new book
Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, by Seth Shostak
That's a photo of the next book I plan to review for Las Vegas Weekly. My last review, of Stacy Horn's Unbelievable, apparently provoked some strong reactions that had to be deleted from the Las Vegas Weekly website. Seemed like a pretty straightforward review to me...
Fool's Paradise: A Magician-Turned-Lawyer Investigates Deception in The City Built on Lies
I just finished the first 50 pages of my upcoming book, FOOL’S PARADISE: A Magician-Turned-Lawyer Investigates Deception in The City Built on Lies.
Here are three of my favorite sentences:
-“Lying and publishing go together like James Frey and crack.”
-“These women weren’t dressed like your typical prostitutes; these women were dressed like prostitutes, who, for Halloween, had decided to dress up as slutty hookers.”
“The mogul hired a philharmonic orchestra to underscore the 1,200-nozzel/50-million dollar dancing fountains’ debut with the sounds of Debussy’s Clair de Lune (the song from the end of Ocean’s Eleven) and Copland’s Appalachian Spring (the song from everything else except clashes between good and evil, which are set to Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana).”
(By the way, what do you think of the book’s working title: FOOL’S PARADISE: A Magician-Turned-Lawyer Investigates Deception in The City Built on Lies?
What you fail to grasp is
What you fail to grasp is that for the same reason people go to a movie to depart from reality for a few hours, people go to Las Vegas wishing to be deceived. No one wants to know how the movie's special effects are done or how many people in Vegas lie. Your book is going down a dead end path. Good thing you have a potential legal career.
Hi Counselor Anonymous, You
Hi Counselor Anonymous,
You seem to know a lot about my book. More than I do, even. You imply that I plan to argue that people don't wish to be deceived. But I never said that. Never said the opposite either. Haven't gotten there yet. I'm just on page 50. That said, if you know the ending of my book, do let me know. Could save me lots of time.
I love the sub heading (I
I love the sub heading (I feel strange calling it a sub title, though that's what it is, right?). I think it's informative and interest-peaking. But the main title is...perhaps meant to be an over-used cliche?
Is that my brother Devin?!
Is that my brother Devin?!
It's not your brother Devin.
It's not your brother Devin. Sorry.
But since I'm here I'd like to correct the spelling of the adjective I used in my previous comment. It should be "interest-piquing". For some reason that spelling mistake haunted me all night (after I shut down the computer and attempted to sleep), and I imagined other readers and writers looking at it and laughing at my elementary mistake. Sigh.
Hi Counselor Devin, and
Hi Counselor Devin, and welcome to the blog. Make yourself comfortable.
...and...uh, yeah, the main title is SO meant to be an over-used cliche...yeah...that's the ticket...
I like the title. I don't
I like the title. I don't like the sub-title. The sub-title does have "expose" connotations. "Investigates Deception" is the problematic clause for me. I'd avoid the book because it would come across as investigative journalism. Boring.
"peaks behind the curtain" would be more likely to pique my interest. But, that might be a little too specific micro-targeting.
How about: "FOOL’S
How about: "FOOL’S PARADISE: A fool and his paradise are soon parted"
or
"FOOL'S PARADISE: Read this book once, shame on you; read this book twice, shame on you again."
or... "peaks behind the
or... "peaks behind the neon curtain..."
Gotta agree with Counselor
Gotta agree with Counselor Steve.
I like the title but the sub-title needs work. Shorten it and make it more ... catchy. Yeah, yeah, I know ... everybody's a critic. :D
Instead of "the city built
Instead of "the city built on lies" how about just "sin city"? The city built on lies is a little too long and if sin city doesn't work then maybe something else that's shorter. I don't know all of vegas' nicknames.