If You Build It, They Will Raze It

Your new home here----if Wicklow County Council approves

A man's home is his castle, inviolate, protected under the Irish Constitution. Man has the right to own property, and that would include owning a piece of land and/or the house sitting on it.

A man can, therefore, build a house on his personal property if he likes, and live in it with his family. Family is also protected under the Constitution. Put a family in that house and you're safe twice over.

Or so you might think.

After the Constitution was ratified, a government sprang up to manage all the rules and regulations. Among those rules were planning ordinances that defined where and how man could exercise his natural rights regarding personal property. The Irish State stumbled along in its moribund state for decades with those laws, and the next thing anyone knew, prosperity came knocking and changed everything.

Men started building houses all over the place, wherever they thought other men would pay generously for amenities like a lovely view or a fishing stream or the nearby roar of the Irish Sea.

The authorities looked at the hodge-podge of homes taking up valuable farming land, or blocking lovely views to the detriment of others, and devised more rules and regulations to control where man could exercise his natural rights.

But this is Ireland, the land of the conniving colonist with centuries of practice at skirting laws seen as unjust. At least the laws were unjust when the British were making them. The habit just never quite faded out with time.

Gary Kinsella bought a plot of ground in County Wicklow, conveniently located along a major road. It's all about location when you're in the real estate game, and who wouldn't want to be near easy access to the motorways. There was some sort of structure already on site, but it did not suit Mr. Kinsella's needs, so he tore it down and then built himself a charming little chalet. He moved in with his partner and their child, and by all appearance they were quite happy.

Wicklow County Council notified Mr. Kinsella that he was in violation of local planning laws. He could not build anything, much less a home, without their permission. He said he would come in and file the proper forms, but it was just talk. Hadn't the martyrs of 1916 shed their blood so that a cold bureacracy couild no longer deny a man his natural right to a home for his family?

Mr. Kinsella never got that back-dated permission. He just went on ahead with his building project. The Constitution, he was confident, would protect his family home once he had it up and was living in it.

We're razing it, said Wicklow County Council, to which Mr. Kinsella shrugged and went back to puttering in the shed.

We mean it, the Council repeated, and they took Mr. Kinsella to court where he threw himself on the Constitution and its promises. Mr. Justice Kearns listened to both sides, and stood with the Council.

People cannot just erect homes wherever they like, the judge determined, or there would be bungalows surrounding the GPO filled with people claiming their natural rights as guaranteed by the Constitution. If a home is inviolate to that extent, anyone could slap up a lean-to or erect a shed and say it was home, sweet home, and the authorities could do nothing to move them out.

The Kinsellas will be given a timeframe for their removal, followed by the demolition of the family home.

The government has the authority to enforce its rules regarding where a man's inviolate home can be placed. If you build it without that approval, they will raze it.

The days of the Penal Laws and all the cheating that went on to get around them are over.  

South Park: The Literary Version

Writer retreats are often situated in places where the writer can avoid distractions. You'd like to be free of distractions when you are reading as well, so that you can sink into the prose and let the rhythms echo inside your head without someone trying to strike up a conversation because, well, you're only reading, it's not like you're doing anything.

The Rocky Mountain Land Library is that place.

Your next novel could be born here

Bookshop owners Jeff Lee and Ann Martin of Denver, Colorado, have invested their life's savings in an old ranch up in the thin air of the Rockies. With additional funding provided by the South Park National Heritage Area, they are going forward on a plan that is a writer/reader/artist dream.

They have quite a collection of books that they have amassed over the many years they have owned The Tattered Cover in Denver, and they are stocking a library on site. Maybe you are writing a research paper on cowboys or cattle ranching in the Old West. You would book a stay at the Land Library. Maybe you want to write a novel about the human condition, something filled with isolation and longing. What better place to set out your paper and pens than in a quiet room high above the bustle of everyday life?

Mr. Lee and Ms. Martin envision their retreat as a place filled with creatives. Artists will be welcome to enjoy the peace and also the beauty of the surroundings, finding inspiration in the rugged scenery. School groups can take advantage of both the library and existing nature for educational purposes, adding some much needed life to what might otherwise be a too quiet enclave. Then there are the tourists who might be looking for some peace and quiet instead of skiing. What reader would not enjoy a week in the mountains with a well-stocked library, a comfortable chair, and snow-covered mountain peaks just outside the window?

It is an expensive proposition, and one that is not yet fully funded. Existing buildings are in need of renovation and repair, and the savings of a couple of book sellers is not enough to complete the project.

The owners are looking to the future, as their retreat is discovered and paying guests provide a cash infusion.

Here is a library for those who still love the smell and feel of a book printed on paper instead of pixels. Who says that the book is dead? In Colorado, it is getting its own shrine.

Jacksonland: A Book Review

A lawless President, a supine Congress, political manuevering and a group of people used as pawns to ensure a desired election outcome...it could be modern America, but it is not.

To read Steve Inskeep's JACKSONLAND is to read about one Presidential era while surrounded by the very same underhanded skullduggery that forms America's present-day political fabric.

Andrew Jackson is a fascinating character, in large part because of his ancestry. A product of the Ulster Plantation migrated to America in search of religious freedom, he brought with him the same mindset that led to The Troubles and the oppression of Catholics in Ireland for centuries. Land taken by conquest, followed by punitive laws, worked for the British as they took the property of Catholics who refused to give up their faith. And so too did Andrew Jackson set out to take the land of the American Indian nations who happened to be living in a part of the expanding United States that Mr. Jackson wanted for his fellow whites.

The book can be dense in places, but it is well worth crawling through the forest of details to get a strong grasp of the underhanded methods employed by the Jacksonians, and the brilliant strategies employed by the Cherokee leader John Ross in doing all he could to stop the land grab.

Mr. Inskeep traces the relationship between the two warring parties from its origin, the War of 1812, when American rule over the North American continent was sealed with England's retreat from its former colonies. Andrew Jackson is shown as a ruthless man who would use any tool available to him to achieve his goal, and he used an alliance with the Cherokee in that war to further his own aims. The way in which he then turned on a former ally forms the heart of the tale, and it is not a pretty story.

