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Litopia Daily

My Therapist Is My Journal

“In our family”, wrote Ann Morrow Lindbergh, “an experience was not finished, nor truly experienced, unless written down and shared with another.” Today, we’re considering the difference between diaries and autobiographies – which one is …

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Books That Matter: Death Comes for the Archbishop

“The greatest American novelist of the 20th century” says Oxford don John Simopoulos of Willa Cather, the author who grew up in Nebraska and is best known for her depictions of frontier life.  John recommends …

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Friday Night & Monday Morning

It’s the Monday morning after the Friday night before…  we’re still recovering from the very first “Litopia After Dark: Face to Face” that took place last Friday evening.  Eve is still travelling back to Scotland, …

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Here Is The News, Again

There’s a strong digital theme in this week’s news.  In the future, Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader will display more book formats beyond its own and we should expect to see Kindle books on a lot …

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Relaxez-Vous!

Does going to the library make you want to pee?  If so, then you may be subject to the Library-Relaxation-Syndrome… a sure sign that you need to take a break.  But – do you know …

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The Last Catalog

Non-fiction publishing has been the hardest-hit of all publishing sectors by the advent of the internet: not many books in this area have been able to withstand the impact of free, up-to-date information that the …

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Books That Matter: The Voices of Marrakesh by Elias Canetti

We’re back with another in our occasional summer series of Books That Matter, chosen and discussed by John Simopoulos, Dean of Degrees of St Catherine’s College, Oxford.   Today, we’re talking about “a sublime monster”, as …

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Big Prospects for the Short Story

“To be a successful short story writer, you have to be utterly vulnerable on the page, and utterly ruthless in revision.” Perceptive words that set our agenda this week on Eve’s Salmagundi Club.  Commercially neglected …

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Here Is The News

Donna is still away, so it falls to Peter to attempt to cover a round-up of this week’s news – and there’s lots happening.  The Romance Writers of America have decided that ebook publication doesn’t …

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How Not To Get Ripped Off

It’s a worry that often plagues new authors – how can you protect your precious ideas from being stolen? Today, Peter addresses two listeners’ questions: is there anything you can do to make your ideas …

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Books That Matter: Remnants of a Quiet Life

John Simopoulos, Dean of Degrees of St Catherine’s College, Oxford, is with us again today in an occasional but delightful series we’re running this summer that we’re calling “Books That Matter”.   Featuring books and authors …

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Clothes Maketh The Writer

Today we’re discussing writers’ style… no, not the sort of style you may be thinking about… but the sort of style that counts in public.   How can a financially-challenged writer dress with style- where do …

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Litopia After Dark

Munchausen By Proxy By Proxy

Crystal shards of penetrative ideological shrapnel tonight from a spunky panel – we’re looking at things as they are, things as they were supposed to be, and things as they probably will be.  Our guests …

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Following Your Strangeness

It’s a vintage show tonight – an intense blend of wisdom, provocation, information and hilarification – you’ll want to listen more than once to catch everything.  The title comes from our discussion about the quicksilver-like …

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A Blow to the Head

So what does it all mean, then?  Or to paraphrase, what’s it all about, Author? This week on the world’s favorite podcast for writers we brood over some of life’s greatest imponderables.  Should a book …

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The Marmite Messiah

In the week that mother-of-three Claire Allen (36) from Rhondda, South Wales found the image of Jesus on a Marmite jar lid, we ask – are these the end times?
The evidence is strong.  With hundreds …

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The Seafaring Petomane Meets Mrs. Slocombe’s Pussy

There’s more than a whiff of revolution in the air tonight, and it’s not all coming from our special guest, Alan Gibbons, prolific children’s author and instigator of Britain’s national campaign to stop library closures.
While …

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Is Your Publishing House Your Home?

We have a scintillating international panel for your entertainment and enjoyment tonight.  Leading lawyer, author and Litopia Daily’s newshound Donna Ballman is back from her travels and ready to dispense some authorial wisdom.  She’s joined …

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The Pork Sword Strikes!

The bombshell dropped just three hours before we went on air tonight, and the publishing world is in a state of traumatized disbelief.  Walking through Soho this evening, the palpitations were, um, palpable.
Richard & Judy …

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Publishers – Get Your House In Order

It's a cougar-packed show tonight, folks!
Without an equitable distribution of income between authors and publishers, the much-vaunted digital future of publishing will be delayed: perhaps even mortally derailed.  That’s one of the many important points …

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Age-Related Luddite Moments

It’s been an intense week here in publishing.  Publishers Weekly reports that the London Book Fair, just concluded, may have been a bit lower in terms of overall attendance, but those who did show up …

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Welcome to OrwellWorld

Today the founders of the world’s biggest copyright-theft website, Pirate Bay, were sentenced to a year in jail after being found guilty in a Swedish court of promoting copyright infringement.
“Although I dislike seeing any man …

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Big Kidney!

It’s such an old-school edition of LITOPIA AFTER DARK tonight that we’re all virtually in kindergarten (well, some more than others, obviously).
If you enjoy the collective talents of Richard Howse, Donna Ballman, Dave Bartram and …

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Trip Adler, CEO of Scribd.com Answers His Critics! Not.

Trip Adler, CEO of Scribd.com
Sadly, Trip Adler, 26-year old CEO of Scribd.com, the website that has been accused of wholesale copyright infringement, failed to accept our invitation to appear on tonight’s show.
You will know if …

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