Archive for October 2009
CONTEST! Win a signed copy of TINSEL and a $25 giftcard! Here’s how!
Today (Oct. 7) is the “ship date” of my new book Tinsel. The official release date is Nov. 12, but this ain’t no Harry Potter or Sarah Palin book or something like that, where sales are embargoed until midnight of the release date. That means Tinsel could show up in any stores, anywhere in the…
Read MoreRetailers Expect Lumps of Coal (And other Yuletide business section headline clichés)
The National Retail Federation committed to some numbers today (Oct. 6) with the release of its holiday sales forecast. Ylan Mui, as usual, has the smooth breakdown. Basically, the best case scenario for Christmas shopping is a 1 percent decline in 2009 from 2008 — which is good news only because 2008 showed a 3.4…
Read MoreJust like Christmas
The door buzzer rang this morning, about 20 minutes ago. UPS. Package from … Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. I was opening it and suddenly realized what moment this was about to be. My book. I took it upstairs and showed Michael the envelope. “Is that it?” “I think so.” I took it out. I held it.…
Read MoreThe Good Writer
Stand back, I’m gonna explode with praise. But first, a plug: If you live in Washington, go see David Finkel read from The Good Soliders tomorrow night (Monday, Oct. 5) at Politics & Prose. Now for the praise explosion, really just a mash note: If you’ve ever been a feature writer at a newspaper in…
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