Couple of things

A few years ago, I interviewed young writer Marty Beckerman for a story I was writing for a now-largely-defunct literary website. The story was about why Generation Y didn't have any literary spokesmen. In the story, I said Beckerman's book was well-written, but it presented a bleak view of his generation. Despite that criticism, he was very mature about it and took it well, and has written some stuff that I've really found great.

Anyway, he sent out an inspiring e-mail today, which is also posted on his blog, so I guess it's public. Despite having been through the literary ringer with a book he wrote, it's finally going to get published. You can read his announcement on his blog, but it starts off thusly:

Dearest Acolytes,

I am overjoyed to announce: in September 2008 Disinformation will publish DUMBOCRACY: Adventures with the Loony Left, the Rabid Right and Other American Idiots.

I have gone to hell and back for this book.

Retard Nation was originally supposed to hit stores in early 2006. For legal reasons I still can't disclose the entire story of what happened, but essentially I received one of the hardest ass-f**kings in publishing history....

Every writer wonders at what point they should give up on a book they hold near and dear to their hearts. But sometimes, if it keeps getting rejected, you just have to realize that it doesn't mean to other people what it means to you. Other times, you just realize that editors all have different opinions, just like readers do, and just because some of them don't like it, doesn't mean you shouldn't keep looking for the one who DOES. You have to be persistent, while still understanding the realities and taking other people's advice to make the book better.

There are books I've given up on, and others I've rewritten and rewritten. I think I mostly made the right choices. I'm really glad Marty stuck to his guns. He is a great writer and a good guy, and I'm looking forward to reading his book. His struggle is actually inspiring, so if you are a writer, check out his blog entry.

TV news

So are any of you going to watch "Lipstick Jungle" on TV next week? I'm going to watch at least the first 10 minutes to see if it really fills the void that "Sex and the City" left. Although I didn't relate to the SATC crew, I definitely laughed with them (and sometimes at them) and found the show funny and smart. Some of the "Lipstick" women are married, so we won't have the bad dates to laugh at...but hopefully it will actually be a good show. We'll see. My hopes are not high.

You may be wondering whether I'm going to torture my poor hubby with this show. Good question. Well, I mentioned that I'd like to give it a shot, and he didn't run screaming into the river. So he may actually watch some of it with me, bless his poor, patient heart. It probably won't be that good a show. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Social networking

I forgot to mention in my blog entry on cyber-networks the other day that I DID end up staying on Facebook.com, but I changed my profile to note, "I am hardly ever on here. So please don't be offended if it takes me a while to get back to you." Still, I get frequent e-mails to my regular e-mail saying someone on Facebook "poked" me or asked me to get into a virtual mud-fight, or some other weird thing that I'd actually have to log in and then download a program for. Of course, it's really anti-social of me to complain about this when I should be happy that any gives a darn about whiny old me. So THANK YOU to everyone for your pokes, etc., etc. I just don't want you to be offended if they sit in my in-box for a while.