Writers and Editors

The following dispatches and quotes about the late beloved Marc Pachter are posted here on my Writers and Editors blog partly to make it easy for Marc's friends and colleagues to post comments. Marc died after a yearlong celebration of his 80th birthday, filled with travels to his favorite people, haunts, and cultural hotspots in Asia, Europe, South America, and the United States.

 

You can watch the Memorial service for Marc Pachter, April 13, 2024 (video online), held at the National Portrait Gallery.

 

• Marc Pachter, Who Revived National Portrait Gallery, Dies at 80 (Sam Roberts, NY Times, 2-23-24)
     Marc Pachter, who transformed the National Portrait Gallery in Washington from a collection primarily of solemn paintings of old white men into a more up-to-date museum that now includes illustrations and interviews with diverse living luminaries, died on Feb. 17 in Bangkok. He was 80.
     The cause was cardiac arrest, his son, Adam, said. Mr. Pachter, who [after many years of living in Washington DC] lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, died in a hospital while vacationing in Thailand.
     As director of the Portrait Gallery from 2000 to 2007, Mr. Pachter presided over a $300 million renovation that reimagined the museum while maintaining its artistic integrity.

     A memorial service was held at the National Portrait Gallery on Saturday, April 13, at 9 am in the Kugod Courtyard (at 8th and G Streets NW, DC).

     It was a beautiful day in a beautiful setting, and it was particularly nice to hear Marc's son and daughter, Adam and Gillian, talk about life with their delightfully nontraditional father.

 

• Marc's memorable talk on the Living Self Portrait Series (Marc Pachter, Director Emeritus, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (EG3) February, 2008)

     If you listen to nothing else, listen to this lecture. Marc started to worry about the fact that people didn't get their portraits painted anymore, so he came up with the remarkable Living Self-Portrait Series. As a cultural historian, Marc conducted live interviews with  Read More 

What should it be? Black and white?  Black and White? black and white?

A few well-expressed opinions, handy for classroom and copy desk arguments.

Frequently updated and as of 11-20-24  there is no clear consensus on which of the two words (black, white) to capitalize or why.

But here you can find arguments about what's proper: 

• The Case for Capitalizing the B in Black (Kwame Anthony Appiah, The Atlantic,6-18-2020) 'The style guide of the American Psychological Association declares, as it has for a generation: “Racial and ethnic groups are designated by proper nouns and are capitalized. Therefore, use ‘Black’ and ‘White’ instead of ‘black’ and ‘white.’” That seems sensible enough. But for some people, White is the sticking point. As The American Heritage Dictionary (on whose usage panel, now disbanded, I have served) ventured, in its fourth edition: “In all likelihood, uncertainty as to the mode of styling of white has dissuaded many publications from adopting the capitalized form Black.”

• The decision to capitalize Black(John Daniszewski, The Definitive Source, AP, 7-19-20) AP’s style is now to capitalize Black in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa. The lowercase black is a color, not a Read More 

Expect to hear continuing controversy about the 2023 Hugo Awards, awarded at the Worldcon convention held in Chengdu, China. Several authors who should have qualified for the science fiction awards were disqualified without any explanation, including R.F. Kuang, author of Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence, Xiran Jay Zhao, author of Iron Widow, and Paul Weimer, who would have been eligible for Best Fan Writer as well as an episode of Netflix's The Sandman series.

 

• Worldcon in the news Charlie Stross, Charlie's Diary, 1-26-24) "The important thing to note is that the 'worldcon' is *not a permanent organization. It's more like a virus that latches onto an SF convention, infects it  Read More 

New in 2024:

(updated 11-20-24)

The BOI E-Filing System supports the electronic filing of the Beneficial Ownership Information Report (BOIR) under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)--"beneficial ownership information" meaning information about the individuals who directly or indirectly own or control a company. The CTA requires certain types of U.S. and foreign entities to report beneficial ownership information to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

   [Emphasis here and below added for clarity about what this is all about. Let me know if someone presents crystal clear and concise information anywhere about who has to do what. In particular, do freelance writers and writing firms need to comply? Meanwhile, read this only when brain working at full capacity.]

• Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) for Authors: Everything You Need to Know (Kevin J. Duncan, Kindlepreneur,12-18-24) Who has to file a BOI report? Every LLC, corporation, or other entity that was created by filing a document with a secretary of state or equivalent office must file a BOI report unless it qualifies for one of the CTA's exemptions.

• New Federal Reporting Requirement for Who Does Not Have to Report? Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, www.fincen.gov/boi FinCEN’s Small Entity Compliance Guide includes checklists for each of the 23 exemptions  Read More 

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• The Women In Publishing Summit

    Virtual, March 6-9, 2024

• BookMARCon 2024

    Virtual, April 5-7, 2024

• Pikes Peak Writers Conference

    Colorado Springs, Colorado, April 25-28, 2024

• Inkers Con 2024

    Dallas, TX June 7-9, 2024

     Attended by several hundred people, perhaps 75% new authors. If you can't attend the live conference, pay for online access (good for 6 years or so) at Inkers Con Digital Conference (July 20 to August 2, 2024). Bestselling author Pamela Kelley says "InkersCon is fantastic. A smaller conference, about the same size as NINC around 400-450 or so people and a good range of workshops. It's held in Dallas I think. I do the virtual every year and it's about $200 and well worth it--as we have access for six years. Some really great sessions."

• The Self Publishing Show LIVE!

    Live, London’s South Bank, June 25-26, 2024

• Killer Nashville

    International Writers Conference, Nashville, Tennessee, August 22-25, 2024

    For writers in all genres incorporating mystery, thriller, action, or suspense elements

• NINC 

    Novelists, Inc., TradeWinds Island Grand Beach Resort, St. Pete Beach, Florida, September 18-22, 2024

      Writes bestselling novelist Pamela Kelley: "NINC is for more experienced authors, both trad and indie, and meets yearly in St. Pete, Florida. I don't go for the workshops, I go for the networking with vendors and to see my author friends. NINC is the one I never miss and the only one I attended in-person last year."
• Moonlight & Magnolias

    Romance Writers conference, Atlanta, Georgia, October 3-5, 2024

• Self-Pub Con

    The Self-Publishing Advice Conference, a free online author conference run in association with the Alliance of Independent Authors (three days, October 21-24, 2024)

• Author Nation

    Las Vegas, NV, November 11-15, 2024

     Taking over from the 20Books conference, last held in 2023.  On YouTube: 20Booksto50k[R]-Live Events, check out 20Books sessions from past years, free). Author Nation has the same location and general timing as 20Books, but is different. Listen to past events here.

       Writes popular novelist Pamela Kelley in 2024: "I went to Author Nation a few years ago when it was 20books. It only changed hands this year because the organizer retired from doing it--it's a huge project--close to 2000 attendees in Vegas. It's a great conference, very inexpensive and there are sessions for all levels. It's probably about 75% newer authors so new people shouldn't feel intimidated--they will be in good company as it's a friendly, inclusive conference. And all the sessions from past years are up for free on Youtube. I don't know if that will continue now that it's Author Nation, there may be a fee attached to the videos going forward, possibly."

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ROUNDUP ARTICLES
• Eight Indie Author Conferences to Attend In 2024

     (Clayton Noblit, Written Word Media, 1-24-24)
• 5 Amazing Conferences For Indie Authors To Attend in 2024 (Mackenzie Harrison, BookBrush)
• A Guide to the Best Author Conferences (Self-Publishing.com, 5-3-23) Not necessarily indie author events.

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