Outrageous Rumors, Legends, and Raucous True Tales of Rock and Roll Icons
Current mood: electric
Jon Holmes, an award-winning writer, broadcaster, and comedian, gathers together the most outrageous antics and diva-esque misbehavior in the annals of rock in his new book Rock Star Babylon, available next Thursday (6/24/08).
From Ozzy Osbourne to Chuck Berry, Courtney Love to Keith Moon, Rock Star Babylon has the most wickedly entertaining stories of over-the-top parties, crazy divorces, hidden cameras, trashed hotel rooms, misapplied epileptic interventions, and innocent headless bats.
One Final KISS An excerpt from ROCK STAR BABYLON: Outrageous Rumors, Legends, & Raucous True Tales of Rock & Roll Icons By Jon Holmes
It's them again. And this is quite possibly my favorite KISS story. They're onstage somewhere big. It's doesn't matter where. They're half an hour into the gig, the stadium is rocking, the makeup is melting and the Lycra is sweating. '(I Wanna) Rock and Roll All Night'¹ has been dispensed with. 'Let's Put the "X" in Sex'² has lifted the off and 'Crazy Crazy Nights' has turned this evening into exactly one of those. Oh yes, tonight, Kiss are rolling out the big guns.3
As they reach the climactic end of 'I Love It Loud' pyrotechnics devices explode, the lighting goes wild and crowd screams louder than hell itself.
'Are you having a good time??' yells Gene Simmons.4
'Aaaaargh!' screech the 73,000-strong crowd of long-haired rockers, licking up every word.
'We're gonna do a big song for you now,' announces Gene, almost purring into the microphone.
'Aaaaargh!' opine the crowd. 'Are you ready for another???' he asks them with a mighty rock yell. 'Aaaaargh!' they don't hesitate to reply. 'What's the second song off the Destroyer album?' he screams at them. '"King of the Night Time World!"' they scream right back to him, as one, without hesitation. There is a pause. Then another pause. Then another. Then Gene speaks again: 'OK. What's the first song off the Destroyer album?' '"Detroit Rock City!"' they shout back. Gene leans his makeup-strewn face to the sky and thunder rumbles off his tongue: 'That's right. This is "Detroit Rock City".'
--------------------- ¹ And party ev-er-ry day. ² Sample lyric: 'Love's like a muscle and you make me wanna flex'. Now that is excellent. Poetry in fact. You can take your Ivor Novello song-writing award and show it up your arse. 3 Not literally. Although, come to think of it, they may have done it. AC/DC certainly did. 4 Rumored to have the longest tongue in rock. In fact, in anything. Including cows and lizards.
Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions wins the international Brit Insurance Graphics Award
Current mood: artistic
Viking/Penguin’s Creative Director Paul Buckley has been chosen as a winner for the Brit Insurance Designs of the year for the Penguin Classics Deluxe Series, which has taken the prize in the Graphics category. The jury was so enthusiastic about the Penguin Classics Deluxe Series’ design and the wonderful art direction that it was named a clear winner.
The awards ceremony was held on March 18th at the DesignMuseum in London. In choosing them the judges commented, "It’s a great achievement by its creative director Paul Buckley in commissioning a highly skilled group of illustrators and cartoonists whose creative visions have produced some fantastic atmospheric yet very individual covers with high artistic flair and design integrity."
The Penguin Classics Deluxe editions, also known as the Graphic Classics, are listed below:
A sit-down with Kim Edwards, author of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
Kim Edwards, author of Penguin's number one international bestseller, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, has won numerous awards, including a Whiting Award and the Nelson Algren Award as well as the Kentucky Literary Award for fiction. In addition to The Memory Keeper's Daughter, she is also the author of a collection of short stories, The Secrets of a Fire King, which was an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway Award and was re-issued by Penguin with added stories earlier this year. Her stories and essays have appeared in Ploughshares, Zoetrope, Anteaus, Story, and The Paris Review and have received a National Magazine Awards for excellence in Fiction and a Pushcart Prize. A graduate of the Iowa's Writers' Workshop, she currently teaches writing at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, where she lives with her husband and daughters.
The Memory Keeper's Daughter, her first novel, was chosen as a Barnes & Noble Discover title last year and was USA Today's "Book of the Year" in 2006. This brilliantly crafted family drama explores every mother's silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? A rich and deeply moving page-turner, The Memory Keeper's Daughter captures the way life takes unexpected turns and how the mysterious ties that hold a family together help us survive the heartache that occurs when long-buried secrets burst into the open. It is an astonishing tale of redemptive love.
