‘Cornerstone’ Author’S Web Page Gets Personal

The way the Internet is growing, it won’t be long before everyone has his or her own Web page.

Randall Beth Platt certainly does.

The Gig Harbor, Wash., author, whose last visit to Spokane was in support of her novel “The Four Arrows Fe-As-Ko,” certainly knows how to market her work. Not only does her personal Web page (www.3linedesign.com/randall/) list all her books, but she uses it to disclose some of her personal obsessions (handball) and occupational habits (she rises at 4 a.m. and writes until noon).

Platt will be in Spokane on Monday to read from her latest novel, “The Cornerstone” (see reader board).

She’s likely to pass on an interesting story about the book. Seems she wrote it a decade ago, had it optioned by Seattle-based actor Tom Skerritt in 1992 and saw its publication last November.

“The last word I got was that it will be filmed this August,” she said in a recent e-mail. “But you know Hollywood. I won’t believe it until I’m halfway - yes, HALFway through my box of popcorn as I sit and watch the movie.”

All the news that fits we print

If you read the New York Times Book Review, you probably trust that the editors there are doing their jobs efficiently and well. And no doubt they mostly are, but there always are problems.

In a recent story about the Times’ book section, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote about one particular embarrassment. It seems that the review editors nixed not just one but two reviews of a now-best-selling book titled “Woman: An Intimate Geography” written by the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer, Natalie Angier.

The first was a positive review penned by Marilyn Yalom. The problem: Angier had positively reviewed Yalom’s 1997 book, “A History of the Breast,” causing a bit of an ethical problem.

The second was a stinging review written by British author Helena Cronin. Editor Chip McGrath told Kurtz that he killed the review “not because I disagreed with the verdict, but because there was a tonal problem, a snarky tone that is par for the course in English reviews.”

The whole incident, McGrath admitted, was “unfortunate and doesn’t make us look good.” Even so, he insisted that no special preference was given to Angier just because she was a Times staff writer.

“We run unfavorable reviews of Times people all the time,” McGrath told Kurtz. “It’s always painful, but you do it.”

He’s a winner

Spokane author Mitch Finley scored again.

Finley, the author of some 30 books, won a first-place prize in the Gender Issues category at the recent awards ceremony held by the Catholic Press Association. He won for the book “For Men Only: Strategies for Living Catholic” (Liguori Publications,144 pages, $11.95 paper).

Finley, who writes a bi-weekly column for several Catholic newspapers, also won an honorable mention in the general commentary category.

Finley, who coordinates the author-reading series at Auntie’s Bookstore, has now won eight CPA awards.

Summer reading

The area Hastings stores will once again sponsor a Summer Reader Club, which is designed to encourage children to read once school is out. Membership to the club entitles buyers a 20-percent discount on children’s books.

For further information on the club, call Jeff Lovejoy at 535-4029.

Self-publishers, etc.

The June meeting of the Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers will be held at 12:30 p.m. Monday in the Coeur d’Alene Room of the Shilo Inn, 923 E. Third. The group will present its inaugural book fair, during which individual members’ published works and works-in-progress will be on display. The meeting is open to the public. For further information, call Dan Vollmer at 924-3702.

A dramatic reading

Kevan Gardner, a Spokane artist/ activist, will do a dramatic reading of “Sanctuary: A Tale of Life in the Woods,” a fable by the late Paul Monette, at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington. For further information, call 838-0206.

What’s your signing?

R.J. Cohn, author of “Bakers Gold,” will sign copies of his book beginning at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Valley Hastings, 15312 E. Sprague. For further information, call 924-0667.

Denise Hansen, author of “Eating Off the Grid,” will sign copies of her cookbook beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday at the North Spokane Hastings, 7706 N. Division. For further information, call 483-2154.

The reader board

Randall Beth Platt, author of “The Cornerstone,” will read from her novel at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

Poets Scott Poole, Christopher Howell and Pierre Delattre will read from their respective collected works at 7 p.m. Thursday at Auntie’s Bookstore. Poole’s latest collection is “The Cheap Seats.”