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THE SCARY AUTHOR PHOTO

3/13/14 THE SCARY AUTHOR PHOTO

Confession: that little thumbnail photo of me up in the left-hand corner of my posts is over ten years old. It was taken right before my first book was published, although it never ventured much farther than my publisher’s website. I am famously photo-phobic. I didn’t even want to be in my own wedding pictures. But even I know that a ten-year-old picture is pushing the boundaries of both usefulness and credibility. Do I still look like that? Sure, if you squint or stand real far away.

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Should only positive book reviews be published?

3/7/14 – IS THERE STILL A ROLE FOR THE NEGATIVE BOOK REVIEW?

The world of the book review is getting mighty hard to navigate. With more and more publications tightening their belts, eliminating book supplements, and pink slipping reviewers, serious literary criticism (think James Wood in the New Yorker or Dwight Garner in The New York Times) has become a very rare commodity. At the same time, online book review sites of widely varying quality are proliferating, with new ones popping up every day.

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GUEST BLOGGER BARBARA WESTWOOD DIEHL ON THE ENDURING APPEAL OF THE SHORT STORY

3/1/14 – GUEST BLOGGER BARBARA WESTWOOD DIEHL ON THE SHORT STORY’S ENDURING APPEAL

Yes, I complain about the volume of submissions. (502 in the last 22 days, and 256 of those are short stories.) I complain about the time away from my own writing. I complain about all the administrative tasks of running a literary journal—I won’t put you to sleep with that laundry list—but all those tasks have nothing to do with the intoxicating work of reading hundreds of short stories each submission period. Yes, all of them, not only the stories that we finally publish. I’m humbled , stunned really, to have all those stories entrusted to me.

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A Review – The Gates of Babylon

02/26/2014 THE GATES OF BABYLON BY MICHAEL WALLACE – A REVIEW

We know what we like and we like what we know. That simple logic is what draws readers to books that are part of a series. We like the consistency of knowing what we’ll get when we throw down our hard earned dollars for some reading entertainment. If we like the storyline and the characters in one book, we hope the author will be consistent and bring us the same great storytelling in the next and the next.

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S. Linebaugh interviews author Bill Lambrecht

2/23/14 Linebaugh interviews author Bill Lambrecht

“I’m a black- hearted dog,” author Bill Lambrecht confesses in Big Muddy Blues. “Th muddy_author1 e contempt American Indians feel towards me at the moment might even rival the store they reserve for the Army Corps of Engineers.” Lambrecht’s nonfiction is like this, telling a big story in personal terms, sweeping the reader with him on a journey of discovery.

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2/17/2014 – Ethiopia and the Graphic Novel

2/17/2014 – ETHIOPIA AND THE GRAPHIC NOVEL

I recently toured Ethiopia, a beautiful country rich in history and historical monuments, including rock-hewn churches dating from the 12th century–some still in use. Many of the church interiors I visited are painted with Biblical scenes and stories told in panels across the walls and ceilings. They all seem more vivid and accessible than the paintings, frescoes and stained glass that decorate European churches and cathedrals.

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The Best-selling Genre Nobody Reads

2/13/14 – THE BEST-SELLING GENRE NOBODY READS

“She gasped in surprise as he ripped the garment apart, spilling free the ripe fullness of her bosom before his hungering eyes.” (Come Love A Stranger, Kathleen Woodiwiss)

Do you ever curl up with a big, juicy, historical romance? Did you just now roll your eyes at the question?

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What Dickens Knew: The Importance of Character

2/4/14 WHAT DICKENS KNEW: THE IMPORTANCE OF CHARACTER

Near the beginning of Lloyd Jones’s Mister Pip, there is a delightful moment in which Mr. Watts tells his students that they will soon be meeting Mr. Charles Dickens of London, England. The students rarely see a white man in their isolated village in Papua New Guinea so they come back the next day with great expectations. Initially disappointed to learn the author has been dead for over a century, they quickly become enthralled as Mr. Watts starts reading Dickens’s last novel aloud.

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OUTING MYSELF AS A NOVELIST

2/4/14 – OUTING MYSELF AS A NOVELIST

My novel Permanent Makeup came out last month, as many of my friends and colleagues quickly discovered on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Their discovery, as much as I hate to admit it, may be even more novel than the novel.

