Five years ago, I embarked on my first real attempt at National Novel Writing Month. I signed up, planned my schedule, roughed out an outline, and buckled down. November 1, 2009, I began writing. Two weeks later, I raced past the 50,000-word mark. The ending was rushed and the details were hazy and the charactersContinue reading “NaNoWriMo and my first published novel”
Tag Archives: writing
The book that made me a writer
The other day on Facebook, as a fun twist on Throwback Thursday, author and publisher Michael Seidlinger asked a “throwback” question: “The first book you read that blew your mind?” The question elicited a few hundred responses, many of which felt nostalgic for me: Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” which remains one of my favorite long stories ever; Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451,Continue reading “The book that made me a writer”
New publication
For the past few months, I’ve been writing new short stories related to my Civil War novel, Hagridden. Each story involves a minor character or two from the novel, people who have some important moments in the book but are definitely supporting characters to the main narrative; in these stories, those folks get their own narrative. Today,Continue reading “New publication”
Letters of Note: Make your soul grow
This story about Kurt Vonnegut writing to a student is an old story, but it came across my Facebook feed again today and it got me thinking. I remember when I was in 5th grade, my language arts class went down to the school library and we got into the Contemporary Authors books in theContinue reading “Letters of Note: Make your soul grow”
New publication
This summer, one of my primary writing projects has been composing new short stories related to my Civil War novel, Hagridden. Each story involves a minor character or two from the novel, people who have some important moments in the book but are definitely supporting characters to the main narrative; in these stories, those folksContinue reading “New publication”
New publication
This summer, one of my primary writing projects has been composing new short stories related to my Civil War novel, Hagridden. Each story involves a minor character or two from the novel, people who have some important moments in the book but are definitely supporting characters to the main narrative; in these stories, those folksContinue reading “New publication”
Hagridden has a cover!
It’s here, gang! Hagridden has a cover! I love everything about this, including the stuff you can’t see, by which I mean the conversations between me and the publisher as we looked at drafts of this. But my favorite bit: the clean font + distressed look = exactly the right combination of the book’s literary seriousnessContinue reading “Hagridden has a cover!”
More literary news than you can read in a week
Man oh man. I’m looking at my web browser now and I have half a dozen tabs open just to stories about writing and publishing. And in my history, I’ve got almost a dozen more links I’ve visited in the past week or so. It’s been a busy time for literary news, is what I’mContinue reading “More literary news than you can read in a week”
5 character facts: the “special features” part of Hagridden
There’s this writerly meme going around. The rules: to share five facts about the main character from my current work-in-progress. I got tapped for this on Facebook, by the amazing Ally Malinenko, author of one of my favorite stories ever in Jersey Devil Press. Ally has a book coming out (very!) soon, the beautiful-sounding ThisContinue reading “5 character facts: the “special features” part of Hagridden”
#Haikus4Sundiata
Today is Haikus for Sundiata Acoli day. The event, organized by Portland poet Walidah Imarisha and launched by the Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign, is a public literary activism movement to honor Sundiata Acoli and call for his release from prison. Acoli is a political prisoner, hounded by police for his membership in the Black Panther Party in the ’60s and ’70s (Sundiata’sContinue reading “#Haikus4Sundiata”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 