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Books/Literature (General/Chat)

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  • Writer's Guild: My novel, rewritten.

    04/24/2025 6:20:16 PM PDT · by Lazamataz · 57 replies
    Original Material | 4/24/2025 | By Laz A. Mataz
    Hey folks. Some time back I submitted the first few chapters of a book I'm writing (with an idea initially created by a friend). I had a few reviews, but the one that I found most useful was a private email, outside of Free Republic, that started: "I made it to page 28. Not gonna sugar coat this... it was a slog. " ...and, frankly, it was. When I re-read it, it was almost horrible. No real conflict to speak of. Chapters that simply made NO sense to the overall arc. So I re-wrote it. I punched it up quite...
  • New audiobook release: Propaganda, by Edward Bernays

    04/24/2025 7:41:56 AM PDT · by ProgressingAmerica · 10 replies
    PGA Weblog ^ | 4/24/25
    Today we have a new audio book release, this time from Edward Bernays with his 1928 work "Propaganda". Download the audio here. There is a lot to learn about progressivism in this book. Among other things (prior post on this) Bernays believed the following items which were captions on a newer reprint cover: As civilization has become more complex, and as the need for invisible government has been increasingly demonstrated, the technical means have been invented and developed by which opinion may be regimented(Page 39)Nowadays the successors of the rulers, those whose position or ability gives them power, can no...
  • The Gathering Storm

    04/23/2025 7:01:55 PM PDT · by Mean Daddy · 8 replies
    Amazon ^ | April 23, 2025 | Scott Mann & Sarah Adams
    What you don't know that you NEED to know. The Gathering Storm is a groundbreaking initiative addressing the critical gaps in our nation’s preparedness for emerging terror threats following the botched Afghanistan withdrawal. Through an unprecedented public-private partnership, this project fosters collaboration across federal, state, and local levels to identify threats and implement best practices. We have partnered with the top Global War on Terror intelligence professionals and special operations veterans to inform YOU on the potential for a terrorist attack in YOUR community. The mission of The Gathering Storm is not to create fear as happens in legacy media...
  • How the Media Completely Dropped the Ball in Questioning Lockdowns and Mandates, with David Zweig

    04/22/2025 1:05:13 PM PDT · by CondoleezzaProtege · 11 replies
    Megyn is joined by David Zweig, journalist and author of An Abundance of Caution…
  • Creatively Disabled Authors and the AI Crutch

    04/18/2025 8:43:33 AM PDT · by Angelino97 · 16 replies
    Chronicles ^ | April 17, 2025 | Pedro Gonzalez
    Writing a novel is hard. Writing one in a month is insane. Unless you are William Faulkner, who wrote As I Lay Dying in six weeks, between the hours of midnight and four in the morning. Indeed, the author himself claimed, “I set out deliberately to write a tour-de-force. Before I ever put pen to paper and set down the first word I knew what the last word would be and almost where the last period would fall.” Faulker said he did not change a word in the end. Some might say Faulkner was touched by the Divine. Lucky him!...
  • Karmelo Anthony's mother says family has been "under attack"

    04/17/2025 2:00:40 PM PDT · by Racketeer · 66 replies
    X ^ | April 17, 2025 | Colin Rugg
    Karmelo Anthony's mother says family has been "under attack," that her daughter has been afraid to sleep in her own bed, and that her husband's "mental health is deteriorating day by day."
  • AI Threatens Creators’ Livelihoods, Experts Say

    04/16/2025 12:50:15 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 19 replies
    Publisher Weekly ^ | Apr 16, 2025 | Ed Nawotka
    A panel of experts gathered in Washington D.C. last week to discuss how their creative industries are coping with technological disruption cited AI as the latest challenge in a decades-long struggle to maintain sustainable careers in the digital era. The panel was part of "The Story Starts With Us," a day-long forum that addressed the threat generative AI poses to copyright law and the creative industries. It was co-hosted by the Association of American Publishers and the Copyright Alliance. The panel was moderated by Alex Reisner, a freelance journalist and contributing writer for The Atlantic who has written extensively about...
  • Peter Lovesey, Novelist Who Pioneered the Historical Whodunnit With His Victorian Detective Cribb

