Once a staple of the magazine and literary world, it had, for a variety of reasons, been neglected and had fallen out of favor.
Read more: The Short Story: Back in the Game
Category: Books
SHORT STORY: The Mean Mrs. Dickstein
(Story featured in “New York Echoes” by Warren Adler)
Mrs. Dickstein, age seventy-five, sat on her favorite bench in Central Park overlooking the lake on a lavishly sunny May day reading Stendhal’s The Red and the Black, which she had read three times over the course of her life.
A widow, she loved this exercise in delicious tranquility, and in the spring, when the weather was perfect, she would revel in this particular spot with the special view of the lake and the trees in bloom around her. Weekdays were best, for the crowds were sparse and most children were in their strollers pushed by chatting moms or nannies.
Looking up from her book, she would observe the rowboats quietly cutting through the slate-colored lake waters and people reclining on the grassy knolls, lovers embracing and oblivious, a lone man or woman, lying supine or sitting cross-legged Indian style, perhaps like her, enjoying the optimism and glory of spring.…
Read more: SHORT STORY: The Mean Mrs. Dickstein
The Future of the Novel
With the tsunami of e-books where traditional and self-published writers are beefing up reading choices to astounding levels, the book business has become a competing stew of infinite taste sensations that are offered up increasingly sliced and diced, and composed for an increasing segmented reading public.
Read more: The Future of the Novel
Female Villains: 10 Evil Women In Literature
Women, by virtue of their historical status as nurturers, and for centuries dominated by men and considered mere breeders, have been characterized by time and custom as the gentler sex, compassionate and kind, more merciful and tenderhearted of the genders. But they have not always been portrayed as shrinking violets….
Read more: Female Villains: 10 Evil Women In Literature
Decoding the Self-Published Author
The author, too, must adjust to the new reality. The term “self” in “self publishing” will eventually disappear as more and more authors will have to take the marketing and selling plunge on their own. Even if one is published in the traditional way by known publishers, one will have to market one’s books on one’s own hook, in imaginary and often costly ways. The self-published author will, in effect, be forced to become his own entrepreneur.
Read more: Decoding the Self-Published Author
Meet Best Selling Author Warren Adler
By Norm Goldman
(Article originally published on BookPleasures.com, August 27, 2012)
Today, Norm Goldman Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is excited to have as our guest Warren Adler who has written thirty-three novels including The War of The Roses that was made into a movie with Michael Douglas and Random Heartsthat was likewise made into a movie with Harrison Ford.
Warren started an unprecedented bidding war in a Hollywood commission for his unpublished book Private Lies which according to the New York Post “Tri-State Pictures outbid Warner Bros and Columbia, and purchased the film rights to Private Lies for $1.2 million… the highest sums yet paid in Hollywood for an unpublished manuscript.”
He has also written short story collections and in stories from his collection The Sunset Gang became an American Playhouse three-hour television production in 1991 and 1992 and an off Broadway Play. His most recent novel, The Serpent’s Bite will be released in the fall of 2012 (has been released and is available in hardback and e-book formats on Amazon).…
Read more: Meet Best Selling Author Warren Adler
Book Expo’s Authors Studio Interviews Warren Adler
The Authors Studio at the Book Expo America 2012 in New York City sat down with Warren Adler for a brief interview to talk about his books, inspirations and latest novel, The Serpent’s Bite.
Listen to the Podcast here.
…
Read more: Book Expo’s Authors Studio Interviews Warren Adler
Publishers Weekly Talks with Warren Adler
By Liz Hartman, 6/5/2012
(Article originally published on www.PublishersWeekly.com)
Warren Adler has achieved more than most writers could dream of—he has sold 12 of his books to the movies, including the blockbuster hit The War of the Roses. But at 84, he’s still hungry for more. “I have a tremendous need to keep writing. I’m not going to go into the wilderness without a fight,” he declares in a firm and steady voice that belies his octogenarian status. “A lot of guys that started out with me in publishing novels have disappeared from the scene,” he adds. “I’m like a long distance runner—I just keep at it.”
Adler’s 33rd book, The Serpent’s Bite (Stonehouse Press, dist. by Greenleaf Book Group, Sept.), returns to the themes that earned Adler the title “the master of dysfunction.” Set in the isolated wilds of Yellowstone Park, an aging father, George Temple, embarks on a nostalgic horse trek to reconcile with his estranged adult children.…
Read more: Publishers Weekly Talks with Warren Adler
Are Best-seller Lists Irrelevant?
It may be time for the media that covers the book business to stop publishing best seller lists. They are, in today’s book choosing environment, disorienting, unhelpful and confusing, a valiant but failed attempt to make sense out of disorder.
Read more: Are Best-seller Lists Irrelevant?
Books to Movies
I recently served as a speaker on a panel discussion organized by the Book Publicists of Southern California under the irrepressible founder and Chairman emeritus Irwin Zucker on the subject of “Books to Movies.”
Read more: Books to Movies
How I Got the Idea: Fiona FitzGerald
It was the early eighties and the mass media consensus on gender was undergoing a massive change. Women were on the march and the emphasis was on both upward mobility and equality on all fronts, especially in the workplace.
In the culture of imaginative fiction, the concept of the heroic figure was being “genderized” and the notion of the female cop, soldier, firefighter, construction worker and other jobs once considered male turf was swiftly disappearing.
