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Listening to Moby Dick Big Read
I became inordinately excited when I learned that Herman Melville’s novel “Moby Dick” was going to be available in audio form – online and free – in a project called Moby Dick Big Read. I’m terrible at...
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My Top Five Books for Fall
In the publishing world, fall means Big Books. The ones that will win awards, the ones that will sell a gazillion copies, the shocking memoir, the hotly-anticipated follow-up novel. This fall,...
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NaNoWriMo: A No-nonsense Guide to Finishing
NaNoWriMo is here! We’ve already discussed one way to get yourself started (with an outline – see Adrienne Spangler’s great post here) and now the question becomes: how to make it through? Remember,...
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Author Maria Semple on Publishing, Parceling Writing Time, and Profanity
Recently I had the great pleasure of hearing Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go Bernadette, speak at my indie bookstore. She was a hoot – funny, personable and inspirational. So much so, that I...
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What’s My Genre?
When someone innocently poses the very legitimate question, “So, what kind of writing do you do?”, here is my typical, and utterly unsatisfactory response: “Umm… fiction?” Of course, before I come up...
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Reading Like a Writer
Reading Like a Writer Do you read like a writer? Do you pay close attention to all of the elements that create a great story? I wish I could say that I do. I try, but while I love to read books, I...
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Magical Realism and the History of Fiction
Because I was the unlucky spouse who drew the short straw, I got up with my son at 7:15 on Sunday morning. While making waffles, I caught most of the PRI/Wisconsin Public Radio show To the Best of our...
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A Moment of Clarity
The House Girl will be released in paperback on November 5th (yay!) and it’s the Target Book Club pick of the month (double yay!) I’ll be touring west, east, north and south in the first few weeks of...
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Interview with Short Story Writer, Rebecca Lloyd
I’m delighted to feature an interview with Rebecca Lloyd, a short story writer and novelist based in Bristol, UK. Becca and I first “met” virtually way back in 2008 or 2009 when I was living in London...
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E.L. Doctorow and the Rain
I am often annoyed by the “show don’t tell” directive so often flung at new writers. It’s one of those writing “rules” that seems best broken as often as followed but I read a great quote in the new...
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