Every Woman Dreams…

Publisher’s Weekly reports a mixed “review” of what to do with authors and works published through Amazon.

After Borders’s final collapse in late July, things are slower in the publishing industry. Amid the summer calm, though, many are eyeing Amazon’s new publishing unit, Amazon Publishing, which was unveiled just before BEA and which has quietly, some might say secretively, been staffing up. While agents and booksellers are wary of the unit but not opposed to doing business with it, many industry insiders say it’s publishing houses that should really be concerned.

Agents PW spoke to, all of whom talked under the condition of anonymity, said their chief concern is selling a book to an untested entity. One agent said he would be particularly leery about taking a big author to Amazon. “As a matter of rule, I don’t like to test the waters with big authors. I’d rather deal with a firm that is well established.”

Although Amazon has said its publishing unit will have distribution through the key outlets—the chains and the independents—many agents are questioning whether this will actually happen. Jeff Belle, v-p of Amazon Publishing, said the company will handle distribution in-house, with Ingram and Baker & Taylor also providing fulfillment. It is still unclear, however, who will be selling Amazon’s titles (which include those under the Montlake and Thomas & Mercer imprints) to outside accounts.

For the complete article, go to http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/48259-all-eyes-on-amazon-publishing.html

West Wycombe plays hosts to the filming of Austenland, which marks the directorial debut of Jerusha Hess (the wife and collaborator of Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess).

Austenland is the story of a somewhat geeky New York woman who is obsessed with Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy in Pride & Prejudice; she gets the trip of a lifetime to go on a Regency-themed holiday in the English countryside.

Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords and Keri Russell are set to be a part of the cast, along with James Callis, Ricky Whittle, Rupert Vansittart, and JJ Feild (who producer Stephenie Meyer — yes, she of Twilight fame — touted as the next Hugh Grant or Colin Firth).
For the complete story, visit Screen Daily at www.screendaily.com/home/blogs/bret-jane-nelly/5030565.article

There are strong rumors that the third installment of Bridget Jones franchise is in the making. Helen Fielding is reportedly working on both a new novel and the screenplay at the same time.
See the story at Access Hollywood for more details.

http://www.accesshollywood.com/bridget-jones-to-get-trilogy-treatment-third-movie-is-on-its-way_article_52002

This comes from the ArtsJournalBlog.
http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/08/jane-austen-the-opera-makes-an-unscheduled-debut-near-the-riot-zone.html
Jane Austen, the opera, made an unscheduled debut near the riot zone
By Norman Lebrecht
Jonathan Dove’s new opera of Mansfield Park has been touring stately homes in the north of England, bedding in gently before a big premiere. But a sudden cancellation at the Grimeborn Festival in Dalston, a mile downwind from the Tottenham riot zone, has parachuted it into the capital.
The premiere is on Monday. If you’re free, it should be worth a look. Dove’s airport opera, titled Flight and staged at Glyndebourne, sticks in my mind as an ingenious modern drama.

The opera was commissioned by Heritage Opera and has been touring stately homes in the north of England, out of reach of most Londoners.
Accompanied by a piano duet, a cast of ten tell the story of Fanny Price, a Cinderella-like heroine, who quietly negotiates her way through the moral perils of early nineteenth century high society, from landscape gardening and amateur theatricals to balls and arranged marriages, and wins the hand of the man she has loved all her life.
A cast of unforgettable characters: the shrewish Aunt Norris; the indolent Lady Bertram and her pug; the beautiful but morally flawed Mary Crawford and her charming brother Henry; the bickering sisters Maria and Julia, make Mansfield Park the most subtly comic and moving of all Jane Austen’s novels.
Alasdair Middleton deftly compresses the narrative into an evening’s sparkling entertainment, in which Jane Austen’s voice can be clearly heard. Subtly evoking Regency manners, Jonathan Dove’s music catches Austen’s wit and pathos, giving a voice to her most private heroine.
ARCOLA THEATRE
24 Ashwin St
Dalston
London
E8 3DL
Tickets £15
Box office 020 7503 1646 or www.arcolatheatre.com

This article comes from the Princeton Alumni Weekly.

