Rules of Civility is perfection in world-building, the art of constructing a believable and engrossing fictional world for the characters to inhabit. Nineteen-thirties Manhattan is long gone but Towles brings it back to glittering life and that is the main … Continue reading
I think I’m recovered from my New York Pitch Conference, a week in the city trying to learn how to pitch a novel manuscript. I came back with a mission: to re-write my manuscript, incorporating all that I’d learned. Trouble was, … Continue reading
I spent a week in New York City attending a conference on how to pitch a novel to an agent or editor. Selling fiction is the least appealing part of the writing adventure. I write because I enjoy the thrill … Continue reading
Life at the Bottom of the Food Chain The images and details in this novel are haunting. They linger in the mind days after you’re done reading. To me, that’s a sign of good writing. Here are some passages with the … 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