The author does not shy away from presenting a less-than-admirable treatment of the real estate sales that Jackson arranged to his own benefit, making himself wealthy in the process, leaving the natives to an ever-shrinking world. Honesty between whites and Indians was not seen as a necessary component in business transactions for those who saw pots of gold strewn across Cherokee territory.

Indeed, the book is a litany of abuse that was accepted by those who believed that they had a right to land. Where the past meets the present is in Jackson's complete disregard for the law, including a refusal to abide by a Supreme Court ruling on the rights of the Cherokee to not be forced off their homeland.

JACKSONLAND is a very timely read in this era of political gamesmanship, with various tribes in use as pawns by politicians who seek to retain the power they hold. At the same time it is a history that has its roots in Ireland, where a similar scenario played out and followed the same path charted by another mighty empire that sought to wipe out the existing culture.

The book is worth reading for its lessons in history, which tend to repeat because so much of the history has been forgotten.

(Dear FTC: My copy of JACKSONLAND was provided by Penguin's First To Read Programme. In case you're wondering.)

The Poacher

Historical fiction can sell in today's market says Clare from California Times Publishing.

It can of course. Newcastlewest Books published historical fiction and we've found that it does indeed sell. Our authors took to writing historical fiction because they couldn't find it when they wanted to read it so they wrote their own, indicating a shortage of historical fiction titles.

So what Clare from California Times Publishing has observed is not new to us.

But she was not writing to one of our authors to share wisdom. She approached one of our authors in the hopes of poaching someone who was in need of...a publisher? Or is it a marketing offer? Clare read a summary of the book and would like a hard copy or a PDF.

If she wanted a copy for review we would be happy to send it off to her. Getting reviews is key to generating interest in a novel, which is why a cottage industry sprang up to provide positive reviews for the small houses that tend to be ignored by literary editors. So lucrative has that new industry become that Amazon is suing to put them out of business.

Clare's e-mail was short, without a sales pitch or the slightest suggestion of what she was about. Why would a publishing company approach an author whose book has already been published? You might conclude that Clare was representing a marketer, rather than a publisher.

As it turns out, California Times says it is a marketing and management agency, publishing books and then promoting them while paying the author only 15% in royalties.

They use some of that income to monitor author-related forums like Absolute Write, where they recently demanded that the forum moderator remove the thread that criticizes California Times Publishing for being a waste of an author's time.

Clearly, the book that Clare wants to poach is already published, with an ISBN and a cover and everything. So there is no need for her firm's publishing services. What else is left? Why, it would be marketing of course.

And the marketing package is a paid service.

It all comes together. Clare wants to poach a Newcastlewest Books author to sell a marketing package.

Our author is not interested.

They Like Me. They Really Like Me. Because They Were Paid To Like Me

Real, or false advertising?

Publishers understand the power of positive reviews. Anyone with a blog (yes, that includes us here at Newcastlewest Books) can obtain free copies of books prior to publication, with the supposition that said blogger will post a review so that there is a substantial body of buzz-generating comments when the book is laid down.

Potential readers look at the reviews to see what others thought of the book they're considering buying. Books are too expensive to buy on a whim, knowing that you might not like it. That's a lot of money wasted for the sake of building a bigger library, and who wants to keep something that was found to be unreadable?

If you are not a publisher, but an author, you want good reviews to get your book noticed. It's a crowded field. New books arrive every Tuesday, all competing for reader eyeballs. The big publishing houses do the review thing, but how can you achieve the same results?

You get others to review your books, of course, but it's the reaching of those others that generated a new marketing business.

You want positive reviews if you can get them, and if you could get your novel in the hands of someone who would give you four or five stars on a review posted to the Amazon page where most people find their reading material, you would be quite happy indeed. So you pay your money to a company that promises to get you those reviews, placed where you need them placed.

Jeff Bezos is not happy about this cottage industry.

He wants his Amazon baby to be pure as the snow, but too many of the reviews getting posted are little more than shills for the listed product. The item could be anything, from a novel to a fruit knife. Someone looking to buy said product sees a collection of glowing reports, and makes the purchase. When they are unhappy with that purchase, they blame Amazon for misleading them. That is not the sort of buzz that any storekeeper wants to see surrounding his shop.

Amazon has taken some of the review sellers to court, citing consumer fraud and false advertising.

While Amazon could go through every product and cull the obviously fake reviews, it would be cost-prohibitive and largely impossible. Family and friends of authors often post a five-star review to be helpful, and the author would be very upset if Aunt Brid's "A Must Read" headline was erased from the page because it sounded like a paid review.

Amazon tried to control the problem by limiting reviewers to those who had actually purchased the item being reviewed. With so very many customers, how could Amazon really determine who among them is part of the paid reviewer cabal, buying a product with money paid to them to buy it. A paid review costs around $20, which would more than cover the price of an e-book with plenty left over for the reviewer to earn a small living. What would be next? Limiting the number of reviews per reviewer? The paid reviewers would only have to set up a new account with a different name, and be back at work.

In their defense, the paid review sites claim that they are providing nothing more than honest reviews, performing a service that big companies can do in-house because they have the marketing department that Amazon's third-party vendors could never afford. It seems hard to believe that the business model would prosper, however, if the reviews were not overwhelmingly positive. Why pay a lot of money to get panned?

It's 'Caveat Emptor' out there in the wilds of cyberspace. You just can't believe anything you read these days. It's all so much fiction. Some of it, however, is very good, just like the reviews say.

Money To Burn...Literally

Real fire

Did you hear the campaign ads last week, warning Chicagoans of pending financial disaster if they elected Chuy Garcia? Remember all the talk about Chicago becoming Detroit, forced to declare bankruptcy, the city gone broke?

That was before Tuesday when Rahm Emanuel was re-elected. Now the city has money to burn. Literally burn.

Last October, the city had $100,00 to spare from its special events budget of 2013, plus another $250,000 from the 2014 allocation. The special events grants are supposed to be used to provide entertainment for the masses, especially the masses living outside of the city limits. The idea is to get them to come in, pay for parking, pay for drinks, and pay for food, all of which involves paying an entertainment tax that helps fund day-to-day operations that cannot be met by taxes alone. The system works, as long as enough people come to see what the city is staging, and buy enough stuff to more than cover costs.

