So, the Lack of a Blurb is a Criticism?
Janet Maslin reviews John Leake’s Entering Hades: The Double Life of a Serial Killer in today’s New York Times. It’s a pretty critical review and since I haven’t read the book, I can’t agree or disagree with Maslin’s complaints. But what caught my eye was her insinuation that a lack of a blurb equates to an…
continue readingSlash’s Ultimate Guitar Showdown
So most of you know that while I’m not writing books (or writing about books) then I’m daydreaming of rock guitar stardom. Never mind the fact that I don’t really play… that little detail doesn’t matter in my fantasies. But for those of you who do play, and who think you’ve got the licks to…
continue readingEck Reviewed in The Times
Uzodinma Iweala reviewed Matthew Eck’s The Farther Shore in yesterday’s New York Times. It’s not a complete homerun of a review. Iweala praises Eck’s “ability to bring us straight into the devastation, all its sights and sounds whirling around us as they whirl around Stantz and his comrades” and points out that his “writing is best when…
continue reading10 Movies for Writers
I spent part of the holiday weekend catching up on the towering stack of magazines that threatened to fall over and crush my cat. Which would be no small feat since my boy is uhhh, how can I say it politely, big-boned. But in my magazine reading, I came across an interesting article in the…
continue readingUhhh, This Might Be a Tad Too Much
In a book proposal, it’s always challenging to strike the perfect balance between being excited and positive about your work and going over the top. Here’s a case of where someone might have gone too far. GalleyCat discussed a book proposal making the rounds that raises eyebrows with it’s outlandish claims. The unnamed literary agent claims…
continue reading