“Everyone writes books these days…”
Certainly more people now than ever are able to write and reach an audience; and overall that is a good thing. But “everyone writes books these days?”
Read MoreTag: kindle
Another “Throwing Spaghetti Against The Wall” Month
If you wish to write a novel, don’t waste time “throwing spaghetti against the wall” this month just to see what sticks.
Read More“When a twenty-one year old New Yorker sails for Europe in 1787…”
She was the first (after my wife) to see the rough draft of Passports. I had written it in secret – and, it seemed, usually at “4 o’clock in the mornings” – during 2012-2013…
Read More“From one End of this Continent to the other”
Happy U.S. Independence . . . weekend! Future U.S. president John Adams, who had persuaded the younger and largely unknown Virginian Thomas Jefferson to draft the independence declaration because – among other reasons – Jefferson had a knack with a quill, had foreseen almost exactly what independence day would develop into as a national holiday: […]
Read MoreWeekend “Revelations”
It’s rare that we have a chance to hear what a stranger, viewing us from a distance, thinks we are. I found out one’s assumption. Over the weekend, one man in London told me. Leaving Mass, I shook hands with the priest, which is customary as a priest usually waits at the church door while […]
Read MoreDeadline Day
As you can see, today is March 31. As you may also see, Conventions is not out today. However, I knew a few weeks ago that the deadline was going to have to give – by a few days or weeks. I had set “March 31” as publication day in my head sometime late last […]
Read MoreAround The Canarian Pool
Returned from our tiring, dusty Tenerife cliff walk on Thursday, we’d decided a plunge in the apartment complex pool was called for. And it was perfect. Indeed, just what we needed. After, refreshed, we’d taken a few moments drying off poolside. A short while later, we started the stroll back up to the apartment. We […]
Read MoreWhen You Write Of Family [UPDATED]
The idea for this hit me last night [October 7]. It’s a tiny personal tribute to my (now late) mother’s cousin, who died unexpectedly on Sunday evening in Albany. She isn’t fictionalized in my novels; but “Doreen” is inspired by and combines a variety of relations, and that cousin was one of them. So if […]
Read MoreE-Books Are Here To Stay
Have you read any good books lately (besides any of mine)? 😉 If so, on which “platform?” E-book or paperback? Thus tweets the editor of the New York Times Book Review. Some replying have questioned it, pointing out for instance that it is just one year, and also that many e-books are “overpriced” by large […]
Read MoreAnd Enjoy The Read
Good morning (again) from upstate New York’s chilly (24F/ -4C overnight) Catskills: Days from publication, I was re-reading parts of Distances in paperback last night. (I’m not entirely sure why: I’m not changing anything at this point!) As I’ve said before, I do find there is some intangible difference between following a novel on paper […]
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