Category: The Writing Life
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Mystery Alaska Documentary
Over the past few years, I’ve worked in the background (as is the case with many of my projects and collaborations) on a mystery Alaska documentary. It’s still not greenlit for full length — it may never cross that line. But there’s enough money behind it now that I can share some photos and talk about…
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Writer Unboxed OnConference — review
Latest and least of these, I attended this year’s Writer UnBoxed OnConference. It seems to be a theme for me, showing up latest and least to WU. Due to a writing contest promoted by the great Porter Anderson, I won a scholarship to the first one. (That was back when I was still riding high…
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Experimental Fiction Experiment
Dave King takes carpeted stairs into the basement of the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, Massachusetts thinking of experimental fiction. A remnant of variegated clay chips hint that Donald Maass, John Vorhaus, Jo Eberhardt, Sean Walsh, and Mike Swift had been playing poker. An oversized Jack of clubs (big enough to be a placemat) and a…
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Unleashing the Individual on the Canvas of Writing
Writers are often frustrated because they are usually stuck in a corner of their own making. They ask questions like why can’t I write like Edgar Allan Poe or why doesn’t the Stephen King method of writing (1500 words a day) work for me? You can’t write like Poe because he is a product of…
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Lawn Mower Death
So I’ve started in with the David Ignatow collection. Friends, this man is obsessed with death and it’s more than his poem about lawn mower death. And I don’t mean the kind that shows up on the nightly news because some teenager tried to ride one into a roman candle war (ask Lancelot about that…
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26 Military Literary Agents
As I’m finishing up my fifth novel, the time has come for me to search once more for literary agents and it turns out that some of them are listed as military literary agents. I know. I didn’t think those existed anymore either. It seems kind of pointless for me to put in all of…
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Of Making Many Books There is No End ?
I grew up in a fairly conservative religious community that abhorred study and praised ignorance, in a way. They believed along with what Asimov said of many Americans: that my ignorance is as good as anyone else’s knowledge. I understand that the rational capacity of any given person is up to the task of puzzling…
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Writing Tools VS. Story Craft
In June I will again join the Ozark Creative Arts Academy for high schoolers to teach some writing tools and story craft seminars. This year I plan to shape my talk out of the overflow of a conversation I had last year with Dr. Giltner and Dr. Cirilla at the Niagra Falls retreat. It goes something…
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Flying Tips and Future Planes
After selling both of our cars four years ago, Tara and I have flown a disproportionate amount compared to the rest of our lives since coming to New York — enough to offer some flying tips. I can say, for starters, don’t fly United or American and, frankly, John Oliver was right to say that…
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Episode Story and Serialized Blogs : Segment
Once you’ve dissented against the norms in the blogging world, once you’ve clearly outlined how — exactly — you intend to help others, once you’ve focused on substance and earned the consent of readers who want you to contact them on a regular basis, once you’ve fermented your own style and substance until the blog is…
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Best Fails in Your Blog : Lament VS. Ignore
Once you’ve dissented against the norms in the blogging world, once you’ve clearly outlined how — exactly — you intend to help others, once you’ve focused on substance and earned the consent of readers who want you to contact them on a regular basis, once you’ve fermented your own style and substance until the blog is…
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Constructive Feedback on Your Blog : Relent
Once you’ve dissented against the norms in the blogging world, once you’ve clearly outlined how — exactly — you intend to help others, once you’ve focused on substance and earned the consent of readers who want you to contact them on a regular basis, and once you’ve fermented your own style and substance until the blog…