What burned money looks like

The Redmoon Theater staged a spectacle that famously fizzled. What was supposed to be barges on the river representing Chicago on the night of the Great Chicago Fire failed to burn. Despite the infusion of all that cash lifted from the pockets of Chicago taxpayers, the system intended to ignite a conflagration did not work. Someone left the barges out in the rain. No one considered the fact that wood will not burn when wet, and when wood is allowed to get rained on, it gets wet, and so it does not burn. The fire in 1871 blazed spectacularly because, as any historian would tell you, the city was experiencing a severe drought. That's dry weather over a long period of time for those not schooled in meteorological terms.

Okay, so it failed. But lessons were learned, and next time... Well, just wait 'til next year.

Michelle Boon, the city's special events director, has promised that this time they'll get it right. The prop buildings will go up in flames, and not just smolder.

The city is supposed to be broke, but there is still a little bundle of cash that is going to be used to burn plywood cut-outs while tourists congregate along the river banks to watch. The city, or at least Ms. Boon, trust that tourists will come again, despite the previous fiasco, because there's an unfilled demand for bonfires in the greater Chicagoland area.

The tourists might even come just to see if the Big Burn fails again. It could become a regular event, like watching the Cubs and hoping they'll make it to the World Series.

The city of Chicago is sending another $100,000 to Redmoon Theater because it's all about second chances. Just ask Rahm Emanuel, who was given a second chance to get things right by the voters.

When The Author's Platform Is Murder

It seems like only yesterday that we learned of the first book to be published about the infamous Graham Dwyer, Dublin's freshly convicted killer architect. The cell door was only just clanking shut when Niamh O'Connor announced the release of I'M SORRY SIR. The author was wisely getting her work out there while the public's interest was high, to better assure solid sales figures.

Ms. O'Connor isn't the only author out there seeking to capitalize on the publicity that still surrounds the bondage-tinged murder case.

She had her platform, as a crime writer with credentials. Now we have a pair of authors with a very unique platform. The authors are, in fact, the brothers of Graham Dwyer.

The plot involves murder but has nothing to do with bondage

Not that they wish to trade off the relationship. James and Brendan Dwyer are upset, actually, about all the free publicity coming their way since their brother was sent down. They are clearly novices in the publishing game.

The Dwyer brothers co-wrote CULT FICTION, a science fiction novel that features a woman accused of murder, and then published it themselves when they could not convince a publisher to pick up the manuscript. They did their own promotion and managed to sell about 600 copies in both hard and digital forms, which is not the makings of a best-seller.

James Dwyer was bitten by the writing bug and penned another novel, staying within his genre of science fiction/fantasy. FIREBORN was published in March of this year, while his brother Graham was sitting in a courtroom as the prosecution aired the most depraved details of a sick sexual relationship that led to murder. A man would want something to occupy his thoughts at such a time, when the family name was getting blackened on a daily basis.

CULT FICTION is getting talked about, and you would think that buzz generation would be a good thing, but people read the book's synopsis and start to think it's a murder mystery, not a sci-fi action yarn. The Dwyer brothers put their hearts into their prose. They don't want people to talk about their novel as if they put into words what their brother was about, like some sort of private family confession. Their story has nothing whatsoever to do with brother Graham's troubles.

With all the notice of late, who could say but some publisher might take an interest in their self-published opus. Author interviews or a book tour sort of thing would follow, however, and the brothers would have to decide if literary success was worth the pain of being asked about the family and the infamous brother, instead of their book.

Publishing is a cold-hearted business. There isn't much art about it, once you get past the product being made.

Self-publishing is not for the faint of heart. 

Be Like F. Scott Fitzgerald And Boost Your Pension

What would F. Scott Fitzgerald do? He'd choose a pension from Irish Life.

You have long wanted to be a writer, but you feared that the required lifestyle would damage your health. You would die relatively young and you'd never recoup the cost of the pension you paid for with long hours at a day job.

It would be grand to live like F. Scott Fitzgerald, boozing and smoking and staying up until all hours of the night. Party, party, party, so that your imagination would be fired and you would have something interesting to write about. After all, you want to write what you know. How can you  know about wild nights in the south of France if you don't experience them?

Yet you have held back because you did not want to contribute thousands of euro to a pension scheme that would not benefit you. The F. Scott Fitzgerald lifestyle is one that promises an early demise, and there goes all your investment. put towards the support of some dullard who enjoys robust good health and will be getting payments for the next forty years.

Welcome Irish Life's brilliant scheme. This is the pension for you, budding author.

Living that unhealthy lifestyle that is fueling your creativity? Go on and light up another cigarette. Guzzle down that bottle of gin. Irish Life has your short life covered.

If you can demonstrate your ability to live less than the expected life span, you could receive a bonus in the form of a larger monthly pension pay-out. Irish Life will give you the additional income, under the expectation that you won't live to see seventy and it isn't fair to expect you to kick in to a pension fund unless you get the return on investment.

Wouldn't you like a ten or twenty-five percent increase in your annuity payments? Sure you could use that kind of cash to fund your Fitzgeraldian way of life, given the high price of alcohol and ciggies.

No longer would you need to worry about taking care of yourself. Irish Life has you covered for the brief period of time that you burn the candle at both ends.

Develop high blood pressure, Type II diabetes or cancer from your writing research project and the pension goes up. Should you become obese, there is a benefit financially, but the Jazz Age was a time of slim figures so you really should consider going to the other extreme. Being very underweight will also come up a winner for you in this plan.

Die young and leave a good-looking corpse, along with a body of brilliant literature that will live on after you've gone. You can do that now, with a pension plan from Irish Life.

Martini for breakfast? Why not? You're covered by Irish Life, the pension that pays for those who have more to do than worry about their health.

Taking The First Steps On The Road To The Rising

The clock is officially ticking. Minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, Ireland will gear up for the centenary of the Easter Rising.

