Interesting Publishing Development

I find it important, Google's plans to digitize as much of the written word as it can. So here's an interesting development: Author Set To Sue Google Over Web Book Scan. An excerpt:

Chinese author Mian Mian, who shot to fame with lurid tales of sex, drugs and alcohol in the underworld, will sue Internet giant Google this week for copyright infringement, her lawyer said Monday.

Sun Jingwei told Agence France-Presse that the case -- the first civil lawsuit against Google in China over the scanning of books into its controversial web library -- would open at a Beijing court on Tuesday.

On a lighter note, the actor Hugh Grant dreams of a literary career.

Ruin And Resolve Is GO

Ruin And Resolve (whose TOC and cover is here) is now up! Here's the post from the publisher, Rocket Kapre. An excerpt:

Ruin and Resolve is now up for sale on Smashwords.

Up and at ‘em everyone! For charity!

If you’ve never purchased a book on Smashwords before, or even made an internet purchase, don’t worry it’s easy. We’ll walk you through the steps after the cut.

Click here to read more.

Could This Be The Gadget?

I'm on record in one of my New Worlds entries for saying that, in my humble (and hopefully correct) opinion, "We are one well-made reading gadget away from seeing a rapid change. Look at what the iPod has done for music -- there were mp3 players before the iPod, but its popularity and eventual price drop made it as ubiquitous as TV's. If e-readers ever hit a regular price of, say, P5,000, or even perhaps P10,000, we just might see something as revolutionary for reading."

I really do feel that we are just generations away from this, and I'm talking "generations" in a gadget's lifespan, so we know how fast this is going to be. We all know the speed at which technology evolves.

Apple is rumored to be coming out with a tablet "as soon as a month from now". Could this be that gadget?

Globe Books' Book Of The Decade

Click here to see Globe Books' Book Of The Decade. A "slightly altered" excerpt to keep you in suspense as to the book's title:

Millions of children, especially boys, for whom reading had been something remote, intimidating, uninteresting, took to the book. You couldn't walk through a mall, an airport, a park without seeing one or another of the series in the hands of a young person. And not young people alone; adults devoured the book as well. The book may have created a generation of readers, and, if we're lucky, it may not be the last such generation.

A Lovecraft Christmas

Ah, this Grinch found something Christmassy to enjoy: A Lovecraft Christmas. :D

*Sigh*

It came just the same.

The Man Behind Tintin

As seen on The New York Times: The Man Behind Boy, Dog, And Their Adventures. An excerpt:

For some reason, the comic-book character Tintin, beloved just about everywhere else, has never quite caught on in America. This may change in 2011, when Steven Spielberg brings the first of three planned Tintin adventures to the movie screen, but for now he remains underappreciated — a little too odd and earnest, perhaps, in a landscape ruled by superheroes.

Tintin, a virginal, 15-year-old journalist with a perpetually upswept quiff of reddish-blond hair and a wire-haired fox terrier named Snowy, is the hero of 23 book-length adventures — what we now call graphic novels — completed by the Belgian artist Hergé, who died in 1983 at the age of 75. Most of them are little masterpieces of the form, combining inventive and suspenseful comic storytelling with drawings that are clear, precise and as thrilling as movie stills. Andy Warhol was a big fan, and so was Roy Lichtenstein.

Regrettably, though Pierre Assouline summarizes the books in great detail, his biography of their creator, “Hergé: The Man Who Created Tintin,” is unillustrated, so if you don’t already know the work, this is not the place to start. And even if you do, the story is a little depressing. Hergé here is frequently reminiscent of the Charles Schulz depicted in David Michaelis’s recent biography: an artist far happier and more interesting in his work than he ever was in life.

R.I.P. "Olivia"

Sesame Street star Alaina Reed Amini Dies Aged 63. An excerpt:

Alaina Reed Amini, best known for playing Olivia Robinson on long-running children's show Sesame Street, has died aged 63, her publicist has confirmed.

The star - previously known as Alaina Reed Hall - died Thursday at a hospital in Santa Monica after a two-year battle with breast cancer.

Her stage credits included Chicago and Hair. She also appeared in several movies, including Cruel Intentions.

I wrote a short entry about Sesame Street here.

Wanted: More Literary Translators

Sir Butch Dalisay blogs about the need for more literary translators. An excerpt:

A READER named Monching Romano—who runs www.divisoria.com and www.dilimanrepublic.com—wrote in to ask for some help in looking for new Philippine fiction in Filipino for libraries in the United States. “We've been selling Philippine books online since 2000,” Monching says. “Aside from our overseas Pinoy customers, we also have US libraries ordering from us for their Asian/Philippine sections. Our latest inquiry is an order for 50 titles of Philippine Fiction in Tagalog published from 2005 and above. We've contacted the usual suppliers—National Bookstore and University presses—but we can't seem to fill-up the list for 50 titles. We also have an inquiry for 30 titles of Children's Fiction also in Tagalog. Would you be able to suggest other publishers/suppliers where we can probably get more titles? Maraming salamat po.”

I have a feeling that this shouldn’t be a problem—seeing all those new titles coming out of the annual Manila book fair, for example, and knowing how many new young authors in Filipino have been getting published recently—but to speed things up for Monching, let me ask readers and publishers who may have titles to contribute to write Monching Romano directly at monching@divisoria.com.

This should be a great break for writers in Filipino, considering that it’s the writers in English who’ve very often gotten all the international exposure, through fellowships, grants, and invitations to writers’ festivals. As one of the latter beneficiaries, I can’t complain, but I point out whenever I can in these international venues that our literature is much more diverse than our offerings in English would seem to suggest, and that we have exciting new writing being done in Filipino and other Philippine languages.

