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.)
A couple of years ago, I gave the students in one of my adult writing classes an assignment—for the next class, they were to bring in a short piece, 1-3 pages, of something that they had difficulty writing. Maybe dialogue, maybe first-person point of view, maybe a fight scene (fight scenes can be quite challenging). The first student who read, John, had a page-long description of a tree-covered … [Read more...]
In a conversation I had with my mother and older brother, my brother talked about the books that had the biggest impact on him when he was growing up. Since I read a lot as a child as well, and since my entire professional life has revolved around books, they looked expectantly at me to see what books I would name that influenced me as a teenager. I quickly riffled through my memory banks, … [Read more...]
When I used to work for Bantam Books, I occasionally was tasked with writing back cover copy for books that I had edited. I should say, rewriting. Bantam did have copywriters, but my boss, Carolyn, was a perfectionist when it came to back cover copy. After all, along with a book’s title and the cover, copy is vital to convincing a customer to carry that book she just picked up over to the cash … [Read more...]
I’m writing this as much for me as for other writers. Because, no, I haven't written for a while. Anyone who regularly visits this blog or the blog on my book website--that website is here--knows that I haven’t posted for several weeks. First there was a large editorial project that ate up all my time from mid-November into early December; and then another project in December that I finished just … [Read more...]
In her endlessly quotable book, Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott advises that we cannot give our characters an easy time of it. Specifically, she writes: But no matter what, you are probably going to have to let bad things happen to some of the characters you love or you won’t have much of a story. Bad things happen to good characters, because our actions have consequences … The poet Kathleen Flenniken … [Read more...]