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2/1/14 – I CAN’T KEEP FICTION WRITING IN THE CORNER

2/1/14 – I CAN’T KEEP FICTION WRITING IN THE CORNER

When I open my laptop to write fiction, I have the odd sensation that the screen is something of a mirror — a magical, looking glass through which I stepinto another world. First, I can see a shadowy version of myself on the screen. A few seconds later a stronger light begins to shine, my shadow disappears, and the magic takes over.

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PREVIEW OF OUR FEBRUARY 1 GUEST BLOGGER, MARTHA JOHNSON

2/1/14 – PREVIEW OF OUR FEBRUARY 1 GUEST BLOGGER, MARTHA JOHNSON

Executive-turned-writer Martha Johnson explains why she can’t separate her fiction and non-fiction writing personas.

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The Wolves of Paris – A fresh take on an old story

1/26/2014 – THE WOLVES OF PARIS, A REVIEW

Stories about vampires and werewolves have been around for centuries but Michael Wallace manages to bring a fresh take to the old tale. Far afield from his stories about Later Day Saints enclaves in scrubby patches of desert, in The Wolves of Paris, Wallace takes us back centuries to 1450 to weave a tale of sorcery and deceit.

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1/23/14 POINT OF VIEW: WHO TELLS THE STORY?

1/23/14 POINT OF VIEW: WHO TELLS THE STORY?

“There must have been some movement, a gesture, because every person in the living room would later remember a kiss.” (Ann Patchett, Bel Canto)

Sally Whitney’s lament [LLNB 1/10/14] that most contemporary stories are written from the limited viewpoint of one or a few characters, hit me in all my writerly places. Powerful stories can grab

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The Accidental Author

1/17/14 — THE ACCIDENTAL AUTHOR

Erika Rybeck lives at Riderwood Retirement Community in Silver Spring, Maryland. She intended to put together an album of her life for herself, family and friends. She wrote a narrative to accompany the many photos she had acquired from her childhood and school years.

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WROTE THE BOOK, HATED THE MOVIE (Part 2)

1/13/14 – WROTE THE BOOK, HATED THE MOVIE (Part 2)

“If there’s one thing I hate, it’s the movies. Don’t even mention them to me.” (The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger)

Last month I wrote about the daggers that rip through an author’s heart when the “wrong” actor gets cast in the movie version of his/her book. But as much as it hurts to see a beloved character misrepresented, it’s even worse when changes to carefully crafted tone and plot spawn a film that an author feels buries (or even loses) the original intent of the book. Listed below are a few authors who would rather you read their book than watch its movie adaptation.

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Who Knows What? The Perks of a Narrator Who Sees All

1/10/14 –WHO KNOWS WHAT? THE PERKS OF A NARRATOR WHO SEES ALL

Story narrators who know everything are out of fashion. Readers today want to be close to characters. They want to experience events of the story the same way the characters do—the way any of us experiences the world—knowing only what we have seen, heard, or been told. Approaching a story like this has spawned a lot of novels written from one or maybe a few characters’ points of view, but it seems to me that as readers, we’re missing something by not seeing the larger picture. And as writers, first-person and third-person limited viewpoints restrict the richness of the worlds we create.

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A Team Effort Tougher Than Football

12/17/13 — A TEAM EFFORT TOUGHER THAN FOOTBALL

After giving a talk recently about self-publishing, I received a series of plaintive emails from one of the participants who wanted to know why her book had been on Amazon.com for a year without one sale. I asked her if she belonged to the Maryland Writers’ Association, MidAtlantic Book Publishers Association or any association that might provide the help she needed. “No,” she said, “they all want money for dues.”

Well, yes, but for a fledgling writer, the money is nominal and well spent.

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Wrote the Book, Hated the Movie

12-13-13 – WROTE THE BOOK, HATED THE MOVIE

“I cried when I saw it. I said, ‘Oh, God, what have they done?'”

“…I was deeply disappointed.”

It was “crummy.”

Ouch. This isn’t what movie directors want to hear after a screening. Worse, these comments came not from random viewers, but from the authors of the books on which each film was based. (Which author said which is noted at the end of this post.)

Although authors dream of seeing their stories come alive on the big screen, it’s also a scary proposition.

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Edith Wharton’s Letters

12/7/13 — THE LETTERS OF EDITH WHARTON

When I was having trouble with the first chapter of a novel I was writing, a good friend and writing mentor suggested I take another look at Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth. Its first chapter is a classic; it not only draws you into the story but it also lays the groundwork and foreshadows everything that is to follow.

