Nov 7, 2018 | Uncategorized
I love finding out how works of art came to life. The path of creation can be a twisty journey, even for the most gifted and celebrated. So let me share with you six fascinating books that take you “behind the scenes.” Three are about famous novels. Two...
Sep 29, 2018 | Uncategorized
“I couldn’t put it down!” Authors love to hear readers say those words. So do our publishers. But what, exactly, is this mysterious literary essence that hooks a reader? What holds them so hard, they simply must keep reading, often long into the...
Aug 9, 2018 | Uncategorized
How To Write a Winning “Hook” Do you slave over your story’s opening sentence? Good! That’s what successful writers do: write it, revise it, and tweak it until they’re sure it will fire the reader’s desire to know what comes next. A first sentence...
Jul 7, 2018 | Uncategorized
Writing? An extreme sport? Hell, yes. We rappel up rock-faces of chapters. We raft through rapids of plot. We hang-glide on unstable character arcs, and bobsled down ice alleys of dialogue, then run a marathon of revision. Sometimes, like the fellow in the Stephen...
May 24, 2018 | Uncategorized
A big “Thank You” bouquet to Karen Alison. Karen is a gifted emerging writer who sent me the manuscript of her debut novel for my evaluation. After mulling my comments and suggestions, she did a rewrite, then sent me a testimonial of how happy she was...
May 22, 2018 | Uncategorized
I’m a big fan of bestselling author John le Carré, so I’ve often applied admiring adjectives to his novels. But I came across an unfamiliar adjective in a review of his latest book. The critic wrote: “Le Carré’s prose remains brisk and lapidary.” Lapidary? What did...