The Memory Keeper's Daughter has been number one in the United States, UK, Canada and Australia. And we're getting reports that it's extremely popular in China as well. Very few books cross so many borders! How does it feel to know that your words are reaching a truly global audience?
Yes, The Memory Keeper's Daughter has been translated into 34 languages at this writing, and it has been on many international bestseller lists. I have a website that allows me to track the geographic locations of visitors, and some days I just leave the world map up on my screen to marvel at the range—little balloons from readers are clustered all over the world, from Finland to New Zealand, from Brazil to Taiwan. I get e-mails from people all over the world, as well. Writing is such a solitary pursuit most of the time, yet it's also an act of communication that hopes to transcend the differences of culture, even time. I find it very moving to think of my novel touching so many lives across the world.
What aspects of your book do you think resonate with so many readers in different parts of the world?
It's been just fascinating to see how deeply the book resonates with people, for such a variety of reasons. Many people identify very strongly with one or another of the point of view characters, whether it's with Caroline's fight for Phoebe, Norah's grief and discovery of her own strength, or David's painful isolation. Also, the novel raises a number of questions to debate; many book club members have told me that The Memory Keeper's Daughter inspired their best discussion ever. Perhaps the most powerful recurring comment, however, has to do with the idea of secrets, especially family secrets. This really is a universal experience—we've all kept secrets and had them kept from us, and we know quite intimately how the experience feels, on either side. After book signings, readers have often lingered to tell me the most astonishing stories from their lives, some very sad, some triumphant, all of them moments when their understanding of the world was altered by a truth that had been kept from them—or that they themselves had kept from someone else.
Word-of-mouth has been an important element in the ongoing growth of the popularity of your work. What are some of your favorite examples of this phenomenon?
The first time I really understood the power of word of mouth happened just after the paperback release, in a bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee, where I'd gone to sign stock one afternoon. The bookseller and my escort had gone to the back of the store to get more copies, and I was standing by the cash register holding The Memory Keeper's Daughter. A customer walked by, saw the cover, then came back and touched my arm. "That is a really good book," she said. "You just have to read it." When she found out I'd written it, she bought several more copies and had me sign them for friends! I get letters all the time from people who say they've recommended my novel far and wide. One colleague took pictures on a trip from Maine to California of all the people she saw reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter along the way and e-mailed them all to me—that was great fun to see.
And what have been some of your favorite personal encounters with readers and reading groups, in person and online?
There have been so many. It's been a great pleasure, traveling around this country and Europe, to see the powerful impact of this book. Many families have come to readings with a loved one who has Down syndrome, or they've brought pictures to share. This is always very meaningful to me, because when I began The Memory Keeper's Daughter I didn't know anything at all about Down syndrome. I did a great deal of research, and I was helped enormously by the conversations I had with families who had raised children with Down syndrome in the 1960s, or who are raising them now. I'm delighted that the response from this community to my novel has been so positive; this past summer I was invited by the National Down Syndrome Congress to be a keynote speaker at their convention—a wonderful and completely unexpected experience.
What perceptions of Penguin did you have before you became a Viking Penguin author?
Years ago, when I lived in Malaysia, I used to travel down to Singapore, a six-hour drive, and load the trunk of the car with books to see me through the next several months—this was before the Internet, and books in English were hard to come by in my small Malaysian town. I remember what a terrific pleasure it was unpack those books, and how many of the titles I brought home were Penguins; I'm sure I found it comforting to discover, in so many unfamiliar places, a familiar logo that signified excellent reading.
How have these perceptions changed or been confirmed since you're become part of the house and been interacting directly with Penguin people?
I know my books are in excellent hands. I've had a chance to meet so many talented and dedicated people from Penguin on my visits to New York and London, and as I've traveled across the US, too. While I can't pretend to understand all the nuances of book editing, production, sales, and distribution, I do have a great appreciation for the intricacies of this work and for all the people at Penguin who do it, and do it so well.
Like all enduring books, The Memory Keeper's Daughter presents life experiences in a way that linger on in readers' minds: what are some of the things that you hope readers take away from your novel?
I hope that readers will be deeply engaged by the story, that it will make them reflect on their own lives, and that the novel will leave them, as the writing of it left me, seeing the world a little bit differently by the end.
Your story collection, The Secrets of a Fire King, has also been doing very well. How would you compare the process of writing a novel vs. short stories?
Each form has its pleasures and its challenges, yet I find writing stories and novels are very similar in terms of process. I begin with a character, and with a moment in the character's life that raises a question. There are some questions only stories can answer; discovering and revealing those stories is, for me, the great pleasure of writing, regardless of the form.
