The Gifts that Keep on Giving: My “Go To” YA Books
In her Dead Darlings post of July 8, 2014 Why Adults Should Read YA, Emily Ross makes a compelling case for why YA books are not just for kids. I happen to agree. I read a lot of YA books….
Category: Writing Advice
Friday Feast: YA Books 4 U, Good News 4 Bookstores and Why It’s Not Called “Storyshowing”
All it takes for me to return to the glory days of the 80s is a title with “4” instead of “for.”* Boom. Time machine… It’s surprisingly difficult to find a gif of Prince eating food that doesn’t look freaky….
Happy Indie Story, Part Eight: My Top Five Indie Author Lessons
At the end of every year, I look back on the past several months at what I’ve done, what I’ve learned, and what I can do better. In honor of that and the new Chris Rock film, Top Five, which…
Fiction-Writing: My Dead Darling
By guest contributor, Sharon Bially. Years ago I began fiddling around with a work-in-progress known, for lack of a better title, as My Life. It was all very preliminary: some vague thoughts about where the story might lead; some images…
Too Many Metaphors?
“Our mother performed in starlight.” Thus reads the succinct and succulent first sentence of Swamplandia!, Karen Russell’s 2011 literary blockbuster (Oops! Dead metaphor.) And while it doesn’t, at first blush, contain a metaphor—their mother, Hilola Bigtree, really does perform under…
Friday Feast: Turkey Day Hangover Edition
Turkey overload? Tofurkey overload? We feel your pain. That’s why we’ve loaded up on links this week that barely require you to lift your head, let alone your hands to hold up a book.