‘Jaws at 35,000 feet’: the flight attendant whose thriller debut sold for seven figures

TJ Newman dreamt up her terror-in-the-skies novel Falling while guarding the cockpit as the pilots took a toilet break. She reveals how she kept going through furlough and 41 rejectionsFlight attendant Torri Newman was working on the red-eye flight from Los Angeles to New York when the idea for her debut novel came to her. To be precise, she was blocking access to the cockpit, a security procedure required when pilots take a toilet break. “I was standing at the front of the airplane,” she says, “looking out at the passengers. It was dark and they were all asleep. And I had this thought, ‘All of their lives, our lives, are in the hands of the pilots.’ That’s not exactly new – but the flipside of that also came to mind. With that much power and responsibility, how vulnerable does that make a commercial pilot?”Newman, speaking via Zoom from her home in Phoenix, Arizona, was rattled. “I just couldn’t shake the thought. A few days later, I was working a different trip with a different set of pilots, and I said to the captain, ‘Hey, what would you do if your family was taken, and you were told that if you didn’t crash the plane, they would be killed?” What was his reaction? “He had no clue what he would do – the thought terrified him.”I almost gave up. But seeing two authors at a Q&A reminded my why I had to keep going Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2021-05-04 05:00:21 UTC ]
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BBC spends £1.3m on flights between London and Manchester over two years

Cost of rail travel for more than 100 managers has also risen since relocation to MediaCity in Salford QuaysThe suspicion that British Airways and Virgin Trains would be among the beneficiaries of the BBC's move to Salford appears to be born out by figures on travel costs published this week.In... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2013-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple Doesn't Want to Pay the Feds' E-Book Lawyer $70,000 a Week

Apple lost its antitrust ebook trial this summer. Now it has to pay a court-appointed attorney more than $1,100 an hour to keep tabs on itself. Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2013-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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James Carol crime debut gets TV series

Sprout Pictures, the independent film and TV company run by Stephen Fry, has optioned James... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Six-figure deal for 900-page first novel

Garth Risk Hallberg's City on Fire described by publisher as 'best American novel I've ever read'Fresh from selling film rights to Scott Rudin and signing a $2m publishing deal in the US, the novelist Garth Risk Hallberg has struck a "substantial" six-figure deal with Jonathan Cape in the UK for... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2013-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Audible buys rights to 5,000 AudioGO titles

Amazon-owned audiobook seller Audible has bought rights to 5,000 of AudioGO's titles.... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital publishing startup Booktrope wins $205,000 in angel investment

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[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2013-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For a £25,000 Fee, Jeffrey Archer Is Still Extremely Quotable

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Debut novelist wins Goldsmiths prize

A debut novelist who spent nine years trying to get her first book published is rewarded for her persistence with a £10,000 literary prize for original fiction. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2013-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book Country Debuts Curated Kickstarter Page

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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VIDEO: Wonderland artist's books sold

A collection of first edition books illustrated by the Edwardian artist Arthur Rackham has sold for more than £40,000 at auction. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2013-11-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Allrecipes Print Magazine Debuts

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[ Folio Magazine | 2013-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tor buys fantasy debut

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[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's Matchbook service now live, works with over 70,000 books for $3 or less

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[ Engadget | 2013-10-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Spain’s Clara Sánchez wins €601,000 Planeta Prize

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-10-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Frankfurt Book Fair 2013: A Busy Fair Despite Lower Attendance

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-10-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bridget Jones: first-day sales 'topped 46,000'

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[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Frankfurt Book Fair 2013: Knopf Nabs Galassi's Debut Novel

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Frankfurt Book Fair 2013: Debut From Joshua Ferris’s Wife Draws Buzz, Along With Co-Authored Iraq War Novel

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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