Recently I turned down an interview request from a US podcaster because I felt that I could not do full justice to her suggested main subject. I didn’t think it would be fair talking with her merely for the sake of just talking – even if doing that might in some ways perhaps have been usefully self-promotional.
I advise anyone now to be cautious, very cautious, on Twitter. The only reason I have not deleted my account is because I do like engaging carefully with decent people when possible. And many readers now expect authors to have Twitter accounts.
If you have had experiences such as my family has had (and yours may have had too), you learn that there are those times that nothing can be done by others to stop self-destruction.
It is no secret that this US president evokes wildly negative feelings in many. [Full disclosure: I did not vote for him.]
Teaching “old” novels that also contain vulgarities and slurs – novels which usually had been targeted at adult readers when they were originally written – in high school literature is always going to be contentious.
There is a reason we have a secret ballot: none of us need ever reveal, explain, or justify our vote to anyone if we wish not to do so – and that includes to the Guardian.
This is one of the most scorching reviews I have ever read.
Much is being revealed now about the predatory sexual behaviors over the years of a famous and extraordinarily powerful film producer…
As a novelist, I believe words do matter greatly…
My cousin (my late novelist uncle’s son), his wife, and their three sons have lived for years in Newtown, Connecticut…
I got stuck briefly while writing yesterday and took a break. (I’m working on that short story, which it seems is now evolving into a short book.) Something made me pick up Distances…
Well, another week is upon us. Another Monday. However, today is a bit different for me: It’s my birthday! My presents there? All of Mad Men and The West Wing on DVD! […]
Two things to remember in historical fiction writing are these: 1) Who is telling your story? 2) What could characters know in their time? For example, if you are composing a tale […]
Hello from rural Pennsylvania! On Saturday we flew over to the US as you saw yesterday if you follow me on Instagram. In explaining, I had a bit of “1700s” fun in […]
As you may have seen, CNN is caught up in a social media controversy. One of its reporters unmasked and confronted the pseudonymous originator of a “meme”/”gif” that sees U.S. President Donald […]
Welcome here to my semi-weekly journal covering novel writing, travel, international matters, and whatever related that pops to mind…. sometimes seriously, sometimes rather less so. The center (centre) of my authoring universe. I hope you enjoy your visit.
Edward: “I hope I may be quite honest with you that I will be quite pleased for the opportunity to become far better acquainted with Miss Sánchez once we reach Holland…”
Robert: “My friend who wrote that letter, he’s passed eighty now. When I was in Paris fifty years ago, where I met him, he loved her dearly. And, oh, Nancy, how she loved him…”
Béatrice: “We will all of us have a drink to everyone we remember and love.”
Bill: “Fiction comes from fact, and lots of fact makes great fiction when you re-write it as fiction.”
Valérie: “Because you are born on a farm, this does not make you a horse!”
Isabelle: “I’ll set the table… This is better than a restaurant. Oh, and by when I leave… I expect you will have told me all about General de Gaulle also.”