By Katherine F. Greenwood on August 12, 2011

New book: Jane and the Canterbury Tale, by Stephanie Barron

The author: Fifteen years ago, Barron published Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, which introduced Jane Austen, detective. Since then Barron has continued to capture Austen’s voice and era in her Jane Austen Mystery series. Barron also is the author of the stand-alone historical suspense novels A Flaw in the Blood and The White Garden. As Francine Mathews, she is the author of the Nantucket mystery series and other novels.

The book: In the eleventh installment of the Jane Austen mystery series, the famous sleuth attends the wedding of Adelaide Fiske and Andrew MacAllister. Trouble starts when a mysterious man arrives at the party and leaves a bag of tamarind seeds, rendering the bride ghostly white. The next day, the stranger is found dead, and soon he is identified as Fiske’s first husband, Curzon Fiske, long believed to have been dead. Austen’s brother is the magistrate investigating the murder, but it’s up to Austen to figure out why Fiske returned in the first place and who was responsible for the murder.

For the complete article, visit http://blogs.princeton.edu/paw/2011/08/barron_85_pens.html

Come join the month long celebration of everything Jane Austen at Austenesque Reviews Extravaganza. Leave a comment for a chance to win a multitude of fabulous prizes.
Today is Touring Thursday #2. Next Thursday, I’m part of the tour. Check out all the posts and the free stuff at
http://janeaustenreviews.blogspot.com/

Queen Victoria turns vampire in Orbit acquisition

Orbit has bought a fantasy trilogy about Queen Victoria, who sits on the throne in the present day as the queen is an immortal vampire.
Commissioning editor Anna Gregson bought UK and Commonwealth rights to God Save the Queen, plus two more titles in the series, from Tracy Williams at Hachette Book Group USA. The books are written by Kate Locke and are about an England ruled by a vampire monarchy for the past 170 years. The first book is scheduled for release in July 2012.

This article comes from The Bookseller.com.
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/queen-victoria-turns-vampire-orbit-acquisition.html

This information comes from The Bookseller.com.

Bookshops avoid major damage in London rioting
09.08.11 | Graeme Neill
Bookshops appeared to have been largely unaffected by the rioting that swept across London and other cities last night, causing tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage.
As London shopowners began the clean-up this morning, spokespeople for both Waterstone’s and W H Smith said they were unaware of any damage to their store portfolio. Both retailers’ management were meeting this morning to discuss the violence, which was largely targeted at electronics retailers.
Rioting spread across London last night, encompassing Ealing in the west, Enfield in the north, Hackney in the east and Croydon in the south of the city.

For the complete article, see http://www.thebookseller.com/news/bookshops-avoid-major-damage-london-rioting.html

This article comes from the July 30, 2011, edition of The Australian.
SO you think you know Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray? If so, this elegant volume will prove you wrong.

It is Wilde’s original, unexpurgated typescript of the novel, unpublished for more than 120 years, and incorporates passages modified or excised in all subsequent editions.

Wilde’s only full-length novel, it exists in at least three versions: the author’s typescript with handwritten amendments as originally submitted to the Philadelphia-based Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in 1890; the magazine’s published version following editorial changes; and the standard book version incorporating the author’s additions, modifications and cuts, published in April 1891.

Why three versions? The answer lies in the book’s barely disguised homosexual content, oblique and coded but sufficiently plain to attract hostile reviews and to persuade Wilde, following the novel’s debut in Lippincott’s, to tone it down for the 1891 book version.

It’s a revelatory exercise to examine the text of Wilde’s original typescript, which is held in a library at the University of California. It yields a deeper understanding of its author and of the hypocrisy and intolerance of late-Victorian English society which led to his two-year imprisonment for “gross indecency.”

That was the tragic climax to the writer’s infatuation with the contemptible “Bosie” (Lord Alfred Douglas), the dissolute son of the half-mad Marquess of Queensberry. When Queensberry publicly branded Wilde a sodomite, Bosie persuaded the writer to sue for libel.

The worst mistake of Wilde’s life, it brought his fame as poet, playwright, novelist and wit to a humiliating and ignominious end. He was only 46 when, ill and impoverished, he died in a cheap Paris hotel on November 20, 1900.

Sumptuously designed, this edition of Dorian Gray is beautifully illustrated with contemporary drawings and photographs and features notes beside the text in which editor Nicholas Frankel provides informative and illuminating comments that significantly enrich the reading experience.

Despite its metamorphoses The Picture of Dorian Gray remains a chilling and powerful tale, its literary ancestry traceable to the Faust legend but more notably to Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), with which it shares a fascination with good-evil dichotomies.

