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by Stephen King

They’ve been married for ten years and for a long time everything was O.K.—swell—but now they argue. Now they argue quite a lot. It’s really all the same argument. It has circularity. It is, Ray thinks, like a dog track. When they argue, they’re like greyhounds chasing the mechanical rabbit. You go past the same scenery time after time, but you don’t see it. You see the rabbit.

He thinks it might be different if they’d had kids, but she couldn’t. They finally got tested, and that’s what the doctor said. It was her problem. A year or so after that, he bought her a dog, a Jack Russell she named Biznezz. She’d spell it for people who asked. She loves that dog, but now they argue anyway.

They’re going to Wal-Mart for grass seed. They’ve decided to sell the house—they can’t afford to keep it—but Mary says they won’t get far until they do something about the plumbing and get the lawn fixed. She says those bald patches make it look shanty Irish. It’s because of the drought. It’s been a hot summer and there’s been no rain to speak of. Ray tells her grass seed won’t grow without rain no matter how good it is. He says they should wait.

“Then another year goes by and we’re still there,” she says. “We can’t wait another year, Ray. We’ll be bankrupts.”

When she talks, Biz looks at her from his place in the back seat. Sometimes he looks at Ray when Ray talks, but not always. Mostly he looks at Mary.

“What do you think?” he says. “It’s going to rain just so you don’t have to worry about going bankrupt?”

“We’re in it together, in case you forgot,” she says. They’re driving through Castle Rock now. It’s pretty dead. What Ray calls “the economy” has disappeared from this part of Maine. The Wal-Mart is on the other side of town, near the high school where Ray is a janitor. The Wal-Mart has its own stoplight. People joke about it.  “Penny wise and pound foolish,” he says. “You ever hear that one?”

“A million times, from you.”

He grunts. He can see the dog in the rearview mirror, watching her. He sort of hates the way Biz does that. It occurs to him that neither of them knows what they are talking about.

“And pull in at the Quik-Pik,” she says. “I want to get a kickball for Tallie’s birthday.” Tallie is her brother’s little girl. Ray supposes that makes her his niece, although he’s not sure that’s right, since all the blood is on Mary’s side.

The New Yorker

Onward, Canada

On behalf of the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, the Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Labour and Member of Parliament (Edmonton-Spruce Grove), today announced investments totalling $2.35 million in British Columbia publishers. These investments will support the ongoing production and promotion of Canadian-authored books, industry-wide projects to increase the visibility of Canadian titles in the online marketplace, and internships in the publishing industry.

"Our Government is proud to have renewed its support for Canadian books for the next five years," said Minister Moore. "The funding we are announcing today for British Columbia publishers is a good example of the sound and significant investment in Canadian content we are committed to making throughout the country."

"Canadians want to have access to a wide variety of Canadian-authored books that reflect their voices and their interests," said Minister Ambrose. "Our Government is taking action to ensure that they will continue to be served by an innovative and competitive publishing industry, able to deliver Canadian content when, where, and how readers want it."

Benzinga

Sarah and Todd "Unlikely" To Divorce:

Biographer

Sarah Palin's unwanted biographer, Joe McGinniss, doesn't buy rumors that she and her husband, Todd, may split -but if there is trouble in that marriage, he promises to find it.

The author of "Fatal Vision" and "The Selling of the President" was outbid recently when he offered to pay $59,999 to dine with the former GOP vice presidential candidate at a charity auction. But that hasn't deterred him. He recently spent three weeks in Palin's town in Wasilla, Alaska.

"I stopped by her house," says McGinniss, who brought along a copy of his 1980 book, "Going to Extremes," about his adventures in Alaska. "Her son Track answered the door, [just back from Iraq]. We had a pleasant chat. He said he'd give her the book."

McGinniss was struck by the size of the construction on the lot the Palins have bought next to their present home.

"They're building another house and an airplane hangar," he says. "It's like a summer White House in the making. Just based on the size of the compound, I'd say Sarah and Todd are staying together."

