Tag Archives: blogging

Writers, Editors and Books equal Genius!

Posted on by
Reply

Jack’s Wednesday guest blog is late again – –

Wendy and I watched a movie last week that brought back a lot of memories. The film was called ‘Genius’ and starred Colin Firth and Jude Law.

The movie opens with a view of the Scribners building in New York and that brought back the first memory. When we owned a bookstore in Big Stone Gap we always had to have some first editions of ‘The Trail of the Lonesome Pine’ (published by Scribners). My job was to find good first editions cheap so we always had them in stock.

The film then moves to a nondescript guy coming into one of Scribners’ editor’s offices holding a handwritten manuscript. This turns out to be Thomas Wolfe! I knew the name but not much more. The movie then continues to cover their work and personal relationships.

When Wendy’s book ‘The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap’ was accepted by St Martins she was allocated an editor (the lovely Nichole) and we made a number of journeys to the ‘flat iron’ building in New York. So I was able to observe the relationship between an editor and author close up, and that was fascinating. Of course technology has moved on since the days of Thomas Wolfe, so instead of a handwritten pile of pages it all went back and forward over the internet. Also, there were many others involved – not just proof readers, but legal experts, folk checking references and even the designer of the cover!

And yet, the conversation was very much the same: it is YOUR book; I am here to help you make it as strong as possible. Cut this. Yes, I mean it. Of course I want to hear why you don’t want to cut it. Yes, okay, we’re still going to cut it.

When Wendy laughed at some point in the dialogue between editor and writer, I asked her why. She said, “this is an old dance. The editor is paid to have opinions; that’s what Nichole always said. And then they have to second guess themselves all the way, while the writer wants to do the right thing but doesn’t want to admit they might not have done it right in the first place. In the end, all you can do is what you did and launch the thing and let it go.”

Fair enough…..

Dulce et Decorum Est – – –

Posted on by
3

Jack gets his Wednesday guest post up on Wednesday for a change – –

Monday was Veteran’s day in the US and the day after Remembrance Sunday in Britain. Both solemn occasions.

I was coming home in my truck around 10 am on Monday and realized that there would be a parade. Just below our neighboring elementary school the kids were lined up both sides of the road. They saw me, an old white haired guy in a truck and assumed I was leading the parade. As they clapped and waved I slowed and waved back, while the teachers wondered why the parade had started early.

But I’m not a veteran and have never ‘served’ in any capacity. However, my Dad volunteered for the Royal Air Force in early 1940. He did that because he could avoid being drafted into the army and being trained to kill. But he spent most of the war in Egypt where he came close to being killed or taken prisoner. He left behind, until he came home, his wife and daughter – and me on the way.

Why do young men or women sign up to go off and fight? Mostly because they have few options – no work opportunities or if there’s a draft they might not have influential connections to get them off the hook. Sometimes because they actually believe it’s the ‘right thing’.

As far as I can tell, and I’ve done a bit of research, all wars are economic – to gain resources. Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe; the Middle East has oil – – –

But after the wars are over it all becomes about freedom and democracy. During WW2 none of the allied nations cared about the Jews, although they knew about the camps. As soon as it was over it was about the Holocaust. WW1 was even more obviously just about empires fighting over territory. So it has always been!

The elderly men (and they’re almost always men) who start the wars never actually fight in them – it’s just a game to them.

The price that’s paid isn’t just in the needless deaths – –

Recruits to all armies are trained to kill and to kill ruthlessly. If you want to win it has to be that way. There are no ‘rules of war’ and never have been. But since that enemy often looks like us they must be turned into the ‘other’ and sub-human – Huns, Japs, Chinks, Argies. It’s easier to kill a sub-human after all – –

I’m a pacifist and always have been and so when these days come round each year I have very mixed feelings.

Wendy spent Veteran’s day collecting boxes of clothes to distribute to homeless people. I can guarantee that many will be veterans of – Korean war, Vietnam war. Both Iraq wars, Afghanistan war – – –

A hero’s welcome?

Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.