Posted on

The Tale of the Most Insane Desk Ever: NO DRAWERS ALLOWED!

There once was a rather famous, if old timey, theatrical agent in New York City who had one hard and steadfast rule in his office: No drawers allowed! This no-drawer mandate mainly had to do with desks, but he also included boxes, trash cans and file cabinets in his rage. The rule was incredibly raw, because in those days, The City, and theatrical agencies, ran on paper. There was no digitization. No cloud or computer storage. You Xeroxed and your Faxed and you managed the wood pulp blizzard as best you could.

Continue reading → The Tale of the Most Insane Desk Ever: NO DRAWERS ALLOWED!

Posted on

Of Skanks and Agent Provocateurs

Two purely bizarre stories made news this week and in a strange and discomforting way — they’re both about the same, clinging, issue that razzle us every day:  Do we own our identity in public?  The first case concerns Hal Turner, a vile-spewing blogger from New Jersey, who claimed he was paid by the FBI to spread his ugly messages of hate. 

Continue reading → Of Skanks and Agent Provocateurs

Posted on

Own Your Copyright

In my article — Writing Advice for Authors — I implore all authors to demand, and get, Copyright in their name from their publishers.

Agents and publishers will tell you Copyright in your name doesn’t matter — yet many publishers will fight you to the death to keep the Copyright in their name and not yours.

Why do publishers demand to own your Copyright when you do the writing?

Why do authors allow publishers to own their Copyright?

Continue reading → Own Your Copyright

Posted on

Rise of Radical Religiosity in Representative Democracies

We are living in dark times as radical religiosity the world over rises to punish ordinary, innocent, citizens in representative democracies where government-legislated values of faith are made to reform the law of the land in the name of a niche morality that presumes the best interest of the majority.

Continue reading → Rise of Radical Religiosity in Representative Democracies

Posted on

The FDNY Firefighter Spy

We’ve turned a horrible new page in the War on Terror as the FDNY — The Fire Department of the City of New York — have joined with the Department of Homeland Security to spy on residents.

Continue reading → The FDNY Firefighter Spy

Posted on

How Much Did You Get Paid?

Publishers and agents hate it when authors share the specifics of our contracts with each other and that is precisely why we can, and must, share all the details of our deals.

Continue reading → How Much Did You Get Paid?

Posted on

Urban Bioterrorism Attack: Pernicious Tuberculosis

How do you fight an invisible danger?

In our ongoing series of conversations about Urban Bioterrorism, — we have been struck by several recent realities that confirm our policy of policing the Homeland is wide open to creative and pernicious exploitation of our febrile border defenses.

Our current policy for fighting terrorism on American soil isn’t working. We seek to only deter and then punish the body.

We log citizens and their behaviors while completely ignoring the reality that the most dangerous threats to health, freedom and liberty are microscopic and undetectable — and those dangers live inside people instead of being carried by people as recognizable weapons of mass destruction.

Continue reading → Urban Bioterrorism Attack: Pernicious Tuberculosis