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Gore Vidal Dead at 86
 Gore Vidal Dead at 86 
OBITUARY
Aug 1, 2012 4:00 AM CDT

Gore Vidal Dead at 86

Outspoken man of letters dies after long illness

(Newser) - Celebrated American man of letters Gore Vidal has died at the age of 86 after a long illness. Vidal—a novelist, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, and political commentator—died of complications from pneumonia at his home in the Hollywood Hills, reports AP . In his long career, he penned 25 novels, including...

Planned Parenthood Rejects Comic's $500K

Tucker Max offered enough to have center in his name

(Newser) - The guy who wrote the bestseller I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell offered Planned Parenthood $500,000, enough to have a location named after him—but the organization has turned the money down. The humorist has been called a misogynist for some choice tweets, the Huffington Post notes. One...

Angry Ex Hits 'Moonstruck' Scribe With Sex Lawsuit

John Patrick Shanley denies allegations by Amanda Jencsik

(Newser) - A former flame of John Patrick Shanley has hit the writer with a $5 million lawsuit for allegedly abusing her during a violent sexual relationship, the New York Post reports. But 61-year-old Shanley, the Oscar-winning author of "Moonstruck" and "Doubt," denies that he committed any non-consensual sex...

American Travel Writer Kidnapped in Somalia

Michael Scott Moore was considering writing a book about Somali pirates

(Newser) - Somali gunmen have kidnapped noted travel and surfing writer Michael Scott Moore, and are demanding an unknown ransom for his release. Moore, a Manhattan Beach native currently living in Berlin, holds both US and German citizenship. He was in Somalia because he was considering writing a book about Somali pirates,...

James Franco Sells Book Straight to Amazon

Yet another occupation for busy actor

(Newser) - Jack-of-multiple-trades James Franco is about to peddle his latest endeavor on Amazon. The actor's first novel, Actors Anonymous, has been acquired by Amazon's new fiction editor and the tome will head directly to the company's online store. The work is supposed to be a barely-fictionalized version of...

'Subversive' Chinese Writer Gets 9 Years in Prison

Chen Wei called for free speech, political reform

(Newser) - A Chinese writer has been hit with a nine-year jail sentence for "inciting subversion of state power" after he posted online essays demanding free speech and government reform, reports the BBC . The sentence follows a two-hour, closed-door trial that Chen Wei's wife called "a performance" whose outcome...

Andy Rooney: Our 'Lovably Cantankerous Commentator'

Even if he did get mean at times

(Newser) - If Andy Rooney is in the "great beyond," he's probably picking a few bones about "all that harp-playing" and "the long line at the Pearly Gates," Frazier Moore muses for the AP . And why not? It was Rooney's unmistakable style during a 92-year-life...

China Blocks Top Writer's Trip Abroad

Liao Yiwu prevented from attending Australian literary festival

(Newser) - China has blocked one of its leading writers from leaving the country to attend an Australian literary festival. Liao Yiwu was imprisoned for four years after writing a bold eulogy for those who died in the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. After asking him to meet at a local teahouse, officials...

Inside James Frey's Sweatshop-Like Novel Factory

Controversial author hires writers to churn out novels on the cheap

(Newser) - James Frey, infamous for angering Oprah with his "fake memoir" A Million Little Pieces, idolizes Vonnegut, Hemingway, and Henry Miller. He's the kind of writer who talks about wanting to "change the game" and "move the paradigm." Yet he's also the head of Full Fathom Five,...

Jane Austen's Style? Not Actually Jane Austen's

An editor was likely the one to polish her prose, says professor

(Newser) - Jane Austen is known as a “perfect stylist,” but those perfectly crafted sentences may not actually be hers. After studying 1,100 pages of Austen’s handwritten, unpublished manuscripts, an Oxford professor concluded that “the polished punctuation and epigrammatic style … is simply not there,” she...

