In the mood to blog, but I...
Hell, the lack of ideas never stops most bloggers, so why me? (What's more, the thousands in my daily readership demand my product. God bless all of you.)Growing up I was somewhat of an athlete so I was always granted entree into the inner circles of studentdom. But, alas, here at Red Room I feel inferior, overlooked, pariah-tized. All the inside joking ongoing between the bloggers ...
Rhinos, tigers, and chickens, oh my! SF's...
San Francisco - a place where chickens go free, gorillas are aloof, tiger maulings are blithely replaced by tiger promos and some guy, clearly not learning from my past mistakes, tries to scale a black rhino enclosure fence at the troubled SF Zoo. Even Gavin Newsom can't cut the budget for crazy, it seems. Our story begins, as it must, at the Zoo, scene of past mismanagement and death. ...
My Kingdom for a Camera
So it has come to this. My publisher has asked for two short video clips to help promote A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England and A Journey into Ireland's Literary Revival. Although I feel very comfortable in front of groups of people and have even done a fair amount of amateur acting, turn on a camera and out comes the Tin Man! So, I'm thinking an animated slide show with ...
October 1st
I made a visit to my mother yesterday. The photo is the road to where she rests. She died on October 1st, 1996. My image of that day is a tall building with vertical banners hanging from the top. That evening, I was talking with one of her ocha students on phone. I heard beeps in the middle of our conversation. I knew it was from her hospital. I told the caller that she probably ...
Write A Breakthrough Novel And Get Laid
Write what you know. Shave your legs before each date. Use hooks and cliffhangers. Don't wear last year's shoes. Do not use passive voice. Start using anti-wrinkle at 26. Show, don't tell. Swallow, don't spit. Don't use adverbs. Laugh at his jokes. Use a three-act structure. Never let him see you without makeup. Write a professional query letter. Never confess your love first.If your novel ...
First Novels
I've got a new guest blog up at a writer pal's website. Meg Waite Clayton started a blog about first novels, in the hope that we published writers would debunk the myth of the overnight success. Hey, I'm a poster child for that one. Worked long and hard for many years before my first novel was published. So I tell my story here: my wild ride.
Jenny Meyerhoff and THIRD GRADE BABY
When Jenny Meyerhoff's sixth grade language arts teacher asked the class to write a poem, Meyerhoff, a Silverstein devotee, wrote her ode in exact Silverstein-ian style. It was so Shel-like, in fact, her teacher had trouble believing Jenny had written the poem herself. And that's when Meyerhoff knew she could write. Really write."Until that moment," she remembered ...
Publishing in the Great Depression; a model...
This blog has been much too bleak lately. Let's look on the bright side. Though it seems our world is crumbling around us, here are some factoids to help us keep our writerly chins up:From http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decade30.html: The famous Dick and Jane books that taught millions of children to read were first published in 1931. These primers introduced the students to reading ...
Day Late, Dollar Short
My propagation of Huntington's meme--A is for age: 57 B is for beer of choice: what, no champagne?C is for career right now: novelist and writer with a book coming out in each genre—next month!!!D is for your dog's name? Cybie. She’s robotic. And blue.E is for essential item you use everyday: bytes F is for favorite TV: I like that cranky doc. Didn’t he used to have a British accent? G is ...
