Keith Raffel's Blog (9)

For Your Consideration on YouTube

A couple of weeks ago, I went down to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California and spoke to employees as part of their Authors@Google program. It was fun chatting with the Google-ites about mysteries, careers, Silicon Valley, and such. (Thanks to Ricky, Ann, Anita, and Curtis for hosting me.) So then, paraphrasing Rod Serling, I submit for your… Continue

Added by Keith Raffel on August 4, 2007 at 4:24am — No Comments

Blogito, Ergo Sum

Why do we blog?

Let me tell you why that question has been rolling around the inside of my skull. Tuesday night I went to the Giants game to see Barry Bonds hit a home run or two. A failed mission. But between innings, the scoreboard had a quiz. Who is first baseman Ryan Klesko's… Continue

Added by Keith Raffel on July 28, 2007 at 9:32am — 2 Comments

Which Came First, the Story or the Title?

In a posting on the Inkspot blog a couple of weeks ago, Nina Wright, the charming and witty author of the Whiskey Mattimoe mysteries, wrote: “[C]hoosing a title is generally one of the last details of the book-writing process.” Yes, that’s how it usually works. My Dot Dead had a working title of Maid Dead until just before submission. The contract I…

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Added by Keith Raffel on July 1, 2007 at 3:14am — No Comments

Hadassah Magazine Roundup of Mysteries

Ellen Bob of the Los Altos (CA) bookstore Bob and Bob's tells me that Hadassah Magazine has the highest circulation of any Jewish periodical in the U.S.…

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Added by Keith Raffel on June 13, 2007 at 5:08pm — No Comments

Palo Alto High's Mystery Alum

Gee, you'd think I'd have a chance to be the most famous mystery writer who ever graduated from my high school. No shot. Never. You see I'm an alum of Palo Alto High as is... Erle Stanley Gardner, the progenitor of…

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Added by Keith Raffel on June 5, 2007 at 3:55pm — No Comments

Allegra Goodman Has 4 Kids, Too

I've donated money to the National Yiddish Book Center which gathers and saves Yiddish books from around the world. Doing a little to save a millenium of rich culture should be reward enough in itself. Still, receiving the Center's quarterly…

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Added by Keith Raffel on March 30, 2007 at 5:15pm — No Comments

Second Class Citizens?

I just finished reading Christine Falls, the much ballyhooed new book by John Banville. Mr. Banville won the Commonwealth's highest writing honor, the Man Booker Prize, in 2005 for The Sea. He penned Christine Falls under the pseudonym Benjamin Black. In fact, the copy I picked up at …

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Added by Keith Raffel on March 28, 2007 at 3:51am — 3 Comments

Baby Naming

As I noted last week, Randi, my agent, wouldn't send out manuscript #2 until I came up with an acceptable title. I spent some time leafing through books of quotations and browsing through online quotation sites. Confucius, it turns out, could turn a phrase. How about…

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Added by Keith Raffel on March 27, 2007 at 4:18am — 1 Comment

Whew! What A Relief!

My agent has read the manuscript of Book 2. I will not be doing any bridge-jumping this week.

When I was in business (i.e., up till two weeks ago), I regularly did written performance reviews for the people who reported to me. For the best people, the reviews would run three pages, the first 2-and-three-quarters of which would be praise. There would be one paragraph, maybe two, near the end, mentioning one or two areas that could use improvement and providing suggestions on how to…

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Added by Keith Raffel on March 19, 2007 at 3:50am — 1 Comment