Here’s the Beef on Stakes
“What’s at stake here?” Sooner or later every fiction writer fields this question. Often the challenge appears as a single word – STAKES? – scrawled on a novel chapter or short story draft, plus or minus a coffee cup ring,…
Making Lemonade: Turning Bad Juju into Good Writing
Bad juju comes to most of us, and sometimes it comes all at once and sometimes it is a staccato of bad news, one thing, another thing, another thing, another. My response to trouble used to be assume professional stance at…
Friday Feast: Books For a Long Holiday Weekend
For five seconds, I thought I’d do something a bit more interesting than providing a list of books to read (again). But then I thought, nah. It’s a holiday weekend in both the U.S. and Canada and quite possibly in…
I’ll Have What She’s Having: The Role of Food as a Writing Enhancer
I am writing this blog entry while on vacation. So, naturally I am thinking about my next meal. When we consider food and its role in stories, food-themed movies come to mind—Babette’s Feast, Big Night, Chocolat, Julie and Julia, and…
My Adventures in Photo Realism
For Valentine’s Day in 2009 my husband and I got tickets to a New Yorker event called “Love Is Strange” where Jeffrey Eugenides was going to speak about love and literature. That February, I was finishing my dissertation that included…
Friday Feast: Queries, Failure, Writing, Stories That Last, and Massholes
‘Masshole’ is now officially a word, not just the word I yell at the drivers who nearly run me over in the crosswalk. Much like being a pedestrian in Boston, the publishing path is full of hazards, even when you…