Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Thursday, July 29, 2010,
Everybody's familiar with Mark Twain, right? The quintessential American author and humorist. But the Twain we know has been "scrubbed and sanitized" according to Ron Powers, author of Mark Twain: a Life. Twain is about to be unscrubbed and unsanitized and I'm curious to see how this new, old Twain will be received. You see, the University of California Press is getting ready to publish Twain's unexpurgated autobiography. His autobiography has certainly been available for many years; it ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Saturday, July 17, 2010,
It has been nearly 40 years since the last time I watched the movie,
Freaks and nearly that long since I last thought about the remarkable
movie. Made in 1932, Freaks tells the story of a group of sideshow
performers. "In the film, the physically deformed 'freaks' are
inherently trusting and honorable people, while the real monsters are
two of the 'normal' members of the circus who conspire to murder one of
the performers to obtain his large inheritance." (from the film's
Wikipedia entry). Wa... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Wednesday, July 14, 2010,
In his recent post, Blogging to Increase Your Audience, Dan wrote "...it
has always struck me how so many of the people on xanga that indicate
they would like to be a professional writer of some sort, will tend to
act as if they don't care if people read them. I would think that it
would be the goal of the professional writer to be read. I would
assume that professional writers need to sell books." As a
professional writer who needs to sell books and who blogs here on
xanga, I think I'd like... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Sunday, July 4, 2010,
Basketball fans are consumed with the free-agent machinations of LeBron
James, but the New York Times is reporting on a much bigger free-agent
controversy in the world of sport. Takeru Kobayashi will not be
competing in Nathan's hot-dog-eating contest today on Coney Island.
Kobayashi won the contest for six straight years (2001 - 2006) and is
clearly one of the top two competitive eaters in the world today (the
other being the reigning Nathan's champion, Joey Chestnut). Although
Kobayashi... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Thursday, July 1, 2010,
A woman, observing the uncharacteristically longer line outside the men's room last night, pointed out to my wife, "At their age, they have to use the bathroom every ten minutes." This morning, I imagine twenty thousand stock brokers and ad execs, bankers, doctors and lawyers, butchers, bakers and very upscale candlestick makers (and a certain mystery writer as well), all smiling the same tired smile, all struggling to get to work on time. We stayed up late last night, twenty thousand of us... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, June 29, 2010,
Analyzing book sales is like reading tea leaves... you can fool
yourself into believing you know something, but, in truth, you've just
got a pile of damp darjeeling. Still, that's what writers do.
In the absence of real data (my royalty statements run nearly a year
behind actual sales), we pore over what little data we can find and
pretend to know what it means. Anyone who has watched amazon rankings
jump a million spots in an hour (based on perhaps as few as two or
three book sales) will un... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, June 22, 2010,
I'd like to introduce you to my friend and colleague, Alice Duncan. That's Alice, hiding behind the funny papers.  When I asked Alice for a brief bio to use with today's post, this is what she sent me - Award-winning
author Alice Duncan lives with a herd of wild dachshunds (enriched from
time to time with fosterees from New Mexico Dachshund Rescue) in
Roswell, New Mexico. She's not a UFO enthusiast; she's in Roswell
because her mother's family settled there fifty years before the aliens
cra...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Saturday, June 19, 2010,
In response to my recent post, Tips for Aspiring Authors, AmeSoeur left me the following comment - "I
wonder if you take requests on blogs about writing professionally,
haha. I'm currently stuck on the editing process, and you seem to know
what you're talking about, so I was wondering if you could give some
advice in that regard?" I can do better than that. So watch this space. And
amesouer is certainly not the only writer on xanga struggling to edit a
manuscript. You know who you are. So ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, June 15, 2010,
Yesterday, I suggested that if you live in California, Nevada, or Utah, in Wyoming, Nebraska or Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania or New Jersey, you should get yourself to Route 80, and point your car east, in time for Deadly Ink. Of course, not everyone who reads my blog lives near Interstate 80. Some of you live near an airport. So, if you prefer air travel to long-distance car trips, you should know that it's National Crime Fiction Week in the United Kingdom, "a nationwide cel... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, June 14, 2010,
Interstate 80starts in San Francisco and runs east through California, Nevada, Utah,
Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania
before coming to an end in Ridgefield Park NJ, at the intersection of
Interstate 95, as it approaches the Hudson River, the George Washington
Bridge and NYC, nearly 3000 miles of transcontinental highway, America
on wheels. In my twenties, I could hitchhike the full length of
Interstate 80 in 4 days, although, to be honest, I preferred the
south... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Sunday, May 30, 2010,
The Jacob Javits Center has 760,000 square feet of exhibition space,
and yesterday, every bit of that space was filled to overflowing with
books, books of every imaginable type, from every imaginable publisher,
from Abbeville Press to Zondervan, from American Girl Publishing to
Zhejiang Guanbo Group. It is a humbling experience to realize just how
large and how varied is the universe of books. And it is great good
fun playing a part, however small. This year, I didn't arrange to do a book ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Friday, May 14, 2010,
Here in New Jersey, we recognize that our state has a certain reputation. And we wear that reputation proudly. I've told you before how in 2005, the governor invited citizens to suggest a new slogan. Results poured in. Three quarters of the state is really nice.Great place to visit. You just can't afford to live here.The traffic will kill you. Have a nice day.
