Change a (Your) Life.

If I Did It (Updated)

Ed Wyatt at the Times reports.

Why is O.J. Simpson doing this? Why is there a publisher out there willing to lift so much as an ink cartridge to put something like this in circulation?

Moral propriety anyone?

Even if the book doesn't contain the implied content, the insinuation of such content is condemnable. They (O.J. & publisher) knew the ubiquitous uproar this would incite - they must've counted on it.

Perhaps his primary goal is to earn the 33.5 million he owes the Browns and the Goldmans, but with a good dose of malevolent sarcasm?

I can't imagine what he's saying to his children, both sets. This entire happening - the upcoming book, the insidious publicity being generated, the notorious Fox interview coming up on the 27th - it's all unbelievably mean-spirited, not to mention cruel. Disrespectful squared. And the title's all wrong, no? Personally, I think WHEN I DID IT has a better ring to it.

At any rate, let's see how many curious viewers Madison Avenue thinks there'll be on the 27th.

Update 11/21/06:

NEW YORK (AP) "Maybe we won't find out how he would've done it. After a firestorm of criticism, News. Corp. said Monday that it has canceled the O.J. Simpson book and television special "If I Did It". "I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project," said Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman. "We are sorry for any pain that his has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson." A dozen Fox affiliates had already said they would not air the two-part sweeps month special, planned for next week before the book's publication.

Better late than never, I suppose, but you can't un-ring a bell. No doubt this book - and interview - will turn up online soon, if they haven't already.

You know....this calls the Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam acquittals to mind. They were both acquitted for the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, but later confessed to journalist William Bradford Huie in a story for Look Magazine--a story for which they were paid. Why was there no public outcry toward Look Magazine? Take a wild, wild guess.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Red River by Lalita Tademy!

Oh, joy! Have you heard? Finally! I was so excited to see that Lalita Tademy's next novel is upon us, I had to share! I just loved her first novel CANE RIVER, so I'm one of the first in line to scoop up RED RIVER in January - I've pre-ordered!

If you haven't read CR, I highly, highly recommend it. It's out in mass market paperback now. It's a fabulously fictionalized story of Tademy's ancestry and will absolutely clutch you, then leave you in awe of LT's artistic talent.

Unfortunately, I was late to discover the magic of CANE RIVER. I ordered the book when Oprah picked it, but it ended up sitting in my TBR* pile for a couple years. When I finally picked it up, I discovered I'd been sitting on a 8x5" treasure! Well, I've learned my lesson. I can't wait to dive into RED RIVER!

*To be read

Graceland ~ A National Landmark!

So everyone knows how I feel about Elvis. I'm planning a trip to Graceland for later this year, and I was so proud to hear the buzz surrounding the recent National Landmark news!

MEMPHIS, TN, USA -- Elvis Presley's home in Memphis is the most visited private residence in the world. And on Monday it became a National Historic Landmark.

"American culture and music changed irreversibly because of Elvis," said interior secretary Gale Norton. "It would be difficult to tell the story of the twentieth century without discussing the many contributions made by this legendary, iconic artist."

The designation puts the Tennessee mansion on the same list as other notable US landmarks like the Alamo, the White House and Mount Rushmore. Fewer than 2,500 historic places have been awarded the designation.

Elvis bought the sprawling property for $103,000 in 1957 with earnings from his first hit record, "Heartbreak Hotel". His ex-wife Priscilla Presley first opened Graceland's doors to visitors in 1980. It now draws nearly 700,000 visitors a year.

"Graceland is my childhood home and it holds so many great memories of the time I shared there with my father, our family and our friends," said Lisa Marie Presley, who is the sole owner of Graceland Mansion. "It is my honor to have shared it with my father's adoring public all these years and I am committed to ensuring that it will be preserved forever for all future generations of fans and of my family to enjoy."

Presley died on August 16, 1977. His popularity continues to surge, annually placing the rock and roll icon atop Forbes' list of top dead celebrity earners. It is estimated that he has sold more than 1 billion records worldwide.