Gazing ahead, what can readers look forward to coming from Kim Edwards in the future?
I'm working steadily on the next novel again, walking deeply into it, and happy to be there. I began this new novel before the excitement around The Memory Keeper's Daughter really took hold, and it's a great pleasure now to return to it.
Guest Blogger Geoffrey Kloske, Vice President & Publisher of Riverhead Books
The Penguin Group was well represented at Wednesday's National Book Awards. We were happy to host authors Dinaw Mengestu and Anya Ulinich at our tables. Both authors were honored by the NBA's 5 Under 35 committee. Terry Gross was awarded the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service which was presented by Riverhead author Ira Glass.
The winners of the NBAs were:
Fiction Denis Johnson, TREE OF SMOKE
Nonfiction Tim Weiner, LEGACY OF ASHES
YA Book Sherman Alexie, THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN
Poetry Robert Hass, TIME AND MATERIALS
The only one I've read is the Denis Johnson – and it's brilliant – but Sherman Alexie gave such moving remarks at the ceremony that I think I need to read his book as well.
Guest Blogger Kate Lloyd, Associate Publicist @ Penguin
So, apparently a lot of the people who work in book media are secretly map geeks.
In the past several weeks I've received emails that use CAPITOL LETTERS, utterly immoderate words such as "obsessed," and even include emoticons. What are these generally-jaded, often-spurning book reviewers all aflutter over? Transit Maps of the World, the gorgeous new collection of the history of every single metropolitan mass transit system in the world.
And once they receive it, the rabid energy only seems to intensify. In the words of Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing.net, "I got a review copy of Mark Ovenden's Transit Maps of the World in the mail today and promptly fell down the rabbit hole with it." [Read the entire post here.] Further: "Do NOT pick up this book if you don't have a spare 15 minutes when you do so. Make that 20, and I'm selling you short, at that: I squandered 25, or was it 30?" So says Arthur Salm of the San DiegoUnion-Tribune [Read the article here]. I actually got an email that stated that the reviewer not only had a favorite international metro (Prague), but a favorite stop: Pancrak.
The markets I discussed with our director at the beginning of the campaign–map and railroad aficionados, graphic designers, urban planners, fans of the Penguin Press's Fall '06 title The Works–are exactly the markets that are coming through. But, to be honest, the real surprise of it is just how many people that ends up comprising–and how much overlap there is with the media we work with regularly. Since it features maps from all over the world, there is international interest as well; indeed, to gain permission from mass transit systems in Malaysia and China and Turkey to reprint their maps, the author literally had to go into restaurants featuring international cuisine and beg the staff to help him translate.
One can't help but be reminded of the old folk wisdom that men won't ask for directions, but believe you me: if you're stuck in the subway in the middle of Moscow, you can always give Arthur Salm a call.
Enter to win a publishing contract with Penguin and a $25,000 advance
Current mood: creative
Penguin Group USA has teamed up with Amazon and Hewlett Packard to sponsor a new and very unique international writing competition. The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards have been set up to find the next popular novel.To have an opportunity of winning a publishing contract with Penguin and a $25,000 advance, budding novelists have to submit their work to Amazon by November 5th, 2007. Then Amazon customers will be able to read, write about and rank their favorites. Reviewers from Publishers Weekly, editors from Penguin and a panel of seasoned publishing professionals will help whittle them down to a shortlist of 10.Amazon customers will cast the final vote to choose the overall winner, who will be announced in April.
"We need three amps, two for guitar and one for bass!"
Current mood: accomplished
Guest Blogger Kate Lloyd, Associate Publicist @ Penguin
This week I've been booking the tour for the paperback release of Rafe Esquith's Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire. When Rafe Esquith goes on tour to promote Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire, he doesn't go it alone—he travels with 8, and sometimes even 16, of his fifth and sixth graders (and brings his wife along to be another set of adult eyes). They do a variety show of sorts, complete with a full band. I've been booking his tour for the paperback release in January, which is a total breeze in comparison to the hardback tour. This time, we know who to ask bookstores to partner with and do outreach to. We know what equipment bookstores need to have on-hand for the band ("we need three amps, two for guitar and one for bass!"). We know what time to have the kids arrive to set up that band equipment. The enthusiasm for this book has been tremendous—and should only increase since we now know how to manage all of the background logistics that insure a great evening.
And oh, the logistics. I officially know I'm in the right department, because writing this 300-word blog entry has caused me considerably more anxiety than booking a 35-city tour.
