Wiki Novel?
Topic: Writing Challenges
It's clearly a big news day. I saw this and couldn't let it go by. I may check out the site later... It could be a lot of fun. EY


Publisher launches its first "wiki" novel
Thu Feb 1, 2:13 PM ET

Fancy trying your hand at creative writing but can't quite find the time? Tired of scribbling away all by yourself?

British publisher Penguin may have the answer -- a Web-based, collaborative novel that can be written, edited or read by anyone, anywhere thanks to "wiki" software, the technology behind Web encyclopaedia Wikipedia.

The novel, "A Million Penguins," went live on Thursday and its first lines are already being written, edited and rewritten by enthusiasts on www.amillionpenguins.com.

Penguin, which embarked on the project with a group of creative writing and new media students, says it is using the novel as a test of whether a group of disparate and diverse people can create a "believable fictional voice."

"This is an experiment. It may end up like reading a bowl of alphabet spaghetti," Jeremy Ettinghausen, head of digital publishing at Penguin UK said, adding there were no plans as yet to publish the completed work.

"We are not making any predictions. It would be utterly fantastic if we could at the end create a print remix."

So far, the first chapter includes Carlo, a troubled man walking his dog, and "on the other side of the globe" a seductive murderer, Tom Morouse, "known as the Tango poisoner."

The experimental novel, which Penguin says is the first "wiki novel" to be started from scratch by a major publishing house, will be online for at least six weeks.

But it warns budding artists that the work is not a talent search and insists it expects a variety of tones and abilities.

"In an ideal world we could throw in a sense of plausibility, balance and humor," Penguin's blogger, Jon Elek, wrote in an entry earlier this week.

"That's asking a lot, and in truth I'll be happy so long as it manages to avoid becoming some sort of robotic-zombie-assassins-against-African-ninjas-in-space-narrate d-by-a-Papal-Tiara type of thing."

Copyright ? 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

JK Rowling get out of my dreams!
Topic: Writers in the News
A first printing of 10.8 million copies! Doesn't that just give a woman writer a faux hard-on! ha ha! How cool would that be? JK Rowling get out of my dreams!



Fans snap up Harry Potter deluxe edition
By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer1 hour, 37 minutes ago

It's months away from being on bookshelves, but fans can't get enough of the seventh — and final — Harry Potter book, no matter the cost.

Not only is "Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows" topping the charts of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, a deluxe edition, priced at $65, is No. 2, outselling the "You" diet book, Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) and an Oprah Winfrey-endorsed memoir by Sidney Poitier.

Publicist Kyle Good of Scholastic Inc., the U.S. publisher of J.K. Rowling's fantasy series, said Saturday that a similar deluxe edition of Potter 6, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," had sold around 100,000 copies.

The deluxe "Half-Blood Prince," according to Scholastic, includes a 32-page insert of art and illustrations, a "custom-designed slipcase," and a "full-cloth case book, blind-stamped on front and back cover, foil stamped on spine."

Barnes & Noble.com shoppers can get a bit of a break on the deluxe "Deathly Hallows," which the superstore was offering for a mere $45.50. The regular edition has a list price of $34.99, although Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com were selling it for $18.89. Wal-Mart had it at $17.27.

Many stores said they don't make money on the Potter books, but hope instead that customers will make additional purchases.

Rowling announced Thursday that "Deathly Hallows" would come out July 21. The previous six books have sold more than 325 million copies in 64 languages and broken countless sales records. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," published in 2005, had an announced first U.S. printing of 10.8 million copies and sold 6.9 million copies in its first 24 hours.

Copyright ? 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Makes Me a Little Weepy
Topic: Writers in the News
Okay so I tried to find the piece at the Toronto Star online but I can't find it to save my life so I'm typing up the article from yesterday's Toronto Star.

Toronto-born Da Kink goes Hollywood

The 2005 San Diego production of Da Kink in My Hair won five nominations, including one for Toronto playwright trey anthony, from the Beverley/Hills Hollywood branch of the NAACP for their 17th annual theatre awards. The awards will be given out in Hollywood on Feb 19.


I'm thrilled and proud and just plain stoked to see her hard work pay off. And I admit I'm jealous, I'd love to go to the NAACP awards. I'd be crying the whole time. ha ha!

Happy Black History Month to you , Miss trey!

EY

What Price, this friendship?
Topic: WC - Daily Practice
11:45am Saturday 3Feb07

Went out for a couple drinks last night with Hy and JoJo. It's Hy's birthday tomorrow. Hy told us about his best friend's boyfriend who doesn't like Hy and treats Hy like a piece of crap at every possible turn. The boyfriend says that Hy lives a messy life. The pot calling the kettle black, of course. Or living in glass houses may be more apt.

