Ten Rules for Writing
The Guardian in Great Britain approached a number of writers, such as Elmore Leonard, Annie Proulx, Ian Rankin, and Zadie Smith, to get ten rules of writing fiction from each. They have some interesting advice and certainly there’s something in there each of us can learn from. Check it out here. A couple of writers…
continue readingTwelve Hawks Television Rights Sold to Fox
Secretive author John Twelve Hawks has sold the television rights to his Fourth Realm Trilogy to Fox, according to Reuters. No word yet on if the shows writers will have to adopt Twelve Hawks’s habit of using voice scramblers on phone calls.
continue readingThe Science of Tone
Most of you certainly know that my love of guitars rivals my obsession with books. I got an opportunity to explore that love a bit recently for Premier Guitar magazine. The cool folks over there asked me to write an article on the science of tone. Which turned out to be quite a challenge. Like…
continue readingWSJ Discovers the Difficulties of Unrepresented Writers
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “The Death of the Slush Pile.” It’s a perfectly acceptable article but what interests me is how completely not-news this thing is. I realize that WSJ readers are not writers and are probably not familiar with publishing. But still, can anyone be surprised by the…
continue readingThe Simpsons 20th Anniversary Show and the Book They Didn’t Use
Last night on Fox, I caught Morgan Spurlock’s documentary about the 20 year history of The Simpsons. It was entertaining enough and I was particularly pleased to observe a situation where vocalist Sting references literary heavyweight Cormac McCarthy while discussing yellowish cartoon characters. But during the show, I kept thinking about how much of a…
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