True Story: I have an unhealthy attraction to Alex Trebek (friends would call it an obsession but they tend toward the hyperbolic). So what if my firstborn is named Alex or that the final Jeopardy jingle makes me swoon, it's really no big deal, right?
To be honest, I've had a thing for Trebek since the early days, since he was the cardigan-wearing host of "Concentration" and I would stay home "sick" from school just to watch him. You never forget your first Canadian, those flat wide-open "A's," the purse-mouthed double "O," especially when you're a young girl from Brooklyn, a place where "r's" disappear and words come at you in rapid-fire staccato. I'd never heard anyone who sounded like Trebek and I was hooked.
So I have to admit I was more than a little interested today when this email from local author Louis Bayard (The Pale Blue Eye and Mr. Timothy) arrived about how he spent his summer vacation:
"Many of you probably don’t know this, but since I was a kid, I’ve had this corny longing to be a Jeopardy! contestant. (This was back in the days when Art Fleming was the host and Don Pardo was the announcer. Yes, I'm that old.)
Well, last month, the dream was fulfilled. I went out to LA for the early-August taping session, and you may see the results tomorrow night – Friday, September 15."
Alex Trebek and Louis Bayard? Oh yes, we will most certainly be tuning in. We wouldn't miss it for the world.
Writer's Challenge—Spoiling for a Fight
For those fiction writers out there who have been following along with novelist Mary Kay Zuravleff's writer's challege you should have 4k words under your belt by now. So what's next? MKZ thinks it's high time to stir things up:
"…make your characters squirm. Think of how boring the first few moves of a chess game are, then prepare to move your pawns one or two steps away from safety. "
Read the rest of the newsletter and sign up for the mailing list here. Are you characters ready for a little discord?
Booker Shortlist News
The Man Booker Prize shortlist was announced and the big names didn't quite make the cut—including our favored Messud title. It looks like the oddsmakers were wrong, but we're still holding out hope that M. J. Hyland's Carry Me Down takes the big prize.
Here's the long of the shortlist:
Desai, Kiran The Inheritance of Loss
Grenville, Kate The Secret River
Hyland, M.J. Carry Me Down
Matar, Hisham In the Country of Men
St Aubyn, Edward Mother’s Milk
Waters, Sarah The Night Watch
I could've gone my whole life without seeing Alex T. without a shirt. Creepy.
Posted by: Colleen Rich | September 15, 2006 at 10:37 AM