For the complete article, visit http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/after-120-years-oscar-wildes-dorian-gray-in-all-its-uncut-glory/story-e6frg8nf-1226102875254

The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition
By Oscar Wilde
Edited by Nicholas Frankel
Harvard University Press, 295pp, $44.99 (HB)

With each year’s Emmy nominations, we are left a “What were they thinking?” hangover.

“Mad Men” was the most nominated series, with 19, followed closely by “Boardwalk Empire” with 18, “Modern Family” with 17 and “Saturday Night Live” with 16. “Mildred Pierce,” the HBO miniseries, had 21 to lead all programming. CBS led all networks with 50 nominations.

For all the nominations, click over to The Emmys website.

Outstanding Drama Series
Boardwalk Empire
Dexter
Friday Night Lights
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife
Mad Men

Outstanding Comedy Series
Big Bang Theory
Glee
Modern Family
The Office
Parks and Recreation
30 Rock

Outstanding Actress in a Drama
Kathy Bates, Harry’s Law
Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights
Mireille Enos, The Killing
Mariska Hargitay, Law and Order: SVU
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama
Kelly Macdonald, Boardwalk Empire
Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife
Christine Baranski, The Good Wife
Margo Martindale, Justified
Michelle Forbes, The Killing
Christina Hendricks, Mad Men

Outstanding Actor in a Drama
Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
John Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House
Timothy Olyphant, Justified

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama
Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
Josh Charles, The Good Wife
Alan Cumming, The Good Wife
Walton Goggins, Justified
John Slattery, Mad Men
Andrew Braugher, Men of a Certain Age

Outstanding Actress in a Comedy
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Laura Linney, The Big C
Melissa McCarthy, Mike & Molly
Martha Plimpton, Raising Hope
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy
Jane Lynch, Glee
Betty White, Hot In Cleveland
Julie Bowen, Modern Family
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family
Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live
Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock

Outstanding Actor in a Comedy
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Louis C.K., Louie
Steve Carrell, The Office
Johnny Galecki, The Big Bang Theory
Matt LeBlanc, Episodes
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy
Chris Colfer, Glee
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family
Ed O’Neill, Modern Family
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family
Ty Burrell, Modern Family
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men

Outstanding Variety, Comedy Or Musical Series
The Colbert Report
Conan
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
Real Time With Bill Maher
Saturday Night Live

Outstanding Reality Show
The Amazing Race
American Idol
Dancing With the Stars
Project Runway
So You Think You Can Dance
Top Chef

Outstanding TV Miniseries or Movie
Cinema Verite
Downton Abbey
The Kennedys
Mildred Pierce
The Pillars of the Earth
Too Big To Fail

Outstanding Guest Actor In A Comedy
Idris Elba, The Big C
Nathan Lane, Modern Family
Zach Galifianakis, Saturday Night Live
Justin Timberlake, Saturday Night Live
Matt Damon, 30 Rock
Will Arnett, 30 Rock

Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy
Kristin Chenoweth, Glee
Dot-Marie Jones, Glee
Gwyneth Paltrow, Glee
Cloris Leachman, Raising Hope
Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live
Elizabeth Banks, 30 Rock

Outstanding Leading Actress in a Mini-series or Movie
Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce
Elizabeth McGovern, Downton Abbey
Diane Lane, Cinema Verite
Taraji P. Henson, Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story
Jean Marsh, Upstairs Downstairs

Outstanding Leading Actor in an Mini-Series or Movie
Greg Kinnear, The Kennedys
Barry Pepper, The Kennedys
Edgar Ramirez, Carlos
William Hurt, Too Big To Fail
Idris Elba, Luther
Laurence Fishburne, Thurgood

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Mini-series or Movie
Guy Pearce, Mildred Pierce
Bryan F. O’Byrne, Mildred Pierce
Tom Wilkinson, The Kennedys
Paul Giamatti, Too Big to Fail
James Woods, Too Big to Fail

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Mini-series or Movie
Evan Rachel Wood, Mildred Pierce
Melissa Leo, Mildred Pierce
Mare Winningham, Mildred Pierce
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
Eileen Atkins, Upstairs Downstairs

So what do you think? Did they get it right or wrong? Who was unfairly missed out? Who deserved a nod?