Today’s Booked feature contains a diverse array of events. Attend and enjoy!
Attention all geeks and geek-wannabes, your weekend has come! New York Comic Con has taken over the Javits Center scheduling three packed days (Friday, October 1st to Sunday, October 3rd) with panels, screenings, concerts, and comic book sales galore. (New York, NY)
Spin Magazine presents Liner Notes, a benefit series exploring the cross-pollination of music and literature; this event features Ben Folds and Nick Hornby on Tuesday, October 12th. The Housingworks Bookstore Cafe is the venue with a start time set for 7pm. (New York, NY)
The Cute Eats Cutebook launch party will take place on Thursday, October 14th. Callahan & Company Photography is the venue with a start time set for 6pm. (Minneapolis, MN)
The team at Harper Perennial is hosting a karaoke night promising appearances by authors Rachel Shukert, Katrina Kittle, and others on Thursday, October 21st. The Housingworks Bookstore Cafe is the venue with a start time set for 6pm. (New York, NY)
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Earlier this week, cartoonist Jeffrey Koterba received two of his cartoons (including the cartoon pictured above) that had made a journey to outer space and back to Earth.
The cartoonist fulfilled a life-long dream, sending two cartoons along with the space shuttle earlier this year. “As far as anyone knows, mine are the first cartoons in space since sketches of Snoopy flew aboard one of the Apollo missions,” he explained to GalleyCat. In his memoir, Inklings, Koterba explored the significance of Dogie the Doggie–the cartoon dog floating in the cartoon.
In an ABC News essay this spring, he explained how the cartoons ended up in space: “[A] cartoon I had drawn about Clayton Anderson, the only Nebraska-born astronaut, had been e-mailed to him on board the International Space Station by another Nebraska native, Jeff Raikes, at the time an executive with Microsoft. Anderson had e-mailed from orbit to tell me how much he had enjoyed the cartoon. Then, last fall, Anderson asked if I would be willing to create two cartoons that he could transport on his next shuttle flight, certifying that the drawings had flown in orbit.”
A newly released poem written by Ted Hughes directly addresses the writer’s reaction to the suicide of his first wife, Sylvia Plath.
After securing permission from Hughes’ widow Carol, The New Statesman published the piece entitled Last Letter. British actor Jonathan Pryce reads from the poem in the BBC video embedded above.
Normally, Hughes’ process to “complete” the writing of a poem was to type the finalized version. Several draft versions of Last Letter were found in Hughes’ handwritten notebooks. The earliest draft of the poem is contained in a blue exercise book now owned by the British Library’s Ted Hughes archive. Read more
DC Comics announced that they will lower the “standard length 32-page ongoing comic book title” price by a dollar next year. The books are currently priced at $3.99, but the price will drop to $2.99 in January 2011.
DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio explained in the news release: “We listened to our fans and to our partners in the retail community who told us that a $3.99 price point for 32 pages was too expensive. Fans were becoming increasingly reluctant to sample new titles and long term fans were beginning to abandon titles and characters that they’d collected for years … With the exceptions of oversized comic books, like annuals and specials, we are committed to a $2.99 price point.”
The announcement also marks the start of New York Comic Con, an annual comic book festival in Manhattan. Starting tomorrow morning, GalleyCat will be covering the weekend-long event. Follow the action on this blog, on our Twitter page, and on our Facebook page.
Imprisoned Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo and former Independent Chinese PEN Center board has won the Nobel Peace Prize “for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.”
The Chinese author was arrested two years ago for the crime of ‘inciting subversion of state power’ by writing about political reform in China. On Christmas Day 2009, a Beijing court sentenced Xiaobo to 11-years in prison and and “two years’ deprivation of political rights” for subversion in his writings. His trial lasted hours.
In a conversation with a Chinese artist, Xiaobo explained why he wrote, despite government control: “From a certain point of view, what with artists dealing with so much suffering, and a nation facing so many tragic incidents, I feel that Chinese artists have deliberately held back. To express things in their reality would be to invite censorship and to ultimately lose one’s market – it’s a conflict of interests. So much accumulated suffering yet no corresponding artistic record – what a tragedy. Whether its in terms of politics or in terms of an individual life, that no such work exists to capture the totality of the moment is sad, very, very sad.”