NY Daily News

Why Don't Agents Want to Play?

Last week Amazon flew a dozen top New York book agents to Seattle. The purpose was to debrief their attitudes towards e-books in general and Kindle in particular. After reading an account of the meetings and festivities, I did some rough calculations and figure Amazon spent upwards of $10,000 to pick those splendid brains. I estimated $600 per agent for round trip airfare, $150 for hotel accommodations, and $200 for food and incidentals. All multiplied by twelve.

I could have saved Amazon all that money. I've known for ten years what's been holding agents back from plunging into e-book pool, and in fact I can tell it to you in one word: advances. The agents have been waiting for something they can identify with the traditional business model. And advances are as traditional as Thanksgiving turkeys.

Who can blame the agents for being standoffish? Picture a macher like Lynn Nesbit or Bob Gottlieb calling an author to say "I have great news for you! I've made a deal for e-book rights to your new book plus half a dozen of your old ones!" And you say "Great! What are they paying?" And they say "Um, nothing, actually." Oh, that's really going to bind them to their clients!

Ereads

Palin's Memoir:

Why the Math Is Fuzzy

Love her or hate her, Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate, is always a hot topic of conversation in the media. Her memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, slated for release by News Corp.'s (NWS) HarperCollins next Tuesday, November 17, is no exception; it's been making news since the ink dried on the deal made last May.

Going Rogue was one of 10 books selected for massive discounting by Amazon (AMZN), Walmart (WMT), and Target (TGT) in their ongoing price war. Palin made headlines last month when she revealed that HarperCollins had paid her a $1.25 million "retainer" sometime between January 1 and July 26, the day she stepped down as Alaska governor. Oprah Winfrey has her booked on her show next Monday, which the author will follow with a bus tour to far-flung corners of the country (or as she famously called them during the 2008 campaign, "the real America"). No less than three books about Palin are slated for publication around the same time, including a parody called Going Rouge: An American Nightmare.

So all signs seem to point to a season-saving bestseller for HarperCollins and for the book business: Pre-orders are rumored to surpass 40,000 copies, with more added to the estimate each day. But look past the top ranking on Amazon and the reported first printing of 1.5 million copies -- and the math may not add up in Palin's favor.

The conventional wisdom on Palin's payment for Going Rogue is that she received a $7 million advance from HarperCollins (which hasn't commented). But what did she really get?

Until recently, publishers have long split writers' advances, paying half upon signing a contract with the writer, and the other half upon a book's publication. But with the complicated financials of conglomerates in the equation, many publishers now pay out advances in quarters: upon signing, upon delivery and acceptance of the manuscript, upon hardcover publication, and finally a year later, upon publication of the paperback.

The only HarperCollins contract that's been made public -- the original deal for O.J. Simpson's If I Did It, originally slated for publication in 2006 by Judith Regan's imprint (before it was shut down) -- suggests that HC pays authors in quarterly installments. For Going Rogue, the $1.25 million paid to Palin seems to account for her signing and her delivery and acceptance. That would mean Palin's getting two more payouts, with her cut of the final advance, minus fees to her literary attorney, Robert Barnett, somewhere between $2.5 million and $5 million.

Daily Finance

Angela James To Helm

Harlequin Digital Imprint

Harlequin Enterprises recently announced that it would soon form Carina Press, a digital-only imprint with a special contract that "does not include an advance or DRM (Digital Rights Management), and authors are compensated with a higher royalty."

The imprint will begin publishing in Spring 2010, with a no-surprise focus on romance and erotic romance. Angela James will serve as executive editor of the new press.  James has served as copy editor at the digital publisher, Ellora's Cave and managed the publisher's editorial services division at Samhain Publishing. Most recently, she worked on the now-disbanded digital outfit, Quartet Press.

According to a press release: "Carina Press is currently accepting submissions in all genres of commercial fiction.  Carina Press will consider shorter stories, genre novels of 50,000 to 100,000 words and longer, and complex narratives of over 100,000 words.  Carina Press will also acquire books that have been previously released in print form, but for which the author has either retained digital rights or had digital rights revert to them.  All submissions should be sent to submissions [at] carinapress [dot] com."