And my personal favorite -
Most of our elected officials have not been indicted.
As a writer of crime fiction, I appreciate ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Wednesday, May 12, 2010,
Once upon a time,
3D was little more than a gimmick. Then Avatar changed everything. Avatar demonstrated that 3D was a viable art form, in creative as well as financial terms. In the last few months, there have been approximately a dozen new 3D releases (including, for example, Alice in Wonderland, Shrek Forever After and How to Train Your Dragon) with plenty more still to be released in 2010. Television has also joined the 3D world. Most televison manufacturers (including Philips, Samsu... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Friday, May 7, 2010,
Some of you know that my publisher's business plan is primarily focused
on the library markets. It's especially important that I build a
presence in the library world. Which gives me an excuse to spend a lot
of time in libraries, which I love to do anyway. But it's nice when I
start to make inroads into new library markets. So I was pleased to
see some promising library data yesterday. Looking at the
library catalogs in the 50 largest cities in the U.S. (that is, largest
in terms of popula... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Wednesday, May 5, 2010,
So, I told you about
the Ginsberg exhibition at the National Gallery and about the Peacock Room at the Freer. I'm tempted to tell you today about the bouillabaisse at Tony & Joe's or about the Thai marinated flank steak with jasmine sticky rice in papaya leaves at Bangkok Joes. But I didn't go to Washington DC for the museums or for the restaurants. I went for Malice Domestic.
Malice is a "fun fan convention". Which is to say that the focus of the convention is not on the business of wri... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, May 4, 2010,
Something special happens every time I spend a few minutes sitting in Fred Leyland's dining room. Frederick
R. Leyland was a wealthy British gentleman, an owner of ships in an era
when ships were the only means of global travel and commerce. Which is
to say that Frederick Leyland had money and knew how to use it. Among
other things, Leyland was the patron of the painter James McNeil
Whistler. He wanted the dining room of his London home to be a
suitable setting to display his collection of ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, May 3, 2010,
Before cell phone cameras, before digital technology, before 35 mm SLR, most Americans used simple Kodak cameras to capture moments, at once special and and mundane, with family and friends. These cameras were pretty basic, no focus mechanism, no range finder, no light meter, just a simple camera with which to build a visual history in black-and-white. To this day, somewhere in your attic, there's probably a box of old black-and-white family photos, America in the 1950s. And though these... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, April 26, 2010,
It's Edgar Week, the week when mystery writers celebrate the best
mystery writing. Every mystery writer pays homage to Edgar Allan Poe,
so it's fitting that the MWA Awards are known as the Edgars and the
week that the awards are announced, as Edgar Week. And the nominees
for Best Novel are: The Missing by Tim Gautreaux (Random House - Alfred A. Knopf) The Odds by Kathleen George (Minotaur Books) The Last Child by John Hart (Minotaur Books) Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Hus... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Wednesday, April 21, 2010,
For generations on end,
men and women have looked toward the heavens
and been inspired to write poetry. I'm no poet, but even in my own
case, I managed to scratch out this haiku - I stare at the stars
counting the syllables in
Cassiopeia.
But today's post isn't about me. It's about B. Kliban.
When people remember Kliban (if they remember him at all) they think of
him as the guy who drew all those cat cartoons. But a closer look at
his cartoon collections reveals that B. Kliban, at heart, w... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, April 19, 2010,
I intended to do a photo essay of my day yesterday at the Philadelphia Book Festival (the Free Library Festival), but when I checked my camera at the end of the day, I realized that I had only snapped one pic, early in the morning, before the book festival began, before even most of the set-up had begun. So here's a look at the Free Library of Philadelphia on Vine Street early yesterday morning.
What did I do all day, instead of snapping pics? What I always do at street festivals. Br...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Sunday, April 18, 2010,
I had a great time at the "Meet the Authors" event last night in
Gloucester County. The event, which was a collaborative effort of nine
small libraries was a huge success. The community turned out in large
numbers for a chance to chat informally with the 41 authors who agreed
to participate. I shared a table with author Tom Wilk, who I had not
met before last night. Tom is a journalist by profession and is the co-author of two wonderful books about New Jersey - New Jersey Firsts: The Famo... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Thursday, April 8, 2010,
Okay. I get the point.
