Laila Lalami

The Democratic Republic of Congo has recalled its ambassador to Belgium after critical remarks made by the Belgian foreign minister ruffled feathers, the BBC reports.

While visiting Africa, Mr de Gucht said Congolese politicians were unable to introduce democracy or end corruption. (…) Henri Mova Sakanyi said in a statement that the minister was treating Belgium’s former colonies like children and was “completely ignorant of the basic rules of diplomacy”.
The comments border on “racism and nostalgia for colonialism”, the minister said. “It’s Tintin in the Congo all over again.”

Thanks to Jonathan for the link.

National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) is due to start in 4 days, and Chris Baty, the man who founded it, is interviewed over at AlterNet.

French-Algerian writing sensation Fa

According to a recent Gallup poll, a staggering 42% of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein was involved in plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Given the 9/11 Commission’s findings to the contrary, it would be fair to say that these 42% of Americans are, well, misinformed. And who can be blamed for it but the media? Newspapers, magazines, and especially TV media seemed so eager to play nice with the administration that they blindly reported President Bush and Vice-President Cheney’s claims that Saddam had links with Al-Qaeda.

In this climate, a book like Misstating the State of The Union becomes a must read. Prepared by the Media Matters Network, it provides a catalog of all the distortions, obfuscations, omissions, or outright lies told by right-wing commentators like Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, or (my personal favorite) Bill O’Reilly. Among the false claims propounded on fair and balanced news: that Bush inherited a recession (it began after he took office); that he is fiscally conservative (under his leadership, the U.S. went from a $200B surplus to a $400B deficit in just 4 years); that the war in Iraq was necessary (the country did not have weapons of mass destruction); that Bush cares about education (he under-funded his own No Child Left Behind act); or that he is tough on crime (the number of violent crimes has risen under him.) As we head into what is sure to be a contested election, voters would do well to read up on the real record of George W. Bush, not the one fabricated in Karl Rove’s office and repeated on Rupert Murdoch’s stations.

To be fair, though, Misstating the State of The Union is also a book with an agenda. Besides exposing lies or fabrications, it also wants to prove that things were better under President Clinton. I should say en passant that I was not a huge fan of Clinton (and, boy, did my Republican friends love me then!) and while I agree that, by nearly every possible measure, America was better off four years ago, I’m not convinced that it’s all attributable to Clinton (as opposed to other factors that worked in his favor.) Still, at least he had people laughing at us, an immeasurably better reaction than hating us.

I believe in President George W. Bush. I’ve always believed him.
I believe the president invaded Iraq to secure liberty and democracy for the Iraqi people. I believe he had compelling evidence that Iraq was a significant threat to America and the world, and presented that evidence in a complete and balanced manner. Like 42 percent of Americans

Sarah has the skinny on a horrifying agent scam that started unfolding last week. Biba Caggiano, a celebrated chef who’s published several cookbooks, is suing her agent, Maureen Lasher, alleging that the latter sold two books and cashed two six-figure advances from publishers Harper Collins without Caggiano’s knowledge. Caggiano claims she only heard about the books in July, when her publisher contacted her directly. Meanwhile, it appears that Lasher has vanished.
I remember going to an agent panel at UCLA during the 2003 L.A. Times Festival of Books, where Maureen Lasher was present, along with agents Michael Carlisle and Bonnie Nadell. While Carlisle and Nadell provided success stories and names of clients they represented, Lasher spent the time allotted to her mostly relating an anecdote about an unsual query letter she’d received. She unfolded a piece of paper and read the bizarre pitch, and then hit her punchline–the author had sent it from jail. Attendees were mostly annoyed, seeing as how none of them were guests at penal colonies, and seeing how they wanted to know how to write a good letter, not listen to bad ones.

The November/December issue of Poets & Writers (not yet online) has an excellent article by M.J. Rose about the realities of publishing a novel. Among the many sobering facts she mentions in the article: that more than 10,000 novels are published per year; that the average publicist at a major house handles 10 to 30 titles a month; that as many as 75% of novels released today are sent off into the world with minimal publicity effort on the part of the publisher; and perhaps most sobering of all: more than half of all debut fiction writers never go on to publish a second book.
Many writers are bewildered when their publisher spends no time on marketing or publicizing their books. Didn’t they buy it? Shouldn’t they try to sell it? In a crowded marketplace, though, a book that underperforms can still be written off as a business loss, whereas for the writer that particular event could determine his entire career. Rose suggests that, regardless of how excited a publisher may be about a book, writers take their careers into their own hands.

Here’s where expectation comes into play. Instead of feeling privileged when the deal is signed, the author is better served by realizing that he or she has now become one of the many authors the publisher is working with. It’s somewhat similar to going from the academic honor roll into a competitive market.

Hiring a publicist, starting a webpage or blog, and going on a small book tour on their own dime are some of the things authors can do to find an audience for their books. Rose made blog headlines last month when she took to the blogosphere for a virtual book tour to promote her latest novel, The Halo Effect. She also maintains the blog Buzz, Balls & Hype over at Publishers’ Marketplace.

As part of the announcement for its 2nd annual short story award, the Scotsman asked Ian Rankin, Ali Smith, Kirsty Gunn and others to name their favorite short stories. The writers had to give two answers: one pick by a Scottish writer and one by a ‘world’ writer. The world selections were pretty much all Anglo-Saxon, but Anton Chekhov and Marguerite Duras got mentioned.

The Fall 2004 issue of Portland-based Tin House magazine is just now out, with fiction from Aimee Bender and Mary Yukari Waters among others, and a piece by George Saunders on writing. It’s not online yet, but when it is, I will provide a link.

Peter Culshaw files a very depressing article for the Telegraph about the increasing isolation of the U.S. in the arts–musicians, filmmakers, artists, and writers have recently had unpleasant dealings with the immigration system here, depriving audiences of the encounter.