by Matt Bacak

Any first time author who wants to get his novel published should ask John Grisham about the process. He endured a relatively modest 28 rejections before finding a publisher for his first novel, A Time to Kill.

Read more!

reported by Julie Miller, FictionFanatic.com

Poet Stephen B. Wiley knows a little about why Americans celebrate National Poetry Month each year in April, a few days after the first day of Spring.

Read more!

reported by Dawn L. Hall, FictionFanatic.com

Without funding and limited resources, two artists have managed to circumvent the limitations of the digital divide and the Atlantic Ocean. How often would you find a Jamaican writer and a British underground DJ working together in the studio when one lives in Canada and the other lives in a suburb of London in the UK?

Read more!

reported by Cindy McGee Ellis, FictionFanatic.com

David S. Grant?s new novel, Corporate Porn, will take you on a steady roiling to near boiling cruise through today?s sarcastic and sometime caustic world of business and sex, and the business of sex.

Read more!

reported by Dawn L. Hall, FictionFanatic.com

Who is he? Well, Dwayne Murray, Sr. is an electrician by trade with the most prestigious union in New York City; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local #3. But when he is not splicing wires and pulling cable, Murray succumbs to his passion for writing.

Read more!

reported by Julia Stiles, FictionFanatic.com

On May 19th Hollywood will once again try to make a successful book into a successful movie with the widely anticipated release of The DaVinci Code starring Tom Hanks. The book-turned-to-movie formula has had mixed results at the box office over the years. A great novel does not necessarily equal a great movie. For every Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter success story there are just as many failures such as Oprah Winfrey?s big screen adaptation of Toni Morrison?s classic, Beloved.

Read more!

reported by Nigel Gimble, FictionFanatic.com

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers will publish a picture book companion to one of this summer's most anticipated movies, M. Night Shyamalan's LADY IN THE WATER. Little, Brown will release LADY IN THE WATER, written by M. Night Shyamalan and illustrated by Crash McCreery, on June 21, 2006 to coincide with the release of Warner Bros. Pictures' Lady in the Water, starring Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man) and Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village), on July 21, 2006.

Read more!

reported by Shawn Goode, FictionFanatic.com

Crystal Lacey Winslow, Essence magazine bestselling author and founder of the small press company, Melodrama Publishing, released its first ever, street-lit anthology, Menace II Society (ISBN: 0-9717021-7-9; $15/U.S.) ? a compilation of five short stories written by the industry?s top street and urban authors. It is the first urban anthology to feature a four male, one female ensemble.

Read more!

reported by Lisa Cutler, FictionFanatic.com

California writer Willard Wyman won two Spur Awards for his first novel while Loren Estleman collected his fifth from Western Writers of America.

Read more!

reported by Brian Scott, FictionFanatic.com

On Friday, October 13th, 2006, beware of black cats, don't break any mirrors, don't walk under any ladders and most importantly don't visit your local bookstore. It has just been announced that Lemony Snicket has completed the thirteenth and final book in A Series of Unfortunate Events, the depressing and mysterious chronicles of three unlucky orphans who are plagued by villainy, conspiracy, and itchy clothing.

Read more!

reported by Libby Jordan, FictionFanatic.com

Medgar Evers College announced that Colin Channer, author of the bestselling novels Waiting in Vain, Satisfy My Soul, and Passing Through has joined the Medgar Evers College faculty of the English Department in its School of Liberal Arts and Education. Mr. Channer will teach Creative Writing, a concentration in the Department.

Read more!

reported by Brian Scott, FictionFanatic.com

PodShow, Inc. is releasing Infection, the new novel from critically-acclaimed author Scott Sigler, exclusively on the PodShow Podcast Network.

Read more!

reported by Jenny L. Cox, FictionFanatic.com

H. Wolfgang Porter has been nominated for the 2006 Darrell Award for best fantasy/adventure novel.

Read more!

reported by Jim Delaney, FictionFanatic.com

A literary tribute to greasy spoon diners is among the works short-listed for a new global literary prize honoring a new kind of book -- a blook, or a book based on a blog or web site.

Read more!

reported by Holly Smith, FictionFanatic.com

With Academy Awards being handed out to movies about racist cops, gay cowboys, and communist sympathizers, Hollywood has declared an outright war on traditional values. But instead of getting angry at the movie business, parents should teach their kids to laugh at it, this according to best-selling children's author Katharine DeBrecht, whose new illustrated book "Help! Mom! Hollywood's in My Hamper" (Kids Ahead; hardcover: $15.95; ISBN 0976726912) mocks Hollywood's liberal stars and arrives in bookstores today.

Read more!

reported by John Graham, FictionFanatic.com

A representative from NetTactix Communications, a distributor for Montez DeCarlo's new book, Black Chameleon Memoirs, stated today that someone who said that they were a Federal Agent investigating several unsolved murders that took place in Detroit in the 1970s contacted the company.

Read more!

reported by Jef Horn, FictionFanatic.com

Have you seen or do you know of anyone who has reported a UFO? Do you believe that we can see dead people, that some can predict the future, and that others can see, with their minds, what?s happening in another part of the world?

Read more!

by Michael LaRocca

One of the nice things about being an author is that we can break any rule we want. (I just did.) It's part of our job description. Language changes through usage -- definitions, spelling, grammar -- and authors can help it do this. But on the other hand, we have to have some sort of agreement on the language or we won't be able to talk to each other.

Read more!

reported by Gary Milo, FictionFanatic.com

?I chose the name Langdon for a combination of reasons,? said Dan Brown, DaVinci Code Author. ?The name first occurred to me as a tribute to one of my favorite artists, John Langdon, who not entirely coincidentally is a passionate art-lover and a teacher like Robert Langdon. I also like the way his name sounds; all of my heroes have two syllabus names for reasons of rhythm. In addition, the name Langdon is an old New England family name that carries with it an air of erudition and academia, which works nicely for a Harvard professor.?

Read more!

contributed by Valerie Gotten

Inspired by personal insights into the entertainment industry and small-town life, Caryn N. Casey, a new voice in fiction, recently authored a novel, "Hiding Eden Rain" (ISBN: 1420800167). The author, Casey, has been a published newspaper columnist, and she is the mother of two actresses.

Read more!

reported by Brian Scott, FictionFanatic.com

Independent publisher Brighid's Fire Books celebrates Small Press Month by launching the search for unpublished manuscripts through its fifth Annual Fiction Manuscript Contest.

Read more!