I'm just in awe of the fact that 700,000 people visit Elvis' beloved home each year. That's a lot of people. Ditto for him being the highest-earning dead celebrity when he's been gone for over 28 years. I believe Forbes estimates that he still pulls in around $50 million/year. Wow. A truly fantastic testament to the magic that was Elvis Presley.

I simply can't get enough of watching him perform. Let's face it - he was one of the most captivating performers ever. Michael Jackson is the only other artist that can even begin to compare.

Whether you're a fan or not, if you simply love dynamite entertainment, check out Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii (1973) & Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970). Both absolutely superb! You can hardly take your eyes off him! Even my younger brother (who, at 23 finds it extremely un-cool to be into Elvis Presley) gets hooked on the concerts! Because of that, he tries to avoid seeing them at all, LOL. Can't let his friends catch him sitting around watching Elvis! God forbid. :)

So....who's ever been to Graceland? How was it? Stay at the Heartbreak Hotel?

I can hardly wait to make my "pilgrimage"!

From a Distance

Have you heard about author Margaret Atwood's new invention?

It's an electronic pen!

Perhaps I'm one of the last to hear about it, but I just got wind of it over the weekend. Authors can actually sign books "live" for fans anywhere in the world---without having to leave their living room!

Apparently, the grind of lengthy touring was wearing Ms. Atwood pretty thin, so she invented "The Long Pen". While I don't think it should take the place of the traditional person-to-person contact with your readers - and the obvious value of it - an electronic pen can be tremendously time and cost-effective. I think it's sweet! Not to mention the potential for usage beyond just book signings. Here's a bit of the article:

The idea came to Ms Atwood, who is in her sixties, during lengthy tours around Britain to promote her book Oryx and Crake two years ago. She said: "I am just finding the whole business very wearing now that I am an old age pensioner.''

Developed by a company of which Ms Atwood is now president, the Long Pen consists of two connected video screens and an electronic pen at one end and a document or book holder at the other, together with an electronic arm wielding a pen.

The author and the recipient can see and hear each other on the screens, while the arm replicates accurately the movements made with the electronic pen. Unotchit, the company, stresses that the device is not an automatic pen - because it can only operate when the signer is present - or an electronic signature.

So, what do you think?

Readers - do you think it would be a cop-out for authors not to make as many personal appearances simply because they can just pop up on a screen and sign your book with a remote-controlled arm?

Authors - do you see this as a major convenience, or simply as the "stuck up" or "lazy author's" answer to making personal appearances to meet readers, making them virtually obsolete?

Lonely Heart of Steel

Poor Danielle Steel. I felt really bad for her as I read a recent interview she granted. She's lonely at the top.

On her website, you can see one of her homes - from the outside it looks more like a hotel, she's sold more than 550 million books (leaves even Nora Roberts in the dust), but she admits she's become a lonely recluse and laments it in a rare, personal interview with journalist Karen Angel of THE AGE, an Australian publication. Here's most of the article:

True love. Danielle Steel, whose name is synonymous with romance, has no man in her life, and she wishes she did.

It's not as if she had nothing to do - Steel began writing her books at night, often making do with only four hours of sleep, in order to be there for her children during the day, and she still keeps to the same gruelling schedule, hammering away at the same 1946 Olympia typewriter she has always used. But writing isn't enough any more.

"I have nothing else to do," she says, "and because of that schedule I will never have anything else to do. I move between San Francisco and Paris... I have a wonderful beach house in California. I have these wonderful homes, and no one to share them with."

It's a theme that recurs throughout a telephone conversation from Steel's San Francisco home, a few weeks before the February release of her 66th novel, The House, and less than a week after the death of her mother. It's the author's first major interview in more than a decade, partly because she calls herself "very painfully shy" but largely because she wanted to protect her children from the tabloids.

