David Henry Sterry
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David Henry Sterry is a best-selling author, award winning
actor/comic, book doctor, and muckraker. His new book is The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published, a complete guide to getting successfully published. His previous book was Hos, Hustlers, Call Girls and Rent Boys: Professionals Writing on Life, Love, Money, and Sex. It was lauded on the front page of the Sunday NY Times Book Review as, "An eye-opening, astonishing, honest and funny collection from those who really have lived on the edge in a parallel universe… Unpretentious and riveting, their tales are also graphic, politically incorrect and mostly unquotable in this newspaper." His previous memoir is Master of Ceremonies: a True Story of Sex, Drugs, Rollerskates and Chippendale's (Grove Atlantic/Canongate, 2008). He is both writer of and performer in the one-man show "Chicken", based on his bestselling memoir Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent (ReganBooks, 2002) which has been translated into ten languages, and is being made into a series by Showtime. This was preceded by Putting Your Passion into Print (Workman Publishing, 2005), based on the class he taught at Stanford University for four years. He has two more books due out next year, an anthology by His first book was an American
Library Association pick-of-the-year, Satchel Sez: The Wit, Wisdom & World of Leroy "Satchel" Paige (Crown/Random House, 2001). His first YA title, (written under the name Henry Johnson) is Travis & Freddy's Adventures in Vegas (Dutton/Penguin, April, 2006). His story in San Francisco Noir (Akashic, 2005) was a finalist for the Henry Miller Award. He is a contributor to Creative Non-Fiction, 2 Do Before I Die, 5 Minute Erotica, and many other anthologies. His poetry has been published everywhere from Santa Monica Review, to the Hungry Orangutan. He's also written for, among others, The London Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Penthouse, and The Scotsman. Plays performed at PS 122, the West Bank Café, and the Duplex. Wrote screenplays for Disney, Fox, and Nickelodeon Pictures. He is also a teacher, consultant and talent scout for the Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. He taught writers about publishing with Putting Your Passion Into Print at Stanford for three years, and many of his students have book deals. PYPIP has now been presented, in various forms, hundreds of times, in colleges, universities, libraries, bookstores and festivals, writer's workshops,
on TV, radio and in print. He's also taught writing, performing, and creating theater from life, everywhere from Reed College, to University of New Orleans, to San Francisco State; and to teenagers in NYC, SAGE in SF, and for the United States Department of Justice, in Washington, DC. He is also a presentation coach and pitch doctor,
working with lawyers, models, architects, actors and writers, helping them present themselves and their ideas with clarity and passion. As a book doctor he has helped dozens of writers become published authors.

David Henry Sterry is also a performer. "Chicken", the show, began at the Marsh Theater in SF, and was named one of the Year's Best Shows in the SF Chronicle. It premiered internationally at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and was named the UK's #1 play. He's performed "Chicken" all over America from Manhattan to Hollywood, and all over the world, from Amsterdam to Australia. As a stand-up comedian, performed with everyone from Robin Williams to Milton Berle. As an actor, worked with everyone from Will Smith to David Letterman to Michael Caine to Zippy the Chimp. He was a TV pitchman for AT&T, Proctor & Gamble, and McDonald's, performed in over 750 commercials, winning 4 Clios. Starred in HBO's Emmy Award-winning Encyclopedia. Emceed at Chippendale's Male Strip Club in New York.

Been featured in (among others): The New York Times, The London Times, The Sunday Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, Details Magazine, BBC Radio, and NPR's Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and Talk of the Nation. Chicken was published by Canongate in the UK in April, 2003, Dutch (de Kern), German (Rowohlt, 2005), Spanish (Grupo Planeta, 2006), Croatian (Celeber, 2006), and Russia (Red Fish, 2006), and in Italian (Adelphi, 2008).

