Kevo: peter cox's News Feed

Litopia After Dark : The Litopia 4th July Holiday Quiz

Where do your most brilliant ideas come from? What's the most extreme thing you've done when researching your book? What's the worst book you've ever bought? Litopia After Dark this week begins to wind down for the summer holidays with a writers' quiz. It all gets completely out of hand ...

Litopia Daily 010: Amazon Hides

More about Amazon... plus today's hottest news from Donna.

Litopia Daily 009: Shark Attack!

Today's hottest news from Donna - including a court victory for a vanity-press victim.

Litopia Daily 008: Party Time

We chat to volunteers from the Federation Of Children’s Book Groups - plus all today's news from Donna.

Litopia Daily 007: Free Speech?

All the news that 's worth a peruse...

Litopia Daily 011: Giving Up Our Rights?

A journalist who tried to block police attempts to access his notes on a book on terrorism has been told he should never have brought the case.... and today's hottest news from Donna.

Litopia After Dark : Big Publishing is Dead?

This week on Litopia After Dark we examine the role of the world's mega-publishing houses and try to predict their future. We contemplate the often-tenuous position of being a Big Publishing Boss. If the price of signing with Big Publishing is being contracted to grind out a book every year ...

Litopia Daily 016: Go Ahead, Reader, Make My Day

It's Independence Day... and to celebrate, Eve drops through a rabbit hole .... and Donna gets us au courant...

Litopia Daily 015: The Original Cool Aid

Eve examines covermounts .... and today's hottest news from Donna.

Litopia Daily 014: For Whom The Writs Toll

Eve takes us back to 1961 .... and today's hottest news from Donna.

Litopia Daily 012: From Tom Paine to George Carlin

A thought-provoking start to the week, plus today's hottest news from Donna.

Litopia Daily 013: Finding Your Writing Partner

We're still in beta, folks... no news today, but a BRAND NEW feature plus a special guest!

Litopia After Dark: Pace Yourself!

Does Country Music reflect the history of the people? On Litopia After Dark this week we discuss a new book by Dana Jennings called Sing Me Back Home. Also, that buzzword of the '90s - multitasking. New research suggests that it accomplishes very little. And how Google is making us ...

Litopia Daily 006: Lunch with Rolfe Swinton

One of the most interesting and insightful people currently working in the new media area, Rolfe has pretty much done it all - as an entrepreneur in media and technology, as a management consultant and as an expert in venture capital and private equity. This fall, he takes up ...

Litopia After Dark : What’s Your Problem?

On Litopia After Dark this week:- Our special guest is Dr Susan O'Doherty, writer and clinical psychologist. The writers workspace - how to maximise creativity. Literary giant Gore Vidal is on his last tour of Europe - who are the 21st Century Literary Legends? And, age ranging in children's ...

Special Guest Alert - Dr. Susan O’Doherty

We’re delighted to announce that our special guest this week is Susan O'Doherty, a writer and clinical psychologist. Susan is the author of Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity, a widely-praised work that helps women to understand and address blocks in the creative process, including chronic ...

Litopia After Dark: Going, Going, Gone!

On Litopia After Dark this week:- Celebrity auctions are big business, why do people buy this stuff? Robert McCrum gives a run down on the changes during his 10 years at The Observer. Is it mental to go on a Creative Writing course? Computer games and the narrative drive. The ...

BIG NEWS: LITOPIA DAILY IS COMING!

Six months ago, Litopia Writers’ Colony launched the world’s first weekly panel show for writers – LITOPIA AFTER DARK. The show quickly attracted rave reviews and an ever-growing audience of listeners globally. Building on that success, we are proud to announce the launch of the world’s first daily podcast for writers ...

Litopia Daily 001: Amazon Ate My Cake!

The inaugural LITOPIA DAILY looks at Amazon – how they’ve come from nowhere to dominate online book retailing; a terrific achievement. But is there a dark side to their quest for growth? Links in this show: The Litopia Open Inbox (leave a note or phone message for us) Amazon ...