"Being famous has made it so much worse," Steel says. "In the old days I was too busy with children, and I always had a husband to drag me out. Now I have to force myself. It's difficult to talk to people... I walk into a room and I'm Danielle Steel, and whatever I say is going to be taken apart... People are much more inclined to believe and say bad things about you if you're famous.

"It's hard being visible, so I've made myself invisible," she concludes. "I've shut myself inside these walls, and I'm going to be a very lonely old lady if I'm not careful."

Now in her late 50s, Steel has averaged three books a year since 1973, when her first was published. Every one has hit bestseller lists in hardcover and in paperback, and in 1989 she made The Guinness Book of World Records for having a book on The New York Times bestseller list for 381 consecutive weeks - a record she has since broken with more than 390 consecutive weeks.

"I'm astonished by my success," Steel says. "I wrote because I needed to and wanted to. It never occurred to me that I'd become famous. I did it at night because I loved it. I never did it to make money, as a job. I just did it because I had to."

Millions of readers have connected with what she had to say, which Steel finds gratifying.

"I try to write about the stuff that torments us all," she says. "I think I'm very real as a person, and that comes across in my work. I try to give people hope. Even though life is bleak, there's hope out there."

Her characters typically move from naive contentment to heartbreak, followed by an epiphany and a bold life change that leads to romance, betrayal, more heartbreak and, eventually, true happiness. Even so, Steel sees her books as "all very different," and says that they stem from various sources. The House, for example, began in real estate and moved on to family.

"(It was) a friend of mine trying to buy her great-grandmother's house that sparked this story," the novelist says. "I like the idea of four very different generations of women... It's about a mysterious great-grandmother who leaves her husband and family, and about the next generation, the heroine's grandmother and her mother, a woman in her 60s who's extra-tough and somewhat bitter, and married to an alcoholic and dealing with all the issues of someone who had a very bad marriage...

"Through the older people, the younger woman realises what she does and doesn't want to do with her life."

Sounds like another hit. US publisher Delacorte ran a first print run of about 800,000 copies, an astonishing number for almost any other author but, for Steel, simply business as usual. In real life Steel has had a life so colourful that, well, it would make a good romance novel. The mother of seven children and stepmother of two has been married and divorced five times, colourful liaisons that have attracted much unwanted publicity, especially involving husband No. 2, who is in a Colorado prison serving a 40-year term for rape. No. 3 was a heroin addict and convicted burglar. But Nos. 1, 4 and 5 - French banker Claude-Eric Lazard, cruise-line chief executive John Traina and venture capitalist Tom Perkins - are more what you'd expect from a Steel hero.

Steel doesn't like discussing her early marriages, and blames the sleazy revelations about them in a 1994 biography of her for destroying her marriage to Traina. Authors Lorenzo Benet and Vickie L. Bane had obtained records of Traina's adoption of Steel's son Nick, whose biological father was No. 3, William Toth. She sued in an effort to keep the records sealed, but lost.

"Nick never wanted the other children to know that he wasn't John's child," Steel says. "The records of adopted children are sealed in California. That seal is considered inviolable... The judge ruled that, because I was famous, he didn't have the same rights as other kids.

"We could have appealed," she adds, "but the whole thing was so traumatic for my son that we decided to let it go, so they did print that he was adopted... We told the siblings before the book came out. It probably would have come out in our family eventually anyway."

So bruising was the episode that Steel briefly decided to stop publishing her books, letting them be printed only after her death. She backed off from that resolution within a year, at her children's urging, but stuck to another for much longer.

"I decided I would never do interviews again," she says. "I have stayed below the radar for 15 years... I didn't want to humiliate them. They were being chased around by tabloids."

Steel's own childhood was, by her own account, a lonely one. She was raised in New York by her German father, a minor player in the Lowenbrau beer dynasty.

Her parents divorced when she was seven and her mother, who was Portuguese, moved to Europe. Steel rarely saw her.