You'll hear a great deal about it as it gets closer. Tourism is critical to the Irish economy and what better attraction can a country have than the one-hundredth birthday of its, well, not so much birth as a pipping, the first crack in the shell before Ireland emerged.

Dublin, 1916

Those who would like to understand what this road is all about would do well to read A TERRIBLE BEAUTY. It was rather a long road, you see, and the rocky path is best walked in fictional form. Readers can delve into the root causes that sent a group of well-educated gentlemen to take up arms against their colonial overlords despite the overwhelming odds. An easier approach than plowing through a history book.

Ireland's national television network is involved in stirring up the general public. It would never do to have the residents of Ireland less than enthused about the centenary of the Rising, especially when the tourists descend and expect some level of excitement based on the publicity releases that are going to influence their thinking.

Stroll over to O'Connell Street today and you will step into O'Connell Street as it might have looked one hundred years ago. RTE is creating an imaginary setting with actors and a stage set on a reproduced tram car. Various performances will be presented live, with broadcasts for those unable to reach O'Connell Street.

There were many unable to reach O'Connell Street in 1916, but that's another story.

Local shops are participating, with window displays or readings that reflect Edwardian life in Dublin. It's to be a family-friendly event, quite unlike the actual Rising that featured live ammunition and very real death. Rebellions are not pretty, but hindsight has the ability to blur the unpleasantness and focus on individual acts of heroism.

Hindsight also allows the current crop of politicians to argue over the remembrance of the event and how best to commemorate it. Celebrate the military aspect or criticize the founders who took up guns prematurely? Play down the bloodshed or play up the bravery of those who acted while others stood still and complained about the state of Ireland in 1916? Invite British royalty or keep them away from the surviving relations of the rebels who might still resent the fact that their ancestor was executed by order of the British government after the rebellion failed?

All that, however, is in the future. Today, O'Connell Street will be in the past.

Good Friday In A Dry Country

The Catholic Church in Ireland is under fire for its history of child sex abuse, forced adoptions, the Magdalene laundry gulag to contain female sexuality, and general hypocrisy. Church attendance has fallen off considerably and many claim no religion when asked about their faith.

But still.....

The pubs in Ireland are closed on Good Friday.

There is no drink to be taken on this particular religious holiday, in a country that goes dry for the day.

It has become, quite simply, a habit, and we all know how hard it is to break old habits.

The door to a Good Friday pint

Drinking being all but illegal in Ireland on Good Friday, you should not be surprised that the more clever among us have found a work-around to the alcohol restrictions. Every year on Good Friday, several intrepid souls purchase a train ticket, and never board a train. They remain in Dublin's Connolly station, one-way ticket in hand, and pretend that they are waiting for the next train to Drogheda.

You have to have a ticket to drink in the railway station bar. No one says you have to actually use it.

Ireland recognizes the presence of tourists, who are either not Roman Catholic or do not come from the stifling traditions that make the Irish version of Catholicism what it is. Or what it was, to be more accurate. People visiting Ireland to take in the sights have not reacted well in the past to the shuttered pubs, closed only because of religious beliefs that are handed down by the same system that turned a blind eye to the incarceration of women for the crime of being too attractive to men.

A few pubs, therefore, are allowed to serve beer on Good Friday, and if you forgot to stock up your personal beer cooler on Holy Thursday, you'd be looking for just such an establishment. Not that you are an alcoholic, or could not live without a pint on one day of the year. It is the notion that an unelected body of men has such influence on secular legislation that you are denied something for no good reason beyond an outdated practice. So you pay your fourteen or fifteen euro for the chance to thumb your nose at the theocracy.

Think of the ban as Mardi Gras in New Orleans, only in reverse. If you are partying in the States on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the party comes crashing to a halt at the stroke of midnight. As abrupt as that.

In Dublin, the party starts at 12:00 pm on Good Friday, marking the almost-end of Lent. And if you're young, midnight is just about when the party usually starts anyway. It's only the old ones who belly up to the bar at ten or eleven at night. 

Them, and the radical heathens who buy a one-way ticket to anywhere in Ireland just so they can sit in the station pub and drink when they aren't supposed to be drinking.

Old Librarians Never Die, They Just Turn The Page

The Library of Congress - IT-free zone

James Billington has been First Librarian for longer than most people have been alive. He must know a great many secrets about American politicians, because they want him gone but no one is doing anything to push him out of the Library of Congress.

Mr. Billington was appointed by Ronald Reagan, back in the days before we all had smartphones and could not imagine life without Internet access. He rose to the top of the librarian pile when computers were fairly big and bulky and slow.

Thirty years ago, computers were not seen as critical components of business infrastructure. If you had to look something up, you went to a file cabinet and rifled through index cards or folders that someone was paid to file in proper order. If you had to ask a question, you walked up to the person with the answer and spoke to them directly.

The Library of Congress continues to operate at a technological level that fits in with the era that Mr. Billington is comfortable with, namely, the time period when he took charge of America's library. He does not use e-mail. Nothing can replace the feel of a piece of paper, or the personal contact of a phone call.

The gentleman receives a considerable salary, allowing him to live quite comfortably. That the job has grown well beyond his capabilities does not matter, because this is a government post and no one gets fired from a bureacracy. He likes going to work, if only because it gives him something to do. Clearly the man has no hobbies. Or maybe the thought of being stuck in the house with a nagging wife is too unbearable to consider resigning a position he continues to fill in the same way he always has, and to hell with those young whippersnappers and their new-fangled gadgets.

An examination of the Library of Congress has revealed some startling deficiencies in the technology area, and Mr. Billington is under fire for not hiring someone to manage IT matters.

Safe in his job, Mr. Billington brushes off the criticism and suggestions and demands. Members of Congress think he's grand, so why worry about some accounting office whinge?

His library fields questions from those same representatives, but you do not hear any of them complaining about the long delays in obtaining old documents or other reference material. Bureacracies move at a slow pace. Why bring in some IT professional to speed up one cog in the machine? Things were fine in 1985 without all this technology, and everything will continue to be fine going forward.