Which might not be the reaction you'd expect from someone who works in books. Unlike Hugh Grant's assertion in our very own Bridget Jones's Diary, I don't just "fanny around with press releases." There is oh so much more.
You know when you hear an author talk for fifteen minutes on a local radio show? Or two minutes on a national TV show? Do you have any idea how many times we contact a producer to pitch (and most likely repitch . . . and, once again, repitch), schedule, confirm, send press materials, reconfirm, send press materials to the producer's assistant because they got lost the first time, reconfirm on the phone, and reconfirm in writing over email to make sure that goes off without a hitch? And then, on the ground, I book media escorts—no, not that kind of escort—to ferry and guide authors through the media maze of promoting their books in totally disparate interviews and markets. Or, in very special cases, we go out with the authors ourselves.
All of this is handled while also answering emails from the public that ask questions like "are mermaids real?" (that email was from an adult) and "how does Nathaniel Philbrick know so much about the Mayflower when he wasn't even on it?" and "my dog ate my book, can I have another?" Sure, I'll send it out once I've ordered champagne to be sent up to the hotel room of an author who's just hit the best-seller list.
But that's the thing – you get through all of the nitty-gritty, day-to-day stuff, the phone calls and the emails and the bottomless mailings, and then you get to ride the wave with Nathaniel Philbrick when the paperback of Mayflower hits the best-seller list and stays there for 18 weeks (and counting). Or escorting an author to the Oprah Winfrey Show and then getting to watch the episode with colleagues from all over the company, each of whom has contributed to the book's tremendous success. Or getting to call a debut writer to tell her that her novel hit the best-seller list.
Or when Rafe Esquith brings his traveling troupe of Hobart Shakespeareans to New York (in addition to 10 other cities) and performs REM and Macbeth with equal skill and vivacity. Just make sure you have all three amps.
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. affiliate of the internationally renowned Penguin Group, the second-largest English-language trade book publisher in the world.
Penguin Group (USA) publishes under a wide range of prominent imprints and trademarks, among them Viking, G. P. Putnam's Sons, The Penguin Press, Riverhead Books, Dutton, Penguin Books, Berkley Books, Gotham Books, Portfolio, New American Library, Plume, Tarcher, Philomel, Grosset & Dunlap, Puffin, and Frederick Warne. The company possesses perhaps the world's most prestigious list of bestselling, award-winning authors and a backlist of unparalleled breadth, depth, and quality. The Penguin Group's roster of bestselling authors is a Who's Who of the industry, including Patricia Cornwell, Nora Roberts, Tom Clancy, Jan Karon, Khaled Hosseini, Sue Monk Kidd, Sue Grafton, Clive Cussler, Kim Edwards, Elizabeth Gilbert, A. Scott Berg, Nevada Barr, Ron Chernow, Harlan Coben, Saul Bellow, Harold Bloom, Geraldine Brooks, Sylvia Browne, Tom Clancy, Robin Cook, J.M. Coetzee, Catherine Coulter, Eric Jerome Dickey, Helen Fielding, Ken Follett, Al Franken, W. E. B. Griffin, Nick Hornby, the Dalai Lama, Spencer Johnson, Anne Lamott, James McBride, Terry McMillan, Arthur Miller, Toni Morrison, Kathleen Norris, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert B. Parker, Michael Pollan, John Sandford, Carol Shields, Daniel Silva, John Steinbeck, Amy Tan, Kurt Vonnegut and Stuart Woods.
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is also a global leader in children's publishing, through its Young Readers Group, with preeminent imprints such as Dial Books, Dutton, Grosset & Dunlap, Philomel, Puffin, Speak, Firebird, G. P. Putnam's Sons, Viking, and Frederick Warne. These imprints are home to Laurie Halse Anderson, Judy Blume, Jan Brett, Eric Carle, Roald Dahl, Tomie dePaola, John Green, Eric Hill, Anthony Horowitz, Brian Jacques, Mike Lupica, Richard Peck, Patricia Polacco, and dozens of other popular authors. Penguin Young Readers Group is also proud of perennial favorites such as The Little Engine That Could and the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series.
For a complete listing of all our books and to buy directly from Penguin, visit our official website at http://us.penguingroup.com.
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Adult Division Imprints Ace, Alpha, Avery, Berkley, DK, Dutton, Gotham, HP, Hudson Street Press, Jeremy P. Tarcher, Jove, Marian Wood, New American Library, Onyx, Penguin, Penguin Press, Perigee, Plume, Portfolio, Prentice Hall Press, Putnam, Riverhead, ROC, Sentinel, Signet, Signet Classics, Viking, Viking Studio.
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