The novelist vowed that her children's lives would be different - she refers to herself as "a mommyaholic" - and structured her life around them. As her youngest daughter prepares to depart, she admits to finding herself at a loss. "Being run over by a train would have less of an impact," Steel says. "I have spent 35 years of my life being a full-time mother. It's the best and most fulfilling job."

It's not always a happy job, though: In 1997, at age 19, her son Nick committed suicide. Though she calls herself "a super-private person, practically a recluse," Steel went extremely public with the experience. His Bright Light: The Story of Nick Traina, telling the story of her son's life, his struggle with manic depression and his death, became a bestseller and remains the most personal of her books.

"I didn't want him to slip away in silence," Steel says. "I wanted people to know that he was an amazing kid... and (wanted) what we learned to serve others."

One thing she learned was that no amount of fame can provide a complete buffer against the blows of life.

"I've had my share of tough stuff," Steel says. "When people look at me outside, they think, 'She's so lucky,' but no one's exempt from tragedy."

Steel's novels have addressed serious themes, treating issues such as cancer, infertility and kidnapping. She has tackled some of history's darker hours, telling stories set on the Titanic, in Nazi Germany, in a Japanese internment camp and in Vietnam.

Critics generally have been kinder to her weightier efforts, but that's not why she writes them. In fact, Steel says, she doesn't read her reviews. Ever.

"My early reviews were so bad that I decided I didn't want to read them again," she says. "Either the world likes them or it doesn't, and fortunately enough people seem to."

Yes, I admit it. I do still have a couple Danielle Steel novels in my TBR (to be read) pile. When I was a teenager, I gobbled them up voraciously, but once I got older, that changed big time. They became too trite and sappy for my tastes - with only two exceptions. MALICE and THE LONG ROAD HOME. I highly recommend both. I've always joked that these were probably the only two she actually wrote herself, LOL. They're very good - deal with serious issues and have more depth than you'd normally expect from a DS book.

Well...I certainly wish her the best. I hope she finds her heart's desire soon. As we all know, life's much too short to dwell too long in discontentment.

Perhaps it's as they've always said: "America reads Danielle Steel. And so does the rest of the world."

So - confession time - who's still reading Danielle Steel? Someone must - just don't like admitting it. ;-)

Let's Donate ~ New Orleans Public Library

I just got back from the post office - sent a few signed copies of TGP to help the rebuilding and replenishing initiatives. I encourage my fellow authors to do the same, whatever you can spare.

And the Oscar Goes to....the Pimp Song.

Huh?

I have to throw my hat into the ring of disappointment about this one. I thought it was a mockery. I'm a movie buff, so I watch the Oscars every year (hey, Hollywood isn't what it used to be - no more Cary Grants - but it's all we seem to have left) and I enjoyed Sunday's show....except for the part when the award went to the pimp song over a beautiful song like "In the Deep" from CRASH.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm having a hard time believing that the majority of the Academy members voted for "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp". Don't get me wrong, I love hip-hop just as much as the next person, thought it was a cool song - but Oscar worthy? Uh....no.

Sofia Quintero cracked me up with a much needed question: If it's so hard out there for the pimp.....What's it like for the ho?

Columnist Rochelle Riley penned a well-rounded take on it. Here's a bit of what she had to say:

Here's the debate: Is the award a recognition of what rap and hip-hop have become in America, pervasive and powerful with an audience of all colors, or was the academy having a laugh?

I'm happy that three young brothers have an Academy Award and were honored as artists regardless of the package they presented with their sneaks, jerseys and gleaming grillz.

I'm happy as long as the academy doesn't get so comfortable honoring films and music about pimps, bad cops and caricatures that it forgets to honor honest but conflicted cops like the one played by the unparalleled Don Cheadle in "Crash" or a no-nonsense life mentor like the one played by Samuel L. Jackson in "Coach Carter." Neither of them was nominated.

There's nothing wrong with the pimp song -- although, quite frankly, I'm glad it's hard out here for a pimp.

