What Is This Book?

[kanding]

Dec 31, 2011 14:30:14 GMT -4 @dwanollah said:

Was it Leo Buscaglia? He had a bunch of "Love"-type positive thinking books.

That's him! Thanks!

[bklynred]

Help! I'm looking for a title and can't remember it. It's a book that teaches people how to write & publish children's books. I edit YA books but am not involved in the writing aspect of them at all. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[BarbR]

Help!

I read this book in the past two years. I thought it was by Harlan Coben or Joseph Finder. I checked both of their bibliographies, and couldn't find it.

The man is a critic, married with a child, and is warned to never give a harsh review to a certain man. I cannot remember if the man is a writer, performer, artist, whatever.

The story follows the damaging things the vengeful man does to the critic, and how the critic tries to find out what has happened to other critics who gave bad reviews. One of the men he finds is a painter, who has been badly injured (paralyzed or blinded) so he cannot paint anymore. His mother helps him with his paintings.

The other part I remember is that they go to the critic's wife's parents for help. They are survivalists, and live underground on the property. Loved that part of the story; I read it to my husband.

I asked my daughter if I had given her this book, and she doesn't remember the title either.

[twopfan]

Ooh! I've read that! Let me think...

[twopfan]

Found it! Relentless by Dean Koontz. Good book.

[BarbR]

Thanks, twopfan. I went to Amazon to read the synopsis, and see that I had the main characters reversed: the hero is the writer, and the bad guy is the reviewer who hates being confronted for his unrealistic bad review.

I need to buy another copy.

[Deleted]

I've been trying to remember this book for so long I'm starting to wonder if I made it up. YA book about a girl who gets into a drunk driving accident and receives plastic surgery. Of course she becomes instantly popular and has to come to terms with the whole thing. Wow, that all sounds ridiculous now that I wrote it out.

No clue on timeframe, I checked it out of the library in the early 90s.

[Deleted]

Jan 5, 2012 18:48:55 GMT -4 bklynred said:

Help! I'm looking for a title and can't remember it. It's a book that teaches people how to write & publish children's books. I edit YA books but am not involved in the writing aspect of them at all. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

I don't know how recent of a book you are looking for, but could it be Writing For Children by Jane Thayer (aka Catherine Woolley)? The copyright date is 1989.

[trifle]

bklynred, Olga Litowinsky wrote two excellent books on the subject, both out of print but available on Amazon:

Writing and Publishing Books for Children in the 1990's: The Inside Story from the Editor's Desk

It's a Bunny Eat Bunny World: A Writer's Guide to Surviving and Thriving in Today's Competitive Children's Book Market

I believe she's dead now, so the advice is from Bunny is about a decade old.

[Dr. Freude]

HELP! While at the library with my kids today, I was thinking about a picture book I loved in elementary school. The story followed this woman with red hair who loved flowers--I think it began with her as a little girl--and she became a teacher, and she traveled around the world, and when she returned home she built a greenhouse so she could keep al of the exotic flowers she encountered in her travels. She is an old, bedridden woman at the end of the story, but her great nephew brings her lilacs, I think. It may have won an award of some kind--the pictures were beautiful. Anyone have any idea what book this is?