Blog Posts for Michelle Richmond

Why I'm opting in to the Google Books Settlement

Michelle Richmond — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 09:48:45 -0700

There's a new Rumpelstiltskin in town, but he's not going after the miller's daughter. This Rumpelstiltskin has set his sights on authors, who, according to critics, may unwittingly spin him buckets full of gold. Judging from the panic issuing from home offices and cafes across the country, you'd think he was trying to steal our firstborn. I'm talking about Google Books, and a deal negotiated ...

Times Book Club Pick--No One You Know

Michelle Richmond — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:56:54 -0700

No One You Know is the next book club pick for the Times Media Group, which includes the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, the Oakland Tribune, and a number of other Northern California newspapers. There’s an excerpt from the novel in the Marin Independent Journal today. Excerpts will be running in several newspapers over the next couple of weeks.Book club discussions of No One ...

Big Brother in your backpack

Michelle Richmond — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:00:46 -0700

In a truly Orwellian twist, a Michigan teenager named Justin Gawronski is launching a class-action lawsuit against Amazon for deleting the novel 1984 from his Kindle. It seems Justin had been taking notes, as students are advised to do, but when the book disappeared, he argues, his notes became irrelevant. CBC News reports: Justin Gawronski took copious notes using the Kindle that were linked to ...

Careful what you tweet

Michelle Richmond — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:42:28 -0700

Acclaimed novelist Alice Hoffman was called out on Gawker today for her angry twitter responses to a partially negative review of her latest novel, The Story Sisters, by Roberta Silman in The Boston Globe, Hoffman's hometown newspaper. Hoffman called the reviewer a "moron" and gave out her phone number. "Now any idiot can be a critic," Hoffman wrote. "Writers used to ...

Briefly in Britain

Michelle Richmond — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 07:20:27 -0700

The Telegraph recently asked me to write about San Francisco for its “My Kind of Town” feature. The article, which includes my favorite city haunts, where to stay, what to avoid, where to shop, and more, appears today. You can read it here.Other stuff across the pond: No One You Know was reviewed today in The Daily Mail, and earlier this week in Star Magazine.

Holden on Hold: Literary Intrigue, Salinger Style

Michelle Richmond — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:48:54 -0700

Courthouse News Service reports today that J.D. Salinger is suing an anonymous writer, pseudonym J.D. California, over a book entitled 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, which is slated for September 9 publication and bills itself as a sequel to the reclusive Salinger's classic The Catcher in the Rye. The latter made household names of Holden Caulfield and his creator, and sold almost ...

Fog in Vacaville

Michelle Richmond — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:56:52 -0700

The Reporter Book Club, the city-wide book club of Vacaville, CA, will be discussing THE YEAR OF FOG tonight. I’ll be there to sign books at 6:30, followed by a reading and discussion. The gathering takes place at the Vacaville Public Library-Cultural Center, 1020 Ulatis Drive. Books can be purchased in advance at Vacaville’s Bounty Books, 857 Merchant St., telephone 451-4770.

Tomorrow in Pleasanton

Michelle Richmond — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:17:09 -0700

I'll be speaking Saturday, March 28, at Lynnewood Methodist Church in Pleasanton, at 1:00 p.m. This will be a fundraising event, sponsored by P.E.O. International. Towne Center Books will be on hand to sell copies of The Year of Fog and No One You Know, with part of the proceeds to benefit P.E.O. women's scholarships.

29th Annual Northern California Book Awards

Michelle Richmond — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:27:04 -0700

The NCBR has announced the nominees for the 29th Annual Northern California Book Awards. The ceremony, which is free and open to the public, will be held on April 19 at 1:00 p.m. in the Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Public Library. I'm delighted that NO ONE YOU KNOW was nominated in fiction, along with four other books of fiction in whose company I'm honored to be included, and that ...

Social Network Free Day: A Cyber-Diet for Writers

Michelle Richmond — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:56:57 -0800

Who needs a social network to persuade her not to do any social networking? I do! I love all those websites that allow you to meet like-minded people, share embarrassing photos from high school, and talk up your book/album/organic bath products, etc. Too much. Which is why I'm going on a cyber-diet. That's right. I'm declaring Tuesday, March 3, a social network-free day, and asking you to join ...