A guide to the Solomon Scandals site
What? A Web site about a novel—and yet here’s a series of articles on hyperlocal journalism?
My explanation: The Solomon Scandals itself is a dark and highly fictionalized look at the newspaper industry as it existed in the late 20th century after Watergate. But the pesky issues persist in real life—for example: Just how trustworthy are newspapers? And how about the perennials such as the conflict between friendship and duty, especially in a place like D.C.?
Rather than just rant on and on about the obvious, I thought it would be more constructive and interesting to come up with solutions, such as a reinvention of local coverage. Hence the hyperlocal series. At the same time, you’ll find basics about the novel—everything from an overview and character list to a Q & A with my protagonist and a continuation of it, a long Rothman bio that along the way depicts the social milieu in which I’ve set Scandals. A shorter version of the bio is here. Scandals is on sale at Amazon and elsewhere and was required reading in a history course recently at George Washington University. (1969 photo taken by the late Jack Weir.)
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- Psst! Here’s how to order ‘The Solomon Scandals’ from Amazon—even if the box says you can’t
- July 21 global chatcast—with free ‘Scandals’ MP3s for the blind and other print-challenged people
- ‘David Rothman’ namesakes: Egosurfers, here’s what the rest of us are up to
- Bio
‘Red Hot’ Engel sisters, possible iPad edition, Henry Adams and ‘Scandalize your classroom’
Remember my optimism about Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, the play by the Engel twins, based on the life of the uppity liberal Texas columnist who fondly gave George Bush the nickname of “Shrub”?
So far, the write-ups are upbeat, and I predict that R.H.P. will make it to Broadway—aided by Kathleen Turner’s depiction of Ivins. Here’s my Q & A with Margaret Engel, aka Peggy, an old friend from my Lorain Journal days. The play is running in Philly through April 18.
Three other items of the moment:
You might also enjoy:The Georgetown name game: Roffman, Rothman, Solomon and The Georgetowner
Two kinds of parties show up in The Solomon Scandals, my D.C. media novel: the private variety (“party-parties”) and “name-in-the-paper parties” (where the givers and the guests want publicity).
For both, the location is still the Georgetown section of Washington, famous over the years as home to the liberal élite. I’ve never applied for “élite” membership. In fact, I live and work across the Potomac in Alexandria, Virginia.
Georgetown, however, in an odd, amusing way, has come to me. I’m just two letters away from being the editor at large of The Georgetowner (“the newspaper whose influence far exceeds its size”).
The real one is named David Roffman, and in past years I received a few of his phone calls. Nowadays I’ve started getting his Facebook and Twitter invitations. It’s an easy mistake to make. When it happens online, I confess to being the Virginia Rothman instead, but sometimes end up dropping by the virtual parties anyway.
You might also enjoy:- The Watergate editor and the society legend: A loving look at them by their son who lives ‘A Different Life’
- TheGeorgetownDish starts up: Hyperlocal newspaper war ahead? Or a friendly buyout?
- Rexwood Garst and the darker side of ‘meritocracy’ in journalism, politics and other fields
- Georgetown Dish joins TBD blog network: Deju vu angles—in Washington Post’s backyard
- Sally Quinn’s ‘Party’ column dropped from print: Shades of LBJ’s Hoover surprise for her husband?
From Bob Dylan to D.C.’s white-collar crooks: U.K. music site’s 3,000-word Q&A with David Rothman
Pennyblackmusic, a U.K. music site, has just posted a 3,000-word Q&A with David Rothman. Here’s the start.
Can Bob Dylan fit into a Washington novel? Actually yes, if you go by ‘The Solomon Scandals’ (Twilight Times Books).
Investigative reporter Jon Stone loves to swap ‘Dylan albums and pulpy old spy novels’ with a friend.
Stone’s fictional memoirs—inspired by such realities as a U.S. senator’s hidden investment in a CIA-occupied building—are in fact Dylan-sardonic.
In ‘It’s All Good’, Bob Dylan sings, ‘Big politicians telling lies/Restaurant kitchen, all full of flies… Buildings are crumbling in the neighborhood/But there’s nothing to worry about, ’cause it’s all good.’
Sure enough, in journalist David Rothman’s new D.C. novel, the Vulture’s Point high-rise on the Potomac River may crumble with more than a thousand IRS and CIA workers inside. Jon Stone’s editor is cronies with the builder Jon wants to expose…
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