There's nothing wrong with it unless it becomes the blueprint instead of the anomaly, the expectation instead of the surprise, and it makes it harder for audiences to see films where black people solve crimes, teach English and can't sing or dance.

ROCHELLE RILEY'S columns are published on the Sunday Voices page and the Wednesday and Friday Other Voices page. Contact her at rriley99@freepress.com or 313-223-4473. You can read Rochelle's columns at www.freep.com/columnists.

It's unfortunate, but why does it seem black talents (Jamie Foxx in RAY being a rare exception) are receiving Oscars mainly for the most unflattering and stereotypical of roles? Or in this case---songs. Rich, well-rounded work goes largely unrecognized.

How come they didn't give Nicole Kidman or Tom Cruise Oscars for EYES WIDE SHUT? I know they said it was a flop, but so was MONSTER'S BALL.

The Death Clock

When are you going to die? According to The Death Clock I have only 2, 181, 199, 290 seconds to live. Just lost a few typing this line. And this one. And this one, too. ;-) I'm scheduled to die on Sunday, April 21, 2075.

Gee. Is that necessarily a good thing? They predict I'm stuck here until I'm 98 years old. Yikes.

I suppose this is morbid and scary to folks that are afraid to die. Thank God I'm not one of them, LOL!

Hey - it's going to happen. We should get used to the concept.

Angry Authors

Listen, don't be a hypocrite. What author hasn't felt like sending a letter like this to their editor at one point or another? Gotta love it!

Ali Gilmore

Have you heard about the Ali Gilmore case?

I just saw it on Anderson Cooper 360 last night. Ali Gilmore is 30, pregnant, and vanished without a trace over a month ago. It's unfortunate it took a month for her disappearance to get national media attention. Will Ali Gilmore become a household name like Laci Peterson? If not, can you guess why?

There's a $21,000 reward being offered. My prayers are with Ali's mother and family. At best, I hope they find her alive. At worst, I hope they find out what happened to her.

Gilmore, 30, was four months' pregnant when she was reported missing on Feb. 3 by her supervisor at the Florida Department of Health, where she worked as a statistical analyst. She also worked in the bakery at Publix on Apalachee Parkway. Police think foul play is involved because of the length of time she's been missing.

She and her husband, James Gilmore, were living separately when she was reported missing. Gilmore has been cooperating with police in the investigation. The case also has been discussed on national cable-television shows.

A Cold, Rainy Day in South Carolina

Just got back last night from attending the South Carolina Book Festival. Man, was it cold! I had my jacket, but I needed a scarf, gloves, a fireplace, you name it. Many people said, "But Millenia, this is good weather, it's only like....40 degrees."

Hello? I'm from SOUTH FLORIDA. Born and raised. We don't do 40 degrees very well here! LOL

It rained all day on Saturday - and I mean all day - but we still had an enjoyable time. Met some fabulous fellow authors, and had great conversation.

The festival was very well attended (despite the rain) and even more well organized, which compared to others, was a refreshing experience. Kudos to the director, Paula Watkins Millen, Mary Harris, and the rest of their staff for organizing a great event.

I had the pleasure of being in the company of some great co-panelists including Beth Webb Hart, whose debut novel (GRACE AT LOW TIDE) I bought and can't wait to read - she autographed it to me so warmly. Also Mary Alice Monroe - whose work I've always enjoyed over the years - Michelle Buckman, Jim Daher, and Ron Rash. All great company!

My long-time fave Sandra Brown attended as well, but as luck would have it, I didn't get to see her presentation. Our schedules clashed. What a bummer, I know. :-(

Saturday evening they had a pig pickin' food gathering for the authors - real down home southern barbecue, fried chicken, potato salad, ice tea, etc.....let's just say that, after a small sampling of each goodie, I think I left the restaurant a card-carrying diabetic. :) It was great. I spent lots of time chatting it up with novelist Sofia Quintero (aka Black Artemis) and a couple gentlemen writers, local talents. We had a great time.

