Chess Gladiator - those who are about to die, salute you!

Dear England, after a long wait the World Chess Championship began on October 14th between chess titans Viswanathan Anand of India and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. Even to non-believers, chess never got so exciting! And that's saying something. The website is http://www.uep-chess.com/cms_english where previously played games are free to watch, and you can pay to watch the games live - if you have time!

In the meantime, check out the above image which allows you to play chess for real money against other competitors, and you can decide your own level of ability and risk. See http://www.chessgladiator.com/ or click on the above gladiator pic!

Let the best Paul Morphy win!

F. Scott Fitzgerald's briefcase!

Dear England, I'm a big F. Scott Fitzgerald fan, and here is...his briefcase! Funny the things you can find on the internet (internetS - ed). The monogram reads: "Scott Fitzgerald 597 - 5th Ave.New York" and the address is of Fitzgerald's publisher, Charles Scribner's Sons.

I'm amazed that Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe all had the same editor - Maxwell Perkins. A great biography of how Perkins juggled, guided and encouraged these three temperamental writers is A. Scott Berg's Max Perkins: Editor of Genius. While Fitzgerald was always broke and Hemingway always getting into scrapes, Wolfe quietly wrote one endless manuscript (on the top of the fridge, standing up!) that Perkins would have to cut down into publishable novels!

Who was the most troublesome, it's hard to say?

Check it out!

Picture (for no reason at all) #5

Sushi - like it should be! Fresh from the biggest fresh fish market in the world, Tsukiji Market in Tokyo, Japan. Check it out here!

Kerouac House - I am Alternate!

I am pleased to say I am the alternate choice to live in Jack Kerouac's old house for 3 months! The Kerouac House in Orlando, Florida, is the house Kerouac lived in with his mother when On The Road was published, made him famous, and where he subsequently wrote The Dharma Bums!

If Brian Turner, the soldier-poet known for his 2005 poetry volume Here, Bullet decides not to live in the house (from June-August 2009), I am first alternate choice!

Voila the house!

The Kerouac House is now run by the Kerouac Project of Orlando at http://www.kerouacproject.org/ Plus you can tour the Kerouac House here.

I recommend the Jack Kerouac biography called Memory Babe (his childhood nickname)- the most readable and detailed biography in my view. More about Jack can be found here.

Matt wins Unpublished Novel Competition!

Bookhabit.com is pleased to announce the winner of the inaugural Bookhabit Unpublished Competition is Matt Fullerty's The Pride and the Sorrow. Matt receives a US$5000 prize and is "thrilled" about winning the first Bookhabit competition. We will be posting an interview with Matt on Bookhabit.com shortly. Congratulations from Bookhabit! You can see full details with an endorsement of the novel at http://www.bookhabit.com/newsdetail.php?nid=48

The Pride and the Sorrow is the story of Paul Morphy (1837-1884), born in New Orleans as a chess prodigy, his famous journey through Europe and his ultimate downfall on and off the chessboard. He is celebrated in fashionable European society, honored by Napoleon III of France and Queen Victoria of England and returns to New Orleans a local celebrity, only to find Civil War looming, a storm brewing in his family and his own mind coming apart ...

The novel itself is available at http://bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=459