clive james on jo rowling

[ewein2412]

"my teeth are so tightly gritted in a smile of good sportsmanship that tiny fragments of enamel are given off into the atmosphere"

Comments

[marguerlucy.livejournal.com]

Ms. Wein.

I feel the same way about many of my successful collegues. And Patti Lupone.

Incidently, even though I could tell from how many pages I had left that I WASN'T going to find out Telemakos' fate before I finished, it was still shocking to see the last page and have to put it down with no answers.

So tell me who I need to pinch to get the last book out soon! (you? *pinch!*)

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I wonder how many people read that and have no clue who 'Biggles' is?
(or Algy and Ginger, for that matter.)

Someone quoted Wilde a few moths ago....this is a paraphrase...
"Every time one of my friend's succeeds, I die a little."

I think it's just human nature, more than anything else. ;o)

[sovay]

You are back!

Personally I miss Biggles.

Hee.

[ewein2412]

Biggles is my hero.

I just wish I could get paid my .0000003 or whatever without having to go thru the Herculean stress in which I am currently embroiled. I can't help thinking: would everybody involved continue to treat me so indifferently if my initials were JKR?

If I were Biggles I would not be stressed. I would just enjoy the adventure. (I think part of my problem is that I see myself as BIGGLES, not as the AUTHOR of Biggles.)

[ewein2412]

it is in copyediting at this moment, sent there by the capable hands of sdn, and I've just noticed that it's listed on Amazon as having a publication date of 17 April 2008 (I just love these arbitrary dates that Amazon comes up with).

[ewein2412]

nah NAH nah nah nana na na NAH

(Dambusters music alert)

I'm back, trying to keep a low profile, but drawn inexorably to my computer.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought about it, but yes, I could see him in your hero role!

No one is particualry impressed by JKC, so I don't think a name change would help. (I certainly hope it's more money than that, though.)

On the bright side, no one has posted tons of spoilers and really mean-spirited critiques of your latest book....all right, I'm grasping at straws.

Try to enjoy the adventure anyway. ;o)

[marith.livejournal.com]

Even though I'm not into the HP books myself, my first reaction reading that article was pity for Clive James. To have had the elfin whimsy drummed out of you! How sad and limiting.

[ewein2412]

I must confess that I received a very wonderful review today, so am feeling magnanimous and full of elfin whimsy. Also I only skimmed the last 80 per cent of the article.

Still, I feel sure that "front list" authors don't have to endure the soul-destroying administrative labyrinths I am constantly forced to negotiate. (I bet Clive James doesn't have to, either.) It's the *indifference* that gets me. Like, for example (not related to the current hassle), last year when I discovered by accident that one of my books was going out of print... and when I queried this, they sent me a postdated letter informing me I could purchase the remaindered books... but I only had 10 days to do it because it was postdated. And then when I did, and the books were returned to the depot without reaching me (presumably because they were, as is customary for Penguin, addressed to Perth Australia rather than Perth Scotland), they couldn't redirect them to me because the purchase deadline had already passed... and actually this story goes on and on, costs me HUNDREDS of dollars in postage, and I STILL haven't received the durned books! And I can't help feeling, at such times, that if I was, say, SOMEONE ELSE, I would get slightly more attentive service. Also, if I was Bill Bryson, I could publish my grumbles and get paid for them.

Bill Bryson is my other hero... Bill Bryson and Biggles.

[ewein2412]

you are right, of course, about the mean-spirited critiques. But there is a rather enormous spoiler in almost every review of my latest book.

I suspect I get paid rather well for what I do, considering, and having nothing to compare it to; only it is doled out in such parsimonious increments, with so many years between them, that the thrill is kind of lost on me. Short story writing is not as lucrative, but as far as instant gratification goes it is MUCH more satisfying!

[sovay]

I'm back, trying to keep a low profile, but drawn inexorably to my computer.

I won't blow your cover.

Unless you are likely to post updates about The Sword Dance, in which case I will quietly stalk your journal.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I'm just really grateful my husband has a good enough job that he can handle the bills. The big $600 so far this year doesn't even cover my con attendance and subscriptions. Oh, well.

When I get that nice $25 check I'm waiting for, thought, I'll think of you. ;o)

[ewein2412]

hey, I get a check for $1.41 every year in royalties for the German paperback edition of The Winter Prince!

[ewein2412]

heh. that may inspire me.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Wow! $1.41....that's underwhelming....

[firiel44.livejournal.com]

How sad that he can't enjoy a little fantasy now and then. He almost lost my sympathy altogether with anti-Tolkien ranting, but it's just sad that he can't even enjoy a bit of Narnia without thinking it's endlessly silly.

I will studiously avoid all reviews to not be spoiled. I know it's worth it without reading any silly reviews. Being the newbie librarian, I get review journals well past their original usefulness anyway.

[sovay]

heh. that may inspire me.

My cunning plan is underway . . .

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

Yes, the anti-fantasy rant he went on was off-putting to me as well. I fall in the "having read everything, including Tolstoy and Jane Austen". I read the last two thirds of War and Peace in two days (partly because I had put it off all summer and had a class on immediately coming back from summer vacation, and partly because I couldn't put it down). I definitely have time for fantasy and magic.

[ewein2412]

a lot of people don't seem to be able to enjoy a bit of Narnia, which I find sad, and it is a point well taken that one should be able to enjoy HP in the same way. I just liked the quotation about good sportsmanship. There is a big long discussion about the article going on on the Childlit listserv right now (and about Harry Potter in general!)

re the reviews... the same damn spoiler is in the BCCB review, but it otherwise melted my heart by calling Telemakos "kingly." (gosh, I can't even type it without smiling.)