Dibs!

A seventeen-year-old South African girl who claims that the Virgin Mary has visited her twenty times, sat on her bed and given her healing powers is now writing a book about her experiences. Francesca Zackey remains defiant, even though the Church has officially asked her to stop blessing pilgrims, according to South Africa’s Independent Online. According to that country’s Sunday Times, Zackey claims to have “received her first visitation on May 7.

“‘It was 8pm and I was in the study with my family when I smelled the beautiful scent of roses. I also felt the power of the Holy Spirit leading me to my bedroom where I found the Virgin Mary sitting on my bed. My Lady looked beautiful. She had blue eyes and long brown hair. She was wearing a royal-blue veil and light was coming from her open hands.’ Zackey said she spoke to the Virgin Mary in tongues, asking if she was ‘Our Lady,’ and the answer was ‘Yes.’ The Virgin then said: ‘I love all my children.’ The teenager said she and the Virgin prayed from 8pm to 1am.”

According to the Times, the teen added that her visitor “cried about abortions and gay marriages, and told me this was not from God.”

Thousands of pilgrims have flocked to the Zackey home to meet the visionary. According to the Independent, “Tragedy struck in June when a 37-year-old woman, at Francesca’s behest, stared into the sun to see Mary and lost her sight.”

Whoops.

“Francesca is said to have been instructed to have the book finished by Wednesday — the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady. The 18-year-old plans to hand over the book to the team of priests assigned to investigate whether her claims are real. ‘She has the right to write these things down,’ said Catholic Bishops’ Conference spokesperson Father Chris Townsend. ‘But it’s important to note the investigation is ongoing and people must approach the book with care.’”

She left Oakland, California — which is undergoing a plague of homicides this summer — but violent crime followed her. Decomposed, face beaten beyond recognition, the body of 21-year-old Boitumelo “Tumi” McCallum — who attended Oakland’s Mills College last year — was found on August 5 wrapped in a sheet between a wall and a bloody, condom-wrapper- and bottle-strewn bed in a Manhattan apartment owned by her mother, NYU professor and anti-apartheid activist Teboho Moja, author of National Policy and Regional Response in South African Higher Education. McCallum’s possessive, angry boyfriend, Michael Cordero, has confessed to killing her. At a Myspace page last updated in 2006, South African-born McCallum calls herself a bisexual Michael Jackson fan whose favorite book is The God of Small Things. “I laugh really loud and obnoxiously — all the time,” she wrote.

In other sad book-related news, the celebrated and very prolific Burmese novelist Tayar Min Wai, who wrote under the names Shwe Phone Lu and Maung Yaw, died Saturday of liver disease in Rangoon, aged only 41, according to the Irrawaddy News. He had written 42 books since 1995, the year he was released from prison after serving four years for taking part in the 1988 pro-democracy uprising that gave hope to many young Burmese — but did not bear fruit.

Norway’s 35-year-old Princess Martha Louise, author of the 2006 English-language children’s book Why Kings and Queens Don’t Wear Crowns, “has shocked the nation by announcing she is a clairvoyant and wants to teach people how to communicate with angels,” according to the Times Online.

Having opened the Astarte Centre for alternative therapy this month, the skilled equestrienne “said she realised as a child that she could read people’s inner feelings, but only developed the ability to talk with angels when, as a keen show jumper, she dealt closely with horses and learnt to connect on a deeper level with animals.’ Writing on the centre’s website Martha Louise described angels as ‘forces that surround us’ and ‘a help in all aspects of our lives.’” To teach angel-whispering skills, she is “offering a three-year training programme at a cost of £2,000 a year…. The princess, who is the only daughter of King Harald V and Queen Sonja, is fourth in line to the throne.”

Princess Martha Louise is married to the bohemian novelist and former forklift driver Ari Behn, whose books include Enthusiasm and Rage and Sad as Hell.

Set in Botswana, Alexander McCall Smith’s series of bestselling novels featuring private eye Precious Ramotswe have virtually put that southern African country on the map. Millions of Westerners had probably had never heard of Botswana before reading these not-quite-mysteries in which Ramotswe and her bespectacled assistant and obliging mechanic-husband swap ludicrously polite musings about human nature. Among other evidence of their power, The #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency and its sequels have spawned an industry in “bush tea,” aka rooibos, aka Aspalathus linearus, a South African specialty previously unknown in Western teacups.

But now a controversy is simmering in Botswana as a film is in the works based on the novels, underwritten by the Botswanan government. As quoted in Reuters-India, director Anthony Minghella says: “The movie has two primary characters. One is Mma Ramotswe and the other is Botswana as a whole. It tries to tell a story of what is wonderful, what is magical, about Botswana and about the rest of Africa.”

