Author Michael Moritz Discusses Steve Jobs and Apple in Fortune Magazine Interview

Fortune's Michael V. Copeland interviews Michael Moritz, author of Return to the Little Kingdom about the young Steve Jobs, what made Apple special from the start, and the common characteristics of extraordinary companies.

Q: What was Jobs' demeanor during the time that the Macintosh was being developed?
A: He was on a mission. And people who are on a mission and imbued with a sense of purpose are just unstoppable. His responsibility in those days was running the Macintosh division. That was the lens through which I saw him mainly.

Q: Was Apple as secretive then as it is today?
A: Back in the early '80s things weren't as secretive as they necessarily became later. There was always this joke back then that it was a company that leaked from the top. Those leaks were corked years later -- from the top.

Q: How has Jobs changed since the book was written?
A: You can never take the boy out of the man. In his youth he developed very worldly interests. He attained an aesthetic sensibility and always had the air of the bohemian poet about him. All of that was very apparent: the music he listened to, the books he read, the political leaders he admired. He had ferreted out this guy named Hartmut Esslinger, who at that point was one of the best product designers in the world. This was a guy nobody knew in America, and Steve found him in the Black Forest in Bavaria, and he got him working on Apple products. That was Steve. Steve's got a fabulous eye and a terrific ear. Most people in Silicon Valley or in the consumer electronics business are tone deaf, offkey. Steve has perfect pitch.

Q: How has your study of Jobs and Apple helped you in your job as a venture capitalist?
A: Extraordinary, rare companies -- like Apple in those first two or three years -- have some common traits. The individuals will be different, the businesses will be different, the decade will be different, but the purpose, the drive, the sense of mission, the intelligence of the founders -- those will be common. If you have been around the start of success, it's far easier to recognize it again.

Author Justin Allen Talks About THE YEAR OF THE HORSE

Justin Allen talks about his new novel The Year of the Horse in an interview on the popular blog MrsMagooReads.com:

Q: Year of the Horse is a mix of western, fantasy, and historical fiction. If you had to pick just one of the three genres to write in, which would you choose and why?
A: Darn! That’s a beast of a question. The whole basis of what I do, writing-wise, amounts to finding or making connections. How is fantasy connected to western? How is history related to fantasy? I think they’re all intertwined. Have you ever seen any of the old Clint Eastwood spaghetti-western movies? If you’re at all like me, you watch those movies and think – wait a minute, when exactly is this supposed to be taking place? You show me the Civil War, but don’t give me any details. And where are they anyway? How can that great big desert be right outside a Confederate Prisoner of War camp? That doesn’t look like any part of Georgia I’ve ever seen. Plus, how in heaven’s name does Clint’s gun always have just the right number of shells in it?
I guess that what I am trying to say is that for me these genres can not be separated. They are one and the same. They are ALL fantasy.

Q: Which of the characters in your novel do you most relate to?
A: You know, I’d like to say Lu. I really, really like Lu. Plus, he is the boy who gets chosen. But facts being what they are, I guess I am probably most like Sadie. Her upbringing is not so very different from mine. She grew up in the west, and so has a generous dollop of that coarseness that we westerners so like and admire. I think I am fairly loyal, as Sadie most assuredly is, and I hope I am as open to new ideas, new people, and new experiences (maybe I’m not, but at least I’m trying). Plus, I gave Sadie my desire to travel. I wish I could be as good-looking as Sadie, and could wind up with all her money, but those are just surface things. Money and looks aren’t everything - they’re not even the most important things. Sadie knows that, I think. I think she would agree with me in saying that character, the deepest most core attributes of a person, are what really count.

Q: What advice would you give to any aspiring young writers?
A: I’ll give you two pieces of advice - no extra charge.
First of all, read! And don’t just keep reading the same thing over and over. Read widely. New insights will come from reading books, articles and stories that seemingly have nothing whatsoever to do with the subject you think you are trying to hack out of the jungle of your mind. Read comic books and medical manuals, newspapers, blogs, the backs of cereal boxes, children’s picture books, mysteries, science fiction, the textbooks you are supposed to read for school anyway (but often don’t), plays and movie scripts, books that feel beyond your level, and books that are too young for you by far. Doesn’t hardly matter WHAT you read, merely that you READ. And second, strike adverbs from your writing. The adverb is the single most poisonous thing to be injected into any sentence. It steals from your verb, leaving it wimpy and weak. Worse yet, the adverb seldom (maybe never) adds any useful information to a sentence. The context of most any story or novel is such that the adverb is almost always superfluous. I tell you, adverbs ought to be declared illegal.

