Journal GMontag's Journal: Books, Books, Books 11
Okay gang, I have finally spent all of my "free time", for a week plus, reading dead-tree versions of some wounderful works. Am even on the verge of beginning a book project of my own, sparked by the publisher of a book mentioned below.
Minor notes, if anybody has any experience getting published (commercial, not academic), let me know? If anybody has any experience with Harbrace and/or OED software, let me know too. As the Harbrace manual is "the gospel of English style" that built the UTK library, I prefer to follow it loosely. Yes StB, I promise to use a spell-checker (thus the incorporation of the OED) if I end up slapping the thing onto the interweb. If I end up with a publisher (yes, it is cold enough for that here this week), I suspect that an Editor will be forced on me (well, not really forced, I like the concept) along with all of those Fascist spelling rules
A fascenating new book has come to my attention: FDR's Folly by Jim Powell. It coveres how the policies of FDR actually lengthened the Great Depression of the 1930's. He was on C-SPAN2 with Michael Barone (sp?) at a CATO institute forum. The publisher, Crown Publishing Group of Random House, is seeking authors with a Conservative perspective. Looking into what I need to do to successfully approach them on a book project. Browsing through this for tips. Of course, if that fails I can spew right here in my journal
Currently I am reading The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. 858 pages of REAL Communist history. Just the pages covering the Bolshevik revolution, and the hidden coup within, are more than worth the price.
Just finished Radical Son by David Horowitz. A splended autobiography by one of my favorite observers of popular culture. He covers his family from around 1905 in Eastern Europe, through his own life into the late 1990's. As his family has been involved in some sort of political activism, especially his parents and their secret Communist cells and Dr. Horowitz and his involvement, a little more removed, assisting folks like Tom Hayden travel to Havana and Hanoi with press credentials from Ramparts magazine, raising funds for Oakton, CA gangsters of the left (The Black Panthers), etc.
Near the end of the book, he mentions how the Left, him in specific and the gaggle in general, never bothered reading anything by Conservative authors. They tended to stick with calling anybody who disagreed with them a Fascist or a McCarthyite without noticing what they were really saying. Then he met William F. Buckley, Jr. before a talk show appearance. Afterward he discovered Buckley's "New Right" movement (also known as the "counter-counter-culture) and how Buckley had been pretty successful with getting ridding the Right of John Birch Society AND the Ann Rand cultists.
Prior to reading the Horowitz book, I read Getting It Right by William F. Buckley, Jr., a novel about the emergence of "the New Right" with more detail to what Horowitz refers to in his autobiography. A detailed story beginning around 1956 and spanning through the Goldwater Campaign. See this review for other info. I do need to go back through that one, as the protagonist, Wodrowe, late in the book is revealed to have been working for the John Birch Society under an assumed name. I did not notice a name change in the novel, and without refreshing my memory I am assuming that this is an opening for a series with this character as the focus. Then again, I might have missed something
Finally, EVERYTHING by Tom Wolf is recommended by me. I read The Right Stuff (first edition) in high school and was absolutly fascinated by his story telling. Whenever I hear that he will be on TV I make a point to watch.
published (Score:2)
Re:published (Score:1)
Mine is an expansion of Things I have Learned Lately [slashdot.org] and New Stuff I have learned [slashdot.org]. Note to self: Yes, Political Correctness is all of the former and none of the latter. [slashdot.org], but it is an old Maoist phrase referring to the party line too. So, now when someone raises the issue of "political correctness" I respond that we can leave Mao out of the discussion.
The keys to what I want to write about, or at least help with the research, are the FDR book and The Black Book of Communism, with key
Re:published (Score:2)
My Take (Score:2)
Basically its the loss of control over the editorial and creative process. Yeah, there are small independent publishers that don't operate like the huge multi-nationals... but actually landing a deal with one of them is actually harder because there's more at stake.
What I usually offer, in the way of ad
Re:My Take (Score:1)
The ONLY reason why I seek a publisher is because they do the things that I am not interested in messing with at this time. Like all of that editing and printing
Perhaps that will change after I get back from a nation-to-be-named-later (one of the folks expressing interest wishes to meet in person soon), but for right now I would rather find a place, even with a horrible deal, that will edit and publish my work. For
Re:My Take (Score:2)
There are a few types of publishers
I've had stuff published (Score:2)
I should go ask my publisher about other genres, to see if there's anyone they know of for you and Sol.
Re:I've had stuff published (Score:1)
I have been asked by different people in my local area if I write, after we had discussions similar to what we have here in journal-ville. When I say that I write online they ask if I have been published, but it has never gone farther than that and they were not publishers.
Re:I've had stuff published (Score:2)
Syngress is very easy to work with. About half of the proposals I'm aware of that I've had people send their way have been accepted. But again, they're strictly tech, so they do you know good directly.
If you do get to a point where you're looking at a contract with someone and have questions, let me kn