Montclair makes the Jersey section of today’s New York Times in two stories: an essay by novelist Pam Satran about how packed Montclair is with novelists, and a story, headlined “A Bus Company Run Over by a Train,” which details DeCamp’s woes since NJ Transit’s Midtown Direct service went into effect.
Satran’s piece discusses the social ramifications of town lousy with scribes.
The town’s literary agents, book editors and reviewers (there are plenty of those, too) have learned to lay low, for fear of getting buttonholed by a hopeful author bearing a gravestone of a manuscript. Anything from the school pancake breakfast to a dip in the local pool can morph into an impromptu literary powwow….
By the way, the Barista’s got a very nice 300-page novel ready to sell to the highest bidder. It’s called “Rattled” and it’s about what happens when a vain housewife moves into a McMansion in the Pine Barrens and discovers endangered rattlesnakes in her backyard. Make us an offer, and we’ll even throw in a few extra carpool shifts to Essex Youth Theater or Hebrew School…. Hey, isn’t this how it works? Pam?