Essie Mae Washington-Williams came to the pig-pickin' and the local guys filled us in on the uproar that resulted in the state when Ms. Williams was revealed to be the daughter of card-carrying racist, Senator Strom Thurmond.

Also had a great time getting political with author Lynne Hinton - who cracked me up to no end (have a great time on the road, Lynne!), Gayden Metcalfe - who cracked me up even more (thanks for the tip about bean dip ;), Jackie Cooper, Reshonda Tate Billingsley, Electa Rome Parks, Tyehimba Jess and others.

It was nice meeting and chatting it up with everybody. If you weren't there, sorry you missed it. It was a great time!

Paula Abduliar

I knew it!

Been meaning to blog on this for a few days now. Ever since she cried us a river on Dr. Phil's "poor lonely Paula Abdul, let's help her find a man" show.

I never did believe the virtual consensus that Corey Clark made this entire affair story up. All the while he was getting raked over the coals, I always knew Paula Abdul had to be lying. What with the prescription, the voice mail, etc. There was no way that guy just made all that up.

Now the Human Lie Detector confirms it! Look, don't lie. Say no comment, but don't lie. How can anyone respect a liar?

Movie Mistakes!

Everybody knows I'm a movie buff. I love a great film almost as much as I love a great book. :)

Check out Movie Mistakes, it's awesome! Lists all kinds of "uh-oh we screwed up" mistakes in every movie imaginable - i.e., an actress is wearing earrings when a scene starts, but they mysteriously disappear and reappear 10 times before the scene ends......Or, you see the reflection of the camera crew in a store window or the body of a shiny car......Or, as with TITANIC, it's like 1912, yet someone's sporting a digital watch or Rolex, or something.

You can even add missing mistakes to the database if you've noticed any that aren't there. It's pretty cool.

Hmmm......Look out if they start doing this with books. Maybe they already do? Is there a website out there called "Book Mistakes"? Wonder what we authors would think about that!

Yikes.

Amazon Sales Rank - TitleZ

Jungle Scan went kaput (or so it seems) and I discovered TitleZ. If you haven't already heard about it, check it out---while it's still free. They mention plans to charge via subscription.

It seems to be much better than Jungle was. They even offer some FAQ that include a bit of insight to the meaning behind the Amazon sales rank ranges. So - for those folks that check their sales ranks like they're stock trading, enjoy!

Here's what they say:

So, what's a good sales rank for a book? What's not so good?

There is, of course, no hard and fast rule about what constitutes a best-seller, whether you are looking at sales ranks or actual sales volume. However, we'll throw caution to the wind and offer a few generalizations.

First, it's important to look at a book's average sales rank over time--a book that spikes to, say, number 25 on Amazon for an hour or two may be selling well for that brief period of time (perhaps because the author just appeared on a morning talk show or got a favorable review in a regional newspaper), but you'll want to see how that book performs over days or weeks to fairly judge its success. Plenty of books break into Amazon's top 1000 or even top 100 for a few hours but are not able to sustain the high ranking over time.

So, bearing the above very much in mind, here's a temperature gauge you can use to get an idea about a particular title's success. The following numbers apply to average sales ranks over time:

< 100 = Best-seller. Author, publisher, agent are all getting rich
101-1000 = Extremely good performer. Any publisher/author would be thrilled.
1001-10,000 = Very successful book. A few of these can sustain a small publishing company.
10,001-50,000 = A successful book by most industry standards.
50,001-100,000 = Not bad.
100,000 - 500,000 = Not good.
500,000+ = Poor.

Keep in mind that books with average ranks above 100,000 may have performed much better before TitleZ started tracking them. However, books that launch with ranks above 100,000 are probably not considered successful from a publishing industry point of view. Of course, the book could be selling well through non-bookstore channels such as trade shows, speaking events, etc. In general, though, we've found that Amazon sales ranks provides a good indicator for how a title is doing throughout the book market as a whole.