But “some residents of Botswana,” according to Reuters-India, “say [their] government’s $5 million offer to underwrite the movie demonstrates a case of misplaced priorities for a country which, despite its mineral riches, remains largely poor. ‘What is government trying to do? Where have you seen that being done anywhere else in the world?’ fumed one participant in a radio call-in programme…. Minister of Tourism Kitso Mokaila, whose ministry was responsible for the $5 million film fund, insisted the movie presented ‘a rare opportunity’ for Botswana to market itself as a premier African travel destination.” Botswana has been striving to diversify its economy from an over-reliance on diamonds.

Although McCall Smith’s books have sold more than 15 million copies in English alone, “Botswana’s book buyers have been slow to warm to the woman who may become their country’s emblem,” the article continues. “Martina Seetso, manager of Exclusive Books in Gaborone, said McCall Smith was not a best seller there, although interest has been growing with the start of movie production: ‘They are just popular enough, if you get what I mean. But in the past three weeks the sales seem to have improved a bit because people are curious to know what the hype is all about,’ Seetso said.”

Angela Davis

In New Zealand this week, Maori activists presented ex-Black Panther and current University of California History of Consciousness professor Angela Davis with a copy of a book chronicling their 35-year history, which credits the Black Panthers with inspiring them. According to the Auckland City Harbour News, “The 63-year-old [Davis] was a crusader for social reform for African Americans” and “took time out of her hectic schedule to meet founding members of Auckland’s Polynesian Panthers. The group was formed in Ponsonby in the 1970s by New Zealand-born Polynesians…. About 10 Polynesian Panthers met at Auckland University’s Fale Pasifika on Monday” to give the book to Davis, who ran for US Vice President on the Communist Party ticket in 1980 and 1984. “‘She was an inspiration,’ founding Polynesian Panther and university Pacific studies director Melani Anae says. ‘She stood up for women and ethnic minorities.’ … [Anae] describes herself as a ‘good church girl’ before joining and says the group was needed to fight injustices against Maori and Polynesians in Auckland.”

The hagiographizing of the Black Panthers continues apace, with a flood of recent books including Bobby Seale’s Seize the Time and Kathleen Cleaver’s Liberation, Imagination and the Black Panther Party, plus a new opera extolling what its creator calls “the pathos” of their saga, which is “heartrending. And best presented by an orchestra.” Who indeed could forget the pathos of Soul on Ice? In that 1968 classic, Panther Eldridge Cleaver described his rape of white women as “an insurrectionary act. It delighted me that I was defying and trampling upon the white man’s law … defiling his women.”

Davis’s ten books include Women, Race, and Class and Women, Culture, and Politics and Are Prisons Obsolete? Along with standing up for women and ethnic minorities, Davis also co-founded of the group Critical Resistance, whose aim is the total eradication of prisons. That should make her quite the warmhearted hero to all rape, armed robbery and murder victims, past and future.

Skylar Auel

Skylar Auel, the 19-year-old grandson of Jean M. Auel — author of the “Earth’s Children” series of bestsellers set in prehistoric times, including The Clan of the Cave Bear and The Mammoth Hunters — pleaded no contest today to a charge of sexual assault in Clackamas County, Oregon.

“According to court documents, both Skylar Auel and his 19-year-old female victim were drunk when he forced himself on her,” reports the Oregonian. He also pleaded no contest to charges that he assaulted two men during a party at his home in March. The Oregonian continues: “In a later conversation with one of the woman’s friends, [Auel] said, ‘Why is she freaking out? I asked her like eight times, she said she wanted it,’ the [court] papers recount.”

This just in:

Victim’s dad gets rights to O.J. Simpson’s book

“MIAMI, Florida (CNN) — A Miami bankruptcy judge on Friday gave the father of Ron Goldman the rights to a book by O.J. Simpson that speaks in hypothetical terms about the 1994 murders of Goldman and Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole.

The book, which the former football star titled ‘If I Did It,’ may hit stores soon — but under a new title: ‘Confessions of a Double Murderer,’ according to the attorney for Fred Goldman, Ron Goldman’s father.”

Could this be the start of a trend? Could the subjects of upcoming books sue to get rights to manuscripts and entirely “reframe the debate” with a new title?

What about reissues?

Will the estate of Ol’ Blue Eyes acquire the rights to His Way: An Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra and reissue the exact same manuscript under the new title Kitty Kelley is a Big Fat Poopy Pants?

Will a disgruntled former JT LeRoy fan sue Bloomsbury claiming fraud, gain the rights to The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, and reissue it as I Hate You JT! You’re Nothing but a Chick With Big Glasses and a Lot of Chutzpah! ?

t.A.T.u.

Russia’s most successful recording act ever, t.A.T.u., comprises two young Muscovites, Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova, who were selected at ages 15 and 14, respectively, after massive auditions in 1999 by a producer who thought he could become rich by creating and marketing a teen-girl duo. He was correct. The pair’s astounding success was fueled by award-winning dance-beat singles (the one best-known to English-speakers might be “All the Things She Said”) and CDs and videos that shocked the Russian public by showing Katina and Volkova kissing.

