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How To Impressionable A Admissible Review art...
Published on Monday, May 31, 2010 by When the principal reviews fitted my most current story (Arrant Sky Concubine, Unsystematic Concert-hall 2006) started coming in, my emotions went through the hackneyed roller coaster. The oldest, from Publisher’s Weekly, was 90% positive, but mentioned that, in their evaluation, it was slow in spots. My bear sank. Slow? In spots? Oh my Divinity—all is at sea! ... Read More »
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Copywriting 101: How to Get Your Customers to...
Published on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by Essays If you want people to buy, you gotta ask for the sale. Truly, it is that simple. Yet I can't tell you how many ads, Web sites, brochures, sales letters, etc. are floating around out there that aren't asking. So, what is a call to action? It's telling people what action you want them to take. Typical calls to action include: Hurry in today. Buy now. Call now. Visit ... Read More »
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Forget About “Talent”!
Published on Sunday, October 11, 2009 by Essays How is a writer to access her deepest and most powerful wells of creativity? How do we tap into our talent, our genius, our greatest potential for success? Writing classes often tell us how to plot, or structure, or build characters, or create poetic images, but the question of accessing our excellence is a slippery and elusive one. It is possible we’ll need to ... Read More »
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Writing Twenty Novels (In Ten Easy Steps!)
Published on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 by Essays During a recent telephone conversation, I mentioned having sent off the last revisions for my twentieth novel, “Great Sky Woman.” There was a silence on the other side of the phone, followed by the question “How in the world do you do that? Twenty novels!” The truth is that I know many writers who have written far more than twenty novels. It i... Read More »
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How To Survive A Good Review
Published on Saturday, June 20, 2009 by Essays When the first reviews for my most recent novel (Great Sky Woman, Random House 2006) started coming in, my emotions went through the usual roller coaster. The first, from Publisher’s Weekly, was 90% positive, but mentioned that, in their opinion, it was slow in spots. My stomach sank. Slow? In spots? Oh my God&ndashall is lost! The second review came in two wee... Read More »
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Carving Out A Home Writing Retreat
Published on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 by Essays The phone rings. The laundry pleads to be stuffed, cycled, dried and folded. Chaos reigns in the kitchen, e-mails queue for attention. Our lives are at once mundane and undeniably seductive at the same time. When we sit down to write at home, suddenly everything that marks our existence as tedious becomes compelling. Writing at home can seem tantamount to training for... Read More »
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It Was Good Enough For Shakespeare!
Published on Tuesday, June 9, 2009 by Essays One of the core conflicts for creative artists of all kinds is the tug-of-war between art and commerce. Frankly, an artist needs to make money, and it is preferable to make it from his craft. A writer who must work a full-time job to support himself will struggle to find the time to work, and often eventually gives it up altogether. On the other hand, being able to w... Read More »
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The “Casablanca” Secret
Published on Sunday, May 10, 2009 by Essays Good writing is often designed around a character who has a distorted vision of himself or of the world. During the story, he is placed under sufficient pressure to force an epiphany, a moment of clarity in which, he sees the world as it is, not as he wished it to be. A classic example is “Casablanca,” where Bogart’s immortal Rick has managed to cre... Read More »
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The Lazy Man’s Guide To Great Character...
Published on Monday, April 13, 2009 by Essays One subject arising whenever writers gather to discuss their craft is the mining of life itself for story material. While a vital and important technique, it is important to remember that real human beings are impossibly complex, far too complicated to serve as story characters without major modification. The most complex character in all of western fiction (arguably)... Read More »
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The Three “Questions” Of Science ...
Published on Monday, March 16, 2009 by Essays There is a great deal of misunderstanding about what that particular branch of literature called “Science Fiction” actually consists of. Is it space-ships and monsters? Time machines? Galactic empires? Well, its all of those things, and often none of them. Science Fiction, broadly speaking, is story-telling that deals with the impact of organized knowledg... Read More »

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