Loading groceries in the car this morning, I’m thinking, OK, now that’s done, there’s no excuse not to write some more, which wasn’t that attractive on a hot day. I remembered a list of quotes by writers on writing which…
Blog Archives
Writing from a small city
Not quite the NYT Bestseller list, but When We Were Strangers made the list at Knoxville’s Union Avenue Books, our local and very fine independent. Here’s the list, FYI: Celebrating Our Favorite Local Authors and Special Friends Who Ranked Among…
Dangers of devouring books
If you read this blog, probably you were an eager reader of books as a child. Perhaps you even “devoured” them. I came upon this 1835 article from the American Annals of Education and quote in full, so that you may…
The “new land” revision exercise
This week I gave a workshop on revision for the Knoxville chapter of Friends of Literacy. Here’s one of our exercises. Often in fiction (or non-fiction) characters enter a “new land,” sometimes literally, but often simply a radically new situation.…
Southern Festival of Books
This weekend I went to the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville for a reading and it was lovely. For many reasons: 1.Incomparably beautiful drive across the Cumberland plateau where early fall was just beginning to paint the hills rolling…
Ebooks and wild sightings
I just heard from Amanda Bergeron, my indefatigable editor at HarperCollins, that When We Were Strangers has sold 3,100 ebooks, a record which she says means “confetti needed.” I’ve got none handy but tonight when our house fills up with…
Revising “something”
I’ve been asked to do a workshop on revision for the local Friends of Literacy group. So I’ve been thinking of Revision Tactics I Have Used. I remember my first creative writing teacher, Miss Vincent, repeating: “You can always revise…
What is historical fiction anyway?
I’m preparing to give a workshop on research for writers generally and writers of historical fiction in particular. (Sept. 17, sponsored by the Knoxville Writers Guild). I got to wondering what this genre is anyway, I mean what do experts say…
Bianca’s queen
I just pushed “send” on the first chapters of my next novel, winging them to my agent. Soon, I hope, we’ll be on the journey to a second book. A long journey, since there are just these chapters, a plot…
Irma goes Dutch
I have just found out that the Dutch company Karakter has bid on When We Were Strangers. This is very nice since with Polish rights sold and now Dutch coming, we are closing in on Italian sales. Here you see…
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