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Play Nice with Reviews?
We now know more than we ever wanted to know about speaking truth to power. But what about speaking truth to other writers? Part of my work is to critique manuscripts, and assessing those darlings can give me hives, gastric reflux and headache. What if I tell the truth?: “This story lacks conflict. What I see here is…
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Novel Writing 101
To honor my friend and fellow writer Tim Hall, whose debut novel is out. Step One–accept that you have a story to tell. Two–confront the many ways to tell it: memoir, fiction, photo montage, essays. Three–write reams to get the story out of your head onto the page. Take heart, this is what Anne Lamott (Bird by…
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Esoteric Joy
Full disclosure: I am a detail junky, a fact addict. I keep a fat black notebook full of potentially useless information. Like if you plant an orange seed you may grow a lemon tree. That the okapi–a mammal that looks like a cross between a giraffe and a horse–is a six million year old species. That the…
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Read for Equality, Please
Regular readers here will have seen my postings of READ FOR EQUALITY, a habit that has grown out of my concern for the racial inequity in publishing. In honor of these concerns I am happy to turn over the blog today to Linda Thornton, who shares her unique history. Linda tells her story clearly and succinctly. I…
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DC: Wetlands or Landfill?
Washington DC is not a swamp. A swamp is a vital wetland, home to biodiversity. No, DC is a landfill of braggadocio, selfishness, lies and greed. An executive gag order has silenced the EPA, built a wall between citizens and information about the ground we walk on, the air we cannot help but breathe and…
Karen Douglass, Author 