Stuff

Bill Crider linked to Lynn Munroe's website that contains a long and fascinating history of the thirty-eight novels that never show up on Harry Whittington's bibliography. I sure wish Lynn would collect all the pieces he's written into book form. Above is one of the Missing 38. Go here for the complete article:
wyciwyg://0/http://list60.tripod.com/themissing38.htm


PULP SERENADE

Cullen Gallagher was kind enough to ask me some questions about my new novel The Midnight Room and my writing process in general
For the rest go here:

http://www.pulpserenade.com/2009/07/interview-with-ed-gorman-on-midnight.html


PEGGY NOONAN

Yes, she is insufferable to listen to, so studied and dramatic, the smartest and snootiest girl in Catholic school all growed up and ready for battle. Every once in awhile she nails something and she sure has nailed Sarah Palin.


"She was hungry, loved politics, had charm and energy, loved walking onto the stage, waving and doing the stump speech. All good. But she was not thoughtful. She was a gifted retail politician who displayed the disadvantages of being born into a point of view (in her case a form of conservatism; elsewhere and in other circumstances, it could have been a form of liberalism) and swallowing it whole: She never learned how the other sides think, or why.

In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn't say what she read because she didn't read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity. She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could see no truth in any of it."


For the rest go here:
ttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB124716984620819351.html


LEONARD COHEN

Cohen has been one of my favorite writers since I read Beautiful Losers back in the mid-Sixties. I have most if not all his albums as well as his novels. He's had a troubled life and speaks of it eloquently in this interview in the UK Guardian.

Do you think dealing with depression was an important part of your creative process?

LC: Well, it was a part of every process. The central activity of my days and nights was dealing with a prevailing sense of anxiety, anguish, distress. A background of anguish that prevailed.

How important was writing to your survival?

LC: It had a number of benefits. One was economic. It was not a luxury for me to write - it was a necessity. These times are very difficult to write in because the slogans are really jamming the airwaves - it's something that goes beyond what has been called political correctness. It's a kind of tyranny of posture. Those ideas are swarming through the air like locusts. And it's difficult for the writer to determine what he really thinks about things. So in my own case I have to write the verse, and then see if it's a slogan or not and then toss it. But I can't toss it until I've worked on it and seen what it really is.

For the rest go here:

//www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jul/10/ghomeshi-interviews-leonard-cohen/print