No deal for book about Funkhouser

If you don’t succeed at first…

Keep trying, right? But after three unsuccessful efforts to nail down a six-figure book deal about Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser, first lady Gloria Squitiro and – equally importantly – The Kansas City Star, author/blogger/reporter Joe Miller is tossing in the towel. 

For now.

“I’m abandoning for about the tenth time doing the book about my experience in the mayor’s office,” Miller says. “I may come back to it later in life as a memoir.”

Miller’s last book proposal was over 30 pages long. 

Which may sound like a lot of effort, but, “You know, if you nail it, it’s worth tens of thousands of dollars,” Miller says. “My last book was worth six figures – $150,000.”

That for the book “Cross-X” about the Central High School debate team.

Lost – for now anyway – is the story within a story that had Miller examining the Star and the declining influence of daily newspapers.

“The focus was on newspapers dying, the decline of the newspaper and newspaper’s power,” Miller says. “And how newspapers are a political force, an institution. That they actually make stuff happen as well as report on it. So this book was about what happens when newspapers go downhill.

“I’m kind of sad to let the newspaper (part go) because I think I have a good angle on it,” Miller adds. “You know, all over the country people are saying, it’s sad to see newspapers go because there’s no objective guardian of public interest, no watchdog of government. And that’s true, but metropolitan newspapers like the Star are more than that – they make things happen. Like all that stuff downtown the Star pushed for – you know that – you were there and you got shut up.

“And Funk’s a perfect example of the newspaper making something happen in the city. The Star pushed for Funk to get elected and then they tore him apart when he got in. They made the Gloria story huge. I want to make it clear it’s not all their doing – everybody had a role in it – Mark, me, Gloria. But none of it would have happened without the Star. And it’s ironic that while all this was happening, the Star was, if not dying, becoming crippled.”

Miller time, take two

Next up for Jolting Joe: “I’m going to write a young adult novel,” Miller says. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to try. You know, I’ve got it mapped out. It’s a story about a group of oddball druggies who make a run for the student body presidency and they win.”

From politics and media to sex, drugs & rock ’n’ roll…

“You know, young adult fiction – high school age – is a really hot market,” Miller says. “I’m pretty excited, but it’s uncertain. It’s not like nonfiction where you make a proposal and you get paid up front. For fiction you have to write the whole book before you get paid.”

Hearne on the street…

Is Keith Anderson dating Holly Starr from Missouri? That very question was posed on Answers.com, a Web site that bills itself as “the world’s leading Q&A site.” 

The posted answer: “I have seen them together this summer, they both seem really cool.”

Indeed the two were a couple, but time flies.

The latest: the 38 the Spot grrrl broke up with Anderson a couple weeks back after deciding that the life of a touring musician was not for her. For all Starr’s glitz and glam, she’s actually very down to earth. She declined to comment for this item.

Thanksgiving Day Breakfast Dance canceled: One of Kansas City’s oldest and hippest holiday happenings will not be going down this year. That after more than 35 years, reports promoter Roger Naber.

“I don’t have time to do it this year,” Naber says. “There are too many other things going on in my life. So we’re going to postpone it until next year.”

The BYOB blues and R&B breakfast Turkey Day blowout at the National Guard Armory in KCK has been a showcase for amazingly attired attendees and nationally prominent soul and blues artists like Millie Jackson. Next year.

Find more Hearne at kcconfidential.com.

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