Confessions of a Non-Voracious Reader
Standard advice to novelists is to read a lot. Of course, it would be ironic to find a writer who does not like to read. It’s the “a lot” where I get hung up. Unlike many of my writing colleagues,…
Category: The Writing Life
An Interview with Pamela Wechsler, author of The Graves
Pamela Wechsler’s new novel The Graves, the second in the Abby Endicott series, was published on May 2. It has garnered advance praise from Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, with the latter writing: “Catnip for readers attached to Boston, believably…
Bonding with my Protagonist over a Dirty Secret
I love the time of year when my fingernails are always dirty. Really dirty. Deep under my nails, crusted in my cuticles, embedded in every crease on my knuckles. I love dirt. To be more precise, I love soil. In the…
Publishing and Marketing a Book in the Time of Trump
I follow a lot of authors, publishers, book editors, reviewers, libraries and bookstores in social media. This is important because I’m a writer with a debut book about the world’s first gourmand, FEAST OF SORROW, out TODAY (YAY!). Aside from…
Show Them the Nutcracker: On Getting to the Point
A few years back, my husband and I went to a Boston Ballet performance of The Nutcracker. Behind us sat a mother and her five-year-old son, who was deeply psyched to be there, wriggling and fidgeting with glee. As soon…
Inside the Sausage Factory: Second Drafts
I read somewhere that readers don’t want to know how a book gets made. Don’t reveal the magic! Let the creative process remain a mystery! But this is a site for novelists, so . . . please step inside the sausage factory…