He has worked as a chicken, a chicken fryer, a soda jerk, a picker, a poet, a building inspector, a limo driver, a barker, and a marriage counselor. He graduated from Reed College, and loves his wife, his cat, his girl, and any sport involving a ball.

Blog Entries by David Henry Sterry

Why Khet Mar Got Thrown in a Burmese Prison for Writing

3 Comments | Posted February 21, 2012 | 10:03 AM

Suddenly I found myself falling down a rabbit hole in Easton, Pennsylvania at Lafayette College, and ending up in a Wonderland known as the Experimental Printmaking Institute. It's overgrown with wild and beautiful art books, from the surreal and phantasmagorical, to the wacky and wonderful, to the exquisite...

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How to Get Your Book Published When Everyone Keeps Rejecting It

0 Comments | Posted February 8, 2012 | 11:37 AM

We first met Nura Maznavi and Ayesha Mutta at our Pitchapalooza during San Francisco's legendary LitQuake. Lots of great writers pitched lots of great books that night. But when Nura pitched her anthology revolving around the love lives of Muslim-American women, we were blown away. She took charge of the...

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Shame on Joe Paterno & Penn State & a Plea to Abused Kids From a Rape Survivor

0 Comments | Posted November 10, 2011 | 12:55 PM

I was raped. By a large, athletic, violent man. I was young, naïve, and defenseless. Being the victim of this unspeakable violence destroyed the kid I was. Every single day I am internally tortured by this abuse I survived over three decades ago. I became a drug addict. I tormented...

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How To Get Your Memoir Published: The Book Doctors Interview Sam Benjamin

0 Comments | Posted October 21, 2011 | 7:00 PM

We first met Sam Benjamin a couple of years ago when he read his work at an event David put together in New York City. Sam had some cool electro-jazz playing behind him and a wry, dry, sly style that was laid back but intense. It was clear early on...

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Pelican Bay Inmates Hunger Strike to Protest Inhumane Solitary Confinement

0 Comments | Posted July 19, 2011 | 11:30 AM

I first heard about the hunger strike about a week ago. Someone Facebook-ed, tweeted or Google+ed that there was going to be a massive noise-making demonstration in New York City to show the world the sick, twisted inhumane torture that's going on right here in America. Yes, American citizens are...

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The Book Doctors Present: As You Like It, Or the Power of Facebook for Authors

0 Comments | Posted May 17, 2011 | 11:33 AM

"Is't possible that on so little acquaintance you

should like her? that but seeing you should love

her? and loving woo? and, wooing, she should

grant? and will you persever to enjoy her?"


-- William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act V, Scene II


Every day...

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Book Doctors Meet Script Frenzy, or: Can We Write a Movie Script in a Month?

0 Comments | Posted March 31, 2011 | 12:06 PM

We love us some NaNoWriMo. NaNo what, you say? National Novel Writing Month. Since 1999, every November, writers from coast to coast have been writing 50,000 word novels. In a month. Last year, over 200,000 inspired lunatics took keyboard in hand and tried to perform this seemingly impossible...

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Does an Author Really Need a Website? The Book Doctors Interview Annik LaFarge on How to Be a More Effective Author Online

0 Comments | Posted February 9, 2011 | 10:55 AM

"Do I really need an author website?" We get asked that question every day by an author, or someone who wants to be one. Having spent lots and lots of time and energy constructing one ourselves, we are big believers in author websites, but we decided to take this question...

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Aftermath of the Arizona Tragedy: How Can America Dodge the Next Bullet?

0 Comments | Posted January 13, 2011 | 11:40 PM

"We really dodged a bullet," I said as we got to the airport this morning and saw on the big board that our flight into Newark was ON TIME.

As soon as I realized what I'd said, my heart hit the pit of my plummeting stomach with headline after headline...

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How to Get Your Children's Book Published

0 Comments | Posted January 10, 2011 | 12:30 PM

We're about halfway through our Pitchapalooza Rocks America Tour, and we've made a startling discovery. A staggering number of adults want to write books for kids. And approximately 99% of them have absolutely no idea what they're doing. They don't know the rules. They don't know the players. They don't...

