historical fiction for a modern reader
No, she didn’t come to me in a vision, but next best thing was a 735 page biography of her and Franklin taken from her own papers. (In truth I was supposed to read the newer one that is half as long and called Franklin and Eleanor, but by means of a kerfuffle with my … Read more…
I’m telling you something here that it took me years to figure out for myself. We ALL (almost without exception) get started in the writing business thinking it will be easy. Why? Because good writers make it look easy. Because they’ve mastered the craft for just that reason. So stories will flow naturally and effortlessly, … Read more…
This news story spoke to me because I have children close in age to Nichole Cevario, the 18-year-old whose parents turned her in for planning a violent attack on her high school. My first thought wasn’t about the young woman, but about her parents. Who has the guts to turn their child in to the … Read more…
It’s a fact—writers get rejected a lot. We work in a subjective business where there are people who don’t like our work—at every level. In the beginning it’s agents, then it’s editors, then there are reviewers and eventually readers. They all reject us sometime or another. Yet some rejections hurt a whole lot more than … Read more…
Our writer’s magazines would have us think “Writer’s Retreats” are sacred moments in time. Something we need to apply for, like residencies or arts grants. And sure, some of them are. The ones that serve really great food and come clean your rooms for you. But I don’t really need all that—I can make my … Read more…
So I had another failure this week. For once it wasn’t a literary rejection, but instead the failure of a bond vote for building a new library in our town. Of course it wasn’t my failure alone—I’m part of a committee—but it was nevertheless just as crushing as anything else for which you get your … Read more…
by Connie Willis I’ve never been much of a fantasy reader, but a friend recommended Connie Willis as someone I might like and I thought to take a peek. She’s won the Hugo and Nebula awards more times than almost anyone else, so she must be doing something right. I started with the Doomsday … Read more…
by Michael Faber This IS a book of strange new things—mostly due to the odd brew of components. On one hand it’s a sci-fi space travel book. On another it’s a tale of religious mission, with a Heart of Darkness type of set-up. And then it’s a quirky love tale, of a relationship fighting for … Read more…
For much of the time I was reading this book I kept thinking the title was utterly bizarre and made no sense. Which is best explained by quoting the opening lines: “When they write my obituary. Tomorrow. Or the next day. It will say, LEO GURSKY IS SURVIVED BY AN APARTMENT FULL OF SHIT.” Such … Read more…