The Weird Week in Writing: Mark Twain's memoir, the new James Bond, and BEA (Plus, a special holiday prompt)
Freaky Friday—the latest from the weird and wonderful world of
writing this week (followed, as always, by a prompt):
Victorians couldn’t handle it: Mark Twain left behind 5,000 unedited pages of memoirs and a note—don’t publish for at least a century. Finally, the century is up, and we’ll be getting some new Twain.
If you missed Gone With the Wind scribe Margaret Mitchell’s first romance (written when she was 15): In the wake of the strange saga of the lost Booker Prize, The Huffington Post has ranked 12 Great Overlooked Books.
Publishing’s biggest event, Book Expo America, has come to a close: But not before Barbra Streisand discussed her passion for design, Bob Marley’s son played guitar to support his new memoir, and a slew of upcoming releases were promoted, from titles by Keith Richards to Sara Gruen. (And there’s also Jon Stewart’s BEA introduction for speaker Condoleezza Rice: "As for our next author, I'm not familiar with her work, but I've heard good things.")
A Yankee/James Bond’s Court: American author Jeffery Deaver is the new Ian Fleming.
He Listen Pretty: David Sedaris brings you National Audiobook Month.
(Image: Via)
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WRITING PROMPT: The Memorial
Feel
free to take the following prompt home or post your
response (500
words or fewer, funny, sad or stirring) in the Comments section below.
By posting, you’ll be automatically entered in our
occasional around-the-office swag drawings (next one: next week).
If you’re having trouble with the
captcha code sticking, e-mail it to me at
writersdigest@fwmedia.com, with “Promptly” in the subject line, and I’ll
make sure it gets up.
You haven’t been back to the cemetery for years. But now you take a tiny flag, an apple, and another item out of your bag, and place them by the headstone. Then, you do what you always do when you’re here: you remember.
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