Why, if Congress wanted a quicker response they would be demanding that he pack up his desk and go. Unless, of course, in all that catalogued and filed research material is a private collection of items that might be of a more, shall we say, personal nature. Make a move to fire the librarian and documents thought lost could suddenly appear. They say that J. Edgar Hoover guaranteed his tenure with secret files intended to silence those who thought it was time for him to step down and turn the FBI over to a younger, more vibrant director. When a system works, why re-invent the wheel?

A man in his 80s is not in any particular hurry. Where is he headed, after all, except to his final breath? Why rush?

Don't you just love the smell of paper in the morning? It smells like nostalgia.

Stephen King's Book Service, Literal, Arrives

Stephen King doesn't do anything small, except for the occasional short story. With collaborators Dave Barry, Amy Tan and Scott Turow, to name a few, he has been entertaining audiences with something other than words. The Rock Bottom Remainders have merged prose and song for many years. Enough years for Mr. King to gain some useful insight into the music industry, and how one business model can feed off another.

The surprise announcement is expected later today, when the author will reveal an audiobook streaming service.

Jay Z isn't the only one to come up with this concept. He just happened to get to it first, but without books.

For listeners willing to pay $19.99 per month, they can download as many audiobooks as they like. The details are unclear at this point, although there have been rumours that Mr. King and his business partners intend to make their books available exclusively via "Literal". At some point, ebooks may be added to the service, along with video book trailers.

An earlier incarnation of the streaming service failed in beta testing when the Pandora model was tried. A software glitch cut stories up into chapters and then shuffled them, intermingling them with other chapters from authors similar to Stephen King, leading to confusion and a sense that the acclaimed author was converting to literary fiction in which a lot is said but nothing happens.

In a run-up to the official press conference, the Twitterverse will be blanketed with advertisements based on the #LITERALforALL hashtag. An appearance on the morning talk shows was called off when publicists realized that authors are a reclusive group and do not do well in public speaking venues. Other means must now be found to get out the message: "This is like the beginning of a new world", one that does not involve writers mumbling under the interogation of a perky presenter with five minutes for the segment, not enough time for a writer to compose a sentence that is grammatical, lyrical and compelling.

#LITERALforALL

According to Weber State University's Eric Harvey, the pre-released photograph of the authors involved in "Literal" looked like a Davos economic summit deciding the future of books in some form or fashion. If the buzz surrounding "Literal" is any indication, this new method of book distribution could alter the publishing landscape in a profound way.

Ownership rights are unclear at this point, but author Scott Turow has indicated that writers will make more money from "Literal" than from sales via Amazon, which will in time be cut out of the book market completely by "Literal". The majority of the shares in "Literal" will be set aside for the literary artists whose works are added to the catalogue. Publishing houses are angling for their positions in the new landscape of digital book distribution, and have issued numerous warnings about the importance of gatekeeping and quality control, things that authors know nothing about.

The question remains, will readers pay that much per month for books, or will "Literal" go the way of the quill?

You Have Nothing To Say At Your Age

So many budding young writers are arriving on the literary scene as graduate programmes churn out these masters of the fine arts. They know the angst of youth, and still recall the misery of their teen-aged years. They think they have so much to say, possessed as they believe they are with keen insight that must be shared with the reading public.

A life lived in the safety of academia, however, is not really one that anyone cares to read about.

Cynthia Ozick sees the relative lack of value in the work of a young writer, a person unformed because their wings are not yet dry.

Ms. Ozick knows a thing or two about writing. She has an impressive resume of work to her credit, and her voice resonates as she calls on new writers to go back to the old way of doing things. An apprenticeship must be served before the new writer can take their place at an equal level with the old writer. The current trend of MFA worship is only encouraging the young to flood the market with drivel that lacks the maturity needed to create great works of literary art. What would be better for these potential authors is time. Time to get out and live, to observe life and make a personal study of human nature and man's many foibles. To study what was done when literature was great and writing had the power to move people.

After all, neither Charles Dickens or Dashiel Hammett ever earned an advanced degree to learn how to construct a novel. George Sand never sat through a course on narrative arcs, nor did Edith Wharton study the finer points of plot development. Tolstoy was no student of creative writing in his Russian youth, yet he managed to compose some very complex novels that are still popular today.

As Ms. Ozick sees it, MFA graduates go on to become MFA instructors teaching other MFA students so that in time, they, too, will teach others how to write. The degree is no guarantee of literary success and tends to produce more failed writers. So what good is all the money spent to acquire the degree when you'd be better off sitting at your kitchen table of an evening, writing in your spare time?

Considering how difficult it is to land a job these days, why not just set up a writing area in your childhood bedroom and crank out some prose? Chances are, you are living with your parents and you need something to do to fill the time. Go to the local library and read the great books that were assigned reading in secondary school, and really read them. All the coursework you need is right there, and it is available at a greatly reduced price when compared to the cost of graduate school.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy takes exception to Ms. Ozick's thesis, noting quite correctly that the sorts of publishing jobs that put an aspiring writer into contact with an actual writer have become unpaid internships, so the old pipeline has dried up. New writers can't be like old writers.

Except that the writers Ms. Ozick mentions did not work in publishing. The pipeline to publication does not run through New York City.

It is also true that the business model for publishing has changed since the days when an F. Scott Fitzgerald could expect an editor to work with him and tweak a manuscript. When was the last time that anyone heard of a publisher taking on an author because an editor saw potential or raw talent that could be cultivated?

The publishing industry is in decline, it is said, and book sales are down. There are those who blame a weak economy and the numerous distractions, along with fierce competition for the entertainment budget.

Could it be that the publishing industry has been chasing the wrong trend, and has left readers behind? That a writer has a degree that shows they know how to construct a novel and edit the manuscript to decrease the publisher's costs does not mean that the writer is creative enough to entertain readers with a story cleverly told. Readers have not changed that much over time, to desire a novel that is structurally sound but not esthetically pleasing.

Are we bringing up the next generation of writers to believe that the business of publishing no longer has room for the art of prose? With investors running the show instead of leaving things to the old-style publisher, are we left with books that lack art because because there is no guarantee of profit in fiction?

The Verdict And The Books That Follow

The verdict in the sordid murder case was handed down three days ago and the printing presses were cranked up, running at full speed to get the first book into the shops while public interest is still hot.

