Bookweek Round-up

NEWS

Fragments of Burnt Diary Reconstructed to Tell Horror of Warsaw ghetto.

From The Guardian:

We will probably never know who Debora was, why she decided to record her family’s horrific treatment at the hands of the Nazis, and why her friend, the Holocaust survivor Lusia Schwarzwald Hornstein, did not reveal the existence of the charred diary for more than 50 years.

But thanks to meticulous work by curators at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, her painful account of life in the Warsaw Jewish ghetto now stands as a moving testament to a dark time. That work, which transformed the blackened fragments into a readable document, was presented to scientists at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

The 20 pieces, which were retrieved by Hornstein from behind a radiator in Debora’s bombed-out apartment in 1945, chronicle events in the ghetto from January 1943 to mid-1944. Her mother had tried to prevent gendarmes from raping a young girl and had been shot dead.

“Being drunk they wanted to have some ‘fun’,” Debora wrote. “My mother turned to those bandits. ‘Leave her alone. What conscience do you have to take advantage of such a young girl?’ The answer was a shot which my mother received.” (Read full article here)

Nurse Fired over Self-Published Memoirs

Courtesy of our Fox on the ground in the states: this story has caused a huge ruckus this week. A nurse who worked for the world famous Cleveland Clinic was fired after writing a memoir about her experiences there.

“They told me I was fired be cause of the book . . . after 26 years of stellar employment,” Zu rub, who has hired a lawyer, said in an interview. ‘The two administrators who fired me admitted to me they did not even read my book.’ But they said they had seen excerpts. And that was enough.” (From The Plain Dealer: Read all here)

Harry Potter fails to top poll of top 50 children’s books

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Winnie the Pooh and the Famous Five all finished above the only Harry Potter book to make the top 50. The results of a poll done by The Book Trust, as voted for by 4000 parents, are a surprise because the last four Harry Potter stories were the fastest-selling books in history. (From the Telegraph)

Read more at the Book Trust’s site.

And some really good news for one of our own Bookfoxes (congratulations from all of us here)

Trilby Kent wins YouWriteOn Award!

(She)…entered the opening chapters of her novel, which were reviewed by other website members. The highest rated stories are then reviewed and critiqued for free by editors for top agents and publishers. The aim is to help new writers develop and make sure the industry does not miss another JK Rowling. (From the BBC, read more here)

NET OPINION

More on the Willesden Story

Relating back to the Willesden Herald Competition and the comments posted following the no-prize rumpus: after The Times reported that a Katherine Mansfield story had been entered for the Willesden Herald and been passed over by the judges, the blogger who first mentioned “Katherine Mansfield” gives her side of the story and advises bloggers be careful what they comment on here.

The Learned Helplessness of Writers

Some very interesting thoughts that many writers might relate to from Roger Morris about what he calls “the Learned Helplessness of Writers” - particularly when it comes to plugging their books and trying to get publicity.

If you create an environment in which lab rats receive no rewards or deprivations for their actions, in other words where nothing they do makes any difference, they reach a state that is analogous to depression in humans. Frank reckons that this is the state that we writers exist in. (Read the rest of the article here.)

SNIPPETS AND FUNNIES (As a change from the Lisa’s Pets theme of previous weeks we now have a friendly peacock I met abroad.)

The Big Sex Scene Debate

MacMillan New Writer, David Isaacs writes about very entertainingly about sex scenes:

Me, I love sex scenes, simply because they are the ultimate high-wire act. You instantly have everyone’s attention. Okay, ya big jerk–how you gonna to play it? I’ve always loved having sweaty palms.”

He adds:

A stand-up comic (by some accounts Gary Shandling, by others Richard Lewis) asserted that a realistic sex manual would be entitled Ouch, You’re On My Hair! Embrace awkwardness—any reader is bound to identify. Women usually understand this point instantly, though they aren’t always willing to write it honestly. Men usually understand this point instantly…and are almost never willing to write it at all, honestly or otherwise. In some matters, guys are just, well…pussies. (Read the rest of his hilarious post here.)

The Bookseller Announces Shortlist for the Diagram Prize for Oddest Title, read all about it here.

The shortlist is:

I Was Tortured By the Pygmy Love Queen
How to Write a How to Write Book
Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues
Cheese Problems Solved
If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs
People who Mattered in Southend and Beyond: From King Canute to Dr Feelgood

Though Scott Pack complains that the latter doesn’t deserve to be on the list:

A fine collection of titles but I must lodge a protest about one of them. People who Mattered in Southend and Beyond: From King Canute to Dr Feelgood strikes me as a perfectly decent title and subject for study. I was born and raised on Canvey Island and spent my formative years waiting at bus stops in and around the Southend area. The first home I owned was a flat in Westcliff-on-Sea…The book is surely essential reading and I shall be ordering my copy forthwith. (For rest of post click above)

IN THE DEN: what the Foxes have been talking about on their own blogs

Emma Darwin has been talking about the value of writing forums - for a slightly more tongue-in-cheek post on the same topic see My Love Affair with Forums by RosyB. Emily talks elegantly and obliquely of stereotyping here and, rather more encouragingly, here (something we should maybe discuss further on Vulpes sometime). Catherine C continues to blog her novel which is now on Chapter Eight, whilst Sarah Salway proposes a inspirational new idea: using advertising jingles as story titles.

And Finally…

Take a look at William Coles’ blog here. The Legend Press writer, author of The Well-Tempered Clavier, takes a wry look at publicising his book, doing readings, along with various asides about a hilarious character called “Tom the Idle Publisher”. Is it a joke? Is it true?

Tom, come and defend yourself!

Anyway, the pair have cooked up a new publicity scheme for Coles’ book and are looking for volunteers to use their new chat-up line:

It’s incredibly simple. You see someone you like the look of. You got up to them, smile your sweetest smile, hand over a copy of The Well-Tempered Clavier, and say, “Hi! I thought you’d like this book!” It’s a variation of Book-Crossing. We’re not only getting the Clavier out there, but we have developed an ingenious new chat-up line. Dare I say classy? (Read more here.)

For more information about Legend Press, including the submission guidelines for the 2008 Luke Bitmead Bursary for New Writers, please visit legendpress.co.uk

As always - comments, thoughts, put them here.

*If you are wondering why the trees at the top are upsidedown - they’re reflections ok?