Michael Moritz's RETURN TO THE LITTLE KINGDOM in Fortune Magazine

Daniel Okrent of Fortune Magazine reviews Michael Moritz's The Return to the Little Kingdom: "In the early '80s, Jobs gave Time journalist Michael Moritz complete access to virtually every aspect of his life and of Apple, resulting in The Little Kingdom. Two things emerged from the experience: a fine book, and Jobs' decision to slam the door in the face of most serious journalists who came after. (He has made exceptions, but by some uncanny coincidence they've tended to occur in very close proximity to new product launches.)

Fine as The Little Kingdom is, since its publication in 1984 the Jobs canon has had to weather the passage of 25 years, one exile, an unlikely return, the iPod, the iPhone, suspended glass staircases, and a grave illness. Perhaps that's why Moritz, now a respected venture capitalist whose Sequoia Capital was a backer of Google, Yahoo, and PayPal, for starters, is re-releasing the book this month with a revamped title, Return to the Little Kingdom."

Overlook Celebrates WALKING ENGLISH with Author David Crystal

Friends of The Overlook Press celebrated the paperback release of David Crystal's Walking English last night, at a reception hosted by publisher Peter Mayer. Walking English is a thoroughly enjoyable read - a mesmerizing and entertaining narrative account of his encounters with the language and its speakers from all over the world. Woven from personal reflections, historical allusions, and observations of travelers, this fascinating journey through the language we use every day will have readers thinking twice about each word they speak.

More Praise for Penny Vincenzi's New Blockbuster WINDFALL

Another stellar review has come in for Penny Vincenzi's irresistable new novel Windfall: "In the mid-1930s, all of England --- especially the jet-setting upper class that brushes elbows with royalty on occasion --- is abuzz with rumors of the new young king, Edward VIII, and his scandalous relationship with the American divorcee, Wallis Warfield Simpson, a love affair that will create a constitutional crisis and ultimately result in Edward’s abdication of the throne.

This real-life historical drama lies in the background of Windfall, Penny Vincenzi’s latest book to be released in the United States (it was originally published in the United Kingdom in 1997). The royal crisis underscores several of the novel’s themes, most notably the transition between a “traditional” understanding of marriage and sexuality to one that more closely resembles our modern views. Vincenzi also explores the life-altering conflict between desire and duty and how it seems that a person can have one or the other, but never both.

Cassia Tallow, the complex heroine of Windfall, discovers her own conflict between duty and desire almost as soon as the novel opens when Cassia receives a large inheritance from her recently deceased godmother whom she had thought was penniless. She is now rich beyond her wildest dreams. At first, Cassia is drawn to the expected luxuries: a fancy sports car and chic clothes that she, as the mother of three young children and wife of a humble country doctor, could never have afforded before.

Soon, however, Cassia sets her sights somewhat higher as she realizes that this unexpected wealth might enable her to revive her own dreams of becoming a practicing physician, dreams that were thwarted when an unexpected pregnancy and reluctant marriage put an end to her promising medical school career. But her husband, Edward, who struggled to pass medical school, grows increasingly resentful of Cassia’s aspirations. He initiates a war of passive aggression that escalates when Cassia rents a house in London and when Edward sends their oldest son, only six years old, to boarding school.

Meanwhile, Cassia’s medical work near London has brought her back into the fashionable crowd with whom she associated in her younger, unmarried days. These include the second-rate actor Rupert Cameron, her oldest friend and first love, and the maddeningly stubborn and rakishly attractive Harry Moreton, who has long professed his alternating passion for and annoyance with Cassia. Fueled by her new financial independence, Cassia finds herself making questionable choices that could affect not only her friends but also her entire family. And, to complicate matters, Cassia soon starts to suspect that the inheritance from her godmother might not be quite what it seems, and it could even have a few strings attached.

