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Thu, 07/24/2008

My Trip to the Middle East and the basis for Generation Kill, by Evan Wright:

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I arrived in the Middle East in January, 2003 to begin the reporting that would become the basis for Generation Kill. Six months earlier I had spent time traveling around Afghanistan with US Army infantry units, a Canadian armored battalion and a Special Forces team for stories that ran in Rolling Stone. Afghanistan reached 140 degrees Fahrenheit. It was dusty, and frequently I slept outdoors or inside an armored vehicle. When I was in the field I carried a pocketful of spiral notebooks which I filled with contemporaneous observations. But every few days I was able to return to an Army tent and work on my stories in relative calm. I had brought with me an old Apple MacBook computer. It was a bright orange, clamshell design sold in the late 90s. Somehow, the machine functioned in a far harsher environment than it was designed for. The tent I worked in did not have air-conditioning (as some US military field tents have) and dust storms would occasionally blow through, reducing visibility inside to just a few feet. But at least the tent had a power outlet for my computer, and I was able to bang out a couple of 6,000 word features for my editor in New York (emailed over a tenuous Internet connection the military made available to journalists).


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Wed, 07/23/2008

Hustling, by Evan Wright:

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In the mid-1990's when I was an editor at Hustler magazine I served as guide to David Foster Wallace for an article he wrote about the porn industry. (Wallace's article was originally published in Premier magazine under the title "Neither Adult nor Entertainment." It was reprinted in somewhat different form in his essay collection Consider the Lobster, with the title "Big Red Son.") It was Wallace who inadvertantly taught me a new way to write notes when researching a story.

My meeting with Wallace was set up by Glenn Kenny, an editor at Premier (now with a website t/k), who wanted me to help show Wallace around the porn industry's annual convention and awards show in Las Vegas. My main job at Hustler where I served as Entertainment Editor was to cover the porn industry and review XXX-videos. Because of my lofty position--Hustler's "Fully Erect" film rating, which I had the power to bestow, was one of most sought after ratings in the raunch-film industry--I knew all the players and sketchy characters (of whom I was one) in the business.

But when Kenny originally called to ask me to help out with Wallace I was deeply annoyed. I had hoped someone from a mainstream publication would ask me to write this article. Wallace was at the height of his fame, the recent recipient of a MacArthur "genius" Award, featured in Time magazine as the great new hope for American letters. Why did this guy need my help? I was the one trapped in the porn ghetto hoping desperately to escape it.


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Wed, 07/23/2008

Penguin Imprint Focus: Day Four, by Nichole Morford:

As we round down the final few posts for our Penguin Imprint Feature, we're going to step aside and allow Nichole Morford to post about life at DK. She's going to be guest blogging for the next few entries, and will reveal what being a DK Editor actually entails.

 

Every DK book holds a promise of some kind-of instruction, of entertainment, of resourceful information. The best possess all of these attributes, and such is the case with one of our lead Fall titles, Real Sex for Real Women. Publishing in November, this book makes good on its title's promise in a revolutionary way.

Dr. Laura Berman is one of the world's leading experts on women's sexuality and relationships. Her secret is that she truly understands the way women think. Real Sex for Real Women is both a celebration of what it means to be female and a guide to how to renew your self-esteem, relationship, and sex life. Her main message: if you value yourself, you will value your relationship-and if you value your relationship, you have to devote time and energy to your sex life. Her advice on how to do this is practicable for women who are working, who are mothers, who have a million things on their plate. It is not "glamorized" like so many relationships guides-all of which makes it much, much sexier. This is a book that is aspirational in the best possible sense, because it is also achievable!

Look for Real Sex in late fall, and get ready for your sex life to be transformed. In the meantime, get a taste of Dr. Berman's advice by visiting her website (www.drlauraberman.com), or by tuning into The Today Show to see her bi-monthly segments on relationships. Listen, learn, and watch your relationship get hotter by the second, whether you're in year 25 of a marriage or day 25 of a summer fling.

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Tue, 07/22/2008

Penguin Group (USA) Weekly Update - 7/22:

Penguin Authors Draw Major Crowds at the American Library Association's Annual Conference

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Penguin authors were real stars at the American Library Association annual conference, where over 21,000 librarians converged in Anaheim in late June. Greg Mortenson and Khaled Hosseini drew crowds of over 1,000 librarians, each in packed Auditorium Speaker sessions. June Casagrande author of Mortal Syntax and Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies performed with Paula Poundstone and other author/comedians at FOLUSA's (Friends of the Libraries) Laugh's on Us panel - always a big ALA highlight event. Smaller themed panels were all jam-packed with attendees this year: Dan Koeppel, author of Banana, was on an Environment panel; Anya Ulinich (Petropolis) and Kaya McLaren (Church of the Dog) stole the show at the First Author, First Book panel; and Bich Minh Nguyen (Stealing Buddha's Dinner) charmed all on an Ethnic Writers panel.

Ron Carlson and Patrick Rothfuss both spoke at the ALA Literary Tastes breakfast, where they received awards for Five Skies (ALA Notable selection for Fiction) and The Name of the Wind (Reading Council selection for Fantasy) respectively. Last but not least, Ellis Avery received the Barbara Gittings Stonewall Book award for The Teahouse Fire at ALA's GayLesbianBisexualTransgendered Round Table Book Awards program. Ms. Avery also performed a tea ceremony on the LIVE at Your Reading Stage on the exhibit floor.

And most of the above authors kept things jumping at the Penguin booth where they met, talked to and signed books for the always incredibly enthusiastic librarians. Alan Walker, Dominique Jenkins and Jim Dassise from the Academic/Library Marketing team, as well as Tiffany Tomlin from the Penguin Speakers Bureau and Fred Huber from Hardcover Sales all staffed the booth this year.


