Richard Sanders

I worked as an Executive Editor at Entertainment Weekly for 11 years and (in two separate stints) at People magazine and people.com for 12 years. I often speak to young journalists and try to use myself as an example for inspiration—a guy who spent time in jail, rehab and a psych ward and somehow went on to become a successful editor at Time Inc. and managed to keep himself sane and alive. I’ve tried to reflect those experiences in these books

My wife, Laurie, and I live in Garden City, N.Y..

Twitter: @richardsanders
Facebook: Facebook profile
Blog: http://rsandersblog.wordpress.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Richard-Sanders/e/B001K7XEIM/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

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• Life Seemed Good, But.... A Collection of Short Quirky Stories on March 20, 2011
  
  I’ve never read anything quite like LIFE SEEMED GOOD, BUT…, and I mean that in a good way. Certain comparisons almost come to mind: Mark Twain on mushrooms? Garrison Keillor with food poisoning? Maybe, but those examples don’t really capture the special, twisted magic of Richard Bell’s universe or his unique way of seeing things. His world is a strange one, filled as it is with belligerent kangaroos, idiotic trolls, extrasensory potatoes, angry Cajuns, preoccupied Lithuanians, cribbage-playing dragons and various unhealthy obsessions with the mystical properties of tin foil. It’s a loopy place, for sure. And yet somehow, through stories that are by turns hilarious, wry, bittersweet and sometimes all three at the same time, this fractured fairy-tale world turns out to be our own. I don’t know how he does it. Maybe he’s a genius, but why insult the man? All I know is that when I finished Life Seemed Good, But… I had an urge to scrawl something on the bathroom walls of the world: For a good time, call Richard Bell. Or at least buy his book. Richard Sanders, DEAD LINE
  
• Sam, the Strawb Part on Oct. 21, 2011
  
  There are two solid reasons to buy Scott Bury’s short story, Sam the Strawb Part. (1) All proceeds go to Children At Risk, an Ottawa-based charity for kids with autism spectrum disorders, so for a mere $1.99 you’re contributing to a worthy cause. (2) For a mere $1.99, you’re getting a entertaining read that’s worth a lot more. The hero of this fractured fairy tale is a boy who loves strawberries so much he plunders them from unsuspecting shoppers. In other words, he’s a strawberry pirate. Though, as Bury tells us, “Sam had a habit of talking very quickly and slurring his words without enunciating, so he described himself as ‘a strawb part.’” Bury has written one of those stories that can be read by children but enjoyed by adults, thanks to its liberal doses of absurdist humor. Here’s a sample: “The Senior Director was the most obese man on the planet. He wore a dark grey suit and a white shirt that bulged at all the buttons. There was not a tie in the world that could go around his neck, so he wore an open collar.” The Senior Director is one of the executives of the East Canada Fruit Company. Alarmed by the great losses to their strawberry inventory, they mount a campaign to capture Sam. The chase leads to wild adventures, media notoriety and eventually to lessons learned about life (including how to coach the Canadian team for the Tour de France). In other words, the story covers a lot of territory in 20 pages. For $1.99, you could do much worse.