…and neither item involves a book being published. Just catching up on things here, some of it a few days old.
First up, Amazon.com cut ties with North Carolina business and individuals taking part in its often controversial affiliate program — a proactive move to dodge changes in sales tax laws currently under consideration in the General Assembly. The Wall Street Journal weighed in here a couple of days ago — and just this afternoon covered a similarly unfolding situation in Hawaii. A story worth following and, obviously, continually developing.
Second, about ten days ago, Martha Waggoner, a Raleigh-based AP writer, reported on the recent legal and personal troubles of novelist Kaye Gibbons, author of the Oprah Book Club picks Ellen Foster and Charms for the Easy Life and not only an old friend of Metro Magazine (under whose aegis I write this blog) but also a friend of mine whom I’ve interviewed on more than one occasion. Gibbons is a gifted writer, no doubt about that, and we wish her the best during this dark and difficult chapter.