I have a standing bet with many publishers, backed by one thousand dollars payable to the charity of their choice. The bet is that a professional author can write a book faster than a publisher can write a check.

So far nobody has taken me up on this wager, and I doubt if anybody will. But if someone wants to, just make your check payable to Doctors without Borders.

There is no gimmick here. At least a dozen professional writers on my client list are capable of turning out a novel in two to four weeks, even less if their publisher is desperate. But I know of scarcely any major publisher capable of routinely preparing contracts or, once contracts have been signed, cutting a check in that period of time. Unless it’s an emergency, in which case it takes about three weeks longer.

To read more, click here.

Watch these pages for news of print releases of Dave Duncan’s books.

Of Paingod and Other Delusions, science fiction immortal Robert Heinlein declared, “This book is raw corn liquor. You should serve a whiskbroom with each shot so the customer can brush the sawdust off after he gets up from the floor.”

Perhaps a mooring cable might also be added as necessary equipment for reading these eight great stories. They not only knock you down, they raise you to the stars. Passion is the keynote as you encounter the Harlequin and his nemesis, the dreaded Tictockman, in one of the most reprinted and widely taught stories in the English language; a pyretic who creates fire merely by willing it; the last surgeon in a world of robot physicians; a spaceship filled with hideous mutants rejected by the world that gave them birth. Touching and gentle and shocking stories from an incomparable master of impossible dreams and troubling truths.

Paingod will be eventually reunited with over thirty Harlan Ellison masterpieces in E-Reads’ reissue program. Watch this space for news of new releases in print and downloadable formats.

– Richard Curtis

Thanks to Publishers Lunch we have news of advances in handhelds:

Reminiscent of the proposal for the second-generation “one laptop per
child” concept, researchers at the University of Maryland and UC
Berkeley have developed an early prototype of an ereader with two sides
that emulate a natural page turning. In a demonstration video, they say
it will “better support the navigation tasks associated with the
reading.”

New Scientist notes: “The two leaves can be opened and closed to
simulate turning pages, or even separated to pass round or compare
documents. When the two leaves are folded back, the device shows one
display on each side. Simply turning it over reveals a new page.”
New Scientist
http://click.email-publisher.com/maalZusabIqtra4XB0NeaeQxXH/
Separately, the NYT has a brief look at miBook, a seven-inch e-reader
with a color screen. “Meant to work more like a media player than a real
e-book reader, the $130 device also displays multimedia content like
step-by-step recipe instructions, and can play back music through the
built-in speakers…. Add-on titles cost about $20, and some electronics
stores, like Circuit City, will offer models complete with one or two
books built in.”
NYT
http://click.email-publisher.com/maalZusabIqtsa4XB0NeaeQxXH/

- Richard

Peter Albano served in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1946, participating in some of the bloodiest landings in the Western Pacific. This background prepared him for the writing of Tides of Valor. It would be hard to find more authentic combat descriptions anywhere in World War II literature.

Albano selected two protagonists who, though related by blood, could not be more opposite in temperament. Rodney lives a luxurious life on Fifth Avenue,but his brother Nathan has become a Marxist radical opposed to everything Rodney stands for. It all changes when war breaks out. Rodney goes to sea seeking revenge for Pearl Harbor. His brother ends up in the vicious North African campaign. Both must fight for their lives, their beliefs, and their nation’s glory.

– Richard Curtis

Many excellent works are available about how to write, but there is one category of writing that even topflight professionals struggle with, and that’s outlines. I have seldom seen outlines covered adequately in the how-to literature I’ve read, probably because most writers who write about writing have never seriously examined why we need outlines. If you think we need them only to help us write books, you’re probably doing something wrong.

Too many writers dismiss outlines as unworthy of serious attention, or not essential to the practice of their trade. “I’m a good writer, but a lousy outliner,” I frequently hear, and the statement often sounds like a boast. “What does it matter?” goes another typical remark. “My finished books don’t resemble my outlines anyway, so why bother?” Still others say, “The outline is in my head, and as long as my books turn out well, why should I have to outline them on paper?”

These scoffers have failed to understand the critical truth about outline writing: publishers are less interested in what’s going into your book than they are in what’s going onto your cover.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

A very nice bit of exposure for E-Reads today!

Publishers Weekly, the bible of the publishing industry, carries a story by Craig Teicher in the June 23rd 2008 issue about E-Reads which you can find here.

The reporter takes note of E-Reads’ longevity and persistence in the field of e-book and print on demand publishing, evaluates our unique niche and business model and also highlights some of our recently announced deals.