Windfall starts by focusing quite exclusively on Cassia’s own story, beginning with her discovery of the inheritance and, through a series of flashbacks, introducing readers to the character’s history. As the novel does so, however, it also broadens gradually to encompass a dozen or more of Cassia’s friends and acquaintances, each of whom has his or her own story to be explored. Vincenzi manages to create the kind of broad, panoramic canvas she loves to paint, as marriages are threatened and destroyed, individuals come to the brink of despair or reinvent themselves in new and surprising ways, and the inevitable happy (but sometimes bittersweet) endings come into view.

Vincenzi excels at depicting the upper classes, at describing their elegant clothes and homes, their lavish parties, and also their petty squabbles. Here, though, she goes beyond mere idolatry of the rich, as she contrasts their internal dramas with the far more dire circumstances facing lower- and working-class women like the ones Cassia treats at her birth control clinics. She also explores conflicted and changing ideas of sexuality as they existed in the 1930s, depicting both characters who freely convey their era’s prejudices and those who are beginning to adopt more modern attitudes.

However, at the center of it all is Cassia, one of Vincenzi’s most complicated and compelling heroines. Despite her numerous ethically questionable choices, Cassia remains a genuinely sympathetic character, especially for modern women readers who will rejoice that the available choices for ambitious women have come so far from Cassia’s time. " - Norah Piehl, on Bookreporter.com

Harry Sidebottom's FIRE IN THE EAST Tops Overlook Bestseller List

On top of the Overlook Press bestseller list this week is a Harry Sidebottom's riveting novel of ancient Rome, Fire in the East, just published in a handsome trade paperback edition. The first book in a new series, "Warrior of Rome," Fire in the East is a magnificent combination of storytelling and scholarship.

The author, Harry Sidebottom, is a fellow of St. Benet’s Hall and lecturer at Lincoln College, Oxford University, where he specializes in ancient warfare and classical art.

Critical Praise for Fire in the East:

“Vivid, racy and gripping, Harry Sidebottom`s novel evokes the vividness, sexuality and humanity of the later Roman empire with a riot of colour. Yet he maintains a remarkable level of historical accuracy and faithfulness to what we know of the realities of the period – as one would expect from one of its major scholars who also happens to be a brilliant master of fiction.” -Dr Jas Elsner,Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford; Visiting Professor, University of Chicago.

“At last a piece of Roman historical fiction for grown ups” -Robert Low Author of The Oathsworn Series

“I do not think I have ever experienced antiquity so directly: the brutality, the directness of expression and feeling, the deep bonds formed amid unmitigated violence” -Prof David Konstan
Brown University

“Harry Sidebottom`s prose blazes with such searing scholarship that there is enormous enjoyment in this rumbustuous tale of the Late Roman Empire … Sidebottom treads in the footsteps of the greatest mimetic historian-storytellers of the 18th and 19th centuries. He makes you feel as though you were there.” -Bettany Hughes, The Times

“The strength of Warrior of Rome lies in the portrayal of its central character and his evolving relationships with a cast of minor characters … Sidebottom provides a well-constructed, well-paced and gripping account … which, as a good series should, leaves the reader eagerly anticipating the next instalment.” -Justin Warshaw, TLS

“In the third century AD the Roman empire was beginning its melt-down. It was horrible and violent. Harry Sidebottom`s epic tale starts with a chilling assassination and goes on, and up, from there. Well done to him for choosing this exciting period to set his Roman tale.” - Prof. Mary Beard, University of Cambridge

“Like Mary Renault meets Tom Clancy on speed, starring Russell Crowe as Ballista… brilliantly reconstructs the life of the ancient world, and in particular its military technology, and wraps it in a powerful narrative whose themes are classic in more ways than one… gives a glimpse of a little known period of Roman history – and it has some unexpected and disturbing parallels with contemporary headlines. Its the best sort of red-blooded historical fiction – solidly based on a profound understanding of what it meant to be alive in a particular time and place. Roll on 2 and 3”. -Andrew Taylor, Author of The Lydmouth Series and The American Boy.

