Category: The Writing Life

The Growth of a Writer, or Two

I love my friend’s kid, who is now a freshman, studying creative writing at university. As a junior-high and high-school student, they wrote stories and sent them to me, asking for feedback. Other than the recent dystopic play about a…

Nine Circles of Literary Agent Hell

Note: GrubStreet’s Muse and the Marketplace is cancelled this year due to Covid-19. I’ve screwed up so many Manuscript Mart meetings at GrubStreet’s Muse and the Marketplace conference, I’ve been through Hell. I have been disconsolate, heard Satan’s calumnies, been…

Interview with John Vercher, Author of Three-Fifths

John Vercher’s debut, Three-Fifths, is a riveting crime story told with touches of poetry, razor-sharp characterizations, and the sort of cinematic pacing that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It’s also a powerful narrative about family, friendship, and…

Paying Attention: Darkness into Light

On this past Solstice eve, instead of celebrating by the fire with friends, I went to Lahey hospital for a last minute MRI, to rule out something an ultrasound had picked up.  The details of that true story don’t matter,…

Our Favorite Reads 2019

Whether it’s your mother complaining you look too tired/thin/fat/overworked or that one brother-in-law insisting he’s found the perfect unicorn investment to sink your life savings into (all $250 of it!), it seems like everyone has an opinion this time of…