Often a fiction author will launch into a lengthy explanation of X,Y or Z that may only tangentially relate to the actual story being told but shows off the author’s knowledge of whatever subject is under discussion. One of our clients calls these data dumps – and we are of two minds about them. Readers […]
The book that has impressed us most recently is Jennifer Egan’s A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD. We have hesitated to blog about it because it is so seamlessly good, it is hard to pick apart for lessons about writing. Happily, Egan has spoken up to teach us a thing or two. GOON SQUAD is […]
Reading Howard Norman’s WHAT IS LEFT THE DAUGHTER, we were wowed by (among other features of the novel) the quirky detail. For instance: • The book is largely set in Middle Economy, Nova Scotia, which sits between Lower Economy and Upper Economy. “Locally the joke was, if you were traveling west to east along the […]
We are not poets so we don’t blog about poetry, but April is poetry month and recently, we had the pleasure of hearing poet Claudia Emerson speak at the annual launch of the Northern Virginia Review literary magazine. Much of what she had to say is applicable to writing prose. