This week Mark Jeffrey interviews Philippa Ballantine, author of GEIST

TWiBooks  #21

Coming up:  Mark Twain’s vitriolic autobiography is finally published 100 years after his death, Plus: product placement comes to books and author Phillipa Ballantine joins us on This Week In Books, starting right now!

Guest: Philippa ‘Pip’ Ballantine

Clip:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EWGpZwwoM8

** Thank Storm on Demand

A podiobook author (Chasing The Bard).  Her latest is GEIST  (Show cover)   The sequel Spectyr is coming out in late June next year, and I also have Ministry of Peculiar of Occurrences; Phoenix Rising is coming out in May (with Tee)

•    Philippa Ballantine, Geist (2010) Ace Books ISBN 0441019617
•    Philippa Ballantine, Digital Magic (2008) Dragon Moon Press ISBN 1896944884
•    Philippa Ballantine, Chasing the Bard (2005) Dragon Moon Press ISBN 1896944175
•    Philippa Ballantine, Weather Child (2009) Podiobooks.com
•    Philippa Ballantine, Chasing the Bard (2008) Podiobooks.com
•    Philippa Ballantine, “Weaver’s Web” (2006) Podiobooks.com

1.) Your latest is GEIST.  What is that about?
2.) You recently quit your job to become a fulltime author.  What was that like?
3.) How did you get your book deal?  Agent?  Publisher?
4.) What was ‘book release day’ like?  What did you do?
5.) What’s it like to be in New Zealand as an author and podiobook author — kind of ‘removed’ from everything?
6) SO you teamed up with Tee Morris … how did that happen?  What was it like working with another author?  That would feel like two people trying to steer a truck to me.

THE NEWS:

STORY ONE:  MARK TWAIN AUTOBIOGRAPHY RELEASED 100 YRS AFTER HIS DEATH

Mark Twin’s Autobiography Hits Shelves 100 Years After His Death

Mark Twain knows how to keep people interested. A century after the humorist’s death, people can just now purchase a complete copy of Twain’s autobiography, a rather rambling compilation of his recollections, dictated over the course of many years. According to NPR, Twain tried and failed to write a traditional autobiography, complaining that the format “starts you at the cradle and drives you straight for the grave, with no side excursions permitted.” He finally decided that he would tell his story orally. He didn’t have any luck with “Thomas Edison’s new recording machine,” but stenographer Josephine Hobby and biographer Bigelow proved to be excellent recorders. Twain would regale them with stories from his past for hours at at time. He “often dictated from his bed, clad in a handsome silk dressing gown of rich Persian pattern, propped against great snowy pillows. He also got up, paced the floor and waved his arms as he poured out nearly 2,000 pages of typescript over three years.” Much of the information that came spilling forth during those years was deemed “too personal or too scalding” for immediate publication, so Twain ordered that his estate wait 100 years to publish the complete work. Much of the information in the autobiography has already been leaked in some form or fashion, so even the most devoted of Twain scholars admit that the 100-year release date has become nothing more than a gimmick – but one that they admire. “Can you spell marketing plan?” the director of the Mark Twain Project said. “If you say here’s a little bit of the autobiography, but you can’t see the whole thing for a hundred years, you’re gonna sell a book. Mark Twain knew how to sell a book.”
The greatest bile of Twain – the pen name of Samuel Clemens, born in Missouri in 1835 – was reserved for Miss Lyon, a woman in whom he had so much confidence in 1907 that he granted her power of attorney.
Just two years later, driven on by his daughter Clara, he accused her of putting him under a hypnotic trance for “two or three years”, hence denying responsibility for the arrangement.

In a remarkable rant in a private letter, he also called her “a liar, a forger, a thief, a hypocrite, a drunkard, a sneak, a humbug, a traitor, a conspirator, a filthy-minded & salacious slut pining for seduction”.

But he saved the full force of his venom for his lengthy and accusatory “Aschroft-Lyon Manuscript” to which he devoted much of1909. That attack will see the light of day for the first time in the third volume of his autobiography.

Pip compares Twain to Kanye West, Mark calls him a ‘Steampunk Kanye’.

STORY TWO:  NaNoWriMo

45,000 Kids Writing NaNoWriMo Books
By Maryann Yin on November 12, 2010 8:22 AM

Right now, 107 students from the eighth grade class of New York’s East Hampton Middle School are writing novels. In fact, National Novel Writing Month has drawn 45,000 kids ages 5 to 17 as participants. These youngsters come from 28 different countries.

The Millions has more about the student writers in New York. For children, the rules have been slightly adjusted. While an adult has to write 50,000 words to “win,” children are allowed to set their own word count. The site even has a suggestion table for word count goals depending on age.
The main NaNoWriMo site bars anybody 12 years or younger from receiving an account. Child participants can turn to the youth writers program site which launched in 2005. The site also helps teachers use NaNoWriMo as a class assignment. Kids who “win” are instructed to “Celebrate like a crazed wombat!” upon completion.

Pip reveals that she tried to do this but quit on the first day.

STORY THREE: PRODUCT PLACEMENT IN BOOKS?

Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal touched off a publishing debate the prospect of advertisements in digital books: “With e-reader prices dropping like a stone and major tech players jumping into the book retail business, what room is left for publishers’ profits? The surprising answer: ads. They’re coming soon to a book near you.”

STORY FOUR:  Amazon’s ‘The Pedophile’s Guide’

STORY FIVE: STEPHEN KING’S EBOOK: MADE 80,000 (!)

In 2009, we caught up with horror novelist Stephen King during the release of “Ur“–an exclusive novella he published on the launch of the Kindle 2.  Our video interview is embedded above.

In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, King revealed how much he earned on the story. While aspiring novelists can’t imagine eBook sales figures, it does reveal an audience hungry for digital reading.

Here’s more from King’s interview: “I didn’t do ‘Ur’ for money. I did it because it was interesting. I’m fairly prolific. It took three days, and I’ve made about $80,000. You can’t get that for short fiction from Playboy or anybody else. It’s ridiculous.” (Via Publishers Lunch)

END
Thanks to Storm on Demand

http://www.pjballantine.com/