New book deal
/More details to follow but I am pleased to have a book deal.
I love my agent Alec.
He is also shopping two other projects, one non-fiction, the other fiction.
All in all it is a great way to end 2023.
Writing action-filled thrillers during these times seems wrong
/As the world continues to disintegrate with war crimes being committed by the fucking bushel it seems morally wrong to be writing political action thrillers.
Perhaps it is time to reflect for a while and see what we can all do for a better world - for animals and humans.
Germany must face its issues over Israel and the past. Silencing a Palestinian author won’t help
/Very good article by Hanno Hauenstein posted in the Guardian. Definitely worth a read.
The Frankfurt book fair’s cancelling of an award ceremony for Adania Shibli shows the risks of imposing one narrative on our cultural space
More than a decade ago, in a crowded bar in Tel Aviv, my friend and I found ourselves talking to a group of German tourists. At the time, the world was watching Israel’s 2012 Gaza operation unfold. “Most Palestinians are terrorists,” one of the Germans explained to my friend, a Jewish Israeli who opposed the attack. And: “Not supporting the IDF is betraying your legacy.” A German, whose family is, like my own German family, implicated in historical atrocities, lecturing an Israeli about what moral or political lesson she may or may not derive from that very history was a grotesque sight to watch.
In German society today, however, such views seem normalised. Support for Israel is seen as a prerequisite for a newly constructed, collective German identity. While a degree of sensitivity towards Israel seems understandable given Germany’s brutal antisemitic history, the issue has turned ever more problematic in recent years. Palestinians, artists and curators from the so-called global south and leftwing Israelis are regularly reprimanded, dismissed or cancelled for views on Israeli policies that are deemed unpalatable. Last week, the Social Democratic co-party leader Saskia Esken even called off a meeting with Bernie Sanders due to his stance on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Sanders lost many family members in the Holocaust.
Adania Shibli’s case is the most recent and perhaps most acute example of such absurdities. Shibli’s novel Minor Detailtells the true story of an Israeli soldier’s 1949 rape and subsequent murder of a Palestinian Bedouin girl. Published by Fitzcarraldo in 2020 and longlisted for the International Booker prize, the book won Germany’s 2023 LiBeraturpreis, which is for female writers from Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Arab world. But as a result of events in Israel, it was decided by the organisers that a ceremony on 20 October to honour Shibli at the Frankfurt book fair would be postponed.
I have read Minor Detail both in English and the German version, which was published in 2022. The book is a watertight account of what Palestinians and historians refer to as the Nakba – atrocities committed by Israelis in historic Palestine during the establishment of the state of Israel. Between the third-person narration of the pained Israeli officer responsible for the action and the later first-person account of an insomniac Palestinian in Ramallah today, the story moves between two viewpoints. In the second, Shibli relates what seems to approximate her own experience: the difficulty of trying to research a historical account from the victim’s perspective in contemporary Israel. In the novel, her project leads her to embark on a risky road trip towards a site in the south of the country, beyond the boundaries permitted by her Palestinian ID card.
The entire article can be found: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/20/germany-israel-palestinian-author-frankfurt-adania-shibli
On publishers that do not pay advances
/Shame on you. I suppose AI will fill your publishing needs soon enough.
Who needs creative people anyway - AI will do it all and better and cheaper, well not cheaper because tax payers fund its development but who is counting the money we give to corporate welfare?
Publishing houses need to be broken up like all corporations.
Writers need to be treated as professionals not as amateurs. In our desperate desire to get published too many writers work for free - that is amateurism and will only make things worse.
Writers do NOT give your work away for free even if the royalties seem good. Without an advance the publisher does not have to go out of its way to market your work fully. The greater the advance the better the marketing. There was a time when authors did not also have to market their work. Publishers did that.
Nowadays you must have a platform or have some kind of helping hand… the work rarely gets you a deal. Of course there are exceptions but still…
People in publishing tend to be underpaid and overworked - we see this often nowadays with misspellings etc and rushed publications. I blame the corporations for this in their short-term thinking and desire to make more money instead of sharing the wealth… sounds familiar? Yes, corporate greed is ruining pretty much everything that is decent.
Writers work too hard to be treated like amateurs… eventually you will only sell AI generated books - oh wait, that’s already happening…
WGA/SAG support in Studio City by actually participating
/Showing solidarity with the unions in Studio City… hopefully the deal will be what the unions want and need. Unbridled corporate greed has been destroying the United States while our politicians fail us repeatedly.
From Bouchercon to TIFF 2023 from great things to dubious ones
/Not much to write about TIFF except that it is un-cool for actors/writers to pimp their work when tens of thousands are on strike going broke… don’t care if they got permission or were directors - it shows a lack of a moral core.
Bouchercon 2023 in San Diego was a blast
/I was part of the panel on Villains led by the incredible James Byrne and really great people and writers (listed below).
We had a number of attendees approach us separately to tell us how much they had enjoyed it - even Eriq La Salle threw a thumbs-up later that night.
I also caught up with Allen at his book signing and he was very king sharing his methods of outlining his work. Greatly appreciated.
Also swapped lies with a bunch of writers - great fun.
Below are the panelists - give them a read when you can.
James Byrne, moderator
THE GATEKEEPER, DEADLOCK
Alexa Donne
BRIGHTLY BURNING, THE STARS WE STEAL, THE IVIES
Allen Eskens
THE LIFE WE BURY, THE GUISE OF ANOTHER, THE HEAVENS MAY FALL
Mir Bahmanyar
SHADOW WARRIORS, THE SPEARHEADERS
RJ Jacobs
THIS IS HOW WE END THINGS, ALWAYS THE FIRST TO DIE
Lou Berney
THE LONG AND FARAWAY GONE, NOVEMBER ROAD, DARK RIDE
Research in Spain, hanging out with Welles and Hemingway and a Black Tie event with nefarious characters
/Great time researching stuff for my next novels/books. Also hung out with Hemingway - we bullshitted about writing, war, and other nonsense. Orson contributed a lot and was more interesting than Ernest. Also a Black Tie shindig with some not so savoury characters…
WGA support in Dublin, Ireland
/Bunch of hardcore writers showing their love and showing their wit. This took place during a research trip to Ireland. Great underpaid people. Speaking of great people - Veronica Guerin - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronica_Guerin. Bruckheimer made a film about her starring the fabulous Cate Blanchett with whom I worked on Soderbergh’s The Good German - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452624/
My new book on the 2nd Punic War in Spain is coming April 25, 2024
/Note the new cover below the original one.
The first dedicated, illustrated study of the events of the Second Punic War in Iberia, which served as a launch pad for the Carthaginian invasion of Rome.
Iberia was one of three crucial theatres of the Second Punic War between Carthage and Rome. Hannibal of Charthage's siege of Saguntum in 219 BC triggered a conflict that led to immense material and human losses on both sides, pitting his brother Hasdrubal against the Republican Roman armies seeking to regain control of the peninsula. Then, in 208 BC, the famous Roman general Scipio Africanus arrived in theatre to defeat Hasdrubal at Baecula, forcing Hasdrubal's army from Iberia and on to its eventual annihilation at the Metaurus.
In this work, military historian Mir Bahmanyar brings to life the key personalities and events of this important theatre of the war, and explains why the Roman victory at Baecula led directly to a strategic shift and Carthage's eventual defeat. It covers Scipio Africanus' brilliant victory at Ilipa in 206 BC, where he crushed the army of Mago Barca and Hasdrubal Gisco. Illustrated with maps, tactical diagrams, battlescene artworks, and photographs, this work provides a gripping narrative of the large-scale battles fought in Iberia.
