I recently decided to print up some physical copies of my first ebook, Hunter and Hunted, which has been for sale at Smashwords, Kindle, and Nook for two years. At 51,000 words, it was the first novel-length piece I wrote, an international … Continue reading
Cricket is Foreign to New York O’Neill, Joseph (2008). Netherland. New York: Vintage It’s possible to compare this novel to The Great Gatsby. The first person, highly reflective and articulate narrator, Hans, describes the ambitious economic and social climbing and … Continue reading
Arizona Writing Workshop I attended a Writing Workshop sponsored by the Society of Southwestern Authors (www.ssa-az.org), and presented by Writer’s Digest. It was a one-day presentation of information for authors about publishing, marketing, and selling books. This substantial info-dump was … Continue reading
A Good Place to Meet Joyce Joyce, James. (1914) Dubliners. New York: Dover. I’ve tried twice to read Ulysses, and was defeated both times, so I thought I’d start with a simpler Joyce work, and picked up Dubliners. I can … Continue reading
Instruction With a Light Tone Dufresne, John. (2003). The Lie That Tells a Truth: A Guide to Writing Fiction. New York: W.W. Norton. I met the author at a writing conference and decided to buy his book. It covers the … Continue reading
Grit and Squalor Carpenter, Don (1966/2009). Hard Rain Falling. New York: New York Review Books Gritty is too mild a descriptor for this unrelentingly dark character study of a young man in Portland and San Francisco in the 1960’s. Jack … Continue reading
The Question of Narrative Voice This is the latest in my series of process notes – thoughts about my own writing process. Why I think these would be of interest to anyone… well let’s just say these are, in fact, … Continue reading
Revelatory Jauss, David (2011). On Writing Fiction: Rethinking Conventional Wisdom About the Craft. Cincinatti, OH: Writers Digest Books. This is a most engaging and helpful “How-to-do-it” book for experienced writers. Its seven essays are thought-provoking and clarifying, well-written and insightful, … Continue reading
I’m between projects right now, so I’m goofing off by blogging about a course I’m taking from the University of Arizona, “Postmodern Art and its Discontents,” by professor Paul Ivey. From the Syllabus: October 6, 2014 The first lecture was … Continue reading
Hornby, Nick. (1995). High Fidelity. New York: Riverhead Books/Penguin. Well-written, Non-nutritive Imagine a character, thirty-five, who has the mind of a fifteen year-old. Would that be funny? It is mildly amusing in High Fidelity. Rob runs an obscure, used-record store … Continue reading