Working with Writers, Creatives

Donald Westlake Dead at 75

Bestselling author Donald Westlake has died at the age of 75. He suffered a heart attack on the way to a New Year's Eve dinner while on vacation.

Mr. Westlake, considered one of the most successful and versatile mystery writers in the United States, received an Academy Award nomination for a screenplay, three Edgar Awards and the title of Grand Master from the Mystery Writers of America in 1993. Since his first novel, The Mercenaries, was published by Random House in 1960, Mr. Westlake had written under his own name and several pseudonyms, including Richard Stark, Tucker Coe, Samuel Holt and Edwin West. Despite the diversity of pen names, most of his books shared one feature: They were set in New York City, where he was born.

Mr. Westlake used different names in part to combat skepticism over his rapid rate of writing books, sometimes as many as four a year, his friends said. "In the beginning, people didn't want to publish more than one book a year by the same author," said Susan Richman, his publicist at Grand Central Publishing. Later in his career, Mr. Westlake limited himself to two pen names, each generally focusing on one primary character: He used his own name to write about an unintentionally comical criminal named John Dortmunder, and as Richard Stark wrote a series about an anti-hero and criminal named Parker. Mr. Westlake occasionally wrote about other characters, such as Burke Devore, the downsized executive turned murderer in The Ax, whom The New York Times described in 1997 "as emblematic of his time as George F. Babbitt and Holden Caulfield and Capt. John Yossarian were of theirs."

The full panoply of Mr. Westlake?s books was a spectacle to behold, his friends said. "We were in his library, this beautiful library surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of titles," said Laurence Kirshbaum, his agent, "and I realized that every single book was written by Donald Westlake, English-language and foreign-language editions."

Westlake was also a screenwriter: he was nominated for an Oscar in 1991 for his screenplay of The Grifters. He will be greatly missed: our condolences to his family.

Permalink | Recent Headlines | Our News Feeds

Fake Holocaust Love Story Fallout Continues

The fallout from the fake Holocaust love story continues. A children's book based on the story, Angel Girl, has been pulled from the shelves by the publisher.

Upon learning that the widely publicized Holocaust love story of Herman and Roma Rosenblat, which inspired the picture book Angel Girl, is not entirely true, Lerner Publishing Group announced yesterday that it would pull the book from shelves. Lerner imprint Carolhroda Books published Angel Girl by Laurie Friedman in September 2008. The house has canceled all pending reprints and is issuing refunds on all returned books. The company is no longer offering the book for sale and is recalling the book from the market.

Angel Girl retold a portion of Mr. Rosenblat's story about surviving a work camp during the Holocaust by receiving food from a girl from the other side of the fence, and then meeting this same girl many years later on a blind date in the U.S. and marrying her. After investigation by the New Republic, Rosenblat and his agent, Andrea Hurst, released statements on December 27, saying parts of his story were fabricated. Hurst's statement said that although Rosenblat's stories from the concentration camps were true, he invented the love story. Rosenblat also revealed that he made up the chance reunion with the girl."

We're starting to wonder how many memoirs published over the last decade aren't really memoirs at all. If you have a great story, just sell it as fiction.

Permalink | Recent Headlines | Our News Feeds

Current Book Giveaways

The new book giveaways co-sponsored with our sister site, ReadersRead.com, include:

• Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Definitive Collection DVD Box Set. Fans of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective who solves crimes using his little grey cells, will adore this fabulous boxed set of the BBC series which starred the brilliant David Suchet.
  
  
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books, 3rd Edition by Harold D. Underdown (Alpha Books)
  
  
• A Silent Ocean Away by DeVa Gantt (Avon), a breathtaking saga of an extraordinary American family.
  
  
• Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey by William Least Heat-Moon, an ingenious and mirthful exploration of small-town America. (Little, Brown)

**The new (optional) Book Giveaway Question is:

"It's time once again for our annual New Year's Resolutions. But instead of thinking of New Year's Resolutions for yourself (how boring!), why not think up some for other people? What New Year's Resolutions would you make for anyone in the public eye (e.g., pop stars, paparazzi, professional athletes, politicians, actors, authors, television programming decision-makers, book publishers etc.)? What would you like to see any of these people change about themselves or their policies (if they are decision- makers for the country) in 2009?"

There's no entry fee of any kind and all email addresses are kept strictly confidential. Winners are selected monthly from a random draw. The entry form for the Book Giveaways can be found here.

Permalink | Recent Headlines | Our News Feeds

MWA Grand Master Hillary Waugh Dead at 88

Mystery author Hillary Waugh has died. He was 88. Waugh's books focused on police procedure and the intrigues of small town life.

Waugh died Dec. 8 in a nursing facility in Torrington after a brief illness, his son Lawrence said Saturday. Waugh's dozens of novels - numbering almost 50, including some he wrote under pen names - earned him a Grand Master Award in 1989 from the Mystery Writers of America. The honor places him in the company of such writers as Stephen King, Mary Higgins Clark, Mickey Spillane, Alfred Hitch+!@#$ and Agatha Christie.

*****

His first novel, Madame Will Not Dine Tonight, was published in 1947 and began a long string of mysteries in which the characters used real police techniques to solve mysteries. That was a clear departure from the genre in which a private detective, squirreling away facts and relying on his or her wits and instinct, emerged with all the answers. "I was tired of reading about these super-detectives and a police force composed of a bunch of bumbling idiots," Waugh told The New York Times in 1990.

"I wanted to get away from the neat little corpses with the perfect bullet through the head, and instead write a story as it really happened."

Our condolences to his family and friends.

Permalink | Recent Headlines | Our News Feeds

Oprah Nearly Duped By Fake Holocaust Memoir

It's time for another fake memoir scandal. This one involves yet another fake Holocaust memoir called Angel at the Fence by Herman Rosenblat. Rosenblat was an inmate at Buchenwald during World War II, but his emotional story of a girl who slipped him food through the fence -- that he later met on a blind date in New York and married -- was totally made up. Berkley has canceled publication of the book and demanded the return of advance monies.

His book, Angel at the Fence, came under public scrutiny after a number of scholars questioned important details. The fabricated story says that when Rosenblat moved to New York after the war he met Roma Radzicki by chance and discovered she was the girl who had thrown apples and bread to him. They fell in love and married. But some questioned Rosenblat's descriptions of Schlieben - a sub-camp of Buchenwald - and said it was impossible to throw food over the fence there.

The book was due to be published by Berkley Books, part of the Penguin Group, in February. Advance publicity had included a couple of appearances by Rosenblat on the chat show hosted by Oprah Winfrey. In a statement, Rosenblat, 79, said: "I wanted to bring happiness to people. "I brought hope to a lot of people. My motivation was to make good in this world."

His agent Andrea Hurst told the Associated Press: "I question why I never questioned it. I believed it; it was an incredible, hope-filled story."

Can you believe that Oprah had booked him as a guest on her show? She must be beside herself with fury over the possibility that she was going to get stuck with another James Frey moment. Well, crisis averted. But good luck to any memoirists who want to get booked on Oprah. Because it's so not happening anytime soon.

Permalink | Recent Headlines | Our News Feeds