Jane Austen wrote for herself, not her contemporaries. Her earliest reviewers were less than fully gung-ho about her fiction. Among other things, if you go by a recent book by Claire Harman, certain critics felt Austen’s writing wasn’t fresh enough. Talk about critical blunders! It took decades and decades, but the world finally caught up […]
Read MoreHow to ‘Scandalize’ your book group—either the online or in-person kind
The Solomon Scandals is fiction—a mix of suspense, tragedy and satire—but more than a little history lurks within in it. A high-rise collapsed in Northern Virginia, and a Senator really did hold a secret and illegal investment in a CIA-occupied building a few miles away. Characters and events are composites or imaginary. But Scandals still […]
Read More‘Tabloid City’ vs. ‘The Solomon Scandals’: A quick, friendly comparison between Pete Hamill’s newspaper novel and mine
Pete Hamill is out with Tabloid City, a New York newspaper novel commanding its share of pixels, column inches and decibels. If the rest of Tabloid City is like the first parts, I could never have written his book, just as The Solomon Scandals would have been impossible for him—we see life, newspapers and fiction […]
Read More‘White House Girlz of DC’? ‘Sorority putsch’ against Social Secretary Desiree Rodgers?
The Georgetown Dish has the details about the women of 3303 Water St., N.W. Once again Life catches up with Scandals, which the item in fact mentions. Shown is an example of the “minimalist aesthetic” amid which a plot might have unfolded against the White House social secretary.
Read MoreWhy Editor & Publisher will NEVER review ‘The Solomon Scandals’
I love newspapers, but I’m not sure if that’s always returned. As a journalist friend put it, quoting a popular song in discussing The Solomon Scandals, “Sometimes when we touch, the honesty’s too much.” Whatever the case, it’s sad to hear of the passing of Editor & Publisher, the bible of the newspaper trade—begun 108 […]
Read MoreThe 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 elite. I’ve never applied for “elite” […]
Read MoreFrom 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 […]
Read MoreFree audio of ‘Scandals’ start is now online for everyone
A free MP3 of the start of The Solomon Scandals—one hour of a total of about eight—is now online for everyone to download for iPods or other players. You don’t have to be print-challenged to qualify. Click here to get the file, which includes an audio overview. Big thanks to librarian Tom Peters, the narrator […]
Read MoreJuly 21 global chatcast—with free ‘Scandals’ MP3s for the blind and other print-challenged people
The Solomon Scandals will be featured on July 21 at 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time in a global chatcast hosted by Tom Peters, main interviewer for Online Programming for All Libraries. You’ll be able to hear Tom (first photo) and author David Rothman (second) and ask questions. Go here for instructions for the chatcast, and […]
Read More‘Solomon Scandals’ in Fairfax County (VA) library podcast
I’m a big booster of public libraries, and The Solomon Scandals reflects that. Wendy Blevin, the gossip columnist, is a literacy volunteer at the Martin Luther King branch of the D.C. public library system—and, yes, as you’ll see, that fits her character. As a library fan, I was tickled to be interviewed on Scandals and […]
Read MoreWhat Epublishers Weekly says about ‘Scandals’
Below are excerpts from Michael Pastore’s review in Epublishers Weekly. “Three things about this novel impressed me. Real settings (D.C. by someone who knows it intimately), and real events…are skillfully interweaved with the fictional characters and plot. The book’s women are especially likable: they radiate that screwball-comedy pizzazz a la Roz Russell’s Hildy Johnson in […]
Read More‘Page-turner’? Or ‘page-tapper’? Just what do you call an e-novel you like?
In a review of The Solomon Scandals for the Washington City Paper, Ted Scheinman said, “It’s hard to call an e-book a page-turner—novels like The Solomon Scandals require a new word.” Fair enough. I can live with such uncertainty if need be. But wait. Kirk Biglione over at Medialoper (photo) has come up with a […]
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