Writing’s the Easy Part
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But Brown stuck to it. He worked as a computer consultant by day and continued to write at night and on weekends. Lacking an agent, he stayed away from the big New York publishers. Instead he sent out nearly 300 query letters to small presses all over the country. Eventually he heard from Bill Meyers, who owns III Publishing, a tiny operation in Gualala, California, that puts out two or three titles a year. Meyers says he was immediately attracted to Brown’s novel, Deconstruction Acres, a satirical look at life in a small university town (one professor pens a tome deconstructing the 60s sitcom Green Acres). “I mainly publish satire,” explains Meyers, who adds that Brown’s book may be “less political” than most of the fiction he publishes, but he was won over by the strength of the writing. Still, Meyers says, taking on the book is “a gamble,” because Brown has no track record. An early review in Publisher’s Weekly didn’t help matters; the influential trade magazine called the novel “a clunky gown-town farce.” Meyers downplays the importance of the nasty notice: “I’ve done OK without that magazine so far.”
Performing Arts Center Seeks Manager, Momentum
A marriage may be in the works between Starbucks Coffee and Briazz, a gourmet carryout chain. Both companies are headquartered in Seattle, and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz sits on the board of directors at Briazz, which caters to business folk looking for a quick quality lunch. Starbucks has been in the Chicago area since the late 1980s, while Briazz opened its first outlet in the Loop, at 111 W. Jackson, only last month. The two-year-old company is the brainchild of Victor Alhadeff, who previously founded Egghead Discount Software (he left the retail chain in 1990). Unlike most carryout shops, which prepare food on-site, Briazz builds a separate commissary to make all the meals delivered daily to each outlet. In Chicago, Briazz has an 11,500-square-foot facility at 1642 W. Lake; it will be preparing food for six outlets expected to open before next summer.