Times are tough for the airline industry. I've gotten used to airlines that charge a fee for checked bags. I don't like the idea, but I've grown accustomed to the practice. So it's not really surprising that Spirit Air recently announced plans to charge a fee for certain carry-on luggage as well. Normally I would call that an unreasonable fee, but then I read about Ryanair.
Ryanair (a European discount airline) intends to start charging a fee to use the lavatory. Th... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Wednesday, April 7, 2010,
"Before leaving the house,Big Jim ran his wife a bath. While the tub
filled, Rocki subjected herself to examination in the harsh bathroom
light, the two mirrors positioned to permit her to check herself from
every unflattering angle. Rocki had warm green eyes and red hair
falling like eternal summer waves on her beachfront shoulders. Now
that she was in her forties, Rocki knew, if she was not ever-vigilant,
things would start to sag. Big Jim didn't seem to notice, but Rocki
couldn't ignor... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, April 5, 2010,
It's the library.When I was a little kid, I don't remember
going to book stores, but I do remember going to libraries. Every
week, without fail, browsing the shelves, borrowing books, discovering
new worlds. I never gave much thought to how such a place could exist,
why such a place would exist. It was just the library. Of course it
was there. It even had a great theme song. This
year, National Library Week (April 11-17) celebrates the theme
"Communities thrive @ your library." I've ha... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Wednesday, March 31, 2010,
In response to my last post, youandwhosearmy asked,
"how do you 'network' specifically, are you blunt with them? Do you explain what you are planning on doing while making small talk? Are they essentially cold calls?"
Writing is a solitary activity. It takes me approximately five months to write a first draft (well, it did for the first three books, the next one, that's another tale for another day). During that five month period, I pretty much live inside my head, in a fictional world, kn... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Tuesday, March 30, 2010,
In response to my last post, Boowasborn commented,
"you seem to handle the promotional stuff so well." I don't think I'm especially good at promotion. What I am good at, to be honest, is learning from my mistakes. So I thought it might be interesting to devote a couple of blog posts to deconstructing my book promotion, to discussing what worked and what didn't. Perhaps some of the other authors on xanga will jump in with promotional stories of their own.
John Wanamaker, of Wanamaker Dep... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Thursday, March 25, 2010,
We all know what follows success -
sequels, variations, imitations and spin-offs - until we bleed the corpse dry. And so the hugely popular Pride and Prejudice and Zombies spawns new titles such as Jane Slayre and Android Karenina. In last Sunday's New York Times Book Review, Ward Sutton wonders what mash-ups will follow when "publishers run out of 19th-century classics to ransack."
Sutton suggests a few contemporary titles that cry out for the monster mash-up. In Green Blood. Eat, Prey... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, March 22, 2010,
My thanks to the Literacy Volunteers for hosting Friday night's event at
the Springfield NJ Barnes & Noble. And special thanks to the two
authors who were also there signing books, Marco Conelli and Ralph
Raab. I had great fun chatting with customers and swapping stories
with my fellow authors. At
some point during the signing, Neal showed up. I haven't seen Neal in
approximately 35 years. But through the magic that is social
networking, we reconnected recently and he decided to make ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Monday, March 15, 2010,
When the rain began Friday morning, after a winter of heavy snowstorms, we all said, well, at least it's not snow.
By Saturday evening, we had withstood the brunt of the nor'easter. Our
back yard was a veritable swamp, but at least the water stayed in the
yard and (mostly) out of the house. We only lost one tree, a
crabapple, thirty foot tall, literally yanked out of the wet ground by
heavy winds. But the row of pines withstood the storm. And he who I do not blog about, coming home for sp... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Thursday, March 11, 2010,
I have greatly enjoyed reading everyone's answers...to the current book survey. Here's mine. Books next to your bed right now: Britten and Brulightly, Hannah Berry; Manhood for Amateurs, Michael Chabon; Talk Dirty Yiddish, Ilene Schneider Favorite series: My favorite series hasn't been written yet. But it's in the works. Favorite book: Another Roadside Attraction, Tom Robbins The one book you would have with you if stranded on a desert island: And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street, Dr... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jeff Markowitz on Thursday, March 11, 2010,
And oh the tales they tell... You have heard part of this story before, but through the miracle of
the internet I stumbled on a whole lot more of the story today. I
grew up in a small suburban community (a former potato farm) on Long
Island (New York) graduating from high school in 1970. Even then, the
universe was conspiring to make me a mystery writer. Those of you who
are old enough to remember 1970 or young enough to have studied it in
school will know that 1970 was not an easy year to l... Continue reading ...
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About My Blog
Folks tell me that my blog address is cumbersome, that it's hard to spell and even harder to remember. They may very well be right. Although it's derived from the title of my first mystery, even I can recognize that it's not a user-friendly address. So this page will contain selected entries from that blog. Each entry will include a link back to the original post. Use the link to read comments about the post and to add your own.
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