conflict | conflict
May.21.2013
Photo: Book's cover from its Wikipedia page
Almost as quick a read as its predecessor, this one is told from the point of view of Stevie, from his cigarette shop, as he looks back on his past. The cast is all here, and a few more characters show up, including one of the all-time...
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Mar.26.2013
Photo: The Golden Gate Bridge, in an aerial view, from the bridge's Wikipedia page. Click it; it's a great pic.
I've been trying to read books lately with a writer's eye, so that I could learn what makes successful (defined here as published; maybe also as respected and/or successful...
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Nov.27.2012
Exiles in the Garden by Ward Just is an excellent example of the well-made novel, though it lacks in the very theme it explores: conflict.
Alec Malone is the protagonist we follow from his twenties to his seventies. He’s a photographer at first for a Washington, D.C. newspaper. Then he...
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Oct.20.2012
"Good versus evil" can be (and is) the formula for much well-regarded fiction. It is also the perfect formula for shallow storytelling, predictable rpg adventures, and two-dimensional entertainment.
I've thought this for quite a long time, ever since I read one-too-many bad books and poorly...
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Aug.11.2012
Let me introduce you to Joe Mikulik, manager of the South Atlantic (baseball) League's Asheville Tourists, the minor league Billy Martin (may he rest in peace).
It's June, 2006, and Roger Clemens' kid, Koby, of the Lexington Legends, has just been proclaimed safe at second on an oh, so tight...
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Jul.06.2012
That people can be incredibly vicious or amazingly enlightened was an unofficial lesson I learned while attending a Quaker summer camp in northern California in the summer of 1967. I quickly became good friends with Michael, who at age 12 was already a confirmed pacifist. The camp was divided into...
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Jun.13.2012
I feel sorry for Frasier Crane. He had a cranky day because of all the rain and he said so, but the whole of Seattle was angry at him for telling a woman to change her life, get a new job, a different apartment, get a hobby, make friends, find a boyfriend, or move out of town. Everyone picked up...
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May.08.2012
The idea of an Avengers film was daring: to put together A-list actors who have played Marvel superheroes recently, give them a good plot, script, and director (Joss Whedon). As opening weekend box office sales indicate, the risk paid off and the film was a success.
What about the...
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Mar.22.2012
Dr. Allen Malnak is today’s guest on “A Book and a Chat” talking about his debut novel “Hitler’s Silver Box”.
Dr Malnak after a long career in the medical profession retired to Florida, there he read one day about a course in writing fiction where Hollis Alpert, a well known novelist,...
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Feb.13.2012
The filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein said it is art’s task, “to form equitable views by stirring up contradictions within the spectator’s mind, and to forge accurate intellectual concepts from the dynamic clash of opposing passions.” By this he means that, “Art is always conflict.” Whether we...
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