For months, Graham Dwyer was on trial in the murder of Elaine O'Hara. The case had all the elements to captivate the general public: a woman's disappearance, the discovery of her remains months later, and a murder investigation that led to an underground world of kinky sex via online hook-ups, The characters in the drama were intriguing as well, with a well-heeled architect standing accused of murdering a child care worker with some mental health issues.

A guilty verdict, a last chapter written and the book laid down with no time to lose

Mr. Dwyer was found guilty of killing Ms. O'Hara as part of some sick sexual fantasy. Over the course of the trial, the whole sordid story was told from recovered text messages that painted a very disturbing picture.

Who wouldn't want to read all about it, including the bits that didn't make it into the daily newspapers?

Niamh O'Connor is first past the post. Her book is hitting the shops, ready to go, while the trial is still a popular topic.

The crime writer sat through the trial, tweeting and taking notes. She had only to organize those thoughts into paragraphs of more than 140 characters and there was the book that would set the mark for all other books to follow.

Why do we consume these tales? There is the titillation aspect, especially with the Fifty Shades phenomenon playing out in movie theatres. Bondage is supposed to be good, not-so-clean fun, but the relationship between Mr. Dwyer and Ms. O'Hara was nothing like that portrayed in a series of books that were best-sellers.

Are we seeking some insight into Mr. Dwyer's soul? If we could determine why he had a compulsion to kill a woman to achieve sexual climax, maybe we could find some clue that would help the authorities catch another, equally disturbed individual, before they killed some innocent woman who had emotional problems of her own. How could a man who had the intelligence to become a successful architect lead such a thoroughly concealed second life? Were there clues left behind as he played the master to Elaine O'Hara's submissive?

Were there other women gone missing years ago whose disappearance might be linked to Graham Dwyer?

The first book will not be the insightful expose. That sort of story takes some time to research and write. This is the first, the more basic presentation of the facts as heard in the courtroom, with the prosecution painting one picture and the defense painting quite another.

But the first book is the one that sells through when it arrives within days of the verdict. It won't be the Irish version of In Cold Blood. It isn't meant to be. This book is just supposed to sell a lot of copies so the publisher can make as much money as possible.

The Wisdom Of The Clergy

She should have been home.

That was the wisdom offered by a parish priest in Melbourne recently as he spoke to a group of primary school children. Why did he mention the name of a woman who had been raped and murdered in 2012? Was he providing some lesson in Catholic morality that would give the wee little ones a firm foundation for their teenaged years when the hormones started to raging? Teaching them what the Catholic Church believed was proper behavior for the female congregation?

Murder victim Jill Meagher

He held up a picture of Ms. Meagher, a woman who had been walking home from a pub at 1:30 am after a night out when she was attacked.

People do that sort of thing, go out to nightclubs or pubs or concert halls to have fun. Men and women both are known to stay out late. But if you are a woman in Melbourne, you are doing what you have no business doing, according to the wisdom of an Australian clergyman.

She should have been home in bed, the priest told the children, and not out at all hours. It was her own fault, then, if you follow the clergyman's logic, that she was killed by a serial rapist. A woman should be living a faith-filled life, you see, kids, and all you girls take note. Never leave your homes. The Muslims have the best idea, don't they? Don't allow women to walk about without a male escort, or they are fair game for the thugs and killers. So there's the lesson for you boys. Women are not entitled to respect, unless they are cloistered behind the four walls of the family home, in bed by 10.

The Archdiocese of Melbourne has apologized for the comments, calling them inappropriate.

And offensive as well.

But what they failed to explain as they extracted an apology from the priest who upset the parishioners is why they continue to employee a priest whose mindset is so dangerously archaic . They never said the priest was a feckin' eejit for blaming a victim, yet that is what the laity thought of the man.

When a murder victim is called out for not living a more "faith-filled" life, there is a bigger problem than that of a single priest. That he would even think to instruct children on proper morality by using an innocent, brutalized woman as an example of what not do reflects a mentality that harkens back to the Dark Ages.

The same concept of morality led to the creation of a gulag designed to contain female sexuality in Ireland, a system that remained in effect until the mid 1990's. That mindset has not been erased with time or corrected with teaching.  It starts in the classroom, with the children learning the basic tenets of their faith. And so it is perpetuated ad infinitum, until the priests are taken out of the classroom and kept cloistered behind the four walls of the parochial house where they can't cause so much trouble for the public at large.

She should have been home in bed at that time of night, the priest told the impressionable children in a parish in Melbourne. What an incredibly stupid thing to say. What a pathetic way to think about women.

The Dream Lover: A Book Review

Disclaimer: I received this book from Penguin’s First To Read programme.

I have never read any of George Sand’s books, and know little about her life. Perhaps her writing was too risque for young minds, and then avoided by those who did not study literature at university. So I came to the book with an open mind, and my lack of knowledge made Elizabeth Berg’s “The DreamLover” a pleasant introduction to a very remarkable writer.

The novel opens with George Sand leaving her husband, certainly a fateful day in real life and an intriguing point to begin a novel. For the first half of the book, the story is presented as intertwined narratives of Sand's childhood and her new life as a woman of letters, a woman with a small fortune who could afford the luxury of writing. After the two story lines merge, the remainder of the novel focuses on Sand’s career and her continuous quest to find love.

The contrast between a desire for female emancipation and a desire for romantic love is well presented in fictional form. George Sand might have been a feminist, but her numerous affairs as shown in “The Dream Lover” create a character of great depth. The complexity of Sand’s emotions makes for a compelling read as she searches for some impossible ideal in a man, the dream lover of the title. I am guessing that some of the action portrayed was based on Sand's own novels, in the guise of a writer writing what she knows. You may feel motivated to pick up one of her early novels and see for yourself. Or at any rate, to see how all the sex was hinted at in French literature of the 1830s and 1840s.

There is more than enough name dropping to thrill the literati, with appearances by Flaubert, Delacroix, and Chopin, among others. And then there is the actress Marie Dorval, who may have had a romantic entanglement with George Sand in real life, and enjoys a very brief affair in this piece of historical fiction.

