Meghan O’Rourke’s essay series on bereavement at Slate.com, The Long Goodbye, continues with a piece on watching someone you love accept death. There aren’t adequate adjectives with which to praise these essays, but quiet, unflinching, mournful and exquisite come to mind.
In The Daily Beast’s Book Beast, Peter Osnos writes about the ascent of the Kindle [...]
I’m enjoying this creative writing master class series with children’s author Keith Gray, produced by the Scottish Book Trust. In the video above, he addresses developing characters, particularly the protagonist. One of his key points is that “character is action.” What the character does teaches readers who the character is.
Gray also has a list of [...]
I posted last week about a day when I disappointed my own expectations. In that post, I mentioned my critique group, and unfortunately, I gave at least one person in the group the wrong impression. So this post is meant to set the record straight.
Last week my group gave me completely valid critique on my [...]
I’ve run across several wonderful videos at YouTube from the Authors@Google series. Apparently, Google hosts author visits on a regular basis. These visits are recorded and available online. Each one is about 45 to 60 minutes long, including a reading followed by a question-and-answer period.
I especially love the one above, with author Paul Auster. I [...]
On the way home from my novel critique group yesterday, I was rear ended as I got off the freeway to stop for gas. It was a very minor accident, no injuries, car still drivable (though dented and missing some paint), so plenty to be thankful for.
But it was, like most accidents, a complete shock. [...]