Some Ideas Hinted At McCarthy, Cormac (2006). The Road. New York: Knopf (306 pp). The planet has been stricken by something like nuclear winter. The skies are perpetually dark and the sun is not visible. Black soot falls from the … Continue reading
Arboreal Fairy Tale Calvino, Italo (1959). The Baron in the Trees. New York: Random (217 pp). In 1767, a 12-year-old Italian boy climbs a tree and vows never to come down. And he never does. Living the rest of his … Continue reading
From Where I Dream? Robert Owen Butler wrote an influential how-to book for writers, From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction (2005), in which he emphasized right-brain (non-intellectual) processes. Writers are not (supposed to be) intellectuals, he wrote. … Continue reading
Coruscation Beats Content Eagan, Jennifer. (2011). A Visit From the Goon Squad. New York: Anchor. One of Elmore Leonard’s famous ten rules of writing is: “If it sounds like writing, rewrite it.” Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad is painfully … Continue reading
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