When you put yourself out ‘there’ as a writer, when you lasso the title of ‘writer,’ inevitably you are asked your opinion. You are also confronted by a litany of folks who make excuses. Now, I’m not adverse to the excuse bit. I hear and speak them daily. But what […]
As writers, new and seasoned, there’s one truth that seems to be universal: everyone has advice for you. The problem occurs when those “everyones” don’t quite know what they’re talking about. You’re going to get good and bad advice as you navigate your way learning the writing craft. There will […]
Crash Course: essays from where writing and life collide, by Robin Black The third book from short story writer and novelist Robin Black collects her recent essays, many of which first appeared on the great, and sadly erstwhile literary blog, Beyond the Margins. Crash Course, subtitled essays from where writing […]
Being a writer isn’t always an easy gig. There are moments of struggle, of invented blocks that we use as an excuse to procrastinate and there is the thrilling, relieving seconds when a story is complete and we’ve finally wrote the two most beautiful words in the English language: The […]
I’ve been writing since I was a kid. (That’s a very long time. I’m old, y’all). Being a published writer has always been my dream. I can’t, in fact, remember a time when I didn’t want to be a writer. The difference between that little girl all those years ago […]
We are honored to host this guest post by Phillipa Bornikova in celebration of her blog tour for ‘Box Office Poison.’ Be sure to check out Sharon’s review of this exciting title and enter for a chance to win a copy of this amazing book! Thanks for the post, Phillipa! […]
Once, while at a slavery museum in my region, I saw a picture of a horribly abused man, a runaway slave, who’d been whipped so brutally that the skin on his back was pigmented into one massive grayish whelp. The image stuck with me, haunted me, but what reverberates in […]
From our friends at Mental Floss. Check out their full post here. Neil Gaiman is a prolific author spanning genres — he has hits in the worlds of comics, young adult fiction, grownup fiction, television, film, and even nonfiction (I particularly enjoyed Don’t Panic, his Douglas Adams/HHGTTG companion). Here, are […]
Just like any writer, we love to hear great writing advice. Sure, said advice is not always wanted, but pearls of wisdom can be gathered from even the most unwelcome bits of useless “advice.” Owen Egerton, an Austin writer, posted on The Huffington Post Blog about the collection of advice […]
Writing isn’t easy. From my vantage point, writing isn’t some glamorous little task pulled off with little effort by we brave few who have a tight grasp on proper grammar. Writing, quite simply, is very hard work. That notion is exacerbated by the intrinsic self- doubting nature of the writer. […]
On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.