Danielle Steel Aide 'Fesses to $400K Ripoff

Author claims assistant stole $2.7M

(Newser) - A long-time assistant has pleaded guilty to embezzling $400,000 from best-selling romance queen Danielle Steel. Kristy Watts admitted depositing checks for Steel into her own bank account and using the author's credit card points to obtain gifts and airline tickets. Steel, who has written 76 best-selling novels, claims Watts...

Behind Mad Men Are...Women
 Behind Mad Men Are...Women 
Aug 7, 2009 2:21 PM CDT

Behind Mad Men Are...Women

Women directed five of this season's 13 episodes

(Newser) - The misogynists who populate Mad Men's character ranks might make you think otherwise, but seven of the show's nine writers are women—a rarity in Hollywood, where 80% of primetime programs in 2007-08 had no female writers. “A lot of people think women can only do women shows,”...

Nora Roberts' Secret to Success: 'Ass in the Chair'

(Newser) - Nora Roberts is the most popular romance writer in America, but it’s not easy being on the top. “People go, ‘Oh, you work six or eight hours a day, oh my God,’” she tells the New Yorker. “‘Well, yeah, how many hours do...

Freelance Jokesters Pen Late-Night Laughs

WGA miffed by non-union writers

(Newser) - Late-night hosts don’t get all their gags in-house—scores of wannabe comedy writers bombard the likes of Jay and Dave with their one-liners, the Los Angeles Times reports, then anxiously wait for the show to air "to find out if you got a joke on or not,”...

'Cult' Writer JG Ballard Dead at 78

(Newser) - British author JG Ballard died this morning "with great sadness" after many years of poor health, his agent said today. The 78-year-old novelist and short story writer was most famous for his semi-autobiographical book Empire of the Sun, later made into a film by Steven Spielberg, and his controversial...

ALS Patient Chronicled Her Struggle, Chose Her Death

'I choose not only how I will live, but if I will live'

(Newser) - When writer Catherine Royce became an ALS patient, she shared with NPR her passionate belief that she should be able to meet her decline and eventual death on her own terms. "Every day, I choose not only how I will live, but if I will live," she said...

From Romantic Lemons, Literary Lemonade
From Romantic Lemons, Literary Lemonade
book review
Apr 9, 2009 10:30 AM CDT

From Romantic Lemons, Literary Lemonade

It's fizzy, too—and comes complete with recipes and regrets

(Newser) - Recipes for "Morning After Pumpkin Bread" and "Ineffectual Eggplant Parmigiana" should clue readers in that Giulia Melucci's I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti is no how-to on gaining a man's heart through his stomach, Joyce Wadler writes for the New York Times. Melucci—"a...

New Yorker to Run Excerpt of Wallace's Last Book

In Pale King , deceased writer 'didn't want to do the old tricks'

(Newser) - David Foster Wallace fans can get a glimpse of the deceased writer’s unfinished novel tomorrow, when the New Yorker publishes an excerpt from The Pale King, the Washington Post reports. Wallace, who killed himself last fall, had been working on the book for years. The magazine will also run...

Aussie Writer Gets 3 Years for Thai Insult

Self-published book that sold 7 copies dissed the monarchy

(Newser) - An Australian writer has been sentenced to 3 years in prison for insulting Thailand’s monarchy in one passage of a self-published book, the BBC reports. Tough “lese-majeste” laws shield Thailand’s monarchy from criticism and led to Harry Nicolaides’ arrest as he was leaving the country. He pleaded...

Need a Blurb? Meet the Usual Suspects
Need a Blurb?
Meet the Usual Suspects
OPINION
Jan 7, 2009 5:43 PM CST

Need a Blurb? Meet the Usual Suspects

New writers' book jackets reveal the top 10 lazy comparisons

(Newser) - Blurbs for hot new writers' books unfailingly liken them to a handful of known quantities, Chris Rovzar observes in New York. Here are some of the most-abused blurb comparisons:
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald or Edith Wharton. Writing about crumbling, decadent high society? "If you're a boy, you're Scott; if you're
...

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