Vatican Calls For Boycott of Da Vinci Code
Today the Vatican called for the boycott of the Da Vinci Code movie. The book was criticized for being anti-christian and filled with “lies”. They do not want it around and says that if this had been about the halocaust or the Koran then there would have been world wide uprisings.
Opus Dei is also stepping out in the forefront asking that as a show of respect, the movie industry could put up information letting movie-goers know that this movie and novel is a work of fiction and not fact like the author Dan Brown has claimed.
How They Stand Behind You
It seemed at first like 19 year old Kaavya Viswanathan’s people were going to stand behind her when she was accused of copying phrases and scenes from author Megan McCafferty. Only a few days later the publisher Little, Brown and Company has announced that they were pulling the novel.
They don’t mention if they are cancelling the novel, which she recieved a six figure deal for, or if they were just going to have it edited to remove any similarities of McCafferty’s books.
Some say Viswanathan has risen and fallen in a shocking amount of time, but there are many authors who have confessed to ripping off other peoples work and they eventually rise above the scandal and keep going.
If Kaavya Viswanathan did it on purpose then it was wrong of her, but hopefully she can one day become a bestselling author and keep doing well for herself.
Lawsuit Over Gay Themed Fairy Tale
The novel is a fairy tale in which a prince and princess doesn’t live happily ever after, but a King and King does. The prince must find a bride before his mother the Queen will let him have the throne and after looking through all the princesses he doesn’t like any of them. When one of the last Princesses comes to see him, he immediately falls in love…with her brother.
The homosexual themes of the book which is for children 6 and older has many parents upset and saying that it shouldn’t be allowed in schools. Today two families are suing after they say that a teacher read the book to her class without first consulting them. I’ll let you know how this one turns out.
Getting Published, part 2
It’s been a few weeks since I sent out my first queries to literary agents. So far, no bites — just a few rejections.
Luckily, I’m immune to rejections. (I’ve been a freelance writer for a few years, so I’m used to them.) Also, I’m thankful they’ve all been good non-form-letter rejections — each responded to specific things I’d said in my query, which is encouraging.
If I don’t have any luck with anyone from this group, I have another batch of queries ready to go out in May…
In the meanwhile, here are a few more sites offering advice on how to get an agent:
- Literary agents: a four-part series from Writing.org
- Words of Wisdom to Snatch a Literary Agent from FreelanceWriting.com
- Literary Agents - Answers and Advice from TaraKHarper.com
Judge Finds His Own Code at Da Vinci Trial
Three weeks ago Justice Peter Smith ruled in Dan Brown’s favor and Lawyer Dan Tench noticed that ruling on paper today. Some letters are usually italized but are usually unreadable words.
However the ones he saw spelled out Smith Code. Smith is the last name of the judge. He has refused all interview requests but his people says that he has a sense of humor about things and he has one about this weird case.
In Character : Actors Acting
In Character : Actors Acting is actually a photograph novel done by photographer Howard Schatz. In the book are more than 100 actors and actresses acting to different characters and we get to see frame by frame shots of their faces in character.
We are supposed to see them slowly but surely transforming from themselves to their character. Some of the celebrities in the book include Don Cheadle, Robert Klein, and Christopher Lloyd.
The book was released April 13th and cost get this $50. If I was to buy this book it would be online where I can find it much cheaper. At Amazon they have it for $31.50 plus users are selling it for as low as $25.
Da Vinci Code Revisited
Yes, the Da Vinci code is still incredibly popular and with good reason. I would imagine that in the coming months it will only grow in popularity as the movie is released, especially given the big name draw of Tom Hanks. My only sadness is that a kind of wish that I rumor I heard a while back had come to fruition. Whispered by who I don’t know, I heard that they had considered casting Denzel Washington in the lead role. I just think it would have been interesting to cast against type for such a potential blockbuster. I know that he is still a big name and it wouldn’t have been as shocking as, say, casting a no-name actor to play the role. I just think it would have been a bit, as I said, interesting.
Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code Still Going Strong
The novel The Da Vinci Code has been out for a few years and has sold more than 40 million hardcover’s. It has been discussed and written about many times and yet when the paperback novel was released a month ago many were surprised at how well it has and still is doing.
The bestselling novel has sold more than $1.4 million and doesn’t seem to be losing steam anytime soon.
Teen Accused Of Plagiarism
Teenage author Kaavya Viswanathan is being accused of plagiarising two books by author Megan McCafferty in her first novel “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life”.
Viswanathan has apologized but says that the similarities in the books were not intentional and that she didn’t lift passages from the two books.
Some however do not believe Kaavya including Megan McCafferty’s publicist who says there are too many coincidences in the books for it to be an accident.
Sanctuary
Work has been a trial the last few days and today was no different–I ended up going in two hours earlier than necessary to meet with a client that cancelled. So I hightailed it out of there to try and get my head back on straight and ended up in a bookstore…
Once inside, I felt relaxed. As silly as it sounds, but I felt like I could breathe again and just take a little bit of time for myself. I used to lose myself in bookstores and forget about the commotion and drama that seems to make up the Legos of my life. And today, I was reminded of that…and it was delicious. Slowly strolling the aisles, picking up a book and reading a few pages, just made me feel calmer and more at ease. And, even though I didn’t want to leave and go back to work, at least for a minute I had found my way back to a home that made sense to me.