Litopia Daily 002: BBC to Listeners - Turn Off!

We get a reply - of sorts - from Amazon... the Colony's new look has arrived and so has a new forum called ASK THE EDITOR - and the BBC tells its listeners... not to

Litopia Daily 005: Ask The Editor!

A new and exciting forum opens today in the Colony - ASK THE EDITOR. We talk to Lynn Price, editorial director for Behler Publications, about her work and the new forum.

Litopia After Dark : Are Books Bad?

The massive environmental destruction wrought by paper industry isn't the only bad thing about book production that we cover on tonight's LITOPIA AFTER DARK. Our special guest on this week's show is Raz Godelnik, CEO of Eco-Libris. His company believes in providing people with easy and affordable ways to plant ...

Litopia Daily 004: Contact!

After many arduous days struggling up the Rio Negro, searching for some contact (any kind – he’s not fussy) with the Tribe of Amazon, our worthy and once optimistic protagonist has been reduced to despair. Will he ever succeed in talking to these potent but diffident trades-creatures? Do ...

Special Guest Alert:Raz Godelnik of Eco-Libris

Litopia After Dark is delighted to announce that our very special guest this Friday will be Raz Godelnik, co-founder and CEO of Eco-Libris. Eco-Libris believe in providing people with easy and affordable ways to take responsibility for their actions and go green by planting one tree for each book they ...

Litopia Daily 003: Where Is He?

"Permanent" from the album I'll Be Here Awake by Arthur Yoria, available from Magnatune.

What’s Happening Here?

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:24 -0600

Just to explain what’s happening here: my blog is changing. I will no longer be blogging regularly (or even semi-regularly!) since the daily podcast (Litopia Daily) has largely replaced that function. It’s also higher on my list of priorities – I think a short daily podcast will be of more direct use and interest to writers than fairly random musings on a hotchpotch of subjects.
Instead, this blog will become a place of publication for longer articles that I write from time to time, mostly, but not exclusively about writing and publishing.
My online presence will be augmented by quite frequent Twitterings – obviously short (just 140 characters) and updated several times every day. Follow me there!
The blog repurposing will take a week or two to finish so, in the meantime, I apologize for the mess round here!

Age Labels on Children’s Books

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:03 -0600

Big debate going on over at The Bookseller about this. I think people are getting worked up over very little… there are far bigger issues for authors to be concerned about at the moment. If you don’t want the darn label on your book - tell your publisher! Simple. And move on to something more significant…

Next, The Kiddie-Tazer

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:01 -0600

“Scan It®” says the manufacturer’s blurb, ” is an educational and creative play toy that helps children become acclimated with airport and public spaces security. “ Just what we need to train the next generation in mindless compliance and bovine docility.

The State of China – part one

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:29 -0600

Michael Ledeen is not a man whose opinions I would naturally respect. A prominent voice calling for war against Iraq (“One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today”) he has been implicated in both the Iran-Contra Scandal and the “yellowcake” forgery that helped precipitate the war that Mr. Ledeen so devoutly desired.

His present “resident scholar” status at the American Enterprise Institute should also give pause for thought. It is, after all, the AEI that has been so pivotal in forming American neocon foreign policy.

For those interested, Wikipedia reveals a great many more facts about this unsavoury but influential individual.

And yet.

His article in the current issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review is a plausible comment on the current state of the Chinese regime. The fact that this issue of the FEER has been banned in China should give you a clue that it’s got right up the authorities’ noses.

Ledeen makes a good case that present-day China should be viewed, and dealt with, as a “mature fascist state”. He writes:

Imagine Italy 50 years after the fascist revolution. Mussolini would be dead and buried, the corporate state would be largely intact, the party would be firmly in control, and Italy would be governed by professional politicians, part of a corrupt elite, rather than the true believers who had marched on Rome. It would no longer be a system based on charisma, but would instead rest almost entirely on political repression, the leaders would be businesslike and cynical, not idealistic, and they would constantly invoke formulaic appeals to the grandeur of the “great Italian people,” “endlessly summoned to emulate the greatness of its ancestors.”

