When a series of murders threatens a community of carnies and freaks, Gibtown's Lobster Boy mayor must stop the killer, while protecting the carnies from the FBI and the outside world.
"Tales of The Lobster Boy", a driving story of murder amongst "those who are born not as others", is an experienced not to be missed.
1. Apple will democratize (without gentrifying) two platforms - HTML5 & ePub. Guaranteed.
Foundations will rock.
2. Apple will start killing off DVD. Likely.
No one will notice.
3. Following Wylie's attempt to claim digital a digital rights homestead, and Random House's short, sharp slap to their wrists, other house's will move more aggressively. And agencies will make strategic moves. Guaranteed.
The publisher's lunch will enjoy a renaissance.
4. Wikileaks will move to make big news, either for dropping bombshells, or imploding following the arrest of their leader. 50 / 50.
Reddit / Digg / Delicious front page feature. MSM not so much.
5. More freeper and teapar(ty) spewing, other side of the Atlantic. Likely.
More violence. Gov will step by December, if Repubs lose midterms. FCC get their balls back (unlikely).
Today was an extraordinary pleasure, shooting a promo for a documentary with my good friend Simon Wells.
The documentary is wrapped around my sequel to Tales of The Lobster Boy. The working title (for the sequel) is Tales of The Fat Lady's Daughter, and will revolve around Melinda Barry, returned to the carnival, to find the man who murdered her mother.
What a lovely day. Here are a few pics...
Shooting in our kitchen (Ebenezer Chapel from Tales of The Lobster Boy)
Sorting out photos at the big wood bar (again, you'll recognize it from the book - the bar upon which Alissa Andersson was murdered and flayed)
My family, the Kriels (the inspiration for the Koontz family)
To update this post concerning Wylie and Amazon's recent deal, here's a long quote from The Guardian:
Fear and loathing among the movers and shakers of America's publishing industry reached new heights late last night with both Random House and Macmillan denouncing top literary agent Andrew Wylie's move into digital publishing.
Home to 700 authors and estates, from Philip Roth to John Updike, Jorge Luis Borges and Saul Bellow, the Wylie Agency shocked the publishing world yesterday when it announced the launch of Odyssey Editions. The new initiative is selling ebook editions of modern classics, including Lolita, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Updike's Rabbit tetralogy, exclusively via Amazon.com's Kindle store, leaving conventional publishers out of the picture.
The disintermediation provoked an immediate reaction from Random House, which publishes a number of the authors featured in Odyssey Editions in physical form. On learning of the new venture on Wednesday night, the publisher fired off a letter to Amazon "disputing their rights to legally sell these titles", which it said were "subject to active Random House publishing agreements".
And late yesterday evening the publisher went a step further, with spokesman Stuart Applebaum issuing a statement saying that "on a worldwide basis", Random House "will not be entering into any new English-language business agreements with the Wylie Agency until this situation is resolved".
At the very least, this will be interesting to watch. Me, I'm staying out of this fight.
You won't wander far on the web today without knowing there's a new publishing house / imprint / book label in town - Odyssey Editions, a cooperative venture between Amazon.com and the Wylie Agency.
Amazon.com now has exclusive rights to sell the e-book versions of some of the best-known titles from top literary authors Philip Roth, Norman Mailer, Vladimir Nabokov, John Updike and more. In an announcement late Wednesday -- shortly after midnight Thursday, East Coast time -- the online retailer revealed that a deal with the powerful Wylie Agency will give Amazon.com the exclusive e-book rights for two years to books such as "Lolita." The e-books will only be available through the Kindle store.
And here is what is so very clever about this move - every undergraduate student in the English-speaking world (should they read more than one English Lit course) will buy all of these books.
Probably on a Kindle. (Here's what's not clever: they might just download an illegal PDF and read it on an iPad.)
Odyssey Editions will be many things, but they will also be apublisher of text books for the English Lit academic market.
A very smooth move.
Wags guess-timate a 25% market share for ebooks in 10 years. That's as conservative as a Baptist at a Bob Jones bake sale.
Let me add, as an aside (and not speaking about either of the linkees), that I value phrases like "Value Proposition" and "Core Values" as much I like the word "allows" when speaking of a software "product".
I can explain to you what they mean, but I am certain they communicate nothing in common usage. They're on a level with brackets and odd capitalizations in postModern(ist)-speak, and only manage to communicate this: "I speak the Shibboleth."
"The faster things go, the more we feed that part of ourselves .... We don't feed the part of ourselves that likes quiet."
David Foster Wallace speaks here, as part of a longer interview, on American attitudes toward literature (I disagree - the issue is education, not geography), and our growing inability to sit quietly and encounter works of culture, undistracted.
As a fan of Wallace's, and as a man who enjoys a bit of doing nothing, I understand his point. We are changing, and part of that change is that we don't quietly contemplate a single work of art as we once did. We browse while watching television. We chat while reading a magazine. We prefer to listen to audio commentary while contemplating a painting.
The last time went to Cannes, I spoke with an older American producer about ebooks, and shared my desire to create rich media experiences for readers. He was outraged. "The last thing I want messed with is my time alone with a book."
But let me suggest this - if we like to tweet and facebook while we watch television, shouldn't this be seen as a new way of enjoying media? Starling see it that way.
And if, like me, you find that while reading on the iPad, you open Maps to look up a location, or Wikipedia to read background, or Google to understand context, shouldn't we see this as something new - a more committed engagement with literature - rather than something bad?
I'm all for sitting quietly doing nothing. But perhaps, as authors and producers, we should consider our new audience, and invent new ways to serve their engagement with our work.