Unfortunately, the novel loses steam in the end. Following the defeat of the Communards in 1848, and Sand's own advancing age, the pursuit of love came to an end and so too did the driving force behind the novel. A reader will see that Sand's emotional outlook matured as she aged, and the closing chapters plod along as if waiting for Sand to die.

All in all, the book is well worth reading for fans of historical fiction.

Onward Christian Soldiers With Payments In Arrears

No money in Christianity

The Family Christian chain of bookstores has gone into receivership because there is no money in Christian books, apparently. Look at Christ's teachings and you see that there is no money in Christianity in general. It goes against the general set of beliefs. If you're giving away all you have to follow Him, there's no room in there for you to accumulate wealth.

What happens when a firm goes under?

There are unpaid bills to be balanced against what little might be in the till, which means some creditors get nothing while others get next to nothing. And when it comes to Family Christian, there is quite a line of Christian publishers realizing that they are about to be left out in the cold. After all, you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip, no matter how religious it might be.

Vendors who supplied Family Christian shops with product did so under the assumption that they would be compensated for their goods. As it turns out, the best of intentions doesn't create profit. After the rent was paid and the utlity bills managed, there was no money left over to pay for the books and gift items.

The publishers who provided the books sold at Family Christian stores had expenses of their own that were going to be recouped by payments that, it turns out, will never materialize. Where does a publisher then get money to keep its own doors open when it gets hit with a loss?

For many of the Christian book publishers, that moeny comes from royalties due the authors who wrote the books.

It isn't just a chain of shops that has gone bankrupt. A chain of authors who thought they had made it in the industry are discovering that a corporation's word is not guaranteed to be kept, no matter what the Bible says.

Render Unto Caesar The Things That Are...Stephen King's

Stephen King contemplates his next novel's antagonist

In Stephen King's next novel, there will be a character who will suffer some horrible fate. The victim of the author's pen will be a thinly veiled version of the current governor of the state of Maine, and that character will die in an excruciating way, and only after readers have come to thoroughly despise him. Indeed, they will cheer when the character who is remarkably similar to Paul LePage gets what's coming.

Mr. King lives in Maine, a state associated with rocky soil and people hardened by a perpetual struggle. And lobster, of course. When you think of Maine you think of lobster but that's only along the coast. Other than that, it is the sort of place that is not an economic powerhouse like New York, or quaint tourist haven in a Vermont sort of way.

Given all those negatives, it is no wonder that the government is quite sensitive to people trying to avoid rendering unto the state that which is the state's. In other words, Governor LePage tends to criticize the tax-dodgers.

A popular tax dodge in many of the United States is to move to Florida where the taxes are low, and thereby keep more of your money. Caesar's cut is smaller in Florida and as long as you reside there for six months and one day, you are an official resident subject to the local tax rules. You could keep your house in Maine, which would be of use in the summer when it is too hot in Florida. You'd linger into the autumn for the foliage, and then head back to your official place of residence to prepare your annual tax return, happy that Maine isn't getting as much as they would if you were a full-time Maine-iac.

Mr. LePage called out Stephen King as such a tax dodger recently. The author is, of course, fabulously wealthy after finding success in writing, and fabulously wealthy people employ tax accountants who tell them to move to Florida and save a few dollars. He just happens to have a home in Florida, and someone in the governor's office connected a couple of dots and drew a line that did not actually connect to reality.

There is no love lost between author and executive. Mr. King has criticized the governor in the past, and it's likely that Mr. LePage was so happy to be handed something negative to say about his nemesis that he forgot to check the facts before presenting his theory.

Now Mr. King is demanding an apology that will most likely not be forthcoming. About all that Mr. LePage did was to delete the anti-King comments from the version released to the press, as if the words were never spoken.

Without the apology, Mr. King is free to retaliate in a way that only he can, because he is a highly successful author with a huge coterie of fans. Few will have heard Mr. LePage speak, but many will read Mr. King's response.

As Mark Twain once noted, it is not wise to pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. But then again, who ever said that Governor LePage was a wise man?

Take Advantage Of The Favorable Exchange Rate

The euro is nearly on parity with the US dollar, which means the bargains in Europe are there for the taking. What better bargain could you find than a castle? Yes, your very own castle.

All is not perfect, of course. You would be the proud owner of a pile in County Antrim, but if you are part of the Irish diaspora that fled Ireland to escape Protestant rule, this could be your best chance at revenge for your unfortunate ancestors. Antrim was once the seat of the clan O'Neill, but the native Irish were booted off their land so that the Ulster Plantation could take root and wash out Irish culture. Wouldn't your people be proud of you if you re-inserted a little piece of Irish-Catholic culture back again?

Craigdun

A man's home could literally be his castle if he had one million dollars on hand, plus a little loose change to cover the difference. As mansion go, it almost sounds too good to be true. But, again, this is in Antrim and not London or New York City.

Craigdun is the second castle to sit on the site, with the original castle torn down in the 1860s. The stones, however, were recycled, so in a way you'd be getting something from the time of James I.

At one time, the occupant of Craigdun was a fierce unionist who once threw a book at his nemesis, Winston Churchill. How delightful would it be to accept the keys to your new abode and then promptly have the local parish priest come in to exorcise that particular demon?

And it would not require much sacrifice to move in. The home has been renovated and brought up to modern standards, making it eminently comfortable for an old house. At the same time, the gardens maintain the feel of baronial splendor, where you could walk in the evening and imagine that you, too, are a lord of the manor.

Looking for an investment? The castle is currently used for destination weddings and appeals to those looking for a unique venue for their party. Book enough groups and you could pay the mortgage from outside income, while keeping an apartment for yourself. It's how it's done these days, to make such places affordable. 

You Can Cancel That Trip To Ireland Now

As a publicity-garnering gambit, the 15 euro air fare rumour got people to sit up and take notice of Ryan Air. When the New York Times writes up a piece about it, you've arrived in the land of free publicity.

