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December 2, 2008 4:57:14 AM CST

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 How to Fake a Memoir 

Embellish the story without getting caught, Slate scribe suggests

Slate Slate Mar 12, 08 4:03 PM CDT
(Newser) - Misha Defonseca's memoir left a sticky trail of lies about escaping Nazis and living with wolves. (It turns out wolf saliva isn't an antiseptic.) Tired of careless fabricators, Slate writes a how-to for aspiring fakers: Keep it vague. Dates are verifiable—"awhile" is not. Watch out for tattling siblings. Revenge can be dirty, especially if you kill them off in your faux memoir (as Margaret Seltzer recently discovered). Check your paper trail. That goes for elementary school registers, which gave away Defonseca's real whereabouts. More »

More about:  memoir • humor • author • James Frey • Margaret Seltzer • fake memoirs

On the Road Scroll on Display

Visitors can see the scroll of Kerouac's classic novel

The Daily Texan Mar 9, 08 6:30 PM CDT
(Newser) - Beat lovers can check out the manuscript of Jack Kerouac's classic novel On the Road at the University of Texas, where it is displayed complete with scribbles and scratch outs. A long glass case allows visitors to view about a third of the book, which was written uninterrupted in a 120-foot scroll. "When Kerouac talked about the scroll, he talked about it mimicking the shape of road," a Texas curator Molly Schwartzburg said.  More »

More about:  travel • author • writing • University of Texas • Jack Kerouac • beatniks

Dungeons & Dragons Co-Creator Dead at 69

Gary Gygax rocked
the gaming world

Associated Press Associated Press Mar 5, 08 3:29 AM CST
(Newser) - Widely revered Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax, regarded as the father of role-playing games, has died at his home in Wisconsin after years of health problems, AP reports. He was 69. Together with Dave Arneson, Gygax created the massively popular medieval fantasy Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 that struck a chord with teenage boys and young men, and spawned a host of computer game imitations. Fans say that the world of games would be very different had it not been for Gygax' imagination. More »

More about:  obituary • author • gaming • games • fantasy • roleplaying games • Dungeons & Dragons

Gang Memoir Exposed
as Fiction

Author of Love and Consequences fesses up to fabricating

New York Times New York Times Mar 4, 08 7:50 AM CST
(Newser) - Margaret Jones' acclaimed memoir of a half-Native American girl growing up in a foster home in South Central LA and running with gangs, Love and Consequences, turns out to be fiction, the New York Times reports. Jones, whose real name is Seltzer, grew up with her birth parents in an affluent LA neighborhood; she was busted when her sister spotted her photo in a Times feature about the book and called her publisher. More »

More about:  Los Angeles • book • publishing • memoir • author • gangs • fiction • Penguin Group • Margaret Seltzer • South Central LA • fabrication

JK Rowling to Speak at Harvard Commencement

Hogwarts creator will get honorary degree

Harvard Crimson Harvard Crimson Jan 18, 08 4:54 AM CST
(Newser) - Harvard students will get a Hogwarts send-off at their spring commencement this year, reports the Crimson, with Harry Potter author JK Rowling as the keynote speaker.  "Perhaps no one in our time has done more than JK Rowling to inspire young people to experience the excitement and the sheer joy of reading,” said the university's president. More »

More about:  book • Harry Potter • Harvard • JK Rowling • author • reading • commencement speech • Harvard Crimson

Harry Potter and the Murdered Heiress?

Rumor has JK Rowling writing crime novel

Times (UK) Times (UK) Aug 19, 07 12:27 PM CDT
(Newser) - J.K. Rowling has been spotted writing something in an Edinburgh cafe like the one where she penned the first Harry Potter book, and fellow author Ian Rankin says she's moving in on his territory—crime fiction. Rankin admits he hasn't personally talked to Rowling about her next project; it was his wife who saw her "scribbling away." More »

More about:  book • literature • Harry Potter • JK Rowling • Scotland • author • fiction • Edinburgh

Murder, He Wrote: Novelist Faces Prison

Polish writer accused
of gruesome death at center of his book

Times (UK) Times (UK) Aug 9, 07 9:50 AM CDT
(Newser) - A Polish author is on trial for allegedly committing the murder upon which he based his best-selling novel. A jury is currently deliberating the case of Krystian Bala, whose grisly novel Amok fictionalized a famous unsolved murder, the Times of London reports. Prosecutors maintain that the book contains details that only the victim's killer could know. More »

More about:  murder • book • trial • Poland • author • novelist • Krystian Bala • Amok

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