If you have a penchant for self-help books, HarperOne needs you. The publisher is looking for an editor or senior editor for its heath, wellness, family and relationships titles. What better way to improve your life than with a new gig?
In this position, you’ll be soliciting, acquiring, evaluating and developing manuscripts and proposals, while planning and editing key trade books for the company. Be prepared to put your organizational skills to good use managing editorial production and publication schedules. Are you a people person? Great, because you’ll also be dealing with authors and agents on a daily basis.
To be considered, you’ll need a minimum of six years of experience in trade publishing and impeccable editing skills. An impressive database of contacts and the proven ability to acquire new deals are must-haves, too. Ready to make a change? Apply here.
To enter, one must simply snap a photo of their cat posing one or both novels from Blake’s Destiny series. Refer to the featured photo as an example. Post your entry on the author’s Facebook page or e-mail it to Blake. The deadline has been set for Monday, October 11th.
The winner will receive these prizes: a mention (cat only) in an upcoming Destiny book, a $25 Borders gift card, a squeaky feather boa cat toy, and a sampling of all-natural cat foods. Other prizes include a free digital-advanced readers copy of Whisper Falls, signed printed novels, and signed coverflats for Whisper Falls.
A winner will be determined by a celebrity cat judging foursome: Kristen Painter’s cat, Jack; Julie Anne Long’s pet, Domenic; and Sophie Gun’s pair of cats, Bubbles and Miss Cleopatra.
Outgoing? Smart? Talented? You could be the perfect match for veteran literary agent Felicia Eth, the woman behind Spencer Lord‘s The Brain Mechanic. In mediabistro.com’s Pitching an Agent series, we spoke with Eth about what she looks for in authors, the genres she’s most interested in, and what an aspiring client should never, ever write in a query letter.
One takeaway: “The client from hell is someone who is obsessive and doesn’t trust me to do my job; someone who just doesn’t take my word or listen to me.”
Before the weekend starts, pick up a few choice reads to enjoy. Here are some suggestions from our New Books section on Facebook.
Affection: An Erotic Memoir by Krissy Kneen: In this sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant, and sometimes terrifying memoir, she traces the arc of her sexual life—from her childhood in a sexless household to the myriad sexual encounters of her young and adult life to the present, in which she is a married (and monogamous) 40-year-old woman. Affection follows the path of Kneen’s life journey, from the compulsive sexual self-exploration of her childhood to her experiences as a young woman for whom the world is a sexual playground. (August 24th)
Fryupdale by Mark Staniforth: Porn stars and serial killers, Nazis and nymphomaniacs, hunchbacks and bare-knuckle boxers: just a few of the disparate cast of characters who call the remote moorland community of Fryupdale their home. These 18 short stories reveal the unflinching truths behind their lonely, sad and sometimes hilarious lives – and why the world beyond village limits will always seem so distant. (August 27th)
The Stuff That Never Happened by Maddie Dawson: The story of Annabelle and Grant, a couple who has been married for 28 mostly happy years, but who find now that the children have moved out that they perhaps never got over a devastating secret at the beginning of their marriage. Is it inevitable that marriages, even good ones, simply wear out over time? (August 3rd)
Want to include your book? Just follow the easy directions on our Facebook Your New or Upcoming Book post. Please remember to include your title’s exact release date when posting.
Here’s more about Llosa (pictured, via) from the Nobel site: “[he was awarded] for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat.”
In a 2002 Guardian interview, the novelist explained his commitment to writing: “The writer’s job is to write with rigour, with commitment, to defend what they believe with all the talent they have. I think that’s part of the moral obligation of a writer, which cannot be only purely artistic. I think a writer has some kind of responsibility at least to participate in the civic debate. I think literature is impoverished, if it becomes cut from the main agenda of people, of society, of life.”
Today’s Booked feature contains a diverse array of events. Attend and enjoy!
Outgoing? Smart? Talented? You could be the perfect match for veteran literary agent 
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