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A Conversation With the Naked Anthropologist About Sex Trafficking

0 Comments | Posted January 5, 2011 | 3:05 PM

When I first came out as an ex-sex worker, I started getting invited to prostitute and sex worker conferences. There are two distinct groups who inhabit this world: decriminalizationists and abolitionists. Decriminalizationist conferences are populated by academics, policy wonks and activists, plus a few current and former hos, hookers, call...

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Popping My Twitterville Cyber-Cherry

0 Comments | Posted December 3, 2010 | 11:12 AM

I was born in the 50s. I'm in my 50s. At the beginning of the 00s, my brother had to explain e-mails to me. It takes me an hour to accomplish electronically what it takes a 12-year-old 90 seconds to do. But about three years ago, like a dinosaur getting...

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The Book Tour Chronicle: Stuck in Dayton on the Day That Would Never End

0 Comments | Posted November 17, 2010 | 12:23 AM

Lots of people wonder what it's like to be on book tour. The glamor, the glory, the groupies. So I thought I'd document what life is like on the road, on what turned out to be the longest day on in the life of myself, my partner-in-crime/co-author/wife Arielle, and Olive,...

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Goldman Sachs Resort & Casino

0 Comments | Posted July 21, 2010 | 4:46 PM

Goldman Sachs is proud to announce a consumer-enriching expansion from the hallowed halls of Wall Street to the glittering neon of Las Vegas. In addition to continuing our world-class wealth-friendly Private Wealth Management and Personal Banking services; our internationally-recognized client-focused Global Investment Research services; our award-winning, growth-facilitating Debt Financing teams,...

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Steve Jobs Has His Way with Me Every Day & It Hurts

0 Comments | Posted July 13, 2010 | 5:22 PM

High-octane rant by bestselling author David Henry Sterry about his abusive relationship with Steve Jobs
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World Cup 2010: What We Learned About Ourselves and the World

0 Comments | Posted July 12, 2010 | 11:44 AM

Limp as a junkie after a month-long binge, I bid a fond adieu to World Cup 2010, glad to get back to my life, but sad to see the party's over. The world is in so much trouble these days, it was great to take a month's semi-respite from worrying...

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World Cup Hotties & Notties

0 Comments | Posted July 11, 2010 | 2:30 PM

As the ringing of in our collective heads from the beloved/hated vuvuzelas subsides, let's take a look at the most important thing we've learned about the greatest soccer players in the world. Who's hot. And who's not.

2010-07-11-diegoforlan.jpg (picture from Sistemastintegrales)

ALL-HOTTIE TEAM
DIEGO...

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A Simple Guide to Overcoming World Cup Fear and Boredom, and Understanding the Beauty of the Beautiful Game

0 Comments | Posted July 1, 2010 | 10:52 AM

In one of America's leading media outlets, I recently read a sad excuse for a World Cup blog, in which a writer took the wild and crazy position that soccer, the sport that has the whole wide world on the edge of its seat, is in fact, boring. Truth is,...

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The Making of an American Hero: Donovan's Transformation From Landycakes to Landon the Man

0 Comments | Posted June 28, 2010 | 12:53 PM

Landycakes. That used to be Landon Donovan's nickname. As often as he was acknowledged as one of the most talented soccer players America has ever produced, historically he was also perceived as being soft, petulant, churlish, a bit of a puff pastry. He was criticized for wilting when the spotlight...

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Can USA Beat Ghana? Yes, We Can! Here's How...

0 Comments | Posted June 25, 2010 | 11:47 AM

Now that the dust has settled on a group stage that left American fans drained, crazed, and finally in a state of religious ecstasy, what's next for Team USA, flush off one of the greatest comeback victories in United States sports history? Yes, they were robbed blind by the evil...

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