Kevin Rafferty's Documentary Film HARVARD BEATS YALE 29-29 Celebrated in New Book

Stuart Schiffman of Bookreporter.com reviews Kevin Rafferty's new book Harvard Beats Yale 29-29, based on his award-winning documentary film: "Turning books into movies is often the subject for discussion and debate between readers and film aficionados. HARVARD BEATS YALE 29-29, by Kevin Rafferty, turns the debate on its ear due to its distinction of being a movie turned into a book. The book grew out of a documentary film of the famous Harvard-Yale football game played on November 23, 1968, when the undefeated Elis faced off against their traditional Crimson rivals in a battle for the Ivy League championship. Rafferty produced, directed, interviewed and photographed every player he could locate and then interspersed scenes from the epic game when Harvard scored 16 points in the final 42 seconds to turn defeat into --- well, a tie. In 1968, sudden death was not a part of college football. So the game ended with the score tied, but with Harvard feeling the exhilaration of victory while Yale deemed the final score a loss. Rafferty attended Harvard as part of his teenage rebellion against his family, a family connected to Yale through several generations. After graduation, he began a filmmaking career, and eventually that classic game became the focal point for a documentary. After viewing a videotape of the game and reliving the unbelievable conclusion, he decided upon a simple strategy for his documentary: let the players tell the story. Armed with a video camera and alumni lists, Rafferty set out across the country to interview the game participants. The interviews are woven into a film of the game itself as the players recall what occurred on the field and on campus during the 1968 football season. While the memories are fairly vivid, there are also some details that have grown fuzzy over the years, and he points out several inaccuracies in the players’ recollections. The movie, of course, has time limitations. If you enjoy the film, you must read Harvard Beats Yale 29-29. The biographies of the players, briefly introduced in the movie, are far more detailed, and we get to learn more about their lives since that fateful day. In addition, their thoughts about the game, life and football are more fully presented to readers. And through these stories, we see just how much the game of football --- and all that it represents --- has changed over the past 40 years. You’ll understand how Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 is about more than a football game. The material presented through lengthier interviews and additional anecdotes make the movie and book an inseparable combination. If you are a football fan, child of the 1960s, or just someone who enjoys an uplifting story, Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 will warm your heart. The movie-book dilemma is well known: sometimes it’s “read the book,” other times it’s “see the movie.” My advice is simple: do both. You will not be disappointed. "

Daniel Kalder, author of STRANGE TELESCOPES, at the Texas Book Festival

Joe Gross, books editor at the Austin American Statesman, reports on Daniel Kalder's appearance at the Texas Book Festival in Austin this weekend: " In his 2009 book, Strange Telescopes: Following the Apocalypse from Moscow to Siberia, Daniel Kalder hung around with a Russian fellow who declared himself the Messiah and had the followers to prove it, a Russian guy with a surreal English accent who performed underground exorcisms and a guy who knows so much about the tunnels under Moscow that he consults with special forces. Kalder described this last guy as “completely barking mad” more so even that dude who said he was the Christ.

And yes, when Kalder talked about it Sunday at the Texas Book Festival, he absolutely made it sound as cool as it reads on the page. The Scottish-born, Austin-residing writer has knocked out a couple of books about the ten years he spent in Russia at the end of the 20th century and the start of the 21st. When asked what set him on his quest, Kalder said growing up in an “astonishingly boring small town” in Scotland, it seemed like Russia was an ideal spot with a lot to do and a lot to learn. “It was like a parallel universe,” Kalder said. “with all these different groups and ethnicities entombed inside this old empire.” Much of the 50-minute hour was taken up with discussions of Vissarion, a former cab driver who, many years ago, had revelation that he was the son of God and started preaching in front a St .Basil’s. Noting the country’s religious traditions, Kalder said that “Russia was chockablock with Christs around this time.A lot faded, he grew.” Kalder visited Vissarion at his compound in remote Serbia, determined not to write the same old cult story. “I found a lot of highly intelligent, highly educated followers,” he said, including former rocket scientists and astrophysicists. “A lot of these people had been dissidents (under Soviet Communism), rock musicians,” Kalder said. “But Vissarion had built this perfect totalitarian system and these dissidents embraced totalitarianism in a new form.” By the way, you want to start a cult, Russia’s not a bad place. “(Russia is so big, if God starts talking to you, you can seal yourself off and construct an alternative world,” Kalder said.

When someone asked about a common thread among the converted, Kalder said the conversions stories sounded like any other: “The same as people you know who converted to Christianity or Communism; they were dissatisfied with reality to a certain degree, but who isn’t? I am, that’s why I did this,” he said, gesturing to the book."

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