Stuck: How to Deal with Writer’s Block
I hated to even utter the word. I would not say it aloud. I couldn’t even write it down. I thought it, briefly, but in my one successful meditation moment, I let the word go. It would not overtake me….
The Book That Was My Doorstop Has Become A Sacred Text
It’s true. For years I used it to keep the wind from slamming shut a particularly annoying door. Why this book? Because it was there: the first in a use-every-last-inch row of dusty volumes precariously atilt atop a chock-full bookcase,…
Friday Feast: Writer Happiness, Writer Envy, Deep Thoughts with Stephen King, and Girls in Fiction
One of the first 45s* I bought was Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls.” I typically prefer the words “woman” or “broad” or “amazing organizational powerhouse,” but I can still get down with the G word on occasion, and invite you to…
An Interview with Alexi Zentner, Author of The Lobster Kings
Building on the critical success of his first novel, Touch, Alexi Zentner’s second release, The Lobster Kings, appeared last year to widespread acclaim. Set on fictional Loosewood Island near the border between Maine and Canada, The Lobster Kings follows first-person…
Birthing Babies, Birthing Books
Once again, I find myself gestating two babies: my book and an actual human child, currently two weeks out from D-Day. This happened two years ago too, smack in the middle of the Novel Incubator. I went to class one…
Friday Feast: Novel Checklist, Writing Tips, and Literary Food Blogs
Sometimes, you have to eat at your desk while working or writing or reading blogs (except for that one potential employer who warned me that eating at your desk — lunch or snacks* — is not permitted). Gillian Anderson approves….