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Jessica Hagy is our guest blogger during the week of March 3rd. If you have any questions for Jessica Hagy, add a comment to any of her posts. Here is some brief information about Indexed:

A unique, hilarious take on the modern world

Jessica Hagy is a different kind of thinker. She has an astonishing talent for visualizing relationships, capturing in pictures what is difficult for most of us to express in words.

At indexed.blogspot.com, she posts charts, graphs, and Venn diagrams drawn on index cards that reveal in a simple and intuitive way the large and small truths of modern life.

Praised throughout the blogosphere as “brilliant,” “incredibly creative,” and “comic genius,” Jessica turns her incisive, deadpan sense of humor on everything from office politics to relationships to religion.

With new material along with some of Jessica’s greatest hits, this utterly unique book will thrill readers who demand humor that makes them both laugh and think.

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"A NEW EARTH" BY ECKHART TOLLE HOLDS THE RECORD FOR THE MOST COPIES EVER SHIPPED BY PENGUIN GROUP (USA) IN A FOUR-WEEK PERIOD, 3.45 MILLION

Upcoming Webinar Attracting Readers from 125 Countries
To register, log onto www.oprah.com/anewearth

CHICAGO—Thursday, February 28, 2008 – Since A New Earth was named the 61st Oprah's Book Club selection on January 30, 2008 and Winfrey announced that she will join author and renowned spiritual leader Eckhart Tolle for the first time ever to teach a free, live interactive webinar exclusively on Oprah.com, more than 500,000 people—representing 125 countries from around the world—already have registered. This book holds the record for the most copies ever shipped by Penguin Group (USA) in a four-week period, 3.45 million.

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One of the oddest things I've noticed in my creative writing classes is that students tend to do much better with writing exercises than they do with work they originate themselves. For example, tell someone to write a fifty word story using words of only one syllable and you'll get genius. Ask someone to write a story on anything at all, and it's a little more hit or miss.

Why is that?

I don't know, though I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. Perhaps exercises blast writers out of ingrained thought patterns; they force us to be original. Or perhaps writing exercises are fun and they remind us that writing should be joyful (and reading too!) For whatever reason, writing exercises play an important part in a fiction class, which is why I included ten of them in my novel. My hope was that readers might feel inclined to do some of them, just for the fun of it.

One of my favorite exercises in the novel is one I came up with after my youngest son took part in a local play. There happened to be a young man in the cast who had been a member of a famous boys' band, and I was fascinated by that kid. There was something so charismatic about him; he literally glowed from within when he was on stage. Maybe that's why they call them stars.

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Wednesday, February 27, 2008, New York, NY - Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen will pen a new book, Influence (the working title) for Razorbill, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, it was announced today. Influence will be published Fall 2008. The deal was brokered by Ben Schrank, President and Publisher of Razorbill and Jill Zimmerman, Executive Vice President of Dualstar Entertainment Group.

Influence introduces readers to respected artists, seasoned designers and others who have influenced Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen over the past decade. The book will feature influential figures including; Christian Louboutin, Lauren Hutton, Bob Colacello, Terry Richardson, Jack Pierson and Robert Lee Morris. A coffee table book, Influence includes exclusive photographs of Ashley and Mary-Kate from world renowned photographer Rankin, and a wide variety of other never-before-seen materials and interviews from Mary-Kate and Ashley's personal collections. This unique book is edited by fashion and arts writer Derek Blasberg and designed by eminent book designer Rodrigo Corral.

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"The Oprah Winfrey Show" to Promote A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle on Three Upcoming Shows As the World Gears Up for Oprah's First-Ever Live Interactive Webcast

Oprah Winfrey interviews Dutton President and Publisher Brian Tart as part of a segment on the phenomenon of the Oprah's Book Club selection and webcasts on tomorrow's show - which will also feature interviews with celebrities who love the #1 New York Times bestseller, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, and two members of Oprah's Book Club from the US. A New Earth and the webcast will also be promoted next week, on the Monday, February 25th show. Then Thursday, February 28th, Oprah will devote the last segment of her show to message board comments about A New Earth and the upcoming webcast.

Beginning March 3rd, Oprah Winfrey will join author and renowned spiritual leader Eckhart Tolle to teach a free, live interactive webinar exclusively on Oprah.com. Each weekly class will correspond to a chapter from A New Earth, with the discussion focusing on the chapter's themes. The 10 weekly sessions will be webcast every Monday night from March 3 through May 5, at 9:00pm ET/6:00pm PT. To register for the class, log onto www.oprah.com/anewearth.

 

 

» Dan Koeppel discusses his book, Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World.

» Listen to other Penguin Podcasts.

Other author podcasts:

» James McBride discusses his new novel, Song Yet Sung, on NPR's Book Tour Podcast.

James McBride, Song Yet Sung, Dan Koeppel, Banana, NPR, Penguin Podcast, podcast, Books, Penguin Books

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Whenever I hear the expression, "Write what you know," I always wish I knew something more exciting. For example, one of my creative writing students used to be a stripper and I've always envied her. How could you write a boring novel about stripping? (You probably could-but it would take some effort.)

For better or worse, the things I know are decidedly less salacious: how to be a mother, daughter, wife, teacher-and this last was one of the important experiences I drew on when writing my novel. I've been teaching creative writing for Gotham Writers' Workshop (in Manhattan) for more than six years, which means that I have met more than one thousand people who want to learn to be writers.

Any successes in that bunch?

A few, if what you mean by success is that they went on and got a story published.

Good things keep happening to Gotham author Diablo Cody, author of last year's novel Candy Girl.

"Juno", the hit comedy starring Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner has been awarded an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, as written by Diablo Cody.

Juno, Academy Award, Diablo Cody, Candy Girl, screenplay, awards ceremony, books, Penguin Books

There Will Be Blood, the movie inspired by Upton Sinclair's novel Oil!, won the 2008 Academy Awards for 'Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role and Achievement in Cinematography '.

Daniel Day-Lewis was awarded the Academy Award for his riveting performance as Daniel Plainview, the center of an epic tale about family, greed, religion and oil.

Robert Elswit was awarded the Academy Award for Cinematography.

Written in 1927, Oil! described the early days of the California oil industry, and proved to be highly entertaining story featuring a cavalcade of characters including senators, oil magnets, Hollywood film starlets, and a crusading evangelist.

View more information on Upton Sinclair's Oil!

There Will Be Blood, Academy Awards, Upton Sinclair, Oil!, awards, ceremony, books, Penguin Books

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The idea for my novel, The Fiction Class, came to me when I was at a funeral for someone I didn't know. Not only didn't I know the deceased, I didn't know anyone at the funeral (except for one person, and she was busy.) So, I was sitting in the pew, beginning to get that anxious feeling I get when I think I should be doing something friendly, but can't think what, and out of nowhere a woman launched herself at me and began to tell a story about her mother.

It was a funny story, and as soon as she had done, I shot back with a story about my own mother; then another woman came along and told a story about hers and soon there was a cluster of us, all of us bonding over our mothers, laughing and forming friendships. (Actually, none of us knew the deceased, but that's another novel.)