More "Avatar" Commentary

A friend on Facebook said that he found "Avatar" to be the kind of movie that generated the same kind of excitement and wonder as when he watched "Star Wars" and "The Lord of the Rings". Another friend said he found the story trite, the dialogue wooden, the characters two-dimensional, but the film was still one helluva visual feast. After my posting David Dizon's review, here are links to other comments about James Cameron's "Avatar":

Jigsaw Joker Joseph THE 3 J's review.

Does "Avatar" Contain Hidden Messages

"Avatar" and the American Man-Child

"Avatar" and the War of Genres

Well, just interesting comments, these, on a science-fiction movie that's pushing the bar on movie technical production.

Courting With Books

Here's the story of musician Jamie Cullum, and how he wooed his fiance with books. An excerpt:

The “Twentysomething” singer - who is engaged to Sophie Dahl, the author and former model - said he tried to impress her with his knowledge of books when they first met.

He said: "We hit it off immediately. I think we knew emotionally that we would become good friends. We just started talking about books - I was reading David Mitchells 'Cloud Atlas' at the time - and certain other stuff that we were into."

Ruin And Resolve -- Cover And TOC Reveal

The Ruin And Resolve charity anthology for victims of the typhoons earlier this year that affected so many people, will most likely be up by December 28, 2009. Rocket Kapre has made the formal announcement here, and has put up the table of contents and the cover.

Reminder: Call For Submissions For Demons Of The New Year

This is to remind everyone of the call for submissions made by Estranghero Press for Demons Of The New Year (which I first blogged about here). Deadline is January 15, 2010. Click here for the guidelines.

How Do You See Book Culture Evolving Over The Next Decade?

I received this private message from the National Book Critics Circle:

As we wind down the "aughts" decade, the NBCC seeks the best guest posts about the future of book culture, including essays,interviews and free-range opining.

The topic: How do you see book culture evolving over the next decade? The first response is from Katharine Weber, a former NBCC board member, novelist and short story writer (her new novel True Confections, is due out in January 2010). It's just up on Critical Mass:

http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/guest_post_how_i_see_book_culture_evolving/

Interesting topic. I'm sure everyone sees the change happening right before our eyes. Click on the link above to read the first response to this question. I'll post more as I get them.

David Dizon Reviews James Cameron's "Avatar"

David Dizon of abs-cbnnews.com reviews James Cameron's film, "Avatar". An excerpt:

Hear that scraping sound?

That's the sound of eyeballs trying to do a 360-degree turn in cinemas while taking in the vistas of Titanic director James Cameron's wondrous yet irritatingly familiar eco-fable about giant blue monkeys saving the environment.

A decade after proclaiming himself "king of the world", Cameron is back with a blockbuster film, this time trying to draw gold from well-worn tropes like industries destroying ecology, and civilization crumbling under greed.

One thing's for sure, you'd have to credit Cameron for having the moolah to bring his daydreams to thespic life.

An hour into the movie, viewers will forget the actual number of zeroes spent on this monstrosity (reportedly $300 million) and wonder, "Where, oh, where do we book a ticket to this green hell of a planet called Pandora?"

Call For Submissions: Duguang Lupa

As seeon on gelo's in(s)anities and Jan Philippe's Site, Call For Submissions: Duguang Lupa. Click here for details.

Tweet The Meat December Themes

I blogged about Tweet The Meat last April, and they've released their latest schedule of themes. If you want, give it a try, and if your 140-character story is accepted, you get US$1.00 per story published. Their themes for December 2009:

12-12 theme: Fantasy

12-19 theme: Rebirth

12-26 theme: Sin

Good luck to those who are joining!

The Literary Scandal That Rocked The Czech Republic

A hard-hitting book that deals with racial discrimination, "White Horse, Gold Dragon", has caused a stir in the Czech Republic because its author does not exist. An excerpt:

The story began when a 19-year-old Vietnamese girl who is living in the Czech Republic won a prestigious literary prize for her novel, “White Horse, Gold Dragon”, which was still in manuscript. That was electrifying news for the community of Vietnamese in Europe, and was widely reported in Vietnam and elsewhere.

Sadly, Pham Thi Lan is not the author of that book.

Czech journalists had doubted that she was the author of the above book and they made great efforts to find out the truth.

The first to express doubts was a reporter for the Pravo newspaper, Zdenko Pavelka. Pavelka argued this book couldn’t possibly be written by a 19-year-old girl. Since then they started searching for ‘Pham Thi Lan.’

However, Lan never met any reporters in the Czech Republic. She communicated through emails, reasoning that she was studying at the University of Malaysia.

Based on information that Lan provided via email and on her blog, as well the website iDnes.cz, newspaper researchers determined that there was no girl named Lan who was born in 1990 in Sokolov, no Pham Thi Lan who studied at the Pisek high school, and no Vietnamese family with a daughter named Pham Thi Lan in the town of Frantiskoe Lazne, as Lan wrote in her email or blog.

Meanwhile, the book was selling well in the Czech Republic. Readers were attracted by its criticism of current Czech society – particularly racial discrimination – and it partly unveils the life of the 70 thousand-member Vietnamese emigrant community in that country.

Make A Science Fiction Youtube Video, Get A Hollywood Contract

That's what Uruguayan producer Fede Alvarez did, and now he has a US$30M budget to make the movie he wants. Check out the video, "Panic Attack", here. 

Giant, alien-looking robots attack Montevideo, that's all the video is about. Cool stuff. I've read comments comparing it to alien invasion stories like War Of The Worlds and Independence Day, but what I'm thinking of is what most guys who grew up in the Philippines in the 80's would think of: Mazinger Z and Voltes V. Maybe Fede Alvarez will come up with his own hero-robot to save the day. :)