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FICTION

Debut

Iowa MFA Lise Saffran's THE GREEN WORLD, involving a divorced mother of two teenage daughters, set in the magical San Juan Islands of Washington State and framed by a staging of THE TEMPEST (with some retelling of the play as well), to Denise Roy at Plume, by Nathaniel Jacks at Inkwell Management (world English).

Scott Sparling's WIRE TO WIRE, pitched in the vein of Denis Johnson's ALREADY DEAD, to Tony Perez at Tin House Books (World).

nanci@tinhouse.com

Inspirational

Anita Higman's NOEL, MISSOURI, in which a woman runs the Best Christmas Shoppe in America, but the honor of doing so leaves her with little of the Christmas spirit, to Rachel Meisel at Summerside Press, by Chip MacGregor at MacGregor Literary.

chip@macgregorliterary.com

Children's: Young Adult

Ann Aguirre's RAZORLAND, about a girl from an underground enclave in which no one lives past the age of 25, who is exiled out of darkness to the uninhabitable surface in punishment for a crime she did not commit, to Liz Szabla at Feiwel and Friends, in a very nice deal, in auction, in a two-book deal, for publication in Winter 2011, by Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary Agency (NA).

NONFICTION

Advice/Relationships

Dr. Jane Greer's THE SELFISHNESS DILEMMA, helping us overcome the selfishness that threatens our relationships, to Shana Drehs at Sourcebooks, for publication in 2010, by Uwe Stender at TriadaUS Literary Agency with Lisa Berkowitz at Berkowitz and Associates (World).

shana.drehs@sourcebooks.com

Anthology

Nicole Steinberg, ed.'s FORGOTTEN BOROUGH: WRITERS COME TO TERM WITH QUEENS, a celebration of New York City's underdog borough featuring current and former Queens residents Julia Alvarez, Susan Chi, Jill Eisenstadt, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Ron Hogan, Robert Lasner, Arthur Nersesian, Buzz Poole, Irina Reyn, Margarita Shalina, and Mark Swartz, to James Peltz at SUNY Press, by Marissa Walsh (World English).

marissa@shelflifelit.com

Biography

Author of Selling of the President 1968 and Going to Extremes, Joe McGinniss's investigative narrative of Sarah Palin's significance as both political and cultural phenomenon and as an embodiment of the contradictory forces that shaped Alaska as it moved into its second half-century as a state to Charlie Conrad at Broadway, for publication in 2011, by David Larabell at the David Black Agency.

Author of NYT bestseller Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson, Ian Halperin's BRANGELINA, on Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, to Pierre Turgeon at Transit Publishing, in a major deal, for publication on December 1, 2009, by Jarred Weisfeld at Objective Entertainment (world).

Jarred@objectiveent.com

Cooking

Susan Irby with Rachel Laferriere M.S., R.D's BOOST YOUR METABOLISM COOKBOOK, mouthwatering recipes to keep you thin by boosting your metabolism, to Paula Munier at Adams Media, in a nice deal, for publication in 2010, by Uwe Stender at TriadaUS Literary Agency (World).

Parenting

Star of Stand By Me and Crossing Jordan, father of twin baby girls -- and much-envied husband of Rebecca Romijn, Jerry O'Connell's CRY, FEED, (Make Love to Wife), BURP, in which he humorously recounts his life as a stay-at-home dad (with editorial comments -- aka, the real story -- by his wife), presenting life as a very 21st century father in a land of celebrity, the sterile California suburbs, and two-for-one diaper changing to Luke Dempsey at Ballantine, by Richard Abate at 3 Arts Entertainment.

Nutritionist Kelly Dorfman's WHAT'S EATING YOUR CHILD?, a problem-solving nutrition book for parents, to Margot Herrera at Workman, by Peter Steinberg at The Steinberg Agency (World).