Tue, 07/22/2008

Review of Junot Díaz and Aleksandar Hemon at Central Park:

Junot Díaz and Aleksandar Hemon at Central Park on July 17, 2008

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On a hot and muggy evening last Thursday, July 17, Aleksandar Hemon and Junot Díaz took the stage at in New York's Central Park before a record crowd for a SummerStage reading. The theme was the modern immigrant experience.

Hemon, profiled in this week's New Yorker by James Wood, read first, a hilarious passage about a Bosnian Independence Day (February 29!) celebration in Chicago, from his acclaimed new novel, The Lazarus Project.

Junot Díaz and Aleksandar Hemon at Central Park on July 17, 2008Diaz, the hometown favorite, followed with three different selections: some new material, which he introduced as "some crap;" a recently published short piece called "Alma;" and a passage from his Pulitzer Prize-wining novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.


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Mon, 07/21/2008

Reading and Writing, by Evan Wright:

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I learned to read out of spite. My older sister had been attempting to teach me to read with Dr. Seuss and Richard Scary books for several weeks when one night she refused to provide any further instruction. She would no longer sit beside me at bed time and flip through the pages, enunciating the words, pointing to the corresponding pictures, tucking me in when I drifted off. I was on my own. Enraged, I banished her from my room--I do remember slamming the door, thrashing blankets around, tears--and picked up Go Dog, Go! Reading it on my own was an act of sheer hatred, intended to prove to my sister, the entire world, that I needed no one. They could all fall off the face of the planet. I had found my new family among the dogs of Go, Dogs Go! joining them as they raced their cars for the party at the top of the tree, the climactic finish to the book. I vowed to never come down from that tree, to live in the world of dogs until the end of time.

It took many years before I realized how susceptible I am to reverse psychology, that my sister had played me masterfully.

My sister definitely deserves credit for this. Teaching me to read at such a young age, before I'd even entered first grade totally screwed up my life. I was so far ahead of the other kids when I started school, I became an immediate slacker. It set the pattern and so retarded my progress that by the time I reached adulthood, I definitely needed a career in a profession requiring no credentials or qualifications. Journalism fit the bill.


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Mon, 07/21/2008

Penguin Imprint Focus: Day Three, by Nichole Morford:

As we round down the final few posts for our Penguin Imprint Feature, we're going to step aside and allow Nichole Morford to post about life at DK. She's going to be guest blogging for the next few entries, and will reveal what being a DK Editor actually entails.

 

About a month ago, we held a very unconventional editorial meeting. At our publisher's invitation, we headed to "that most traditional of publishing environments"-the pub-and sat down to talk about a rather non-traditional publishing topic-the Kama Sutra. It was a cozy gathering at the Pitcher and Piano. There's something about stepping outside the office that always gets the inspirational juices flowing.

Mostly we were there to discuss new ways of presenting this classic love manual. A challenge of writing or editing sex books is that there are only so many positions that are, well, plausible. A rework of the Kama Sutra doesn't provide brand new information, so needs a clever package and spin on content to add to our already impressive sex and relationships library. We came up with several inspired possible KS routes-and then started drinking.

Yesterday, back in 7C for our typical monthly meeting, we saw the first fruits of our labor. Our art director had mocked up covers for all our best brainstorms, and as we passed them around the table, the concepts really began to take root. This is a unique attribute of a DK book: it often starts with the design. Seeing a well-designed jacket is sometimes just the trigger you need to create a well-thought-out book. In the end, this results in the best of both worlds: pictures and words that together make up a beautifully complete reference.

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Fri, 07/18/2008

Penguin Imprint Focus: Day Two, by Nichole Morford:

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As we round down the final few posts for our Penguin Imprint Feature, we're going to step aside and allow Nichole Morford to post about life at DK. She's going to be guest blogging for the next few entries, and will reveal what being a DK Editor actually entails.

We're in the midst of starting presentations for the Frankfurt Book Fair here, which means that there is quite a lot of buzz in the office. It's also Global Week, so there are a fair number of American accents mixed in with the Brits-along with German, Australian, and the odd Canadian. One of the nicest things about working for DK is its truly global perspective and reach. Typically, our main outposts publish simultaneously, with varied DK translations following in their wake. Every month the directors of these branches come to London to compare notes and brainstorm.

This sort of globalization means that our books must appeal to a very wide market. As an editor, you start thinking about this at presentation stage, when you're compiling contents lists and collaborating with designers to decide how the book should look. The ideal product is timely and has a distinct personality, yet won't date quickly or look too British or American to be unappealing in, say, India. Of course, we sometimes do books that are designed for specific markets-but by and large, we try to make books that are compelling for everyone.


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Fri, 07/18/2008

Evan Wright, author of Generation Kill - our blogger for the week of 7/21:

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Evan Wright is our guest blogger during the week of July 21st. If you have any questions for him, add a comment to any of his posts. Here is some brief information about Generation Kill:

They were called a generation without heroes.
Then they were called upon to be heroes.

Within hours of 9/11, America’s war on terrorism fell to those like the twenty-three Marines of the First Recon Battalion, the first generation dispatched into open-ended combat since Vietnam. They were a new pop-culture breed of American warrior unrecognizable to their forebears—soldiers raised on hip hop, video games and The Real World. Cocky, brave, headstrong, wary and mostly unprepared for the physical, emotional and moral horrors ahead, the “First Suicide Battalion” would spearhead the blitzkrieg on Iraq, and fight against the hardest resistance Saddam had to offer.

Now a major HBO event, Generation Kill is the national bestselling book based on the National Magazine Award-winning story in Rolling Stone. It is the funny, frightening, and profane firsthand account of these remarkable men, of the personal toll of victory, and of the randomness, brutality and camaraderie of a new American War.


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