Wall Street Journal Feature:

Warren Adler Picks His Favorite Works About Ambition

Warren Adler selects his five favorite tales of ambition in today's Wall Street Journal Weekend Journal. The bestselling author of The War of the Roses and Random Hearts has a collection of short stories, New York Echoes, in stores now, and a novel, Funny Boys, coming later this month.

 

Summer 2008 Short Story Contest

Contest Theme: Humor!
We're looking for humorous stories in all their varied forms. From satire to farce, from the whimsical to the uproarious, all writers looking to get a laugh (in a good way!) should enter.  Top prize is $1,000. See complete details.

Funny Boys

Like his classic The War of the Roses, Warren Adler’s genius for black comedy brings the Borsht Belt alive again in its golden heyday – circa 1937 – with all its bustling, rowdy, romantic, tumultuous mix of comedy, lavish food, and people of all varieties, from the hoodlums of Murder Inc. to families seeking escape from the crowded streets of the big city and young men and women on the prowl for mates. Nobody will leave the table without a full belly of laughs, nostalgia, suspense and new insights into this vanished world.  Available March 26 in stores and online.

In Warren's Words

The Legacy of George Bush

So I am sitting here in my comfortable little writing study high above the bustle of Manhattan’s East Side contemplating, of all things, the legacy of President George W. Bush. In a brief few months he will be gone from the public stage and with his absence the vitriol, the adrenaline charged criticism, the often rabid animosity of most of the people in my social world will slowly diminish, and the memory of “W” will slowly dissolve like a lump of sugar in the liquidity of history. See complete story on The Writer's Life blog.

Contest News

Third Annual Warren Adler Short Story Contest

Summer, 2008 Contest Theme: Humor

Suggested by the recent publication of Warren Adler's latest novel, Funny Boys, the theme for the Summer 2008 Warren Adler Short Story Contest is humor. We're looking for humorous stories in all their varied forms. From satire to farce, from the whimsical to the uproarious, all writers looking to get a laugh (in a good way!) should enter. We are looking for the subtle and the pungent, the black and dark, the sporty, the salty, the waggish, or whatever can spark a knowing smile, a sly chuckle, or a hysterical belly laugh. In other words, anything goes, just as long as it falls into this category, however one stretches its elastic boundaries. Top prize is $1,000. See complete details.

Also see the winning entries from last year's contest.

In Warren's Words

Disposable Books

Apparently there is a rush to publish books by or about aspiring presidential candidates. Why the rush? I am baffled. Are these books, mostly written by ghostwriters, really profitable for publishers or are their costs paid for by candidates’ backers to be given out at fundraisers or used as campaign gimmicks? I guess maybe I’m too reverential about books in general and I suppose I should be taking this presidential campaign seriously. But I’m inclined to believe that in about six months the various machinations of these president wannabes will result in a giant yawn and these disposable books will be recycled into pulp to be used for more useful purposes.

Make a comment!

In Warren's Words

Blogging

I am an inveterate grazer of the blogosphere, right, left, center and all the passionate, cause oriented obviators filling up the internet with mangled prose. Most of them, even those I agree with, are nothing more than angry rants without subtlety or nuance that are occasionally fun to devour like junk food, especially the barely literate comments by the junkies.

For some reason, they put me in mind of Westbrook Pegler, an effusive blowhard who was syndicated by the Hearst papers in my formative years.

The man hated everything that was apparently not the prevailing view in my circles at the time. He hated Roosevelt, unions, intellectuals, poets, Jews and anything else that hinted at what was considered foreign at the time. He was, in present terms, beyond right wing. Nevertheless, he was the darling of the Hearst stable and read by millions.

In my view, he was the prototype blogger, irreverent, inaccurate, opinionated and, yes, entertaining. And he did have his following. In the end, he hardly mattered.

Multiply the Pegler rant model by millions and you have the blogosphere, an amusing anger game that can be played by anyone with the most rudimentary knowledge of typing and a compelling beef that he or she has to share with the multitudes.

If you’ve read this far, you have just absorbed an example of a blog, hopefully more literate than most..

Make a comment!

In Warren's Words

Life Imitating Art

One of my books, Twilight Child, is the story of grandparents who are denied visitation rights to their grandchildren after their son has died and his wife has remarried. The Supreme Court is now considering a case that is chillingly similar.

In the case being considered it is the daughter who has died and, although the grandmother had been granted limited visitation rights to visit her grandchildren, her widowed son-in-law is trying to vacate the decision of the lower court contending that the grandmother who is 87 is violating his constitutional rights based on the fourteenth amendment. The father of the child has charged that the grandmother is interfering in the upbringing of his child by disagreeing with his child rearing decisions.

Apparently the father and the grandmother had been close after the mother had died of cancer. The grandmother had moved into the house of the father and it appeared had been an important factor in rearing the boy. After five years, relations soured and the father later barred the grandmother from his home. At one point he called the police to remove her. The lower courts favored the grandmother's request for scheduling visitation rights.

It is a nasty case, but it mirrors my book which provides dramatic insights into a  family matter that is painful to all parties. My book was a Readers Digest selection and was translated into numerous languages in the condensed book version.

Where do you come out on this matter? Do you favor the grandparent or the child's parent? Make a Comment

Twilight Child is available wherever books are sold.

Portable eBook Format Support

Warren Adler's novels are available for immediate purchase in every eBook format including those required by Palm Pilot and PocketPC! Read more about supported formats.