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About to hit bookstores—”My First New York,” a compilation of memories by notable New Yorkers about their early days in the city. The book includes lots of entertaining stories, but this one brief anecdote from Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, talking about his early NYC days as a writer in the business section at Time magazine (this being 1978), caught our attention:

“Writers in those days typed on huge Underwood upright typewriters with five sheets of carbon paper separating the canary-yellow copy paper. When stories were done, we separated each of the copies and sent them by pneumatic tube to the editors who needed to see them. The work was put into the system, and in a few hours, a formal manuscript came back with the disheartening stamp ‘writer’s version’.”

In related news, the iPad will be released in ten days.

“My First New York,” New York magazine excerpt

With the book business taking hard hits in these recessionary times, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that authors and publishers are increasingly looking for new and unorthodox ways to get books into readers’ hands. Consider the case of Lori Degman, first time children’s book author. First she was told her book—”1 Zany Zoo”—was chosen to be distributed free in Cheerios boxes, then she was told the press run—2.2 million books. It’s all part of General Mills’ “Spoonfuls of Stories” campaign designed to put high-quality books into the hands of children. There, now isn’t that a nice story to start off the week?

Chicago Sun-Times

“In the first place, God made idiots. That
was for practice. Then He made school
boards.”

—Mark Twain

Mighty predictions for the 2010 baseball season here.

David Simon, creator of “The Wire,” on the set of his new HBO series, “Treme.”

It would take some serious doing.

David Simon, who worked the Baltimore Sun city desk for a dozen years before writing “Homicide” and “The Corner,” which ultimately led to his creation of “The Wire”—considered by many the best television story ever told—is now about to unleash “Treme,” an HBO series about musicians in post-Katrina New Orleans. The series is scheduled to debut April 11.

“New Orleans still makes something,” Simon tells writer Wyatt Mason, in a NYT Magazine story to be published this Sunday. “It makes moments. I don’t mean that to sound flippant, and I don’t mean it to sound more or less than what it is, but they’re artists with a moment, they can take a moment and make it into something so transcendent that you’re not quite sure that it happened or that you were a part of it.”

The series will feature roles by John Goodman and Melissa Leo, and include parts for musicians, “from Dr. John to Elvis Costello.”

The first season of “Treme” will consist of 10 episodes, including an 80-minute pilot episode.

NYT: The HBO Auteur
Video: David Simon and the making of “Treme”

“They Killed John Henry,” Justin Townes Earle

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Diane McKinney-Whetstone grew up in Philadelphia, the city that is both setting and character in her five novels: “Tumbling,” “Tempest Rising,” “Blues Dancing,” “Leaving Cecil Street” and “Trading Dreams at Midnight.”

Her novels have garnered many awards. Both “Leaving Cecil Street” and “Trading Dreams at Midnight” won the American Library Association (Black Caucus) Literary Award for Fiction and “Tumbling” drew high honors from groups ranging from the Athenaeum of Philadelphia to the national Go On Girl Book Club.

She has been a contributor to Essence Magazine and her work appears in the anthologies Bluelight Corner and Mending the World.

Diane is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and presently teaches fiction writing there. She is also a proud graduate of West Philadelphia High School and a member of the board of directors of the WPHS Alumni Association.

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