Surely, She Doesn’t Mean Our Slushpile
The wonderfully acerbic and incredibly informative Miss Snark describes three nitwit queries that came over her transom. Certainly, none of our readers would make such a mistake, but these provide a good reminder of what not to do when querying an agent. They’re also pretty damn funny. Claims of being the fist novel to explore…
continue readingPracticing the Art of Imitation
In a post some months ago, I wrote about Nicholas Delbanco’s great ideas concerning imitation of the fiction masters. In his essay, Delbanco argues that copying the greats can be an incredibly educational experience. I recently came across the same concept, this time in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the…
continue readingInspiration from the Dead
Most of us have our own methods for seeking inspiration and story ideas. Some of us take notes in bars, some of us look for funny news items in the paper, and some of us utilize writing exercises to jump-start our imagination. But Bernice McFadden listens to the dead. The author writes an essay…
continue readingBountiful Publishing Opportunities on eBay
For anyone out there with dreams of becoming the next Maxwell Perkins or maybe Charles Scribner, there are plenty of acquisition opportunities on eBay right now. For $700,000 you can purchase the copyrights for “three books. They are books on 9/11/2001. A story of courage under fire. One book is on domestic violence. A tragedy that…
continue readingConjure Up Some Demons
I spent most of the weekend scared shitless while reading Stephen Graham Jones’ Demon Theory. The official release date is April 18th so you’ll have to wait a bit. But this is a book well worth marking your schedules for and counting down in sort of a demented Advent Calendar way. The book description from…
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