Lorraine Duffy Merkl's Blog
RSS
Feb.17.2013
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/31/make-me-worry-youre-not-o-k/
The "humiliation essay."
Above you will find a link to a NYTimes "Draft" article (Draft is the paper's column devoted to the craft of writing) written by a former teacher of mine. She is a very nice person and quite...
Continue Reading »
2 comments
Dec.19.2012
Yet another movie has given me a jumping off point to tell a personal story that probably would not have gotten published without a current topic to help promote it.
Try it. It works.
My son and I bonded long before Barbra Steisand and Seth Rogen in The Guilt Trip http://lnkd.in/eihdsu
Continue Reading »
1 comment
Nov.23.2012
Long ago and far away when I was a new writer, people told me to familiarize myself with the publications I was pitching my stories to. I rolled my eyes.
I would show them all how it was really done: write a piece than e-blast it to everyone everywhere. The essayist's version of throw all the ideas...
Continue Reading »
Nov.23.2012
http://blogs.forbes.com/susannahbreslin/
If you are a writer, you should be reading this woman's blog on Forbes.com.
Her name is Susannah Breslin. She is on point and hysterical.
She is doing a series now called "30 Days of Freelancing," but she also writes about jobs and the workplace in general....
Continue Reading »
Nov.04.2012
http://blog.care.com/featured-columnists/2012/10/vote-nemo.html
What kind of essayist would I be if I didn't capitalize on a current event?
Continue Reading »
Nov.04.2012
http://blog.care.com/featured-columnists/2012/10/vote-nemo.html
What kind of essayist would I be if I didn't capitalize on a current event?
Continue Reading »
Oct.16.2012
This was a link from the WSJ.
The words are Actually, Basically, Honestly (a personal fave of mine), Literally, and the chronic offender: Like.
The article will explain why.
http://firsttoknow.com/5-words-that-make-you-sound-stupid/?did=1179&utm_source=outbrain&utm_campaign=fivewords
So...
Continue Reading »
1 comment
Sep.27.2012
Some writers just have to ruin it for the rest of us.
The link at the bottom is an article that talks about authors who not only were lucky enough to get offered book contracts, but got big advances to boot. THEN they didn't even turn in their material. AND they kept the money.
They've got to...
Continue Reading »
1 comment
Jun.29.2012
Seriously, is there no end?
When is mainstream publishing going to get in the game?
These people keep getting proven time and time again to not know a good book if they read one, yet are still held up as the arbitars of what belongs on the book shelves.
Today's WSJ profiles yet another author ...
Continue Reading »
Jun.11.2012
Just finished Anna Quindlen's new memoir, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, where the Pulitzer Prize-winning author explores her past, present and future.
Please don't discount this book because you are either not a) a woman or b) over 50. Even if you are not interested in her wisdom (and...
Continue Reading »
May.28.2012
Read this. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4933/the-art-of-fiction-no-13-dorothy-parker
Seriously.
Especially the part where she says she "never made it." Even the best of us feels unaccomplished; but saying it doesn't make it so.
So much of it seems as though it were written today....
Continue Reading »
2 comments
Mar.06.2012
The cliche is that we're all drunks, often this is propagated by us so we sound like we belong with the greats -- Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dylan Thomas -- who came before us.
But as a teetotaler, I can tell you that this writer (and I know I'm not alone) has an addiction that is just as in need...
Continue Reading »
Mar.04.2012
“I write ‘STET’ at the top of whatever I hand in. If they don’t want to publish it as is, then it doesn’t get published.”
So said Fran Lebowitz about 20 years ago when I went to an NYC Barnes & Noble to hear her read some essays. She went on to talk about how she didn’t believe in the job of...
Continue Reading »
Feb.06.2012
I now understand why I have succeeded as a journalist, where I failed as an advertising copywriter. It has nothing to do with creativity or long form writing vs. punchy-quick slogans, and all to do with showmanship; a skill I do not have nor want, but treated my “lack of” for a long time as though...
Continue Reading »
Jan.05.2012
In a time when many authors have to shill their own work (physically and financially) because publishers can't afford to or don't want to unless you're a Kardashian and they know people will line up for the book signing (yes, Kim & Co "wrote" a novel) we can get so caught up in promoting our...
Continue Reading »
1 comment
About Lorraine
Lorraine Duffy Merkl is a published author, freelance journalist and advertising creative director/copywriter for print, television, radio and interactive media in New York City.
Her debut novel, Fat Chick, was published by The Vineyard Press in 2009....
Causes Lorraine Merkl Supports
The Legal Aid Society
The Inner-City Scholarship Fund
Lorraine’s Favorite Books
Breakfast at Tiffany's Anywhere I Hang My Hat The Seamstress Living Well is the Best Revenge Lush Life
Lorraine is a fan of
