Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with author

what helped you grieve?

MT — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 22:03:35 -0800

What book or piece of writing helped you to grieve? I wish to gift a book to a distant friend who is about to lose their mother after a swift illness. Here's some characteristics i'm looking for, but please don't let it limit your sharing of ideas: - written by a woman/NB/queer person/people - feminist approach - philosophical or sociological e.g. not a self-help book, or a 'science of grieving book'... more like an Audre Lorde or bell hooks style. - poetry or prose or graphic novel - could be old or contemporary

Vacation in the Plague Era

FatherDagon — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 21:25:37 -0800

I want to travel from the US to Prague in October 2021. Is this a pipe dream? There is a phenomenal show coming to Prague in October the day after my birthday, which also gives an opportunity to travel to Kutna Hora and see the Sedlec Ossuary, and I want to know if it's even possible to make that happen. Finances aren't a problem, but the concept of travelling overseas seems like a complete fantasy right now, even if it's seven months away.

I should (fingers crossed) be vaccinated by then, but what is the current state of international travel and what would it theoretically look like in Autumn - barring another massive resurgence of the rona? The Prague Covid info summary here sounds like things are still on general extreme lockdown. However this tour was announced after the fact - is there word that restrictions should be lifting by then, or is it just astoundingly optimistic projections from the tour management? Would I need to arrive two weeks prior and quarantine somewhere? Is there any EU guidance on what to plan for? I know last year there was a lot of struggle with airfare/hotel refunds - is there travel insurance that would allow for cancellation with less hassle should the disease landscape change suddenly? Of course I'd be taking all the personal safety cautions possible re: masking, sanitation, etc - everything available to deal with the risks involved in still going to a public event.

Basically, is this a stupid idea, or are there preparations that could be made to mitigate the risks somewhat?

What's the correct term?

einekleine — Sun, 07 Jun 2020 04:10:39 -0800

Is there a correct term for an author who identifies themselves with a description of their status alone? eg

—A concerned parent;
—A representative of the council;
—A lady.

Pseudonym doesn't feel right to me, but I may be wrong. It's an early nineteenth century text I'm writing about. I'm using British English.

The sentence is something like 'The author never identified herself and used the [appellation/handle/moniker/pseudonym] 'A lady' on all editions of her work.'

Lots of words will do, but is there a right one, and if there isn't, what would you go for?

Authors "who fall somewhere between Umberto Eco and Dan Brown"?

Juffo-Wup — Sun, 05 Apr 2020 08:33:57 -0800

A close relative is looking for novels to read, and asked me to ask Metafilter if anyone knows of any authors who fall "somewhere between Umberto Eco and Dan Brown." He suggested that people would know what he meant by that, but I am available to pass any clarifying questions along as needed.

What did you do with your MFA in creative writing?

gallusgallus — Sat, 14 Sep 2019 00:53:52 -0800

Prompted by the recent English major thread... if you earned an MFA in creative writing, would you mind sharing a bit about your subsequent employment or publication pattern? If you paid anything for it, do you feel you recouped the value? To the extent you expected when you entered the program?

Not quite a pen name...

Beardman — Fri, 12 Jul 2019 07:02:11 -0800

Plenty of famous writers have dropped their first name and gone by their middle name (e.g. Adeline Virginia Woolf). Have any famous writers dropped their surname and just gone by some combo of their given names? The reason I ask is that I'm looking for inspiration. I'll be trying to publish a novel in the next year, but I've never liked my surname. However, my three names are all interchangeable as first and last names, and there is one rearrangement that strikes me as more aesthetically appealing – e.g., going from something like "Thomas James Craig" to "James Thomas."

Has this ever been done by a writer of note? I'm iffy about the idea and looking for precedents.