I was feeling outraged by the whole situation and kept trying to impress upon him that at some point that energy is detrimental. Of course Hy's focus is on his best friend and maintaining a very important relationship but how long do you maintain something with no signs of reciprocation? When your friend has been single for a long time and then finds the person of his/her dreams and your relationship some how doesn't fit anymore, how long do you try to hold it together?

People that fall in love are so funny. I never did get the people that insist that the only time you can see them is with their significant others. Is true love really about being joined at the hip? And when your significant other doesn't like your best friend or vice versa why couldn't you hang out with your best friend sans significant other?

I had a close girlfriend that finally met her soul match. I went out with the two of them to some bar that he and a bunch of other jazz performers were jamming at. He seemed nice enough but had already rubbed me the wrong way when he said, "The last time I saw you, you had blonde hair, right?"
Ahh no. Don't dye my hair. And my girl friend had so few black girlfriends (I was her only black girlfriend) that it really wasn't like he could confuse me with any one else. Okay, I thought, maybe I was being too harsh.

After he'd finished performing, he came back to our table and announced that friends were going to join us and he was going to separate my GF and I and sit on the empty stool between us.
I thought, "Separate us? What are we in fucking English disrupting the class?"
I said, "Oh no no, she's the only person I know here. There's an empty seat beside her over there. Go sit over there."

Once she was involved with him, there was no seeing her without him and she got that air of pity that I hadn't found a wonderful guy just like hers. How wonderful is a relationship that vastly changes your personality?

Hy is much stronger or more stubborn than I. If I'm not good enough anymore because my friend's significant other deems it then so be it. Obviously we can't love everyone that our friends love but that's the point in balancing our lives isn't it? You don't invite a bunch of people that you know hate each other to a dinner party with the expectation of fun times and you don't let your best friend fall by the wayside simply because you're getting fucked regularly.

But what the heck do I know?

EY

Perception
Topic: WC - Daily Practice
Thursday 6:02pm 1Feb07

A new month and new energy. I wonder what the tone or theme will be for the month. Nothing specific has peeked out so far. Of course last month it wasn't until toward the tail end when the month became about finding out how others perceive me. In one of my rant sessions, a girlfriend of mine said, "it's because we look so young for our age that people have these wild perceptions of us."

She said that people think that we're out at parties every other night and that we're slutting around and that we most likely act improper despite being able to hide that aspect of ourselves on a daily basis. Of course it's also about our mouths. Because we speak up and give opinions it somehow translates to being out of control. Interesting.
Well, someone forgot to notify my sex life that I'm a tramp. Here, I've been thinking that it's easy to live like a nun while the outside world thinks I'm doing the football team!

You almost need to get into a good argument with someone every once in awhile just to find out what they are really thinking. I had a fight with a friend about a year ago. Our first and only fight. I complained that I was tired of being nice about being stuck with a couple of his women friends who I'd said from day one that I couldn't stand. I'd even gone so far as asking who was invited whenever he'd invited me over so I could avoid them. He'd miraculously forget to mention either of their names every single time. I'd show up and one of them and sometimes both of them would be there.

He told me that it wasn't his problem that I was intimidated by strong women. It still makes me laugh actually (especially since all my girlfriends are strong women). I had to enlighten him to the fact that I would never say anything rude to anyone he invited to his house because I was in his house and I was grateful for being invited. It had nothing to do with being intimidated by them, it had to do with manners. There are certain things you don't do in other peoples homes, that's what my mother ingrained in me anyway. Was she wrong? I don't think so. Who knew that my manners were perceived as being intimidated.

Today, I eyed one of the taxi chit policemen with suspicion. As I still focus on how he perceives me, when I had no clue that was how he saw me, I find that I have no trust for him anymore. I silently ask, "if you think I could be ripping you off, what are you doing?"

The one thing I said to my ex boyfriend in my early twenties when he said that he couldn't trust women (which obviously included me) was, "a man that can't trust, can't be trusted."
That comment scalded him. He'd mentioned it numerous times, said it really bothered him. "Just because I can't trust doesn't mean I'm not trustworthy," he said.

But it's true. You have to give what you want to receive. If you want respect, you have to give respect. If you want trust, you have to give trust. And once the bond has been broken, I don't know if you can get it back.

I don't go to my friend's house anymore for dinner, no matter who he invites. I don't believe anything my ex says, when he tells me how much he's changed and got his shit to gether. I can't find it in me to believe in any interaction with the taxi chit guy.

And having an idea of what they think about me makes me realize that I actually don't care. I have no motivation to try to change their minds about me.

EY