Too Subtle For Words Briante, Susan (2011). The Market is a Parasite that Looks Like a Nest. Chicago: Dancing Girl Press. 16pp chapbook. www.dancinggirlpress.com. Susan Briante gave a poetry reading for the U of A Poetry center (http://poetry.arizona.edu/), in the … Continue reading
It Was A Dark and Stormy Tale Vann, David (2011). Caribou Island. New York: Harper-Collins, 293 pp. This is a dark, unrelenting story set in a dark, unrelenting land. A long-married, long-bickering couple try to build a log cabin by … Continue reading
Wealthy Drunks Swan About Europe Hemingway, Ernest (1926). The Sun Also Rises. New York: Scribner’s Sons. This was Hemingway’s first novel, written shortly after a visit to Spain, where the novel is mostly set. It famously features vividly colorful descriptions … Continue reading
Advice for the Experienced Writer Long, Priscilla (2010). The Writer’s Portable Mentor: A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writing Life. Seattle, WA: Wallingford Press, 349 pp. My shelves are heavy with how-to-write books, some helpful, some inspirational, most inert. … Continue reading
My project titled Chipotle is on hold. I had previously posted about a half dozen process notes on its development. I had the end zone in sight. Now it’s packed away for a while. The reason is that I had … Continue reading
Not A Waste of Time Silber, Joan (2009). The Art of Time in Fiction: As Long as it Takes. Minneapolis, MN: Greywolf Press, 114pp. I bought this book on the recommendation of a writing instructor when I was having … Continue reading
A Smelly Book Suskind, Patrick (1986). Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. New York: Vintage. (Translated from the German by John E. Woods.) It’s difficult to conceptualize smells and to describe their essence in writing. Even familiar smells, like coffee … Continue reading
Bums with Feelings Kennedy, William (1983). Ironweed. New York: Penguin, 225 pp. This beautifully written novel is a character study of homeless alcoholics in Albany during the depression. Sounds depressing, but it isn’t, because the characters are so alive and … Continue reading
The Novel That Didn’t Know When to Stop Shacochis, Bob (2013). The Woman Who Lost Her Soul. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 713 pp. I’d characterize this as a spy thriller, in the camp of LeCarre, perhaps, although unlike LeCarre, … Continue reading
This is another in my irregular series of posts documenting the process of writing my first non-genre novel, working title, Chocotle. Previous posts are lower in the stack. The purpose of this documentation? Many. One is that it helps me … Continue reading