Books and writing are the core of my life. I edit books, write books, and teach writing. I love this work, and will be happy to provide any editorial or writing service you need.
This is my chance to indulge in some of my favorite topics: books I’m reading; writing advice, my own and that of accomplished writers; what I learn from my students in my classes; and, oh yes, my soapbox, where I rant—mildly—about anything related to writing and publishing that makes me say “What?”
I also get to showcase amazing photographs taken by some of my favorite people. (In my next life, I want to be a photographer.)
During a recent class, I discussed rhythm, starting with a passage from Ursula Le Guin’s excellent Steering the Craft, and moving on to Virginia Woolf’s equally excellent explanation: “Style is a very simple matter; it is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can’t use the wrong words.” Simple, right? I then read aloud one of my favorite examples of style/rhythm/right words. It’s three paragraphs … [Read more...]
Two of my clients are publishing books this summer. First up is David Flinn's Climb Like a Mzungu, which is available through Amazon starting Friday, June 23. My other client, Jasmin Attia, won the 2022 Nicholas Schaffner Award for Music in Literature. Her book, The Oud Player of Cairo, will be published on August 1, available at Barnes & Noble, independent bookstores, and on … [Read more...]
Editors read differently from people who are not editors. A part of our brain holds an imaginary red pen and corrects punctuation as we read, chooses stronger verbs, strikes out adverbs, and always, always, fixes typos and misspellings. The red pen doesn’t get too much use in published books, but I am not surprised when I do find random errors. Even considering how many times a manuscript and then … [Read more...]
I was reminded in class the other day of a writing exercise that I call Building Characters. The idea came to me from a chapter in a student’s memoir, about a bus trip her family took in Great Britain and Western Europe in the early 1960s. The group was an intriguing collection of characters—starting with the tour guide, the wonderfully named Mr. Pinchback—and it occurred to me that students could … [Read more...]
For my birthday last year, a friend gave me a book, one that I probably would not have bought for myself because it’s a memoir. I don’t tend to read memoirs. But I loved the title: All the Way to the Tigers. Who wouldn’t be intrigued? And the author’s name rang a bell—Mary Morris. I checked to see what else she had written and recalled that many years ago, I had read one or two of her novels. So, … [Read more...]
