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Tag Archives: the writing life
Deflecting an Awkward Situation
If someone asks to read my stuff I gladly provide them with some of my stories or poems. But first I tell them I will never ask them if they liked the work or even if they read it. Why? … Continue reading
The Secret
At the library where I work, people often find out that I’m a published author. The first thing they do after their discovery is not to ask me where they can read some of my work. No. What they want … Continue reading
Workshop
I just returned from a week long workshop on marketing for fiction writers. We learned about the publishing business, how it works, who has the power, and how to get our novels the best chance they can get. A lot … Continue reading
My Life's Work (so far)
Click on the “Other Writing” tab at the top of the page and you’ll find a list of all my published short stories, poems, articles, and reviews. Also links to my previous blogs. I put this together yesterday. It was … Continue reading
Here's My Crazy Idea for My Next Book
Title: One Night and a Thousand Nights. Setting: The edge of the world. The Earth is flat. Some disaster in the interior (super volcano? massive drought?) has forced most of the population to migrate to the edge. Plot: We follow … Continue reading
Rewriting
Here’s Eileen Gunn, in her book Stable Strategies and Others, quoting William Gibson on the secret of writing: “You must learn to overcome your very natural and appropriate revulsion for your own work.” When I read that sentence I was … Continue reading
The Unrepentent Joy of Sisyphusian Struggle
If you haven’t seen “Shelf Life” by Adrian Tomine, the hilarious cover of the current New Yorker, it’s worth seeking out. There’s a teeny tiny version of it on this page and a bigger version on the artist’s website here … Continue reading
Notebook
Like many writers I have a notebook that I carry around for recording observations, quotes, scenes, thoughts, snippets of dialog, attempts at poems, and some of the crazy ideas I get that might someday be the impetus for a writing … Continue reading
Interview
When I was putting the finishing touches on my novel Terrastina and Mazolli I got a call from Nenad Dragicevic, the eminent European journalist and fabulist who I have admired for many years. He had somehow obtained a bootleg copy … Continue reading
