Calvin Trillin
Topic: Writers in the News
A literary portrait of a marriage
Readers embrace Calvin Trillin's memoir about his relationship with late wife Alice
Feb 06, 2007 04:30 AM
Judy Stoffman
Entertainment Reporter

The humourist Calvin Trillin didn't think he was writing about marriage when he composed his new book, About Alice. It was to be a portrait of his late wife and muse, who died at 63 of heart failure on Sept. 11, 2001.

"For a long time I had no plans to write about her," he says. After her death, he published a novel about a man obsessed with parking (Tepper Isn't Going Out), a collection of articles about food (Feeding a Yen), and two volumes of light verse about the Bush administration, bringing his published books to 24.

"Then David Remnick (editor of The New Yorker, where Trillin has been a staff writer wince 1963) asked rather hesitantly if I'd thought of writing about Alice. And I realized that I wanted to recreate her as a whole person, not the sitcom sensible mom figure that I wrote about in my lighter pieces."

Readers of Trillin's books such as Alice, Let's Eat; Family Man and Travels With Alice had known her as the straight man, advising moderation to his own flakey and gluttonous persona.

The fizz in their relationship, their pleasure in each other's company, was in constant evidence in Trillin's portrait of Alice, whom he met at a party in the early 1960s. She married him because he made her laugh; he wrote all his subsequent work to impress and entertain her: his first and best reader.

After The New Yorker article appeared in March 2006, Trillin recalls receiving "a lot of letters from young women about marriage. I didn't mean to be writing about marriage, but I guess that came through."

Letter writers wanted to know how to have a marriage as happy as the Trillins'.

Marriage has fallen into disrepute, brought low by Philip Roth and Claire Bloom, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and a host of narcissists and philanderers. According to recent reports, the proportion of unmarried people is at an all-time high in the United States.

The author was in Toronto from his Manhattan home to read at Harbourfront last night from About Alice, a slightly expanded version of The New Yorker article. We talked in the office of Random House Canada, his publisher.

Trillin is a compact man with a fringe of dark hair around a bald spot, dressed with L.L Bean-like informality in khakis and a blue V-neck sweater over a checked shirt. Like most funny writers, he is deadly serious in person.

The son of a Kansas City Jewish grocer, Trillin was educated at Yale and worked at Time magazine in his early days, an experience captured in his first novel Floater. A Time colleague, the writer John Gregory Dunne, became a close friend.

Unlike A Year of Magical Thinking, the memoir by Dunne's widow Joan Didion (soon to open as a Broadway play), About Alice is not sad.

"Joan's book is about mourning and mine isn't," he says. His is an upbeat story about the 25 extra years he had with his wife, an educator, TV producer, fashion plate and generous friend to all.

Though never a smoker, Alice was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 38 when their two daughters, Abigail and Sarah, were small. The aggressive radiation treatment that saved her life eventually led to fatal heart damage.

Alice was also exceptionally beautiful, as the photo on the book's jacket, taken in London on their wedding day, shows. Why were they married abroad?

"I had a friend who arranged a trip for us to London; Alice was there visiting someone and we decided it would be easier to get married there because by then her parents were fragile financially. She didn't want them to have to pay for a wedding."

The picture was taken by a newspaper photographer assigned to see if any couples were brave enough to get married on Friday the 13th, which it happened to be.

Alice died on 9/11, but Trillin ignores this coincidence in his 78-page book. "It was a nightmare logistically; everyone in New York was traumatized," he says. "I didn't want to attach myself to the historical event. It would have been a faux drama."

He dwells most on the good times, like the summers spent at the family cottage on the south shore of Nova Scotia, which Trillin continues to own.

"My girls grew up there. I've been arguing for years that I should be considered one-sixth Canadian content since I live here two months a year, but I still don't find myself on the Canadiana shelf in bookstores," he says.

Sarah and Abigail brought their prospective husbands to the cottage to see if they passed the Nova Scotia test. Guests were required to try out a gizmo from the Hammacher Schlemmer catalogue that was supposed to enable one to walk on water.

"We called it the Jesus toy; most people fell into the water. How gracefully you met defeat was the test."

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

Sidney Sheldon
Topic: Writers in the News
Author Sidney Sheldon dies at 89
By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer 39 minutes ago
Sidney Sheldon, who won awards in three careers — Broadway theater, movies and television — then at age 50 turned to writing best-selling novels about stalwart women who triumph in a hostile world of ruthless men, has died. He was 89.

Sheldon died Tuesday afternoon of complications from pneumonia at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, said Warren Cowan, his publicist of more than 25 years. His wife, Alexandra, was by his side.

"I've lost a longtime and dear friend," Cowan said. "In all my years in this business, I've never heard an unkind word said about him."

Sheldon's books, with titles such as "Rage of Angels," "The Other Side of Midnight," "Master of the Game" and "If Tomorrow Comes," provided his greatest fame. They were cleverly plotted, with a high degree of suspense and sensuality and a device to keep the reader turning pages.

"I try to write my books so the reader can't put them down," he explained in a 1982 interview. "I try to construct them so when the reader gets to the end of a chapter, he or she has to read just one more chapter. It's the technique of the old Saturday afternoon serial: leave the guy hanging on the edge of the cliff at the end of the chapter."

Analyzing why so many women bought his books, he commented: "I like to write about women who are talented and capable, but most important, retain their femininity. Women have tremendous power — their femininity, because men can't do without it."

Sheldon was obviously not aiming at highbrow critics, whose reviews of his books were generally disparaging. He remained undeterred, promoting the novels and himself with genial fervor. A big, cheerful man, he bragged about his work habits.