Sure you'd be made to pay extra for a sip of water or the key to the jacks, but fifteen euro to travel from New York To Dublin? You could manage to travel light and dehydrated. Look at the exchange rate between the dollar and the euro! How could you go wrong? That return to the homeland was suddenly within reach for the millions with a drop of Irish blood and a yearning to see what their ancestors left behind.

Now that Ryan Air has your attention, they wish to announce that they were not, actually,planning to offer such impossibly low rates for trans-Atlantic travel.

Something just slipped out of the board room, or something like that.

Michael O'Leary, who founded the cheap airline, was just dreaming and his flights of fancy turned into actual flights. He wants to expand his little airline that has all but killed off the old Eurorail pass that was once the cornerstone of gap year travel. Students fly Ryan Air all over Europe, and what CEO would not want to expand on that success? The trans-Atlantic route is the obvious place to go next.

Unfortunately for corporate relations, the banter in the board room leaked out. In truth, they say now, the executives discussed adding the new service and then realized that they couldn't afford it within the limits of their budget. As for a fifteen euro fare, that might be a nice price point, but it is not realistic. Imagine the loss on a single, full flight of 15 euro seats and you start to wonder who came up with the figure in the first place. It's not as if the till is filled to overflowing and something has to be done to spend all that money.

The low fare was hyped and now the low fare has been declared a misunderstanding.

Wavering in financial matters does not endear a corporation to the flying public, and for Ryan Air it is doubly unfortunate. Their no frills flights, awash in gimmicks that annoy the uninitiated, have plenty of detractors who don't really enjoy the Ryan Air experience.

So when the airline does come up with some sort of loss leading offer, the flying public is likely to ignore it as another attention-getting device with no substance.

No firm wants its clients to lose faith.

There are always competitors ready to capitalize on such mistakes and siphon off a few travelers looking for a bargain and willing to fly like a kipper in a tin.

The Fully Integrated Literary Agent

Is she still a legitimate agent some asked when Emmanuelle Morgen left Wendy Sherman's agency to join a book packager. Would there be conflicts of interest for a literary agent becoming a component of another firm that was aligned with the publishing side of the business?

Stonesong was expanding when it took in Ms. Morgen, tacking on literary representation to an established packager. Naturally there was concern that someone seeking representation would be steered towards the custom publishing side of the office, suggesting that clients would not be getting the best possible deal because the literary agent would have some incentive to not heavily push the book to other publishers.

It is an ongoing dilemma in these days of digital publishing and authors doing it themselves and literary agents helping their author clients publish things that the major publishing houses don't want. The industry is changing due to technological advances that are coming up too fast for the normally slow-paced publishing world to adapt.

But what about the final phase of the process? After the literary agent has sold a manuscript and the publisher has created a book, who sells the book?

If you are Emmanuelle Morgen, you point to yourself.

Ms. Morgen is joining two other women in opening up a book shop in her native town of Hoboken, New Jersey. By going into the selling trade, she has integrated herself into every phase of publishing, doing just about everything but reading books aloud to the buyers.

Little City Books is slated to welcome book buyers at the beginning of May, to fill a niche that the owners see in the local market.

The shop will host author signings and readings, as you would expect, but wouldn't you love to be represented by an agent who could get you and your book into a brick-and-mortar store? Would that not be a huge bonus in signing with her?

Not only can she get you a publishing contract, but if things don't work out as planned, her agency could still get your book published. And then she can get you some publicity via an appearance at Little City Books.

Literary agents are getting into the publishing business with increasing frequency these days, if only to stay on top of the game. How long before some of them start investing in local book shops to provide a forum for their authors to get a little attention? Publicity budgets are tight in this bean-counting era, where art is pushed aside in a drive to reap the maximum profit from blockbuster bestsellers that may or may not be worthless drivel.

Today it is Stonesong extending its reach. Who will be the next literary agent to follow in the same track?

Books To Look For Next Year

Two years ago he was a graduate student working on his Master of Fine Arts degree, getting an honorable mention at Cornell University for a piece of short fiction that he had written.

Yes, that Cornell of ivy-covered walls and proximity to New York City where the publishing business resides.

Next year at this time, Adam O'Fallon Price will watch his first novel arrive in bookstores. A rapid trajectory? Not really. He has a plump resume of writing credits to his name, and when you're querying literary agents it never hurts to mention publications like "Glimmer Train" or "Paris Review". It shows that you've been vetted by the industry that churns out MFAs.

What if you can't make claim to that sort of history? What if you aren't interested in the more literary aspects of fiction, but the more commercially-oriented?

Do not be discouraged. There is room in publishing for those who teach writing as well.

Midge Raymond will have a novel coming out next year. She has been teaching creative writing for a long time, and even published a book about writing tips that was aimed at people like you who have a story inside but don't quite know how to get it out. Of course, Everyday Writing was a work of non-fiction, so MY LAST CONTINENT will be considered her debut in full-length fiction.

Don't fit into either category of debut fiction writers who have publishing contracts while you do not?

You could try picking up a copy of Ms. Raymond's book and doing a little studying. It might be less time consuming than the old-fashioned idea of reading a lot of novels in all genres to absorb the skills that Ms. Raymond's students learn in a classroom setting.

Have you reached the point where you think you'll have to suck it up and enroll in a graduate program to get your own MFA and then get noticed by literary agents who will land a publishing contract for you?

Ryan Boudinot says no.

He believes that if you are born with talent, you can become a writer. Just because you want to be a writer doesn't mean you can go to school and learn the craft like it's plumbing. Some people want to be dancers but they don't have the body for it, and no amount of education will alter the fact. Creativity is like that. It's built in and you can't just insert it into your head.

And don't forget that if you are determined to be published, you can just go ahead and publish yourself. There are more than enough platforms to use, and more than enough forums to give you all the advice you need to manage the unpleasant tasks of formatting and marketing. Based on a recent article in The Guardian, you might have more luck as a woman writer if you avoid the old-school publishing industry, which appears to be heavily skewed towards male authors.

In essence, there is no well-marked road to follow that will lead you to a publishing contract and possible fame. It's a rock-strewn path that could as easily send you off on a dead end as direct you to the door of HarperCollins.

What does it take to become a published author? A touch of insanity would help.