Making Money by Writing

Sassyfras — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 19:06:25 -0800

I love to write essays, articles and perfectly worded letters and correspondence. I have no formal education beyond high school and a few years of college. But, I have been told countless times that my writing is beautiful, powerful and well-written. I'd really like to make some money doing this! Should I go back to school or take writing courses? How would I find jobs or work writing? I'm really at the beginning thoughts of actually considering making a go of writing and making a few bucks, so any thoughts of a direction I should go or explore would be very welcome! Also, I am not looking to make a ton of money (although that'd be awesome) at first or for this to be how I support myself.

(disclaimer: this askme question is not indicative of my writing abilities)

Source of this quote?

blaneyphoto — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 17:31:12 -0800

Looking for the author or source of this! Brave girl,
promise me
you will not
shrink yourself
in order
to make others
feel comfortable

Fantasy novel with female protagonist, British university setting?

holist — Sun, 17 Feb 2019 22:16:35 -0800

Themes of alchemy, time travel by body-hopping, eventually going all the way to the beginning of time, the paperback had black edges, which was what made me buy it in the airport bookshop... but I don't remember the title or the author, can you help? Bought in the last 10 years or so.

Another book or author name question

BlueHorse — Sun, 03 Feb 2019 12:44:08 -0800

Help me find these laid back books please I read several books as a teen (late 60s early 70s) that were written in a very mellow semi-autobiograpy style set in New England--maybe upper New York, New Hampshire, Vermont? They were written by an older woman (maybe named Grace?) about her and her friend Jill, and their life in the country.

She wrote about their raising Cocker Spaniels and Irish Setters, and Jill judged dog shows. The author loved to cook and can; they both loved to garden and grow flowers. The house they lived in was old--at least 100 years or so. She occasionally talked about the the history, the property and house-- it had original hard wood floors and ancient windows. They enjoyed antiquing, and she had a collection of....cut glass? carnival glass?

They both had been married, lived in the city, had jobs, both had kids, and then they moved to the country after both their husbands died. As a kid, I never got the idea that they were bi--or if they were, it wasn't expressed/went over my head.

I doubt if the books were best sellers or super poplar, and they would have been books that you would have thought your mom might have enjoyed reading.
Metafilter, can you hope me?

Evaluating Book Publishing Routes

CollectiveMind — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 16:30:01 -0800

The process of selecting a self-publisher is daunting. Lots of self-publishers evaluate themselves against their competition. And surprise, they always seem a so much better deal than their competitors. On the other side, finding a traditional publisher often requires first, finding an agent. And I've heard agents are focused on repeat performers, not untested first timers. I have a plan to work my way slowly and individually, through agents and publishers to maybe find a fit. But I am also looking at self publishing. So, is there a place where I can get an objective evaluation of legitimate self-publishing companies?

How do I find a CPA who specializes in dealing with authors?

Alex Haist — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 17:20:36 -0800

My wife and I both expect to be in the writing biz in a few years, which means dealing with the publishing industry (and therefore variable income) as well as freelance projects as they come along. We would like an account who will make the most of the good, the bad, and the ugly of this situation. How do we go about finding a CPA with that specialty? We're in the Pioneer Valley, western Massachusetts.

name this short story, it's keeping me up at night

chasles — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 10:41:03 -0800

help me find the name/author of this short story. basically the world is overcome with [disease, biological agent something] that essentially kills you when you fall asleep. so, once you are asleep you never wake up. the story is about a group of scientists who are trying to cure it. they go through a variety of methods to stay awake, pinching themselves, then cutting chunks of skin, or pouring acid on their leg (i recall that last one specifically). eventually they start to fall asleep one at a time...

it was either a short story or i read a snippet. i **think**i read it when i was kid so that's firmly early to mid 80s. i read anything i could get including scholastic book digests, readers digests etc. what i remember was short story length but i could be remembering an excerpt or digest version. i recall the setting was vaguely near future.

please help! this has bothered me for years...

A question for the Liberian Cabal

Grandysaur — Sun, 13 Aug 2017 16:28:37 -0800

I've been making it my goal to only read books by non-cishetwhitedudes this year. Yay for me! But I'm wondering, since I get most of my reading material from the library, is there any tangible impact on society? Besides adding my +1 to the amount of times these books are checked out, is there any greater significance? Do the authors get any benefits? Librarians, please let me know if checking out and reading books by women, people of colors, LGBTQ, etc is nothing more than screaming into the library void.

