Winfrey Readin'

Zuba and I talked yesterday for the longest time.  We don't get to do that much, but the stars happened to align, and it's always a gas when we get to have a nice long call.  We were talking about the book at some point, and she told me she keeps a hard copy of it in a binder - she was one of my readers once upon a time.  A friend of hers was over at the house once, and she was telling me yesterday - "She asked me if you had thought about submitting this to Oprah."

Heh.

Of course, this point is moot - not only with The Big O having retired her big show, but also given the fact that (even if she had time to read all the insane amounts of pitches one imagines a magnate such as herself must receive in an endless and misguided flow) Oprah is not actually in publishing.  Yes, she publishES - sure.  But she's not an imprint, and she's not an agent.  I have enough education in this field to know what doesn't work - and tugging the prodigious sleeve of Ms. Winfrey is as useful as recording a YouTube of my pitch and rilly rilly rilly RILLY hoping that my dream agent will come find ME.  Without any work.

Still.  Part of the reason for my "heh" above is that ... truth be told, In the Beginning - I did actually mention a couple of times how Oprah had featured "Pillars of the Earth" on her book club in November 2007.  The problem is, of course, in 2011 (almost 2012) discussing what a now-defunct talk show featured four years ago is about as effective as discussing the economy in 2007 terms.  The cycle is past, the (publishing) world has moved on.  In 2007 Harry Potter was still alive and so was Osama bin Laden.  2007 was another time, another place.

But in 2007 "The Tudors" cropped up, and reminded people how much they like histfic (emphasis on the FIC) for several years going.  "Spartacus:  Blood and Sand" (RIP Andy Whitfield) reminded them how much fun it is to turn it into Grand Guignol.  Wolf Hall won the Man Booker in 2009, and their long and short lists don't ignore histfic with any sort of reliable snobbery.

I just didn't happen to write about the Tudors.  They do seem perennial sellers - but they aren't the only history worth telling.  (And even they consist of more than Eight, Ann, and Elizabeth.)  It happens, I refuse to believe the Tudors are the start and end of interesting stories in history.  I have it on good authority, too:  I am not the only such blasphemer ...

Just think - Oprah herself read, with enthusiasm, about beheadings in medieval times, and exhorted a vast array of readership to do the same along with her.

Can ax-ings in Late Antiquity/the "Dark Ages" really be so far behind ... ?