Here’s a heartfelt look at what we do down at 826LA.
Thanks, Judd.
Tara Ison’s The List
November 18, 2007
Here’s a shameless plug for a friend’s book. I just finished it (though it’s been out for a little while) and I highly recommend you pick up a copy.
Tara Ison’s The List is firmly set in LA, offering tidbits of life in a city obsessed by stories told on celluloid. Tara’s writing is witty, fun, and capable of effortlessly transporting her readers (well, me anyway) into the very heart of her characters’ lives making me turn those pages to see how it ends. What’s better than that?
Okay, for fear of this sounding like some sort of review or blurb or something, I’ll leave you with a recommendation to read The List, especially if you live in LA and have struggled, at some point, with reconciling your love of art with what your momma always told you.
Check out The List via my aStore or at your local library and visit Tara’s site here.
Support local writers!
Before You Send That Query
November 15, 2007
Here’s a good giggle. Literary agent Sharlene Martin posts this sample of truly pathetic query letters she’s received (sorry, there simply is no better word). The desperation is palpable, people.
(Scroll down on her page to view)
Query Madness, Writers’ Digest, Nov-Dec 2007
Okay, snarkiness aside, I can see how many of these folks might have thought they would win her over–cut through all the earnest wannabes–with their wit and self-deprecating manner but please! Can an agent sell self-pity? Give people something to work with.
My favourite?
We have written a “self-help” book. It actually is more than just self-help because it helps others also.
Great. I can see the bidders lining up for that one.
Waxing Rhapsodomancy
November 1, 2007
Today’s LA Times featured a great cover piece by staff writer, Pauline O’Connor, about Antioch’s very own Wendy Ortiz and David Ulin. It’s true, dammit. People do read in LA…books, I mean…novels, I mean.
They do. Just not in their cars where we can see them.
And, in case you missed my thousand-and-one plugs attempting to draw you out, people also read aloud in LA. Our little 826LA inauguration got a mention too. Yep, it’s a small literary town but a good one.
Nice one ladies (and David, of course). Happy anniversary.
Or how about a place to build your own library?
Maybe you’d like in on the action? Read on!