Who is the John Muir of New Hampshire's White Mountains?

Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The — Fri, 12 May 2017 20:10:55 -0800

I've recently started reading John Muir's My First summer in the Sierra and it is riveting stuff, a love-letter to an entire landscape that resonates with the bedrock of my soul. However, right now my heart belongs to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, rather than the Sierra Nevada of California. What writings, by what authors, are the closest equivalent to John Muir's work, but set in the Whites?

How do you credit a technical consultant for a novel

dontjumplarry — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 08:52:04 -0800

OK, so I have fiction project. To do it properly, it's going to need factual, reality-based insights into a field I'm not an expert in. My buddy is, however, and he's going to consult to get the non-fictiony bits right. Cool! But this isn't like a retired detective doing some fact-checking and correcting process-based details. It's consultation on some core thematic & big idea stuff. Like imagine Orwell tried to write Animal Farm but only had a Wikipedia-level grasp of the USSR. How do I credit that?

Celebrity turned author, how much writing do they actually do?

Youremyworld — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 18:35:40 -0800

I love reading books about makeup, fashion, celebrity lifestyle etc. I have a number of books in my collection written by celebrities or people that are not from writing backgrounds (a costume designer for example). I am really curious to know how much actual writing they do and how the relationship with the 'written with...' person works. Examples after the jump. Here are some of the books I am wondering about:

Your Beauty Mark Dita Von Teese with Rose Apodaca
Style A-Zoe Rachel Zoe with Rose Apodaca
The Power of Makeup Trish McEvoy with Kathleen Boyes

Do the celebs write anything?

The reason I am curious is that in Dita's book it says things like, 'Rose likes using XX product' making it sounds like Dita's voice. In Trish's book, she thanks Kathleen for bringing her words to life (or something like that). So I am really interested to know if the other writer is sitting down with the celeb, talking to them and then writing it in their voice. It's just not a total ghost-writer situation. Can anyone shed some light on the process?

How much promotion does a co-author have to do for a book?

cartoonella — Sun, 05 Feb 2017 10:00:44 -0800

A memoir I've been working on for years with a musician is coming out in March. I'm the co-author, not the person whose name is in big letters on the cover -- my name comes after the "with." I've got a "not sure how much I owe these people" question. It's a small publisher, and the main guy I've been working with there told me a while back that I would be expected to take on some promotional duties. I agreed then because I was excited about the project, and it was before some things went wrong. Long story short, the publisher turns out to be unethical. A few months ago they tried to have my name removed from the book, citing a bunch of off-the-cuff reasons that made no sense. This was also done in the worst possible way -- the change was made to the cover image of the book on the Amazon pre-order page, which I happened to spot. They apparently weren't even going to tell me about this.

I contacted an intellectual property rights lawyer and told the publisher I was ready to go to court to get my name restored. They backed down and agreed, but only verbally, to continue to "let" me be credited on this book I've been working on for the past six years. Nothing in my contract was changed.

I'll be talking with the publisher in a few days to discuss promotion and marketing. I've already been through the mill with these people. They pressured me into doing an extensive index for them, and I came through on that but I'm apparently not going to get extra compensation for it. Now it sounds like they're going to strong-arm me into doing a bunch of promotional footwork for them as well.

Since my co-author the musician is on the east coast, and has her own marketing firm working on this stuff with the publisher's in-house promotional guy, I'm not sure why they need me -- unless it's to do some pounding the pavement on the west coast where I live.

I've already sent them a long list of media contacts and places to send their press releases. I'm not sure what they're going to ask me to do -- drive around with copies of the book in my car and try to place them with book stores, record stores, gift shops maybe? -- but I thought I'd ask the hive mind what y'all think.

How much more do I owe these people? I'll double-check, but I don't recall anything about doing promotional work for them being in my author contract.