Unlike other novelists who toiled over typewriters or computers, he dictated 50 pages a day to a secretary or a tape machine. He corrected the pages the following day, continuing the routine until he had 1,200 to 1,500 pages.

"Then I do a complete rewrite_ 12 to 15 times," he said. "I spend a whole year rewriting."

Several of his novels became television miniseries, often with the author as producer.

Sheldon began writing as a youngster in Chicago, where he was born Feb. 17, 1917. At 10, he made his first sale: $10 for a poem. During the Depression, he worked at a variety of jobs, attended Northwestern University and contributed short plays to drama groups.

At 17, he decided to try his luck in Hollywood. The only job he could find was as a reader of prospective film material at Universal Studio for $22 a week. At night he wrote his own screenplays and sold one, "South of Panama," to the studio for $250.

During World War II, he served as a pilot in the Army Air Corps. In the New York theater after the war he established his reputation as a prolific writer. At one time he had three musicals on Broadway: a rewritten "The Merry Widow," "Jackpot" and "Dream with Music." He received a Tony award as one of the writers of the Gwen Verdon hit "Redhead." His Broadway success brought about his return to Hollywood.

His first assignment, "The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer," starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple, brought him the Academy Award for best original screenplay of 1947.

While under contract to MGM, he recalled in 1982, "I worked like hell and I never stopped. Dore Schary (then production head) one day looked at a list of MGM projects. I had written eight of them, more than three other writers put together. That afternoon, he made me a producer."

With the movie business hurting because of television's popularity, Sheldon decided to try the new medium.

"I suppose I needed money," he remembered. "I met Patty Duke one day at lunch. So I produced 'The Patty Duke Show' (in which she played two cousins), and I did something nobody else in TV ever did. For seven years, I wrote almost every single episode of the series."

Another series, "Nancy," lasted only a half-season, but "I Dream of Jeannie," which he also created and produced, lasted five seasons, 1965-1970. The show concerned an astronaut, Larry Hagman, who lands on a desert island and discovers a bottle containing a beautiful, 2,000-year-old genie, played by Barbara Eden. She accompanies him back to Florida and eventually marries her.

"During the last year of 'I Dream of Jeannie,' I decided to try a novel," he said in 1982. "Each morning from 9 until noon, I had a secretary at the studio take all calls. I mean every single call. I wrote each morning — or rather, dictated — and then I faced the TV business."

The result was "The Naked Face," which was scorned by book reviewers and sold 21,000 copies in hardcover. The novel found a mass market in paperback, reportedly selling 3.1 million. Thereafter Sheldon became a habitue of best-seller lists, often reigning on top.

Sheldon prided himself on the authenticity of his novels. He remarked in 1987: "If I write about a place, I have been there. If I write about a meal in Indonesia, I have eaten there in that restaurant. I don't think you can fool the reader."

For "Windmills of the Mind," which dealt with the CIA, he interviewed former CIA chief Richard Helms, traveled to Argentina and Romania, and spent a week in Junction City, Kan., where the heroine had lived.

Having won a Tony, an Oscar and an Emmy (for "I Dream of Jeannie"), Sheldon declared that his final medium was the best.

"I love writing books," he commented. "Movies are a collaborative medium, and everyone is second-guessing you. When you do a novel you're on your own. It's a freedom that doesn't exist in any other medium."



___

Associated Press writer Daisy Nguyen in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Copyright ? 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

From Grey's Anatomy Blog
Topic: Writers in the News
Saturday 10:23pm 27Jan07
I was reading the Grey's anatomy blog because there is a write up about the man, Bob Vernoff who the George O'Malley episode was dedicated to. I continued to read because it is kind of neat to read what the writers have to say about their show. Any how I took this answer from Krista Vernoff who answered some frequently asked questions. I just want to comment that most people don't get the amount of practice that goes into writing.

To all the people that ask you as a writer why you haven't sent your stuff out yet and imply that you are too scared to do anything or that you may be a failure because it's taking you so long, just remember Krista's answer!
No one writes something from scratch and gets it immediately published unless they are writing a blog. And anyone who has read this blog knows that there are some gems and some big ass crap! That's the nature of the game baby.

How do you become a writer for a show like Grey's Anatomy? Because I would love to be one. Love. And I have no idea how to do it.

I have gotten several questions in this vein. So I’m going to attempt to answer this in brief – and then I really should go do work.

There are many ways to become a TV writer. You can go to film school. You can do your undergraduate study in screenwriting. I didn’t. I did take two writing classes – one was playwriting with Prof. Jon Lipsky my senior year at Boston University. It was terrific and inspiring and a big part of what made me want to be a writer. The second was a screenwriting 101 class at the New School in NYC right after I graduated college with a prof whose name ai sadly can’t remember. . Both were helpful. But largely, I self-educated. By that I mean, I read a lot of books on how to write for television. And then I watched a lot of television. And then I practiced writing for television. I practiced a LOT.

You hear a lot of stories about people moving to LA and never making it as writers and oh the misery and all the years it takes… My theory is that – okay, some of those people aren’t talented – but many of them, most of them, just moved here too soon. They didn’t practice enough before they started sending scripts out and trying to find an agent.

Many, many people write ONE script, or maybe two, and then think they’re ready to be seen and read . To me, that’s insane. Because no matter now good you think your first script is, the second one will be better and the third will be better than that. You learn by doing. Write scripts and show them to trusted friends and get notes and TAKE THE NOTES and rewrite and then write more scripts. That’s how you get good. Also, read something good every day – a novel, preferably, something juicy and inspiring. And write every day. Write every day for a good long while. And then, when you’re ready, buy the books that tell you how to get your stuff read in Hollywood. There are a lot of good ones.

All my Best,
Krista

Enough said! Here's the link Greys Writers