In fact, the opening was so good I couldn’t stop and quickly reread Wharton’s wonderful classic. But as I put it back on my shelf, my eye caught the volume next to it: The Letters of Edith Wharton, edited by her Pulitzer prize-winning biographer R.W.B. Lewis and his wife, Nancy Lewis. And what a marvelous treasure that turned out to be.

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SLOGGING THROUGH THE CLASSICS

12/4/13 – SLOGGING THROUGH THE CLASSICS

I spent high school immersed in Victorian novels. My purse contained four typed 9×11 sheets listing classic works that every “college-bound” student should read, and every year I dutifully read and crossed more of them off. I defended these books vociferously for their timeless ideas, eschewing more contemporary writing, most of which, I was sure, had only ephemeral value. Though I was writing fiction of my own even back then – and certainly wanted people to read it – my goal was to write something timeless, and I thought my greatest guide to doing so would come from reading other timeless works.

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What I’m thankful for

During this holiday, when we should reflect on what we are most thankful for, I am thankful for the Marines.

Of course, I’m thankful for all the men and women who currently serve, thankful for my fellow veterans and retirees who have served in every branch, but it’s the Marines with which I have a special reason for thanks.

My gratitude began with a question posed by my literary agent when she asked me if I would be interested in co-authoring a memoir. I paused for several seconds then answered honestly. “I’ve never written memoir before.”

“Would you like to try?”

My simple yes was followed by a project that changed my life.

Shoshana Johnson had survived a deadly ambush, had been shot through both of her ankles and taken prisoner by a mob of Iraqis in the early days of the war.

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Interview with Ron Cooper, author of the novels Purple Jesus and Hume’s Fork

11/20/13 AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR RON COOPER. (SEE ALSO HIS GUEST BLOGGER POST ON NOVEMBER 1, BELOW, AND MY REVIEW OF HIS ACCLAIMED NOVEL PURPLE JESUS ON OCTOBER 20.)

Q: Your novels, Hume’s Fork and Purple Jesus, take us into the lives of the rural underprivileged. In The World Republic of Letters, Pascale Casanova says: “…the birth of the American novel may be said to coincide with the use of the oral language in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn… insisting upon a specific idiom freed from the constraints of the written language…” Purple Jesus is in the tradition Twain started, its characters far free of constraints, language-wise. What are you writing now, who’s at the focus, where’s it set? Will idiom be as much a part of the characters, or are you venturing otherwise?

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The Public Nature of Private Journals

11/13/13 – THE PUBLIC NATURE OF PRIVATE JOURNALS

I write journals. Year after year, the stacks of filled notebooks on my closet shelf grow taller, leaning into each other until I’m forced to start another pile. This stash doesn’t even include my high school journals, which I burned before leaving for college. (No regrets. A person can only stand so much embarrassment.)

My journals are a safe place to vent, float ideas, work through issues. They allow me to write honestly about my experiences. But what happens to these volumes when I’m gone? Do I really want anyone reading them when I’m not available to explain myself? At least I’m relatively anonymous; nobody outside my immediate family will care about the words I leave behind, so there’s not much worry about a public airing of my private thoughts.

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Who Says So? Roger Ackroyd and the Unreliable Narrator

My first encounter with an unreliable narrator—that I recognized, that is—was years ago when I first read Agatha Christie’s notorious The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, first published in 1926. The ending stunned me as it has many other readers through the years. It also gave rise to a list of rules for writing mysteries formulated by mystery author John Dickson Carr, rebuttals to that list from other authors, and an essay by the well-known literary critic Edmund Wilson entitled “Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?”

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Thorne Smith and the American Ghost

10/13/13 – THORNE SMITH AND THE AMERICAN GHOST

With Halloween creeping upon us, this seems the perfect time to ask a personal question: how do you like your American ghosts? Do you prefer them spooky? Atmospheric? Maybe you savor a gothic entity laced with fear and darkness, or a tale where the supernatural explores the human psyche. If so, I’ll direct you to Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, or Nathaniel Hawthorne. But if (like me) you prefer the sorts of ghosts who eagerly urge you to hoist a drink or two (or twenty), then you’ll want to spend an evening with Thorne Smith.

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