So, I’m at the library, and in the new books section, I see the spine of a Raymond Chandler book called All That Glitters. Wow! A newly discovered Raymond Chandler I’ve never read? With a promising glam noir title?! So I pick it up and see this.
Bite me, Raymond Chandler.
I think I’m going to use the nom de plume “John Grisham” next book I write.
Have you read any of the Amazon reviews? Wow.
Bad, bad, really bad, fake-one written by the publisher, bad, bad, weird one by hysterical parent who rambles about child molesters, weird one “let’s protect the children”…
Weird stuff.
Doesn’t Amazon have anyway of distinguishing between like-named authors? Clicking on the authors name sends you to a list that includes The Big Sleep, The Lady in the Lake, etc. The Internet Movie Database will list John Smith (I), John Smith (II) to keep their details apart.
That whole thing is jus weird. I must’ve woken up in Bizarro World.
Dibs on “William Shakespeare”! :rolleyes:
The store should be burned, the publisher should be shot, and the author (whoever he really is) should be drawn and quartered. I’m still undecided about the editor who accepted a manuscript with that name on it.
I wish they’d just leave the poor guy alone 
The streets of Los Angeles seem paved with gold to those young men and women who come out for a new start. They have big dreams; dreams of their names in light, dreams of fame and glamour. But those of us who know the city know that what seems to be gold is only tarnished brass, and the lights are shadowed. The streets of Los Angeles are places of big dreams. But they’re also where dreams come to die.
I was in my office one September morning, trying to swallow something that was more like tar than coffee. I prefer bourbon to coffee, but a gentleman never drinks before noon. I was staring at the clock on my wall willing the hands to move, when there was a knock on my door.
“Come in”, I called out, hoping whoever it was would bring me some work rather than the bills too many messengers brought.
The door opened, and I beheld a vision of loveliness. She was tall and well featured, like a Greek sculpture carved out of ebony. She was wearing a low cut blouse and a short skirt, and her bosom was coming out over the blouse like bread dough rising over the top of the bowl. It was the type of outfit you wouldn’t wear to a football game.
“Mr. Marlowe”, the girl said, her voice like birds singing, “I need your help. I’ve come to you because you’re known to be the best detective in the city. My name is Janet Jackson. My brother Michael is in trouble”…
Raymond David Chandler is a real person, not a pen name. He’s an attorney practicing in Santa Barbara, California. An interview with him on CourtTV.
Me, too. I mean, he’s been dead 46 years now!
I’m sure he is. But if my name was Jane Austen, I’d think about writing under a different one.
Welcome to the SDMB, Michael!
–Cliffy
P.S. 
You rang?
Before I resume the Big Sleep, I’ll just say that in my day, we would have treated Michael Jackson to a little chin music.
Or perhaps use Raymond David Chandler on my book covers, instead of trying to capitalize on Raymond Chandler’s name.
Didn’t Michael J. Fox, just stick the “J” in there for no reason other than there was already one listed in the Guild?
I think that was Viveca A. Fox. As I recall, Michael J. Fox just decided to include his middle initial because he thought Michael Fox would sound like a made up name.
There was indeed another Michael Fox in the Screen Actors Guild.
Michael J. Fox’s real middle name is Andrew, but he thought “Michael A. Fox” sounded like he was bragging.
No, Michael J. Fox’s real middle name is Andrew. He did an interview back in the Back to the Future days in which he said he added a middle initial to avoid confusion problems with the (now dead) Michael Fox who was already registered with the guild with a huge whack of screen credits. He didn’t use his own initial because it would look stupid “Michael, a fox”.
I believe that’s a union rule; there’s no Book-Authors’ Guild.
–Cliffy
My wife is a massive Kathleen Norris fan but usually all I can find are books by Kathleen Norris. You’d think one of the top-selling authors of the 20th century would have her own listings at Amazon.
Oh, and Eve? Shrunk any heads lately?
And, of course, those Dopers who live in or around LA have probably heard Michael Jackson on his radio pragram.
Just for fun, go to www.imdb.com, and scroll all the way down to the bottom. What’s it say there?
IMDB is an Amazon.com company.
So why they cannot use the database (or at least some of the ideas), I shall never know.
There’s a whole stack of Michael Jacksons – there’s the BBC executive who financed Michael Moore’s TV series, and the voice actor who read the audio book version of James Gleick’s “Chaos” (among others). That’s besides the beer connoisseur noted above. I also noticed two newspaper reports about criminals named “Michael Jackson”, but in those cases the reports were careful to give each a middle initial – wouldn’t want The Gloved One to be confused with a common criminal, after all (beer drinkers and entertainment people are OK, though, apparently).
