Christina Katz Recommends

More About Jennifer Keene's New Book: On Sale Now!

“DIVORCE! MUST SELL DOGS!”  This sad classified headline appeared recently in a major newspaper. With a national divorce rate at around 49%, it’s not the first plea of its kind.

A recent poll by US matrimonial attorneys revealed a steady increase in the number of pet custody cases heard by courts the first five years of this decade.  About 90% of those respondents cited dogs at the heart of their clients custody demands (5% involved cat custody).*

Nearly 75 million dogs are part of US households.  Roughly 40% of those households include two or more dogs.  By law, in most states, pets are considered property – like a piece of furniture or an automobile.  So, when things don’t work out, when love between a couple is gone, who gets Fido?

Finally, from TFH Publications, comes the first-ever self-help book to guide couples and the dogs who love them, through the confusing and painful process of breaking up.

New in bookstores this April – We Can’t Stay Together for the Dogs: Doing What’s Best for Your Dog When Your Relationship Breaks Up ($22.95; Hardcover; ISBN: 978-0-7938-0624-9; TFH Publications). Written by Oregon-based (and single-again) professional dog trainer Jennifer Keene, this unique self-help guide stresses problem-solving using “3 Cs” – helpful to any pet household: communication, compromise, and canine-centricity.

More coming soon...

Marc Acito's Book Trailer for Attack of the Theater People

It is 1986, and aspiring actor Edward Zanni has been kicked out of drama school for being "too jazz hands for Juilliard." Mortified, Edward heads out into the urban jungle of eighties New York City and finally lands a job as a "party motivator" who gets thirteen-year-olds to dance at bar mitzvahs and charms businesspeople as a "stealth guest" at corporate events. When he accidentally gets caught up in insider trading with a handsome stockbroker named Chad, only the help of his crew can rescue him from a stretch in Club Fed. Laced with the inspired zaniness of classic American musical comedy, Attack of the Theater People matches the big hair of the eighties with an even bigger heart.

A Book Review of Manuscript Makeover by Elizabeth Lyon (Perigee, April 2008)

Edit Your Fiction For Publication
Review by Patricia Clement

Elizabeth Lyon makes the simple but stunning promise to both novice and experienced fiction writers that practicing the techniques in Manuscript Makeover will lead to publishable stories. And she has the credentials to back up this claim—experience as an editor, mentor and workshop leader and author of four previous books on the craft of writing.

A readable and well organized-style, spiced with humor, makes reading Manuscript Makeover an unusual pleasure. The book is divided into the four main areas of style, craft, characterization and marketing. Each chapter is sprinkled with descriptions of the most common writing problems of each chapter’s topic as well as clear explanations of the ways to fix each problem.

Examples from best-selling novels illustrate concepts and each chapter ends with a detailed checklist for easy reference. The style chapters present inside-out (“using your self knowledge to plumb the depths of your life experiences to improve your writing”) and outside-in (“tricks of the trade”) methods of revision.

Craft chapters address issues particular to each fiction genre, different types of story structure and movement, suspense, time and place.  The five chapters on different aspects of characterization present the most in-depth coverage I’ve ever read of that subject.

Chapters discuss point-of-view, character dimension and theme, character personality and voice, as well as character-driven beginnings, scenes, suspense and narration. After reading the characterization chapters I finally understand how to strengthen my book and create irresistible characters by weaving character development into scenes and narration.

The last chapters deal with how to market your manuscript, from delivering impeccable manuscript mechanics to writing synopses and query letters that will neatly take your novel from your first draft to your agent and editor’s desk.

Reading Manuscript Makeover has given me the skills and confidence to edit my clumsy first draft into a polished novel. Buy this book and let Elizabeth Lyon help you score an acceptance on your novel or story.