Lose an editor; gain a media property. John Koblin details every maneuver in one very busy week for Rupert Murdoch. This piece has everything: The Wall Street Journal, Marcus Brauchli, Newsday, The New York Times, and Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.  read more »

Dale Peck and Rick Moody are not in a fight anymore. They actually e-mailed recently, and next Tuesday night, they will appear, together, at a book-themed charity bake sale at the Montauk Club that will benefit Sangam House, a nonprofit writer’s colony in India. This is a startling thing, because Mr. Peck once reviewed one of Mr. Moody’s books in The New Republic and called him “the worst writer of his generation.” Something like a feud followed. Six years later, it is, at least superficially, coming to an end. On Tuesday, according to event organizer D. W.  read more »

Felix Gillette braves the crowds outside NBC's Today Show to find Katie Couric's most loyal fans. "'Katie’s hot,' said Craig Bellew, who was visiting from Clarkesville, Ga. 'She should come right back here. I grew up watching her on Today. And it’s easier to say her name then—what’s the other girl’s name? Anyway. She’s hot.'

Speaking of Ms. Couric, John Koblin looks at how a whiff of a story (Katie Out at CBS?) becomes conventional wisdom in our Print 2.0 world. The New York Times. 'It used to be you came in the next day and your editor would say, "Well, we won today," or she’d say, "Looks like we got beat like a drum," and that would be the end of it. Now it’s this ongoing game of catching up and staying ahead.'"  read more »

Last week, the novelist and former literary critic Dale Peck closed a gasp-inducing $3 million book deal. Admittedly, $3 million in this case sounds like more than it is. First off, it’s for a trilogy. And second, Mr. Peck has to split it with his co-writer, Tim Kring, creator of the hit television show Heroes. In the words of the agent who sold it, the idea is Robert Ludlum meets Don DeLillo, the story of a man who discovers that he has superpowers because of LSD experiments conducted on him in secret by the C.I.A.  read more »

Heroes creator Tim Kring is collaborating with literary critic and novelist Dale Peck on a sci-fi/alternative-history trilogy that was sold at auction to Crown yesterday for an advance said to be worth a staggering $3 million.

According to an industry source, the book is set in America, and runs from the 1960s to the near future. The protagonist is a man named Chandler Forrest whose participation in LSD experiments administered by the C.I.A. has given him superpowers.  read more »

Anyhoo.

But more importantly, underlying the whole article is a fascinating unnoted sexual web. An army of literature lovers indeed! Why, The Transom is quite ready to resurrect that terrible high school idea of the sex chart (see also: the Buffy sex chart) to explicate all this.