'Follow the Money'

— Associated Press photo via NYT —

"It leads everywhere. Get out your notebook. There's more."

— Deep Throat

Aug. 17, 1913 –
Dec. 18, 2008







— TJ Sullivan in LA

Coming Soon: 'Edgar Sawtelle' ... The Prequel

Without question, the best book I read in 2008 was David Wroblewski's first novel -- The Story of Edgar Sawtelle -- news of which made today's deals report from Publishers Marketplace.

Contained within the ample list of mostly non-fiction and foreign-rights transactions was the welcome report that Ecco, a HarperCollins imprint, plans to publish another book from Wroblewski, a prequel to The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

Intent on crafting the tale into a trilogy, Wroblewski promises to focus the next installment on the life of John Sawtelle, grandfather of Edgar. I hesitate to say any more lest I give away too much about The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, which I can't recommend strongly enough.

Published in June, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle "has over 1.4 million copies in print and became an Oprah pick in September," says Publishers Weekly.

As with the first book, Wroblewski was again represented by Eleanor Jackson.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

President-elect Barack Obama, The LA Days

Photo by Lisa Jack

TIME Magazine named Barack Obama its Man Person of the Year today for 2008, and included with its coverage a photo essay titled "Obama: The College Years," a collection of very cool photos of the president-elect back in 1980, when he was a freshman at Occidental College here in Los Angeles.

The photos, shot by fellow student and aspiring photographer Lisa Jack, reveal "a playful side of the President-elect," says TIME. The photo above is one of those.

Just a little more than a month to go before we can drop the "elect" from that title and simply call him "Mr. President."

— TJ Sullivan in LA

Carrie Fisher Dishes at Book Soup

— Photos by TJ Sullivan —

It was not the kind of signing readers have come to expect.

Attendees of Carrie Fisher's book signing tonight learned upon arrival at Book Soup that the author/actor would not be signing books, but rather had put her mark on copies of Wishful Drinking ahead of her appearance.

Nonetheless, Fisher showed up on time to charm and amuse a generous and appreciative group of readers who trapped her in a corner against a wall stacked with cat calendars for more than an hour. The presentation was all Q&A, with brutally honest responses from a woman with nothing left to hide.

What happens when Fisher, adult film star Ron Jeremy, and a Catholic priest walk into a bar? See my blog post at NBCLosAngeles.com.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

Life After The New York Times Book Review

LA literary blogger and author Mark Sarvas is proof that being pilloried in New York Times Book Review isn't the end of the world.

Despite the skewering he received in that most-revered of New York publications, Sarvas, who bangs out The Elegant Variation here in Los Angeles, has received praise from several other respected corners of the literary world this year for his debut novel HARRY REVISED. And this month it was named a "Good Read of 2008" by a critic for the Denver Post.

Publishers Weekly said back in May that "there may be legions of writers spurned by his blog just willing for Sarvas to fail," but yours truly is not one of them.

Here's to Mark and his creation, Harry Rent, a good reason to order a sandwich and keep reading, regardless of whether you're late for that appointment.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

Is the E.W. Scripps Lighthouse Fading?

When I was a writer for E.W. Scripps newspapers in New Mexico and California during the mid-to-late 1990s, the corporate suits would visit us every so often and allow the newsroom staff to ask them questions, sometimes to disastrous effect. (What'd they expect from a room full of journalists?) Direct, though courteous, someone always seemed to inquire after company finances with something like: "What are you guys doing with all the profits we're raking in?"

We were told that some newspaper profits were being used to help pump up Scripps' cable networks -- HGTV, the Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living, etc... The practice was sold as being good for the company, a way to ensure a stronger and healthier business for all our benefit. We believed. What else were we to do? Investigate our bosses? We had a paper to put out.

In hindsight, we probably should have been a bit more skeptical, considering what the suits did once their cable TV ventures became self-sustaining. Rather than return that goodwill to the newspaper side, Scripps chose instead to split the two divisions into separate companies, a move that was finalized earlier this year.

When it was announced in 2007, USA Today described it as splitting the "stagnant newspaper business into a separate company."

One analyst was quoted as recommending the move as a way to "unencumber" the cable side from newspapers. Funny, that's not how corporate looked at the cable side when it was an encumbrance to the newspaper side.

Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI) began trading as a separate company this summer, with the newspapers holding onto the old SSP designation.

Fast forward to this week. SNI was at $21.13 a share at today's close and SSP was at $1.74, up a few cents after closing yesterday at an all-time low of $1.68.

Why an all-time low? Perhaps it had something to do with the massive sell-off reported by Fitz & Jen over at Editor & Publisher. Apparently the second-largest institutional holder of E.W. Scripps stock -- a 5.13 % stake of 2.135 million shares -- decided to take the money (or, perhaps we should call it spare change) and run.

I assume the largest holder of E.W. Scripps stock is still the Scripps Family Trust, which has been the saving grace of print journalists because it mandates newspaper ownership.

Still, none of this is good news, neither for our friends in Colorado at the Rocky Mountain News (who found out less than two weeks ago that Scripps was putting them up for sale), nor for our colleagues in the suburbs of LA at the Ventura County Star (who were among the victims of the multi-paper cutbacks Scripps instituted last month).

Silly as it seems to even bother asking the question, it'd be interesting to hear someone from Scripps address why anyone should believe the company still has a long-term commitment to newspapering. Based upon its actions in the past year, things sure don't look that way.

— TJ Sullivan in LA