If you’re as big a fan of Literary Rejections on Display as I am, you’ve probably been following with some excitement the unfolding good news for our anonymous blogger: Over the last several weeks, he/she has been getting not just a nibble but a hard tug on the line for a novel she/he has beenContinue reading “Accruing the karma”
Category Archives: writing
The short and long of things….
I just received an e-mail telling me one of my short stories made the shortlist for finalists in the short-story category of the Faulkner Wisdom Competition (run by Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society down in New Orleans). Then, immediately after that, I received another e-mail that I made the semi-finals for the novella category of theContinue reading “The short and long of things….”
A Writer’s Notebook: Word association
This exercise requires a quick explanation up front, but I’ll explain where it comes from and what I’m doing with it below. The prompt itself is this: Brainstorm or free write around one or all of the following words: glass, willow, tile, edge, ring. Few of the houses have glass, because the scale is smallContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Word association”
A Writer’s Notebook: Found dialogue
The following conversation is not one I invented. I made up the characters and the situation, but the dialogue already existed. But I’ll explain below. Jacob smiled and leaned across the table. “It’s terribly funny,” he said. He winked. Sebastian shook his head. “You are pulling my leg.” Jacob only grinned. “You exaggerate!” Sebastian said. “SurelyContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Found dialogue”
A Writer’s Notebook: A blank page
I spent part of this week in the hospital for a bleeding ulcer. Nothing life-threatening, but it did threaten to interfere with our travel plans. The good news is that it didn’t, and today, I am traveling. But those two things combined–the ulcer and the travel–have left me with a blank page for this week’sContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: A blank page”
A Writer’s Notebook: Character details
This story I’m writing about the character named Ford is ballooning, but in the best way–each week I find new ways to build it, expand it, let it breathe. But more on that below. Right now, five quick questions to help flesh out the character of Ford: a) What are the character’s physical attributes, fromContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Character details”
New publication
Just a quick announcement that the new issue of Forge came out today. It includes my story “A Smooth, Clean Cut.” If you’re interested.
99 literary agents on the wall….
99 literary agents!…. Come on, sing it with me now! Over the past several months, I’ve become a big fan of the blog Literary Rejections on Display, partly because the rejections all look so familiar (it’s nice to know we’re not alone in the long, good fight to share great literature, isn’t it?) but alsoContinue reading “99 literary agents on the wall….”
A Writer’s Notebook: Descriptive outlines
Recently, I had the idea to write a new short story in a particular style, a genre I have practiced before but a long time ago. I’m out of practice. So I dug up some old examples and some new ones, and I started analyzing them for clues as to how to proceed. And thenContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Descriptive outlines”
Still MORE writing and music
With all the posts I’ve been writing lately about the influence of music on writing, I simply have to share this recent discovery: It’s a song-sharing site called Stereomood, but the idea is not simply to share songs. (The site is a streaming site, not a download site, so I’m sharing this because it actsContinue reading “Still MORE writing and music”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 