Howlin' Wolff's Twisting & Turning

                                       Howlin’ Wolff’s Twisting & Turning

1987

Summer: Attended Radcliffe Publishing Course, a job fair at The New Yorker, where Graydon Carter  (who coined “short fingered vulgarian”) & Kurt Anderson offered me a job at SPY (not having a Lampooner’s bank account, I declined). Turned 25.

Fall-Winter: SPORT paid a living wage (deplored the instant shallow expert nature of magazines), jumped to Raines & Raines Agency, and found my home at Curtis Brown Ltd., world’s oldest and largest literary agency.

1989

Peter Rutten helped create Electric Word in Amsterdam with Louis Rossetto & Jane Metcalfe.

1990

August: Michael Wolff imported Peter from Holland to NYC. My mentor, Peter Ginsberg, President of Curtis Brown Ltd, signed them a month after I moved to SF. They wrote Where We Stand. I started my agency and became agentnazor on AOL & the Well. Turned 28.

1991

My fledgling company sold Rough Magic by Lowell Cohn for a six-figure sum.

1992

I met WiReD founder’s Louis & Jane, signed the Digerati before it was a word. Turned 30.

1993

 WiReD debuted. No NYC editor had email. Michael signed with Wylie, “the Jackal”.

 1994

 “Net, you cannot own the word NET!” I screamed at my screen. That was how Michael entered my headspace. I’d sent Net Chick to Michael & Peter’s NetGuide packaging company for Carla Sinclair of bOING bOING. Michael sent a cease and desist email. I told Carla to ignore it. Peter Ginsberg represented their contract with Random House. Michael couldn’t incite fear in this apprentice. Net Chick sold to Henry Holt.

1995

Louis and Jane hired Peter to start the book division for WiReD: Hardwired. 

July: I met Peter for lunch to discuss Salon columnist Andrew Leonard’s book, BOTS, which Hardwired bought. Peter & I began to date.

September: Peter confessed; A) He wrote the c&d letters, impersonating Michael, to my agency, B) He was married and divorcing.

1996

September: Google launched.

October: Michael & wife Allison Anthoine, Carla & husband Mark Frauendfelder, and 121 others came to our wedding in Maine. Louis & Jane sent their regrets. WiReD attempted going public.

1997

Peter and I appeared as characters in Carla’s novel Signal to Noise (which I'd sold to HarperCollins).

1998

April: Michael came to Noe Valley, met our infant daughter.

Wolff’s Burn Rate earned snarky reviews. I taught at writer’s conferences from Maui to Miami.

 August: WiReD sold to Si Newhouse for $90 million dollars. Hardwired expired. Michael became a columnist for New York with a six-figure salary and offered Peter a 1/3 to edit it.

November: We signed a purchase and sale for a house in Newton, MA.

December: In the Netherlands for Christmas, Michael emailed Peter. The editing gig ended. “Poof” went the Newton house. Michael became Mr. Burning Bridges in my book.

2000

We had a son. Peter scorched through several startups.

2002

Michael won awards at New York. We moved to the Burbs of Boston. Louis & Jane invested in chocolate, the futurists Gold. Shrank my client list. Began to teach English. Turned 40.

2004

Michael tried to buy New York from PRIMEDIA and failed.

2005

Sold the last book I adored: Elephant’s Secret Sense by Caitlin O’Connell (which I sold to Free Press). Graydon hired Michael as the first Media Columnist for Vanity Fair.

2008

Michael became columnist at The Industry Standard. His muckraking biography of Rupert Murdoch secured his seat as a go-to TV-interviewee. Louis and Jane opened a chocolate factory: TCHO.

2009

Allison learned that Michael had filed for divorce on Page Six of the New York Post and summarily evicted him from their Upper Eastside condo. Peter spent less time at home.

2010

Michael became the Editor at Adweek. Allison refused to grant him a divorce. We’re in Holland for the last time as a family.

2011

Adweek fired Michael. Peter skipped family events. My sister died.

2012

Winking at Lonesome George, I achieved a girlhood goal. He died two months later. So did my marriage. Turned 50.

2013

Our divorce finalized. Peter bought a condo with his girlfriend.

2015

Michael’s Television is the New Television was transparently self-serving and slammed.

I singlehandedly took 13 students to Australia/New Zealand/Hawaii.  Wooed by a software writer.

2016

Peter married for the 3^rd time. Louis Kickstarts a book.

I spent two weeks sailing with my boyfriend (one kid free).

2017

Jane founds Neo.Life: “Neobiological Revolution.”

2018

Michael’s Fire and Fury: dedicated to his girlfriend and their child. Allison residuum wife. Considering relinquishing software-sailor. Louis' memoir, Change is Good arrived in my mailbox inscribed: To Karen ~ who was there at the beginning. Turned writer.