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Another Rule Broken
Read almost any craft book on writing and you’ll find the dictum that we start with action– set the hook, reel the reader in and net him, don’t let him up from his chair to use the bathroom. Well, for much of the time that works and I think we have all come to expect…
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“Attention must be paid.”
This often quoted line from Death of a Salesman breaks the passive tense rule and leaves us to question who pays a bill of attention. In context, of course, it’s Willie Loman’s sons. But for those of a writerly persuasion attention comes from friends, families, readers, editors (if we are good and lucky) and strangers.…
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Sweet Reads
I read like the proverbial kid in a candy store, and since Halloween candy has taken over much available freezer space in our house, candy, like good books, calls to me. Hmm, Snickers, Peanut M&Ms, Tootsie Roll? Nah, I’m full up on sugary stuff. But never full up on reading, never. So much to choose…
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Questions from Other Worlds
Margaret Atwood has a wonderful book out, In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination. Read it and learn. Wisely, Atwood doesn’t pretend to know everything about fiction, but one question she raises intrigues and frustrates me. Just what is sci-fi? I’ve just finished revising a novel that I’m not comfortable calling science fiction because…
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How a Poem Happens
The newborn arrives in a taxi cab, at home, in a delivery room and somehow every birth is unique. So too with poems. But often my process works this way. 1. A friend, a book, an event yields a general prompt. Most recently my key words were hidden and obvious. These from my…
Karen Douglass, Author 