Massive Diamond Discovered
CNN reported yesterday that a honking big diamond was discovered at the Letseng Mine in the Kingdom of Lesotho. The gargantuan gem is 478 carats and a D color, the “highest possible graded color you can get,” says diamond consultants. The article reminded me of Tom Zoellner’s excellent 2006 nonfiction book The Heartless Stone: A…
continue readingChris Offutt and HBO
I turned on HBO on Sunday night to catch the new episode of Entourage. The channel’s new vampire series, True Blood was wrapping up and the final credits rolled. And I was shocked — and thrilled — to see Chris Offutt’s name listed as executive story editor. I’m not positive, but I think it is…
continue readingSlushpile Family Book Deal Announcement
It’s been a thrilling week here at Slushpile.net. The big announcement is that our patron saint of techie matters, overlord of gadgets, the guy who originally convinced me to write this blog, and the dude who actually pays the Slushpile hosting fees, John Biggs, just signed a major new book deal. Dial Press won a heated…
continue readingAllegations of Rampant Newspaper Plagiarism
Jody Rosen at Slate beats down a Texas alternative publication with allegations of plagiarism run amok. In Dude, You Stole My Article, Rosen provides more examples of word-for-word duplications than you could count. Or, at least more than I could count as I’m struggling to get moving this morning. Some of you folks who are…
continue readingTyler Signs Book Deal
The cavalcade of rock star memoirs continues as reports surfaced that Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler signed a $2 million deal with Ecco, the HarperCollins imprint.
continue reading