how many books they signed.

More valuable to me were book signings in stores and the many programs I did for groups and schools. I met all sorts of readers who recommended my books to other readers. Plus you want as many sales as possible to go through stores. The Internet also has a big impact on my readership.

It pays to do your homework first. Doing the author tour is tough enough as it is.

Frustrations of a small press author

The photo at right shows my daughters at my book launch in Jacksonville.

When my book Killing Earl was released by a small Florida press, I felt good for two reasons.

I knew the book might help others. And I felt validated because the press is traditional, so I didn’t have to subsidize publication.

My book tells the story of our younger daughter’s “mystery illness” that turned out to be anything but a mystery. She saw a number of physicians for over a year. She was treated for many different ailments, and her primary physician at one point thought she was depressed and her mother was nuts.

One of the two physical problems finally diagnosed was an ovarian cyst that bled into her abdominal cavity. One of the obvious problems throughout the ordeal involved her physician’s communications skills. Our daughter was 12 years old at the time. Her skills were those of a pre-teen who didn’t really like her doctor.

When I read about the Tulsa woman who’d sought help for 12 years, I recalled the frustration we felt over our child’s medical dilemma. The Tulsa woman was obese.The cyst that caused her problems weighed 93 lbs. Our daughter was lean with nary an ounce of fat on her body. But both share a common affliction. It took many attempts to get a doctor to listen to them and help.

Our daughter is fully recovered. We were lucky. I wrote the book after she asked me to. She told me if I were a single mother living in a trailer, no one would’ve helped her. She’s a very thinkative kid. I interviewed physicians and surgeons. I researched. My introduction was written by one of America’s top doctors.

I did a book tour and marketed to the best of my budget and my ability. But the book was challenged. After all, my publisher is small and the marketplace is glutted.

I’ve received so many letters from people who read it. And many of those letters came from women whose doctors heard them but didn’t listen to what they were saying.

It’s become a mantra for me to tell readers if you have a doctor who doesn’t take your pain seriously, find another doctor. And by all means, research your illness yourself. Knowing more will help you ask better questions. Not everyone finds a cure, but there’s a lot to be said for empowerment.

That’s the reason I wrote the book to start with. In finishing it, I was able to deal with the frustration and sadness we experienced when my daughter was ill.

Unfortunately, when I read stories like the one about the Tulsa woman, frustration rolls right back in.