Read more: How I Got the Idea: Fiona FitzGerald
My Book Problem
In another few weeks, I will be moving to another apartment in the same building in Manhattan where I have spent the past few years. While moving in itself is a traumatic event as everyone knows, my principal problem is books.
I have a huge collection of books. In the three or four major moves in my lifetime I have culled, boxed, given away and donated thousands of books. During each nesting experience, however, I have acquired yet more books and have repeated the culling process each time. I could never pass a bookstore without buying one or more books.
Read more: My Book Problem
How I Got the Idea: The War of the Roses
It’s been thirty years since the novel The War of the Roses was published and twenty one years since the movie version with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner was released.
In that time this cautionary tale about the perils of divorce and the destructive power of materialism which burst upon the public consciousness, has not only become part of the world wide zeitgeist, but it has morphed into the nomenclature of divorce, both as a legal description and a symbolic description of a marriage breakup’s ultimate consequences.
Read more: How I Got the Idea: The War of the Roses
Official Amazon Press Release: Bestselling Author Warren Adler Releases Five New E-Books Exclusively in the Kindle Store
SEATTLE, Dec. 13, 2010 – Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that bestselling author Warren Adler has made five e-books, none of which have been previously published in any format, available in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). These books, all of which draw from Adler’s skill as a novelist and his keen insight into the nature of intimate human relationships, will also be available in print editions through CreateSpace. All five books in the series – “The David Embrace,” “Flanagan’s Dolls,” “The Womanizer,” “Residue” and “Empty Treasures”—are available for sale today for $7.95 with the e-books exclusive to the Kindle Store for two years.
Five Original Novels Launched on Kindle and Amazon Books.
This week I have chosen to launch five original novels simultaneously and exclusively on the Kindle and on Amazon books as a trade print edition.
It represents another revolutionary marketing concept in what is the rapidly changing publishing world. Although my many novels and short story collections are available on all platforms and all devices, the exclusivity of these five titles further pushes the concept of what I believe will eventually be a major factor in an author’s ability to find readers in a world that will shortly offer an astounding number of books that will soon approach the multi-millions.
Read more: Five Original Novels Launched on Kindle and Amazon Books.
New York is Indeed a Helluva Town
In reading Richard Goldstein’s wonderful new book “Helluva Town” about New York City during the years of World War II, I was struck by the strange irony that despite the devastating horror of that bloodbath, the Big Apple had its worst incident by enemy combatants more than sixty years later.
Read more: New York is Indeed a Helluva Town
When Will the E-Book Tipping Point Arrive?
One need not be some egghead visionary to predict the future of the publishing industry in this age of technological revolution.
Think of it this way. Every time a dedicated reader buys a digitized reading device whether it be a Kindle, SONY reader, Vook, iPad, the upcoming Google device or others crowding into the marketplace, the big box stores and small hard-pressed independents selling hardcover or paperback books lose one customer. That one customer, if he or she is a truly dedicated reader, can be counted on to buy at least one book a month.
Read more: When Will the E-Book Tipping Point Arrive?
Featured Title: Blood Ties
During a family reunion at their ancestral castle, the famed Von Kassel family — arms dealers for over a hundred years — suddenly find themselves in possession of stolen plutonium capable of creating the most destructive weapon on earth. Previously aloof from the moral implications of their business, the family is torn apart by the deadly potential of their recent acquisition. Family conflicts are ignited that had long been avoided in order to maintain solidarity and the insulation of wealth and power. Through fascinating and startling familial relationships, the reader is drawn into the web of power and intrigue that motivates people who once believed they were above moral or ethical considerations.
As rivalries escalate and alliances form only to be broken, this powerful novel of family pride, personal ambition, and individual ethics moves to its compelling and ingenious climax.
Read the first chapter of Blood Ties free now!…
Read more: Featured Title: Blood Ties
The E-Book Revolution
Twelve years ago, I took the astonishing step of gaining the reversion of all my books from my English language publishers and converting them into digital formats. Most people thought I had lost my mind, since there was no user friendly portable reading device even remotely on the horizon and the books had to be read on either laptops or immovable computers.
My motives were twofold. I did not want to suffer the fate of so many of my fellow authors whose books were declared out of print by publishers while existing copies were moldering on shelves in private homes and in libraries where they would be eventually discarded. Another obvious motive was an attempt to keep my authorial name in the public eye for the foreseeable future.
There is, of course, a great deal of ego involved in such an investment of time and money, but as every author knows, the writing of a book whether it be a work of the imagination, opinion or scholarship, is essentially a product of an inner voice that is determined to be heard.…
Read more: The E-Book Revolution
Some Outrageous and Offbeat Comments about the Publishing Biz
by Warren Adler
I am always amused at the game of musical chairs orchestrated by those who run the book publishing industry. The latest is the sudden dismissal of Ann Godoff from the helm of Random House and the appointment of Gina Centrello to head a new combination of Random House and Ballantine Books. Ho hum. None of these changes will make much difference in the scheme of things, nor they will result in more interesting books or even an increase in sales, the fondest wish of the German conglomerate Bertelsmann which now is, pretty much, in charge of the world-wide publishing business.
Rather than construct a self-serving polemic and fulminate about the grievous and absurd condition of the publishing industry in twenty-first century America, I thought it might be appropriate to offer my own humble enumeration and biased critique of this industry along with some pithy references to the gloomy state of the cultural landscape based upon my own erratic experience as both a bludgeoned participant, an observer, a reader, booklover and collector over the past half century.…
Read more: Some Outrageous and Offbeat Comments about the Publishing Biz
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