Meg Waite Clayton's Blog
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May.22.2012
Because I’m a book person who loves film (even though I’m generally disappointed in the movie version of any book I have loved), I turned with great excitement to “Cannes film festival set to honor the bookworm” in the Guardian. As I read though, my heart fell a little, and not just at the...
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Nov.22.2011
Uh-oh. The year’s “great books” lists have begun. Female authors have put on our literary heels and danced backward as well as we can, but it looks again like we’re going to be left tapping our toes to the music while male writers dance on the best books lists once again. TheNew York Times...
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Oct.22.2011
"The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. Most of the writing today which is called fiction contains such a poverty of language, such triteness, that it is a shrunken, diminished world we enter, poorer and more formless than the poorest cripple...
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Jul.30.2011
I've often said writing a novel is like running a marathon, but I'm beginning to think it's more like making a jigsaw puzzle: The charge of the first draft is to get the pieces all laid out on the table, face-up, so you can see what's there. The trick of subsequent drafts is to get them all fitted...
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Jul.21.2011
The summer I studied for the bar exam, I went to my bar review class in the morning and then drove over the hill with my books, set up a beach chair on the sand, and studied in the reflection of sunlight off the waves. Yes, my BAR/BRI books ended up stained with sunscreen, but to this day I haven...
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Jul.08.2011
A feminist Jew, a wise Latina woman, and a Harvard Law dean walk into a bar... Thirty years ago, that would have been the opening of what would now be seen as a politically incorrect joke, the bar a place to drink rather than an entry into the practice of law. The idea of having a woman on the...
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May.21.2011
If today really is the end of the world, the great news for me is I'll go out in style: celebrating books! And if it comes at 6 p.m., then my last supper will have been a great one as well. I'm not quite sure why Da Vinci didn't show up to capture us, but we had the most delightful time at...
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May.16.2011
A little flurry of excitement over the weekend: the just-released audiobook version of The Four Ms. Bradwells showed up on the itunes bestseller list at #12, just ten behind Bossypants. Since I'm a big audio listener, I'm thrilled - and attribute it all to my amazing reader, Karen White.
I...
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Mar.27.2011
Pencil, from the Latin penicillus, meaning "little tail." Little tail?
Not everyone writes even occasionally with the old-fashioned yellow pencil with pink eraser top anymore. This astonishing fact came to my attention through a more newfangled way to communicate, the Facebook post....
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Mar.20.2011
"Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings." — Jane Austen
"No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance." — Confucius
With just four days left until publication of The Four Ms. Bradwells,...
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Mar.14.2011
The Four Ms. Bradwells is going into a second printing eight days before it even comes out. I would explain how this happens if I knew, but I don't. I just know it's very good news. It comes on the heels of a lovely piece yesterday which calls it "a thriller of a whodunit, a tender love story...
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Mar.07.2011
I came across this wonderfully funny and true quote yesterday in the New York Times Book Review:
“Look, writing a novel is like paddling from Boston to London in a bathtub. Sometimes the damn tub sinks. It’s a wonder that most of them don’t.” - Stephen King
The whole piece is definitely worth...
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Mar.03.2011
"A person who publishes a book willfully appears before the populace with his pants down."— Edna St. Vincent Millay
...tick ... tick ... tick
Less than three weeks till publication of The Four Ms. Bradwells, I'm hoping this one it's true that, although you can't judge a book by its cover...
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Feb.27.2011
Thanks to my lovely editor, Caitlin Alexander, the fed ex truck rolled up my street yesterday with my first finished copy of The Four Ms. Bradwells! It's still almost four weeks until you'll be able to see it yourselves in bookstores, but I can tell you it's just beautiful! This big smile - taken...
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Feb.06.2011
This week's pre-publication taks: finalize press release materials and tour details. I had a lovely chat with Lisa Barnes from Random House about book tour cities and travel details, among other things. We finalized a lovely press release and cover letter for The Four Ms. Bradwells (really, when I...
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Meg Waite Clayton's stirring novel will appeal not just to those who secretly wish to be writers, but to anyone with a love of great books; anyone who has felt truly moved by a book or an author; and anyone who has had their dreams bolstered by good and faithful friends.”
—Book Reporter
About Meg
Meg Waite Clayton is the nationally bestselling author of THE FOUR MS. BRADWELLS, THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS, THE LANGUAGE OF LIGHT, and the forthcoming THE WEDNESDAY DAUGHTERS, all from Random House's Ballantine Books and all major national book club picks....
Causes Meg Clayton Supports
Susan G. Komen for the Cure