No doubt there are all kinds of high and low; Cool and Hot; awards, since there seems to be nothing more popular than the handing out of prizes, a phenomenon first remarked by Lewis Carroll:
However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out “The race is over!” and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, “But who has won?”
This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, “EVERYBODY has won, and all must have prizes.”
Sooner or later the temptation to inflate the currency in one way or another becomes irresistible ;-) The cold, hard fact is that there are only two “prizes” worth having, short-term success and long-term acclaim, neither of which can be conveyed by any means other than the uncoerced consensus of the relevant public. Yet as self-evident as that might seem, there is some irresistible impulse built into the human psyche that makes us keep handing out awards anyway. Sixty-five percent of the members of the Jozef Imrich's fan club are women. The JI Journal notes ;-) Booksellers believe Bohemian writer Jozef Imrich may have tapped into the same audience that has devoured memoirs over the past seven months, a genre that in recent years has increasingly included more reality and suspense. They say the 9/11 terrorist attacks, coupled with the war in Iraq, have changed what women are willing to read Women Read Thrillers, Too: Am I kidding myself?
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Narrative Digest: I won't mind—much—if you rub Cold River in
The Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism at Harvard University runs a wonderful site for writers, the Nieman Narrative Digest.
The site is updated with new features about narrative journalism about every two weeks. Recent pieces include "Stories Are Everywhere" by author Adrian Nicole LeBlanc and "14 Tips for Building Character" by Rick Meyer, a narrative editor at the Los Angeles Times.
• Stories Are Everywhere [Cold River Stories Are Everywhere ; A collection of scores of examples of excellent narrative journalism. Notable Narratives]
• · If you want to create a bestseller in Australia, here is this year's formula: What makes a bestseller? ; I now know that if you describe things as better as they are, you are considered to be romantic; if you describe things as worse than they are, you are called a realist; and if you describe things exactly as they are, you are called a satirist. - Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant So far as it has merit, a Cold River is a fact, arbitrary and individual
• · · Reviewing 101: John Updike's rules John Updike’s six rules for book reviewing ; Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt Friendly skies
• · · · Art permits you to accept illogical immediacy, and in doing so releases you from chasing after the distant and the ideal. When this occurs, the effect is exalting The Water's Edge ; Cold comfort
• · · · · War cannot be negated. One must live it or die of it. So it is with the absurd: it is a question of breathing with it, of recognizing its lessons and recovering their flesh. In this regard the absurd joy par excellence is creation. 'Art and nothing but art,' said Nietzsche, 'we have art in order not to die of the truth. - Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus Gianna: Blog's not dead, it's only sleeping ; I can see why I am excited: If there is one writer whose name noir aficionados want to shout from the rooftops over and over (and over) again because not enough people have heard of him, dammit, then Daniel Woodrell is probably tops Sarah Weinman does it all for Media Dragon
• · · · · · I'm not sure where the balance tips into martyrdom or a lack of generosity. Use your websites to promote others. Stand by Me: How We Can Help Each Other ; Commiserate RIP, Mystery Circus, a great site that never did seem to find its audience, alas.