Can you write a best-selling novel simply by following a formula?

Creative writing professor and novelist James W. Hall tries his hand at teasing out the magical, alchemical recipe for creating a bestseller in his new book, Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the Twentieth Century's Biggest… Read full post »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/24/self-published-author-earnings

The two-part season opener of Mad Men was spectacularly underwhelming. It was so listless and uneventful that I experienced several microsleeps during part 2. For all the critical adulation the show's received, the season opener made the show look like nothing more than a soap opera set… Read full post »

I am looking for readers interested in reading and reviewing my  book, Dennis Hopper: The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Rebel.

If you email me, I will lend you the Kindle ebook edition of my book, which is good for 14 days from the time you download it. (You do not… Read full post »

Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes a long article arguing that writers are better off self-publishing than taking the $5,000 advance usually offered by traditional publishers for the right to publish an author’s book. She writes, “You will make a lot more money on a lot fewer sales if you indi… Read full post »

Reviewing my book, David M. Kinchen writes, “Run — don’t walk — to the nearest book vendor and get your hands on a copy of Peter L. Winker’s ‘Dennis Hopper: The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Rebel.’ I was hooked on Winkler’s biography from the minute… Read full post »

Los Angeles Times staff writer Nita Lelyveld's feature story about how I persevered despite my physical disabilities to write my biography of Dennis Hopper was published today.

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The London Evening Standard chose Dennis Hopper: The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Rebel as one of the best film books of the year. Reviewer Nick Curtis writes, "This is a fluent recapitulation of the drink and the drugs and the womanising, the yearning for/…

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Salon.com elevated an OS post to its main site today, and it is yet another sob story from someone who has anesthetized themself with drugs and alcohol just to cope with mere existence.

Call me heartless, call me cruel, call me whatever you want, but this is the straw that broke… Read full post »

From the president on down to career columnsts, one of the lies constantly fed to the public is the alarming lack of cooperation between the Democrats and Republicans. Today at Salon.com, David Sirota writes:

 "On the first point, my Salon colleague Glenn Greenwald has expertly documented the c… Read full post »

Obama campaign raises record sums from the wealthy

Obama is clearly the plutocrats' favorite man:

"Proving that President Obama is the first choice of Wall Street and the American super-rich, his reelection campaign announced Wednesday that it had broken all previous records for fundraising, raking… Read full post »

 

One of America's most intriguing show-business luminaries and true rebels, Dennis Hopper's amazing life was a roller-coaster series of triumphs and failures. Always intent on proving his genius and leaving a legacy, the Emmy and Oscar-nominated Hopper acted in more than 115 movies and… Read full post »

The almost unanimous approval and even jubilation occasioned by the summary execution of Osama Bin Laden sickens me.

Even the leaders of Nazi Germany, who were ultimately deemed responsible for the deaths of millions, were arrested, not presumed guilty and shot on sight. They were tried with due proce… Read full post »

You know, every day I start my breakfeast by sipping my hot tea and reading some of the political posts here on Open Salon. What continuously perplexes me is why writers invest so much effort into long, detailed analyses about the perfidy of Republicans, or trying to explain the staggering inaction… Read full post »

I feel the same way about former President George W. Bush's memoir  as I do about all ghost written celebrity autobiographies: it is an unwanted, unasked for exercise in celebrity marketing wherein a celebrity burnishes their star image and whitewashes their past foibles. It has about a… Read full post »

Yesterday, blogger Chez Pazienza put up the following qoute from Paul Krugman:

"This is going to be terrible. In fact, future historians will probably look back at the 2010 election as a catastrophe for America, one that condemned the nation to years of political chaos and economic weakness."

 … Read full post »

The Democratic Party and many liberals are gleefully rubbing their hands in anticipation of mid-term campaigns against the likes of Christine O'Donnell.

Actually, this strategy reveals the fatal weakness of the Democrats. If your only hope for victory is in looking good only by comparison to the loon… Read full post »

Pastor Terry Jones, of Florida's previously unheard of Dove World Outreach Church, has promised to burn the Quran on this coming Sept. 11. 

In response, our very own McArthur manque, Gen. Petraeus, has warned that the Quran burning could arouse anti-American reactions in Afghanistan, where our t… Read full post »

I was considering voting this November to reelect Senator Barbara Boxer and other Democratic incumbents for only one reason: to protect Social Security from cuts. Until now, one of the few meaningul things distinguishing the Democrats from the Republicans has been their stated avowal to protect Medic… Read full post »

The current peace talks between Israel and the putative leader of the Palestinians are a sham.

Israel is the military superpower of the Middle East, thanks to the foreign aid umbilical between the U.S. and Israel. Every year, the U.S. unquestioningly grants Israel their multi-billion dollar stipend,… Read full post »

  Here's a tip for all you writers out there. Save the $52.90 these books will cost you. They won't make you a writer. Only talent and luck can do that. You can't learn talent and luck. Read full post »