Friday Morning Egg McMuffin (We're in a hurry)

This is BYOB (bring your own breakfast) day at the cafe. Fear not, though: the beer is flowing like . . . beer.

Chug this: Today's P5 (what is this?) . . .

(1) SUFFER IN SILENCE: 8,122 5
(2) WAITING FOR THE WORLD TO END: 14,775 6
(3) COOKIN' FOR LOVE: 56,349 6
(4) A SMALL CASE OF MURDER: 94,398 5
(5) INFERTILITY SUCKS: 111,190 5
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What about this tasty tidbit (courtesy of the master of the [publishing] universe, Michael Cader, over at Publishers Marketplace):

-- New York's Mercantile Library is celebrating its devotion entirely to fiction with the initiation of an annual Maxwell E. Perkins Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Field of Fiction, honoring "an editor, publisher, or agent who over the course of his or her career has discovered, nurtured, and championed writers of fiction in the U.S." The first winner is Nan Talese.

What is going on here? We're run out of ways to award authors so now we need to get their editors and agents into the picture? Sounds like a great idea. Let's award someone for taking 15% (and 20% on foreign and film!) of another person's work. Or better, lets give an award to an editor for having the best agent contact list. I mean, c'mon. These people don't produce anything. Even my agent and editor will admit they can't write worth a stone. What next, awarding Sports agents?
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People are always asking me (besides who are you) what I am reading. Well, the answer is this: the first few chapters of a lot of very bad books churned out over at Lightning Source. (As well as a handful of PODs that just light my world on fire! See the list to the right.)

I do, however, infuse some traditionally published books into my diet, to assure myself that good books get published, and to make sure I do not let my own writing deteriorate from exposure to inferior text.

So . . . what's on my nightstand, besides a two-gallon jug of wrinkle cream? Here you go (all are excellent, by the way):

LUNAR PARK by Bret Easton Ellis

FLIRTING WITH PRIDE & PREJUDICE edited by Jennifer Crusie

MY FRIEND LEONARD by James Frey

FREAKONOMICS by Levitt/Dubner

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See you next week, with treasure posted first thing Monday morn (before the sun rises!)