Independent reporting and commentary from TJ Sullivan, a national award-winning writer, formerly of Los Angeles, now living in Chicago. Sullivan is an author, independent journalist, photographer and college-level journalism instructor who has been featured as a speaker at several national writing conferences. To request an interview, or to inquire about scheduling Sullivan to speak at your event, please include the name and address of your organization and a contact telephone number.
-- Photo By TJ Sullivan -- Click to View Larger Version --
Today's view from the Westside of the Station Fire. That's the InterContinental Hotel in Century City (perhaps better known by its former incarnation as the Park Hyatt) in the foreground. Remember, this photo was taken in a location more than 40 miles from the fire that created that pyrocumulus cloud.
In preparation for the release of my novel, "Boon," I now have a fan page at Facebook.
Shameless self promotion? Yes. Of course. But, if I don't tell you about it here, you'll end up hearing about it on the street and we all know how things can get distorted and blown out of proportion that way.
I'll have much more info to share in the next couple months. We've got time. The novel is coming in Winter 2010, which is why I'm busy doing things like setting up Facebook pages and learning about planning book signings and readings, etc ...
Set in the suburbs of Los Angeles, "Boon" tells the story of a young newspaper reporter who becomes mired in the murky world of small-town politics when her journalistic pursuit of the facts becomes tangled with her personal pursuit of homeownership, a situation that ultimately forces her to make a choice between fulfilling her dreams and fighting for what she believes in. The quest for truth and square footage exacts a steep price in T.J. Sullivan’s witty, suspense-filled debut novel.
The Novel Cafe at 212 Pier Avenue in Santa Monica appears to be in its final days of operation.
After nearly 20 dimly lit years of providing writers with a musty, unpretentious, AC-free place to write for hours on end, that most rare and wonderful location is expected to go dark forever. The counter staff says it's likely to happen before the end of the month, though no official date of closure has been set.
A letter to patrons that was recently taped to the front window says the closure is the result of a landlord-tenant dispute:
"We are sorry to inform you that due to the landlord refusing to renew our lease, The Novel Café after almost two decades will no longer be at 212 Pier Street ..."
The note goes on to list the locations of several new branches of The Novel that have opened up in the past few years, but anyone who's ever been to the original knows that none of the others come close to capturing the character of the place on Pier.
Like a lot of writers, I've spent thousands of hours (no exaggeration) at The Novel during the past dozen years, or so. I've written the better part of two novels on those wooden chairs, and then some. In fact, I value and respect the place so much that I've gone out of my way to protect it. When people have asked where I like to write, I either offer them one of the less-favored locations, or straight out tell them that it's none of their business. For all the writing I've done there, I never wrote about The Novel. In fact, I cringed every time another tourist guide published nice things about it, knowing how these things go.
Places like The Novel on Pier Avenue are far too uncommon in a city full of writers, especially since Wall Street got into the coffee business.
This one was one the greatest. It will be missed a great deal.
Twitter crashed hard this morning, and, as of this post, it's "still down."
Facebook is having trouble too. So is LiveJournal.
The Washington Post's TechCrunch blog is having a little fun with it:
Since most of you spend your entire work day screwing around on Twitter (luckily I actually get paid to do this), you may be left wondering what to do now. No worries, we have a list.
* UPDATE 8:19 a.m. -- Twitter is back up, but so very slow. And, odd as it seems, the Twitter update box on my blog [see right column] seems to be preventing this page from loading. I may disable it in the interim.
This time last year, my friend ME Sprengelmeyer was busy reporting on the presidential campaign for Denver's Rocky Mountain News, not to mention preparing for the Democratic National Convention, which was held in Denver in late August 2008.
But then the Rocky closed in February, and, like a lot of journalists who've found themselves in that situation in the past few years, ME knew right away that he was not going to find another job as a Washington correspondent for another newspaper.
So ... he purchased one.
Seriously. Someone actually bought a newspaper. My friend, ME Sprengelmeyer still believes in the power of print.
Having worked as a journalist myself in New Mexico for seven years, I was especially eager to talk to ME about this endeavor. He allowed me to record our recent conversation, and to post it online.
From a pay telephone on Route 66 in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, ME discussed the experience of being laid off, how one goes about purchasing a newspaper, and what he hopes to accomplish.
ME's first edition will be published later this week, so, as you might expect, his effort has captured the attention of many other writers. Today alone ME was featured at the blog of his former editor, John Temple, and he received a nice mention at Romenesko.
