The Novelist as Plate Spinner
Don’t you hate it when you are deep into reading a novel, and the author refers to something you can’t remember? You come across a line like, “Of course, Bob never would have divorced Jill if it weren’t for what…
Tag: Jonathan Franzen
The Other!
Shakespeare did it. Flannery O’Connor did it. Jonathan Franzen does it all the time. Every playwright, short story writer, and novelist does it as a matter of course, yet there is still plenty of debate over the writer’s right to…
10 Ways to Paint a Portrait With Words
I often struggle with describing my characters. Right now, I’m banging my head against a wall trying to describe a teenage boy who has visions as more than a blond hunk. This is all the more frustrating because my mother…
These are a Few of Our Favorite Reads
Do you really need another list of books to read? To those questioners, I ask: How can you possibly have too many lists of books to read? That’s like telling a party guest that they have brought too many cupcakes….
Friday Feast: Post-NaNoWriMo, Creative Sleep, Sexism, Book Riot’s Best and the Ferguson Library
It’s a grab bag of links this week, kind of like all those leftovers that end up in your fridge from holiday parties and cookie swaps. At the last party I attended, I scored some homemade fudge brownies. ‘Tis the…
A Just Cause
Most of our writers are currently unavailable for blogging due to black holes of revision, wedding planning or last-minute Craft on Draft prep. So, I’ll be pinch-hitting for the next couple of weeks. Things might get random, y’all. Let’s start with a…