    04/16/2025 12:44:03 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 20 replies
    Peter Lovesey, the crime novelist, who has died aged 88, was a pioneer of the period whodunnit, as the creator of the Victorian sleuth Sergeant Cribb. Although there had been a few one-off historical mysteries before the advent of Lovesey in the 1970s (including Agatha Christie’s Death Comes as the End, set in Thebes in 2000 BC), he was generally regarded as the first author to set a successful detective series in the past. Sergeant Cribb paved the way for other period detectives such as Ellis Peters’s Brother Cadfael, Lindsey Davis’s Falco and C J Sansom’s Shardlake. The sub-genre now...
  • Word for the day: COPACETIC

    04/16/2025 12:35:41 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 22 replies
    www.merriam-webster.com ^ | April 16, 2025 | Red Badger
    copacetic adjective co·​pa·​cet·​ic ˌkō-pə-ˈse-tik variants or less commonly copasetic or copesetic Synonyms of copacetic : very satisfactory And his smile told him that everything was copacetic. —Robert Bloch Did you know? If you’re living the life of Riley, strolling along easy street, or wallowing in hog heaven, your circumstances may be described as copacetic. A word of obscure origin, copacetic has for over a century satisfied those who’ve had a hankering to describe that which is hunky-dory or otherwise completely satisfactory. (If "of obscure origin" leaves you feeling less than copacetic, the note here will undoubtedly remedy that.) Life isn’t...
  • Kristi Noem’s Made-for-TV Approach to Homeland Security

    04/15/2025 7:16:33 AM PDT · by Racketeer · 33 replies
    Wall Street Journal ^ | April 14, 2025 | Michelle Hackman
    WASHINGTON—Just days after Kristi Noem took office as President Trump’s head of Homeland Security, she accompanied U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on a predawn raid of several neighborhoods in New York City. “Live this AM from NYC. I’m on it,” she posted on Jan. 28 at 4:43 a.m. on X, with a photo of herself sporting an ICE baseball cap and getting into a car. The problem: The raid was still ongoing when Noem posted about it, undercutting the element of surprise, according to people familiar with the operation. Noem’s handling of that early raid was emblematic of the...
  • How to Be a Happy 85-Year-Old

    04/14/2025 2:20:29 AM PDT · by Cronos · 37 replies
    The New York Times ^ | 13th April 2025 | Roger Rosenblatt
    In 2000, I published a book called “Rules for Aging,” a sort of how-to guide for navigating the later years of one’s life. I was 60 at the time and thought that I knew a thing or two about being old. Twenty-five years later, I just finished a sequel, which reflects my advice for growing very, very old. (I have been doing a lot of that lately.) It took me 85 years to learn these things, but I believe they’re applicable at any age. 1. Nobody’s thinking about you. It was true 25 years ago, and it’s true today. Nobody...
  • No More Worldcons in the United States? [Science fiction community laments Trump immigration "horrors"]

    04/13/2025 4:49:17 PM PDT · by Angelino97 · 53 replies
    File770.com ^ | April 12, 2025 | Gary Westfahl
    The time has come to cancel or move the 2025 Seattle Worldcon. And to cancel or move the 2026 Los Angeles Worldcon. It has to be done, in order to honor a century-old tradition of science fiction. From its beginnings as a recognized genre in 1926, science fiction has warmly embraced writers and readers from around the world. Hugo Gernsback happily published letters from foreign readers in his magazines and featured stories by several foreign authors. When he established the Science Fiction League in 1934, he included chapters in other nations. The first major science fiction convention in 1939 was...
  • "The Great Gatsby" was published 100 years ago today

    04/10/2025 11:35:30 AM PDT · by Borges · 29 replies
    On the exact 100th anniversary of the publication date of “The Great Gatsby,” the Library of Congress is producing a full reading of the novel, livestreamed from our Thomas Jefferson building on Capitol Hill. Be an old sport and join us in-person or online to experience this classic American novel which entered the public domain in 2021.
  • Trump admin fires Navy (DEI) admiral at NATO targeted by conservative group

    04/08/2025 5:59:33 AM PDT · by dennisw · 43 replies
    MSN Foxnews ^ | 4 8 | Michael Dorgan
    The Trump administration has sacked a senior NATO official who was recommended by a conservative research group to be fired as part of a broader effort to purge wokeness from the Pentagon. Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, the only woman on NATO’s military committee, was dismissed from the alliance over the weekend without explanation, according to multiple reports. She is one of only a handful of female Navy three-star officers and was the first woman to lead the Naval War College, a job she held until 2023. Chatfield reportedly got a call from Adm. Christopher Grady, the acting chairman of...
  • Through a Wardrobe Dimly: Netflix’s Narnia Reboot With Meryl Streep Voicing Aslan

