Kotzwinkle’s Premonitions
The recent literary scandals sent me scurrying to the Slushpile.net library. Fraudulent identities and plagiarized words… someone spoofed this very situation. So I pulled down William Kotzwinkle’s hilarious 1996 novel The Bear Went Over the Mountain. A decade ago, this writer satirized the publishing industry with a plot that, at the time, required a massive suspension…
continue readingHarvard Author’s Novel Pulled
Little, Brown, and Co. announced Thursday evening that it will withdraw Kaavya Viswanathan’s disputed novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life. The Associated Press reports that the publisher instructed retail and wholesale outlets to cease sales and to return unsold copies. A move that, according to the Washington Post is “fairly unheard…
continue readingThe Sad Side Effects of Literary Scandal
Writer X, like all of us aspiring authors, reads the words of encouragement all the time. He sees interviews with editors and agents where they proudly proclaim that if you just keep writing, don’t give up, pay your dues, stay true to your beliefs, find your voice, make every word count, tell the story you believe in, produce…
continue readingHow to Win a Famous Card Game
I’m almost scared to post this, because if you even think the word “poker” while typing on a website, then the bots pick it up and spam floods in promising quick tips and online gambling opportunities. Some of them even promise to help fix your flops in the bedroom while teaching you how to handle the flop in a card…
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