This is an interesting analogy. He then goes on to draw some devastating strategic conclusions that I’ll analyze in the next post.

Ideologically Bankrupt?

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:27 -0600

Whatever has happend to the Project for a New American Century website? Can’t they afford to pay their bills now?

Misinterpreting the Candidate

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:24 -0600

It takes a bit of a reach to wilfully misunderstand some unguarded words by Hilary Clinton, but many have done so. This is what she was reported as having said:

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it,” she said, dismissing calls to drop out.”

It’s clear that the subject of her remarks is the date at which nominations have been decided in the past – specifically, June. She is not saying, “I’ll stay in this race on the off-chance that the other candidate might be assassinated”. However, that’s what many people are understanding her to say (for example, Keith Olberman).

Hilary is guilty, however, of a cardinal political sin – speaking incautiously, and not thinking ahead. Maybe she was tired – maybe she was just tired of speaking obliquely. Whatever the reason, something of a turning point now seems to have been reached.

McShit

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:23 -0600

Just one of the many ways in which McDonalds are prettifying our inner city streets. Thank you, Ronald!

Protect Us From Ourselves

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:21 -0600

“A massive government database holding details of every phone call made and letter sent by the public is being planned as part of the fight against crime and terrorism. The Post office would open and copy every letter before delivery, and would hand over their records to the Home Office under plans put forward by officials.”

The Times, yesterday

I’ve slightly changed the above extract - the original Times report refers to phone calls and e-mails, - not letters. My reason? I wanted to see whether substituting “letters” for “e-mails” would make these colossally outrageous plans any more shocking. We have, after all, been groomed for years to consider the Internet a playground for terrorists, and in dire need of regulation. I, for one, will be encrypting all my e-mails from on on. It may not be fully adequate protection - but it’s a gesture.

In related news, Tory leader David Cameron intends to be the new Margaret Thatcher. “With a growing lead in the polls”, says the Daily Mirror, “Mr Cameron is believed to be increasingly confident of setting out a right-wing agenda.”

More right wing than the present lot?

God save us all.

So Many Beards, So Little Time…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:19 -0600

It’s beard week here in Baker Street. Kicking things off, this rather splendid graphic from Jon Dyer’s equally magnificent beardy blog. What style shall I choose next? Spoilt for choice! The French Fork is tempting… so is the Mighty Insecto… pass me those scissors…

Get A Few Batteries…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:18 -0600

Police constable Zeeshaan Chaudry describes in today’s News of the World how he can “fit up” anyone he wants as a terrorist - and ten years jail time.

“Get a few batteries”, says PC Chaudry, “put wires around them, strip the wires to make it look like he is making bombs and that. Put them in his pocket. Just get a piece of paper from the internet, how to make explosives. Tell me you are meeting this geezer in the pub and I will come along and find all this stuff on him. “I can get him ten years man… ten years! We say he’s part of al Qaeda.”

So here we have an enterprising British copper carefully explaining how to use various pieces of UK anti-terrorist legislation to frame innocent people.

It is worth remembering that the government is presently trying to extend the period of time that terrorist suspects can be held without charge from 28 days to 42 days – itself a compromise after sustained police lobbying for a 90 day period. The police argue that the terrorist threat is so severe that we must all be prepared to sacrifice our rights to fight it.

PC Chaudry has already worked out for himself that planting batteries, wires and bomb-making instructions on a target is quite enough to “fast track” a conviction for just about anyone. By dispensing with the old-fashioned niceties of habeas corpus (good enough for many hundreds of years but clearly no longer adequate for the likes of Blair, Brown and Smith) our politicians are effectively colluding with bent coppers everywhere to pervert the course of justice.

I suspect that making it easier to obtain convictions for terrorism does not help in the fight against terrorism one little bit.

Rather, it leads to the “creative” use of the law in the way PC Chaudry describes.

McCarthy’s perverse logic comes to mind: the easier you make it to convict “terrorists”, the more “terrorists” we will miraculously be able to find.