Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

Dear Ms. Fisher,

You are one of the greatest food writers of the 20th century. But I didn’t know it when I first came across you work 2003, completely by chance, in a vacation condo in Corpus Christi. The bookshelf in the condo had a few magazines on coastal living and three books by you. That night, after I’d put my baby to sleep, I sat in the bathroom—all the other rooms were filled with snoozing relatives—and read your tightly wound account of a once-superb waiter become alcoholic and dismal, a punch-to-the-stomach tragedy in a dozen pages.

At the end of my three-day stay, I was seriously tempted to take your books home with me. I didn’t. But I never forgot the strange, stark powers of your narrative. So when I saw The Art of Eating, an omnibus collection of five of your best-known books, in early 2007, again accidentally, while looking for a copy of Larousse Gastronomique to help with my research into 19th century French cuisine, I began reading immediately.

Or rather, I began reading The Gastronomical Me, the fourth volume in The Art of Eating and your memoir, immediately, because as much …

We had such a nice response to Anne Sowards’ post about the books she was editing in 2008 that I thought I would seek out some additional editors that we might not ordinarily think about. Betsy Mitchell is Vice President, Editor-in-Chief of Del Rey Books, a division of Random House publishing. Ms. Mitchell had the good taste and foresight to pick up Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. Victory of Eagles is the newest addition to the series and the first in hardcover. If you read romances for the relationships, the Temeraire series tells a unique love story between a dragon and his partner. For me, a die hard romance reader, I found the Temeraire books to be completely satisfying. Jayne has reviewed all of the books released to date here at Dear Author.
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Msaggie (5/22)
I always wonder how editors assess books or do they read like normal people (without the extremely critical eye, etc).
Betsy:

An editor’s job is twofold: First, to bravely protect the world from bad literature. That is why we turn down 98% of everything that crosses …

First there was the Indiana Censorship Bill that requires any seller of sexually explicit material to register with the Secretary of State. You know, like bookstores that sell romances and such.

Now the Republicans have the opportunity to vote for Tony Zirkle who is in a primary race for a House seat in Northwest Indiana. Apparently, Mr. Zirkle is either none to bright or totally disingenuous. If it’s the former, I don’t think he should be making laws that affect the rest of this country. If it’s the latter, ditto plus ten.

What did Zirkle do? A white supremacist group decides to hold a party commemorating the birthday of Adolf Hitler. Zirkle is one of the speakers. When questioned about this, Zirkle claimed that “”I’ll speak before any group that invites me. . .I’ve spoken on an African-American radio station in Atlanta.” When asked his thoughts about the group, he said “he didn’t know enough about the group to either favor it or oppose it.”

and

He also told WIMS radio in Michigan City that he didn’t believe the event he attended included people necessarily of the Nazi mindset, …

A free magazine called Bit-O-Lit will be available to DC Commuters every other Monday.  The magazine will feature excerpts of books from YA to thrillers to non fiction.  The excerpts will be on a pay basis, meaning the publishers will have to pay for the excerpts that are included.  The initial print run is 20,000 copies.

Via PublishersWeekly.