Our book of the week was The Dark Dreamweaver, by Nick Ruth and published by Imaginator Press. This is a great young adult novel – something in the style of Harry Potter, but I think a bit more imaginative and, in many ways, fun.

We had some technical issues on the sound board tonight, but hey… that’s what makes it a live broadcast!

Listen here:

PALIN: Rails against taxpayer-financed bailouts, which she attributes to Obama. She recounts telling daughter Bristol that to succeed in business, “you’ll have to be brave enough to fail.”

THE FACTS: Palin is blurring the lines between Obama’s stimulus plan — a $787 billion package of tax cuts, state aid, social programs and government contracts — and the federal bailout that Republican presidential candidate John McCain voted for and President George W. Bush signed.

Palin’s views on bailouts appeared to evolve as McCain’s vice presidential running mate. In September 2008, she said “taxpayers cannot be looked to as the bailout, as the solution, to the problems on Wall Street.” A week later, she said “ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy.”

During the vice presidential debate in October, Palin praised McCain for being “instrumental in bringing folks together” to pass the $700 billion bailout. After that, she said “it is a time of crisis and government did have to step in.”

And other leftist web sites have received cease-and-desist orders from Harper Colling, demanding that they remove scanned excerpts… while pro Sarah bloggers apparently have not (Note: I am not suggesting HP shouldn’t issue C&Ds to those they feel are breaking their copyright… but they should do it equally and fairly to all publishers that are doing so, not just the ones they have reason not to like.)

So, all of this is interesting to me in that it sort of paints a picture of Harper Collins… one that I don’t really like. Memoirs that play loose with the facts are nothing knew (ask Oprah about that.) But they have eventually been outed and the careers of the writers pretty much ruined.

This thing is looking fakey before it’s even launched. But Harper Collins put it out anyway. They’ll sell a million copies, no matter what. But if many of her claims in the book are demonstrably false… do they not bear responsibility for publishing it?

You can write whatever you want. Even bold broad lies. And if you can fool your publisher into believing it, more power to you… until you get caught. But when you are writing about verifiable and objective facts and your publisher doesn’t call you on them then isn’t it the publisher’s bad?

And then, on top of that, to selectively suppress use and release of scanned excerpts… if that’s really going on… that seems like a pretty shady tactic. Or, great PR. Not that the two are often mutually exclusive.

But nevertheless, Harper Collin’s motives are pretty clear – despite what damage such sorts of lies could do to our already divided political culture, not to mention free speech – they just want the easy bucks. They will put out whatever crap they have to to get them, and use whatever means necessary to protect that crap.

The socialism/Nazi name calling has gotten to such a fevered pitch lately that this seems like either a)extremely poor taste, b) a disgusting attempt to profit from hate or c) all of the above.

The only thing I can say is, if you’re going to dress up like a Nazi/Soviet and where that, excuse me, idiotic expression… well, you really shouldn’t call anyone else an idiot. Regardless of their politics.

I know, I know. (Now) Senator Frankin called Rush Limbough a Big Fat Idiot. I snickered when did. Sorry. But this is a completely new league of hate profit.

I do not like Glen Beck. There, I said it. I do not like him. Please do not buy this book. I will not link to it.

If you are interested in reading your book at future Book Burns, please let me know via the AuthorsBookshop “contact” page.

For more info, visit BookBurn.com.

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BALTIMORE-BASED ONLINE BOOKSELLER SET TO “BURN” BOOKS
AuthorsBookshop launches new series of book readings by local authors

Baltimore, MD, March, 18, 2009 – After having been stigmatized for years, independently published authors are watching the decline of the mainstream publishing industry with excitement. As the major publishing houses slash staff, budgets, and the number of books they publish, many in the independent publishing world are seeing an opportunity materialize before their eyes. Even the main-stream media has noticed: small presses and self-published authors suddenly appear to be the future of publishing.

On the forefront of this new movement stands online bookseller AuthorsBookshop and its new series of “Book Burn” events – book readings featuring local independently published authors, hosted in locally owned venues around Baltimore.

“The mainstream publishing industry is falling apart,” explains AuthorsBookshop founder Brad Grochowski, “and this opens up a great opportunity for the indies. We have been working for a few years now to bring some great indie books to light. Our Book Burn events will give local authors a great venue to share their books, and bring welcome traffic to some wonderful local shops.”

The online bookseller announced today that it is launching the Book Burn series and will kick it off with an inaugural event at Koba Cafe in Locust Point. This first event of the series will present literary works from three Baltimore-based authors; Angelo Solera, Frank S. Joseph and Nick Ruth. The three books being presented; “The Journey,” “To Love Mercy” and “The Dark Dreamweaver” represent a broad spectrum of subject matter and style. To round out the evening even further, the event will present local musician sahffi as it’s first musical guest.

The event will also be webcast in real time, bringing an international audience to the books and local shops alike. “The technology is finally here,” proclaims Grochowski, “Indie books now have an international presence. We have been selling books all over the world – now we are bringing book readings to a global audience. It’s really exciting.”

AuthorsBookshop is a Baltimore-based online bookseller that specializes in selling independently published books. Launched by Grochowski in 2005, it has developed a reputation for working closely with authors and small presses to bring more attention to their books, while offering sales terms far more reasonable than larger online book vendors.

The inaugural Book Burn event will occur at 7:00pm, Wednesday April 22nd at Koba Cafe, 644 E. Fort Street, Baltimore MD.

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7 mil for some faux-heart-felt platitudinizationizing. Blech.

They claimed he had 30,000 words already written… then they took a look at his manuscript. Turns out he had written “im the desidur” 10,000 times. Har har… that’s a “Bush is dumb” joke. There’s still room for a few of those, isn’t there?

Anyway, turns out – as demonstrated yet again by both Bush and Blago – the best way to succeed at getting published is to fail at politics. What else is new?

Now I am just waiting to hear that the $7 million is coming from federal bailout money. You know it is, right?