Millenia "Connects" ~ Amazon Connect Program

So I jumped on the Amazon Connect bandwagon and I must say that - comparative to some of the more outlandish features they've been coming up with of late - this one's actually pretty good. I appreciate the opportunity to leave messages on THE GREAT PRETENDER'S Amazon page as an avenue to reaching potential, and even past, customers. Wonderful feature.

One must, however, be mindful of the content one leaves. According to the terms and conditions, Amazon not only owns every word you blog there - and short story you may submit in their Amazon Shorts program - but based on the language, it appears they can make plays, movies, audio books, etc. of said words without so much as offering you a farthing. Knew there had to be a catch!

You can check out my first "connection" here - hope the permanent link to the page works! Enjoy.

The Fly Pod - Nora Roberts Podcast

I recorded a Podcast interview this morning over at The Fly Pod. It's a terrific website and a bookmark-favorite for iPod nuts! You can also click & listen to the audio files right there on the site.

I also checked out their "Cover to Cover" Podcast with the wonderful Nora Roberts. It was great listening, but I must say that I was struck by her voice. I'd never heard her speak before this, so had no idea what she sounded like, but I never would've imagined the gruffness. She sounds like a chronic smoker complete with potentially serious lung problems. When you have a minute, check it out.

Tess Gerritsen ~ Tapped by Edgar!

Speaking of Tess Gerritsen, VANISH has been nominated for the coveted Edgar Award. Congratulations to Tess! Though I haven't read the other nominees, I hope it wins, but even if it doesn't - the cliche stands - it truly is an honor just to be nominated. :)

Read this one back in September and it's a good mystery. I'm a bigger fan of Dr. Maura Isles than I am Det. Jane Rizzoli, so would've loved more focus on Maura than Jane, but I enjoyed it nonetheless!

The not-so-dead corpse opening her eyes in the freezer really spooked me. Gotta love it! If you haven't read this one yet - what are you waiting for? Grab a copy now. Edgar's calling.

I haven't read all of her books yet, but in addition to VANISH, I highly recommend THE SURGEON & LIFE SUPPORT.

Tess Gerritsen's COPYCAT ~ Cast Your Vote!

Contest Ends February 10th!

Just about two more weeks to help select the cover of Tess Gerritsen's next blockbuster novel - COPYCAT. If you haven't already, surf on over and make your vote count!

I saw four designs that I think are outstanding. But you can only vote for a max of three, so I had a helluva time parting ways with one of them. Ah, well.

To Frey, Or Not to Frey? ~ Today's Oprah

Great show.

Oprah grilled him good. About the root canal story. Lilly's hanging. Jail time. You could see James Frey squirming. His publisher, Nan Talese, stood by him. She claims the two root canals sans novocaine story didn't raise red flags because she herself had had a root canal without any. Is this to be believed under the circumstances? I wonder. Oprah didn't appear to buy it, as she challenged her. The journalists chimed in and were brilliantly on point. Publishers are to uphold and respect the definition of a memoir. Get busy hiring fact checkers. Make quick work of it. Snap, snap. Truth matters. They even spoke to the ramifications on NIGHT.

My Take?
Alas. I admit it. I was actually endeared to James while watching the show. While he doesn't come out and admit the book should've been classified as a novel and be done with it, he doesn't strike me as a master manipulator who sat back and relished in the fact that he duped millions - even Oprah Winfrey.

As I've expressed before in some detail, I think he made a huge mistake. Now he's realizing just how huge. He passed the book off as fact, got it published, had to follow through and promote it as such, then got caught up in the snowball effect that not even he himself could've anticipated, particularly once it got Oprah's coveted seal of recommendation.

Bravo to James for doing the show today. It speaks to his character. He certainly doesn't have to do anymore press. He can simply retreat now. Cloak himself in the scores of the million little dollars that continue to roll in. He's just trying to back-pedal from a tremendously compromising mistake. Trying to save face.

It's okay to let go now, James. Here's to the essential truth.