Stephen King Reads From New Novel

Over the weekend, Stephen King was at George Mason University and happened to read from his upcoming sequel to The Shining called Dr. Sleep. The picture quality isn't the greatest, but the audio is pretty good. Unfortunately, the video ends before Laura Ellen Scott throws a copy of her new novel Death Wishing at King from the crowd, shouting, "How do you like me now?"

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd2lf88w-8g

Mrs. Betty Richard Strikes Back

So I thought Holden McGroin's fun with Mrs. Betty Richard was over. Apparently not. The day after I posted our correspondence I received this email from "her":

Good day Holden, As regards to your last email i received from you,it is like you are not interested in doing what i am asking from you.It's so painful to come across unserious person like you,let me know if you are ready for this with a positive heart and focus..Awaiting your next email.

Thanks, Betty Richard

So my first reaction was, Seriously? You're REALLY going to try to make me feel bad for not taking this whole thing seriously?

And then my second reaction was, Okay, I'll play along.

My response (again, all of my misspellings and whatever else are intentional):

Mrs. Betty Richard! I am so happy to here from you! Indead i must aplogize for my last email. You see over the weekend i was in terible auto accident. I am fortunate to be safe but am in pain and was on many medication so i responded to your email with hastey eyes. Alas i have no health insurance so my bills are very steap!! So yes, i am interested in doing what you ask for your money. Yours, Holden McGroin

Mrs. Betty Richard's reply the next day:

Am sorry about your accident you had,do have a quick recovery..

Here I thought I may have lost the elusive Mrs. Betty Richard completely. I didn't want to press things, so I replied:

Thank you so much Mrs. Betty Richard!! That is so nice of you to say. And I am to sorry about your contacting AIDS. Again any help I can give I will try my bestest.

Yours,

Holden McGroin

The next day, the big payoff came through:

Good day Holden,

Thanks for your nice compliment,well this is the way to contact my lawyer.

My Attorney have the document of this fund and i will advice you to contact him so that he will issue you this document, before you contact my bank. Please contact Barrister James Bin Barrie, email (jamesbarrier.lawyer77@gmail.com) and his phone number is +60102426651 please send him an email or call him OK but it will be nice after you have send him email then call him to inform him so that he will issue you this document and you are 100% assured that you will receive this funds but in one condition you must be honest to your word and carry out this project for me.

i want you to know that I will be very much happy if you donate half of this fund to Charity as you have promised me OK and please act the way you said to me and pray for me too and once you contact my attorney just let me know and I will love to meet with you as soon as you receive this funds and even am doing all this but have never meet with you once, I just hope you are a honest person and please carry out this project with all your heart, my lawyer will help you to do everything you need to receive this funds OK and i will try and open my laptop to see if I will read from you OK may God bless you.

I am hoping to read from you again.

Mrs Betty Richard. Of Paper Merchant Industry, Address.3 Manchester Rd Partington, Manchester, Trafford M31 4FB, UK

What's interesting is if you Google "Barrister James Bin Barrie," you'll find he is quite the generous fellow. Why, there are many other dying woman who are using his services to give all of their money to complete strangers. Truthfully, we need more selfless people like him to make the world a better place. As for Holden McGroin, well, he's getting a little tired with people constantly offering him money, so as of right now, he is retired. He sends his regards.

T.C. Boyle's The Lie

I've a huge T.C. Boyle fan. I love his novels, his short stories, and would probably even love his grocery list if I had a chance to read it. A few years ago I read one of his many stories in The New Yorker called "The Lie," about a man who, to get out of work one day, tells a small lie that begins to spiral out of control. It is, in many ways, classic T.C. Boyle. And now it's been made into a movie. Will the movie be good? Hard to say. But I'm glad to see Boyle is getting more love from Hollywood, since so far only four of his short stories and one of his novels have been adapted (as seen here). Let's hope there will be many more.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi2ykDIY1Co

Survey Says ...

So there was this survey recently that states "One in Six Americans Now Use E-Reader with One in Six Likely to Purchase in Next Six Months."

That's promising, right?

Well, yes and no.

Don't get me wrong, I would love it if that statement was one hundred percent accurate, but I find myself often distrusting surveys. After all, they always sample a small portion of the population and somehow base their study on that small portion. From the study:

The options keep changing and bookstores are starting to feel the pressure. One major chain closed its doors for good this month while some of the others have rolled out their own e-Reader devices and are upgrading them regularly. Even The New York Times has changed the way it looks at bestsellers. It used to be just fiction and non-fiction; now it's also print versus e-Reader. And this is for a good reason as one in six Americans (15%) uses an e-Reader device up from less than one in ten (8%) a year ago. Also, among those who do not have an e-Reader, one in six (15%) say they are likely to get an e-Reader device in the next six months.

Now how many people were included in the study?

Why, only "2,183 adults surveyed online between July 11 and 18, 2011."

In a country of over 300 million people, 2,183 ain't much.

In fact, if the study were one hundred percent accurate, that would mean in a country of over 300 million people, there would be 45 million with e-readers, and another 45 million likely to purchase an e-reader in the next six months.

Seems high, but I guess that's believable.

As a writer who has begun putting a lot of faith in the fact that ebooks are indeed the future, these stats should make me happy.

Honestly, though, this survey is like any survey: a crapshoot.

Still, if nothing else, it's definitely something worth thinking about.

But let's just see where we are in six months, shall we?

The Postman Always Rings Twice. Unless He's Dead

So news broke earlier today that a lost novel written by James M. Cain has been found and will be published by Hard Case Crime next year.

Charles Ardai, the founder and editor of Hard Case Crime, said in a telephone interview that he had been alerted to the existence of the work, “The Cocktail Waitress,” by the mystery writer Max Allan Collins. Mr. Ardai said he found further references to “The Cocktail Waitress” in the writing of Cain, who died in 1977, and in a biography by Roy Hoopes. But he was unable to obtain the manuscript for nearly five years until it turned up in a set of papers that were inherited by Mr. Ardai’s agent from another literary representative who worked with bygone Hollywood writers.

Mr. Ardai said that when he finally received a copy of Cain’s manuscript for “The Cocktail Waitress,” “it was this wonderful moment like out of a Spielberg movie, where you open the chest and the light comes up from inside, and you don’t ask the question, ‘Where is the light coming from?’ ”

Now I've talked before about my feelings regarding posthumous novels, and those feelings haven't really changed. Especially with works that are incomplete. Such as is the case with The Cocktail Waitress:

Among the tasks remaining for Mr. Ardai is to reconcile the different versions of the novel’s ending that Cain left behind, and to decipher some of Cain’s more cryptic handwritten margin notes.

So the novel's ending that will eventually be published may not really be the ending that Cain had originally envisioned. Of course, there's no way to know for certain in any event, but still, something about it just doesn't feel right from a writer's standpoint. Then again, from a reader's standpoint it doesn't feel right either. You know how protective fans get. Just look at what happened to Robert B. Parker's Killing the Blues by Michael Brandman. Currently 15 one-star reviews on Amazon, most of which complain that the new writer sucks.

Though, to be honest, Parker wasn't the greatest writer in his later years.

Cain, let's hope, was.

And let's hope that The Cocktail Waitress stays as true to the author's vision as possible.