10 Tips for New Writers

I’ve been fortunate enough to have five novels published, have received positive reviews in the NY Times, and had one of my books translated into 11 languages. But I’ve also worked hard to get here. As someone who dropped out of NYU film school to go on the road with a punk band in the … Read more

Is There Such a Thing as Writer’s Block?

Because if there is, I’ve caught it. Not that I’m a writer, per se, not like published novelists, revered historians, hate-mongering extremists–oh wait, they aren’t ‘writers’ either. They just spew stuff out, it splats onto the computer screen, some greedy publisher knowing crazy sells puts it between cardboard, and voila! They’re labeled writers. It slays me when Bill O’Reilly ‘writes’ a history of Lincoln–with some obscure name attached on the bottom. He did pen a suspense novel, I have an inscribed copy to prove it. Did I read it? No. The ghost on that one was truly invisible.

The best foodstuff in the local stadium known as a supermarket.

But I digress. (Those thoughts did increase my word count though.See below.) I’ve been attempting to enthuse about some subject related to books, book-selling, collecting, eating–no the last is what I’d rather do instead of thinking about what I’m not writing. Eating a nice big bowl of Campbell’s tomato with basil soup. I nearly passed out when I saw the price of one damn can of soup! How are people surviving? Families? No increase in salary, but food prices keep a’goin on up. I guess others have seen the price of soup climb over the years–they are the ones making the trek to the ‘local’ supermarket–or just market, nothing super there, push a squealing cart in each cramped, can tottering aisle, wait for years checking out behind foreign language screaming kids (which language? Pick one, you’ll hear it in NYC) and then stumble carrying 80 pounds of cat litter, and 15 bottles of soda by the 24 hour fruit market, realizing some oranges would be nice, so pause, put down two of the bags, while navigating around  a precarious pyramid of small tangerines, only to find an elbow has dislodged turnips which fall like giant puple raindrops and roll down slanted cement, tripping passerbys, finally coming to rest in the line of traffic. They’re just another casualty in the Naked City. After retrieving kicked deflated  bags, oranges idea soured, they play bumper car for the final blocks–‘whoops, sorry,’  ‘hey, watch where your’e going, that was my former eyeball you just poked’, the 5 floor walkup materializes, and the arduous Mt. Everest climb begins until panting and too exhausted to  eat, they’ve reached the rarified top floor, sans penthouse.

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What Makes a Southern Writer Southern?

by Jas Faulkner The Southern US as it exists in the minds of anyone who lives elsewhere is a collection of tortured memories of required texts from high school, stereotypes that have been perpetuated by the media, and assumptions of regressive attitudes towards everything.    Thinking, reading, writing southerners everywhere know that there is more … Read more

Author Terry Pratchett Ponders Assisted Suicide

From Quill and Quire, this article caught my eye–I was slightly shocked by the headline, and even more so by the information I’d not known before, that there are countries that sanction assisted suicide. I don’t think there’s a possibility the United States will ever follow suit. Here, we don’t want to pull the plug, … Read more

How to Write an Autobiography

There is perhaps no better way to record your life for posterity than through an autobiography. This celebrated form allows writers a great deal of flexibility with which to tell their story, which can be both artistically freeing and a little intimidating for those who are just starting out. Before you can put your pen … Read more