Tag Archives: reading

Banned Books Week

This week is Banned Books Week, which I whole-heartedly support. Why? Mostly because of its founder, the late Judith Krug.  I met her once.  My wife worked with her.  She was phenomenal. I was a fan of Banned Books Week long before I met Judith Krug, but having met her, I am devoted to itContinue reading “Banned Books Week”

Last lines

We writers pay a lot of attention to first lines. They’re supremely important — for the reader, they are the opening impression, the first glimpse not only at the story but also at the style of the story and even (dare I say it in this age of modern criticism) at the author. For theContinue reading “Last lines”

New fiction by David Maizenberg

A long time ago, I accidentally found an amazing little collection of short stories that felt unlike anything I’d read before–and in the best possible way. The book was Invitations to a Bridge Burning, by David Maizenberg, and they profoundly changed the way I think about fiction. I had by that time been through enoughContinue reading “New fiction by David Maizenberg”

Interview with Darin Bradley, author of Noise

Darin Bradley‘s apocalyptic novel Noise hit bookshelves, both physical and virtual, today. So I thought I’d ask Darin a few questions about his novel, the apocalypse, and writing in general. The resulting e-mail conversation, which has spanned the past few weeks, has turned out to be very long, which is a good thing, because DarinContinue reading “Interview with Darin Bradley, author of Noise”

Noise, by Darin Bradley

A friend of mine is releasing his first novel in a couple of weeks, an apocalyptic novel called Noise.  I haven’t read it yet, but by all accounts, it’s awesome.  (I have read the teaser text on the publisher’s website–it certainly looks awesome!) Darin and I are bouncing back and forth on an interview aboutContinue reading “Noise, by Darin Bradley”

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”

Music & Literature Part I: Experimentation

a guest blog by Ryan Werner A while back, I wrote a post about how music influences my writing, which led to not one but two Writer’s Notebook exercises about writing from music. But I said in that initial post that my relationship with music is purely as a listener–I don’t have any experience withContinue reading “Music & Literature Part I: Experimentation”

How to know when the writing is good (or good enough)

When I was in grad school working on my doctorate, I took a class on the form and theory of poetry, with poet Bruce Bond. It was a fascinating course that taught me a lot, not only about poetry but also about my own approach to fiction. Bond has a way of asking provocative questionsContinue reading “How to know when the writing is good (or good enough)”