    04/07/2025 10:35:30 AM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 23 replies
    PJ Media ^ | 04/07/2025 | Lincoln Brown
    So last week, the word was out that Netflix is playing host to a reboot of “The Chronicles of Narnia.” On top of that, talks are apparently in the works to have none other than Meryl Streep voice Aslan. Yes, they are coming for Narnia in the same way they came for “Star Wars” and “The Lord of the Rings.” A galaxy far, far, away is not safe, nor is Middle Earth; why should Narnia be sacrosanct? Deadline reports:In the novels, Aslan is a talking lion who serves as Narnia’s guardian and a guide for the human children. Generally portrayed...
  • Columbia University students chain themselves to gate in protest of Mahmoud Khalil's detention by ICE

    04/04/2025 12:54:19 AM PDT · by Libloather · 64 replies
    Fox News ^ | 4/02/25 | Adam Sabes
    Several Columbia University students have chained themselves to a gate to protest Mahmoud Khalil's detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The students began protesting outside Columbia University's St. Paul’s Chapel on Wednesday afternoon, demanding that the institution release the names of the trustees "who gave Mahmoud Khalil’s name to ICE." The Columbia Palestine Solidarity Committee wrote on X that "We will not leave until our demand is met." "FREE MAHMOUD KHALIL. NAME THE TRUSTEE. Jewish students will not leave. They will remain chained to the campus gates until @Columbia University is held accountable. WHO REPORTED MAHMOUD TO ICE?" the...
  • Columnist Eugene Robinson exits Washington Post after Jeff Bezos’ ‘significant shift’ in paper’s mission

    04/03/2025 4:19:20 PM PDT · by Libloather · 20 replies
    NY Post ^ | 4/03/25 | Alexandra Steigrad
    Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, an MSNBC contributor and staunch critic of President Trump, said he’s quitting after owner Jeff Bezos’ “significant shift” in the paper’s mission — joining an exodus of journalists at the beleaguered broadsheet. “The announced ‘significant shift’ in our section’s mission has spurred me to decide that it’s time for my next chapter,” Robinson announced in a memo to fellow staffers on Thursday. “I wish nothing but the very best for the paper and for all of you. I won’t be a stranger, and I’ll be reading your unparalleled work every single day.” Bezos, the billionaire...
  • Casanova: Womanizer, con man and poet (born 300 years ago today)

    04/02/2025 10:19:23 AM PDT · by Borges · 17 replies
    DW ^ | 4/1/25 | Suzanne Cords
    He became famous for his love affairs, but Casanova was also a writer, diplomat and spy. Born in Venice 300 years ago, his name still resonates around the world. Giacomo Girolamo Casanova admires his tall, slender figure in the gold-trimmed mirror as he adjusts his wig. Everything needs to be perfect as his latest lover is on her way. Oysters, venison and champagne are ready. The beauty Casanova is waiting for is enchanted by the setting. After dinner, the seducer urges her into the bedroom, where they indulge in a night of lovemaking. "Feeling that I was born for the...
  • Barack Obama was working against Kamala Harris behind the 2024 scenes — didn’t think she could win: new book

    04/02/2025 10:04:52 AM PDT · by Libloather · 37 replies
    NY Post ^ | 4/01/25 | Shane Galvin
    Former President Barack Obama reportedly advocated against Democrats nominating Vice President Kamala Harris in the wake of President Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 presidential election — because Obama didn’t think Harris could win, according to an upcoming book. The 44th president reportedly argued for an open convention rather than anointing Harris as the nominee after Biden’s shocking drop-out, despite her having support from other Democrats, according to reporter Jonathan Allen, co-author of “FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House.” “President Obama absolutely did not think that Joe Biden should continue, according to our sources close to...
  • A legal scholar talks about 10 laws he says are 'ruining America'

    04/01/2025 9:09:02 AM PDT · by DallasBiff · 23 replies
    NPR ^ | 3/24/25 | Tonya Mosley
    In Bad Law, Elie Mystal argues that our country's laws on immigration, abortion and voting rights don't reflect the will of most Americans, and we'd be better off abolishing them and starting over. This is FRESH AIR. I'm Tonya Mosley. My guest today, legal scholar Elie Mystal, says if it were up to him, every law passed before 1965 would be deemed unconstitutional. From his view, before the Voting Rights Act, the U.S. was basically an apartheid state. Mystal's new book, "Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America," mixes humor with deep analysis to argue that our laws...