Last year Selby had two books

Two new books.  He has written a total of seven, all of which are available at the Fests.

Unfortunately, I just found out about this event, so I doubt any of our cousins will make it, but I thought it would still be of interest to those who cannot attend. As part of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, David Selby will be introducing Man Hunt, a 1941 film noir piece directed by Fritz Lang and starring Walter Pidgeon and Joan Bennett. He'll be introducing the film because of his Dark Shadows connection with Joan Bennett. The screening takes place this evening at the Galaxy Theatres in Atascadero, CA.

Tickets/info on the SLOIFF web site: http://slofilmfest.org/2011/classic.shtml

David Selby appears in the popular Adventures in Odyssey children's audio dramas in a series of episodes entitled "The Green Ring Conspiracy" that will be posted online beginning Saturday, March 12, though it appears that his character will not appear until the second episode in the series. New episodes will be available on Saturdays.

http://www.whitsend.org/radio/

where  could  we  view  this  clip  from the  Oscars?

The clip that they showed was a cut from this scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFFtpd8VNN0

Seth Grahame-Smith added to the original and he included Jane Austen's name because had he not it would have been plagiarism. That should tell you something.

The inclusion of Austen's name on Seth Grahame-Smith's book had to do with the fact that he used exact phrasing from Austen. There's a cottage industry of fiction derived from Austen's novels, including books like Mr. Darcy, Vampire, that don't give a byline to Austen because they don't use her exact words.

If you have an interest in the topic of plagiarism and intellectual property rights beyond posting about it here, let me recommend Thomas Mallon's Stolen Words. He discusses the psychology of the plagiarist, and he has an interesting final chapter about a lawsuit involving Earl Hamner's Falcon Crest series. Hamner was accused of ripping off Anita Clay Kornfeld's novel Vintage. Ultimately, Hamner won the case because it was demonstrated that both works relied on standard characters and plot devices associated with the family saga, and earlier works were actually cited as a shared inspiration.

In the case of Austen and some of the horror texts, films, etc. that have been mentioned in this discussion, one or two works eventually inspired a whole genre once they were allowed to come into the public domain. If you don't allow derivative works to exist at some point, then the arts would've died centuries ago.

Too bad we can't go back in time to get ratings for Mr Selby when he was teaching in grad school. I can only imagine some of the comments! 

I'm pretty sure his teaching stint was limited to a semester or two, and, by his own admission, he sucked. Then again, any grad student who thinks s/he is a brilliant teacher in the first few semesters probably has a tenuous grip on reality.

Here's a review of David Selby's The Blue Door by Norman Julian, a contributor to the Dominion Post in Selby's hometown of Morgantown, West Virginia:

http://blog.wvwriters.org/2011/01/fwd-book-review-of-david-selbys-new.html

Signed copies of The Blue Door are available from DavidSelby.com. Selby now personalizes all signed books sold through his site.