Jess Wells's Blog
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Jan.04.2011
I’m repulsed by the idea outlined in a recent New York Times article that Kindle e-books have so-called “popular highlights” in which the ‘quotable’ phrase is highlighted for you before you even read the book. As a writer, I want each reader to experience the work on their own terms and not be...
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Dec.14.2010
Richly detailed and insightful review in the New York Times by Leon Wieseltier of the new book of Saul Bellow's letters. Here's a gem from Bellow:
“The range of a writer’s metaphor is a measure of the range of his cognition.”
Love that.
“As with his novels," the review says, "the reading...
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Nov.30.2010
Thrilled to say I’ll be moderating a panel at the Historical Novel Society Conference in San Diego June 17-19, 2011, focused on “Making Characters Believable.” It will be held from 9:45-10:45 a.m. Saturday, June 18th and I think my opening remarks will be focused on the fascinating book, Strange...
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Nov.02.2010
I’ll be teaching a new class at the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival (SASfest)in New Orleans, May 12-15th, 2011: “Building Credible Worlds/Making Setting Work for Your Story.
Here's what I'll be teaching:
Setting is not simple backdrop, like a green screen on which on film is shot. Setting in...
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Oct.04.2010
Gems in the New York Times this weekend, including this great quote from Jeanette Winterson, reviewing the new novel by Michael Cunningham (By Nightfall). She says “good novels are novels that provoke us to argue with the writer, not just novels that make us feel magically, mysteriously at home. ...
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Sep.20.2010
Am definitely planning to visit the J. Paul Getty Museum for it’s “Imagining the Past in France 1250-1500” which dovetails beautifully with the period I’m currently working on. Christine de Pizan was in the court of Charles V and Charles VI and was actively involved in the production of her own...
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Sep.08.2010
Scored a teaching gig at The Writing Salon: join me for my 1-day and 5-week workshops on “How to Write Historical Fiction.” Both classes will involve lectures on the unique requirements of the genre, plus in-class or take-home exercises to help you find or refine the era and area that resonate...
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Sep.02.2010
The end of summer in San Francisco is a glorious, unnerving wake-up call.
On one of the handful of days when it hits in the 80s the cord of wood and the presto logs you laid in for July look odd in your living room. The ski jacket you keep in the back seat of the car strikes you as absurd.
You...
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Sep.01.2010
As we prepare for the last day of vacation before the new school year (in my family’s case for the beginning of high school) I’d like to say hats off to all the parents who have gotten through another summer without homicide, suicide, or patricide.
To all the moms who didn’t fling fireplace tools...
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Sep.01.2010
Thoroughly enjoyed the article in Time Magazine, August 23, 2010 on Jonathan Franzen and his new book and am fascinated by what he has to say about freedom. But also noteworthy is his work ethic. “Franzen works in a rented office that he has stripped of all distractions. He uses a heavy, obsolete...
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Aug.30.2010
Guttenberg is certainly considered creator of one of the most world-changing devices ever built but, as commerce and society would have it, the early years of print were not earth-shattering, according to The Book in the Renaissance by Andrew Pettegree, reviewed in the New York Times Book Review,...
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Aug.27.2010
Just as people have called on the spirit world for assistance with crops and fertility or for the strength to get through the darkest nights, humans have called on the spirit world to assist them in the mysterious process of making art. Here is a sampling of some of the Muses from various cultures...
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Aug.26.2010
The Historical Novel Society 4th North American conference will take place June 17-19, 2011, at the Holiday Inn on the Bay in San Diego, California. Speaker proposals are being accepted through September 30th, for a specific set of panels, including:
Naval History
World War II
Borrowing...
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Aug.24.2010
A special shout-out to Maryline Martin, who is building “a replica of a medieval chateau of the mid-13th century using the techniques of the time: iron tools and no electricity.” (New York Times, Sunday, August 1, 2010 pg. 8) The castle, named Guedelon after the surrounding forest, is two hours...
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Jun.30.2010
I was quite surprised recently at the fear that came up when I thought of performing at an open mic.
You see, I had an obligation for a grant that included a requirement that the funded work be performed, (otherwise I would have stayed under my blankets or at my desk on this typically frigid, San...
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About Jess
Jess Wells is the author of 12 volumes, including the historical novel, A Slender Tether , coming soon from Fireship Press, and The Mandrake Broom (Firebrand, 2007). Wells was awarded a San Francisco Arts Commission Grant for Literature and she is a four-...
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Causes Jess Wells Supports
Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, Friends of the Urban Forest, The Heifer Project, Forests Forever, NRDC