Now Mischa Barton, best-known from TV’s The O.C., will star in a film, Finding t.A.T.u, based on a novel authored by State Duma Deputy Alexei Mitrofanov of the Liberal Democratic Party, according to the Moscow Times. In the film, Barton “will play a Russian girl called Lana, from the provincial city of Yaroslavl, who befriends a lonely American girl living in Moscow, played by Danielle Panabaker. The two girls bond over their shared love” for the duo — then fall in love with each other.

Mitrofanov’s novel, t.A.T.u Come Back, published in 2006, was “written in the form of short text messages.” Producer Leonid Minkovski told the Moscow Times that, when he first heard about the book, “I got excited because I really like t.A.T.u.’s music.” Then he read it: “Minkovski was convinced. ‘I felt there was depth and a feeling of new Russia in this, so we decided to say yes.’ The film’s screenplay … has a different ending from his book, which includes the murder of one of the girls’ mothers, and also changes one of his Russian heroines into an American. The book aimed to show the lives of teenagers born at the end of or after the fall of the Soviet regime….

“The book’s plot hinges around t.A.T.u. because ‘all their songs are about freedom,’ Mitrofanov said. ‘People talk about t.A.T.u. being so depraved, but that is a form of natural self-defense from those who want everyone to toe the line.’”

A shipment of books bound for the pointedly named Montreal bookshop Priape was seized by the Canada Border Services Agency which declared them obscene, according to xtra.ca.

The books included two volumes of Dads & Boys by British artist Josman. In this explicit tale of a hot youth who “seduces” (that’s the word the artist prefers) his hot father, 35-year-old Jack regards 18-year-old Justin with awe: “My son was telling me he too was gay, and to complicate things even more, he was also flaunting his incredible ERECT MANHOOD at me…. In no time I became ROCK HARD behind my towel…. I just stood there admiring the size and beauty of my boys penis. I was filled with pride — and LUST! … A father is not supposed to do things like this with his own son! … I guess it would be a real shame to let these big ol’ BONERS go to waste, huh? … As a proud father, I felt it was my duty and pleasure to give my own son the best blow job he ever had…. If only his mother could see us now. The poor bitch would have a heart attack!” After a golden-showers session, Justin suggests: “Dad … sit on my face while I eat your delicious butt. Mmm, yummy!” In this interview, Josman muses: “Well, I’m fascinated and turned on by incest. I realise that some people may be disgusted…. Alas, I haven’t experienced twins, brothers or father/sons yet, but I live in hope.”

According to xtra.ca, the books “were determined to be obscene” based on certain factors specified by CBSA spokesperson Chris Williams: “The indicators ranged from depictions of incest to sex with pain and sexual mutilation, defecation and vomiting,” Williams explained. Priape purchaser Denis Leblanc “didn’t know the storylines of the books when the store ordered them,” xtra.ca continues. “CBSA says that if a shipment arrives at a border that arouses a border agent’s suspicion … the agent inspects it and checks any titles against a database of previously examined materials…. If the agent finds anything that might be obscene, it is sent to Prohibited Importations Unit (PIU) in Ottawa, where CBSA says specially trained agents examine the material more closely and make a decision.”

In other news, an author who is also a Washington State University professor sued by a student alleging sexual harassment has resigned his post. “Bernardo Gallegos, a professor of multicultural education … is accused of making advances toward a married graduate student in his home in February 2005,” according to the Seattle Times. “In exchange for his resignation, he will be paid more than $87,000 to buy out his tenure, though he will lose some benefits. His salary was more than $132,000 a year.” Heyyyy, even accused criminals hafta eat. Gallegos is the editor of Performance Theories in Education: Power, Pedagogy, and the Politics of Identity and author of two forthcoming books: Indigenous Narratives, Postcolonial Performances, and the Politics of Identity in Education and An Indian, But a Peon: Criados, Genizaros, and Coyotes in New Mexico.

If you prefer reading about real-world mayhem to reading about made-up mayhem, check out In Cold Blog. It’s brand-new, with international true-crime commentary contributed by celebrated authors including Gregg Olsen, Aphrodite Jones, Katherine Ramsland, Simon Read, Carol Anne Davis, Fred Rosen, Suzy Spencer, Andrea Campbell, Kathryn Casey, Sam Adams, and many more, along with crimeblogger extraordinaire Steve Huff. Hollywood Death Scenes author Corey Mitchell edits the site.

Terry Chimes was a worldwide punk phenomenon as the original drummer for The Clash. After leaving the band, he was replaced by Topper Headon, who was presently kicked out for drug problems, at which point Chimes was asked to rejoin. He toured the US and UK in that capacity. He also drummed in other bands including Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers briefly in 1977, Generation X from 1979 to 1980, Hanoi Rocks in 1985, The Cherry Bombz in 1986 and Black Sabbath on their Eternal Idol Tour in 1987/88. In 1994, he became a chiropractor. As Contactmusic.com reports, Chimes “has started working on a new health book. The rocker … turned his back on music to set up a chiropractic office in Essex, England and now wants to share his health tips with readers. Chimes says, ‘If you can get someone healthy, there’s a satisfaction in that which is profound.’”