We’re very pleased that the mainstream publishing trade press has taken notice of what we’re up to. Big publishers beware! We may be small but we are mighty and we are growing.

– John

Around the time he launched the lifelong search for his own identify (and thank God he hasn’t found it yet), Harlan Ellison went underground as a member of a street gang. In Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation he captures this violent subculture in white-hot prose and terrifying truth.

Lawrence M. Bernabo’s five-star Amazon review says it all:

“Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation” is the short story collection that got Harlan Ellison to Hollywood, which, in retrospect, may not have been a good move, but it was certainly an important move. The key factor is all of this was a book review in Esquire by the legendary Dorothy Parker whose description of “Daniel White for the Greater God,” far and away the best story in this collection, deserves repeating: “It is without exception the best presentation I have ever seen of present racial conditions in the South and of those who try to alleviate them.” When I was teaching “To Kill a Mockingbird” I had my students read Ellison’s story, to give them some idea of what things were like in the South before they were born. It is, simply put, a short story that makes the purchase of this entire volume well worth the money.

For the record, or more specifically for those of you trying to find Ellison stories you have not read in other collections, here are the short stories you will find within these pages: “Final Shtick,” “Gentleman Junkie,” “May We Also Speak?”, “Daniel White for the Greater Good,” Lady Bug, Lady Bug,” “Free With This Box!” (a personal favorite), “There’s One on Every Campus,” “At the Mountains of Blindness,” “This is Jackie Spining,” “No Game for Children,” “The Late, Great Arnie Draper,” “High Dice,” “Enter the Fanatic, Stage Center,” “Someone is Hungrier,” “Memory of a Muted Trumpet,” “Turnpike,” “Sally in Our Alley,” “The Silence of Infidelity,” “Have Coolth,” “RFD #2,” “No Fourth Commandment,” and “The Night of Delicate Terrors.”

Since we are talking Harlan Ellison there is really no reason to engage in any further advocacy. I am either preaching to the converted or spitting into the wind. There is no middle ground with Ellison. Consequently the point here is to be informative. “Gentleman Junkie” is a collection of dark stories dealing more with the real world than you usually find in Ellison’s more famous works of speculative fiction. These are stories about racial prejudice, drug addiction, juvenile delinquency, anti-Semitism, alienation, violence and other fun topics. Consequently, these are tales best consumed one at a time, because to sit down and read this book cover to cover would be a bit much for most souls.

Gentleman Junkie is one of thirty-two Harlan Ellison masterpieces being revived by E-Reads.

- Richard Curtis

When our son Charles was born I was tempted to name him Royalty Statement, because he was late and smaller than expected.

After he began nursery school my wife, author Leslie Tonner, started writing a series of humorous impressions of the adventures of mothering her little boy. Printed on the nursery school’s primitive mimeograph, they were so entertaining I promised that if she continued writing them I would get them published. She did and I was happy to fulfill my promise. The Mommy Chronicles was published by Ballantine Books.

The Mommy Chronicles follows the adventures of Charlie, an urban three-year-old on the fast track, and his slow-track mommy. Look in on Charlie getting a haircut like Sting’s, running up a tab at a baseball game, and preferring the garlic press to any of his expensive “educational” toys. And discover such secrets as which stroller is “in”, which is the “right” playgroup, and how to throw a fabulous fourth birthday party. You’ll also find a little epilogue by yours truly, “Do Daddies Make the Best Mommies?”

The principals of The Mommy Chronicles are twenty-three years older at this writing, and Charles is now a strapping 6’3″, but aside from some different brand names and a quantum increase in the anxiety level of parenting in this country, nothing has changed since the book was first published, and its witty take on bringing up modern kids is as fresh as ever.

Happy anniversary to Leslie, a great mom and partner.

– Richard Curtis

No one wants to draw up a short list of favorite Harlan Ellison stories, because we hate to exclude dozens that deserve immortality. But two desert island classics are the collection’s title story, which one reviewer characterized as “tear your face off” in its raw raging power, and “Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes”. First published in 1967 and re-issued in 1983, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream contains seven stunning stories plus the original introduction by Theodore Sturgeon.

Reserve your desert island now and bring this collection with you. If you have room in your duffle bag, you can pack it with other Ellison classics from the over 30 titles that E-Reads will be reissuing in print and downloadable formats. Harlan has refreshed a number of his titles to replace earlier editions.

Watch this space for news of new releases in print and downloadable formats.

– Richard Curtis