Is it normal for authors with smaller publishers to take this stuff on? What might be an example of their crossing the line with me around this kind of thing?

It could be I'm blowing this out of proportion, but I don't trust this publisher, and the thought of giving them any more free work leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I would appreciate any advice you may have!

Composing in one's head

Countess Elena — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 20:21:22 -0800

I'm interested in examples of people who have composed lengthy pieces of prose in their own heads. I just read Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, and I was fascinated by his work (such as he could do it) on the manuscript he had written, which was destroyed by the Nazis, and later reconstituted as that book. Frankl mentioned hiding shorthand notes for himself, when he could.

What other authors have had to develop techniques for writing without writing? Oral compositions are tens of thousands of years old, of course, but they rely on formula, and what is more, community. Poetry and songs act as mnemonics in a way that prose does not. Surely there are authors who have effectively composed books in their heads?

Books by Irish authors set in the Nordic region

J.R. Hartley — Thu, 10 Nov 2016 02:11:45 -0800

Please help me come up with some books that are set (even partially) in Sweden but are written by Irish (including Northern Irish) authors. I am also interested in the other nordic areas, but my main focus is Sweden.

How close can I get to Borges on Project Gutenberg?

circular — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 22:11:42 -0800

I like what I've read of Borges so far. I was browsing Project Gutenberg and wondering if there are any authors of a similar cant who can be found there. I like reading old books. Thanks.

Who wrote this white paper?

Packy_1962 — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 17:15:13 -0800

How do I find out the actual author(s) behind the White House white paper: Housing Development Tool Kit September 2016.

Her name is on the tip of my tongue

Fukiyama — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 17:32:51 -0800

A few years ago at the bookstore, I came across one by a woman from New York City. I believe it is a memoir. The author is featured on the cover lounging on a couch wearing a white bodysuit. See more details inside. I remember from her bio that she has a few previous works including one with a title that includes a double entendre on bush. My brain keeps telling me this woman's last name is something like Aschbach and her first name starts with a P, but I probably wrong on both. That's all I can remember about her; Google is not helping since the search terms I am coming up with are so broad. Hivemind, help me!

Should I attend a Writer's Digest conference, or something else?

Peach — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 15:05:12 -0800

I just retired from teaching and am resuming writing. I had an agent and had two books published (F/SF, mainstream publisher) twenty years ago, but my agent died and I'm basically starting from scratch. The Writer's Digest conference in August in NYC looks okay. Is it worth going? Or should I do something else first? I like Writer's Digest and have been reading articles while plugging away at the manuscripts I have in progress (one completed first draft that needs serious revision, one completed second draft that may never see the light of day, one being drafted), but I was wondering if it would be useful for me to go to a writing conference to find out what the business of writing is like these days.

Yes, I have started a blog and am blogging weekly. I do want to get an agent, but I think I need to get two of my manuscripts in better shape before I do that. My old agent's partner was unenthusiastic about taking on a living author (he mostly handles estates). I reached out to some writing friends about starting a writing group but though they all sounded eager, I haven't heard back. I belong to SFWA. I've only been retired three weeks, but am so happy to be writing full time again that I'm feeling optimistic.

Norm for conference presentations -- authors only?

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 22:18:56 -0800

I'm an academic. I'm new to supervising subordinates on my research and I'm unsure of the norms. Should a subordinate present at conferences on a project only if they would be a co-author on the article? I have an undergraduate subordinate whose work I value. They would like to present some of our research at conferences. I am generally in favor of this. However: on most of the projects this person has worked on so far, their work is kind of peripheral -- not, I think, at the level of a listed co-author on a journal article.

My vague understanding is that you don't present work at a conference unless it is in some sense your project -- maybe you wouldn't be the lead, but you would be a listed author.

On that basis, I shouldn't allow the subordinate to present on the projects they have worked on so far, because I don't expect their contributions to reach the level of a co-author. Instead, I could encourage them to take a more central role on some other project, and present that.

Do you agree with my reasoning, or do I have the norms wrong?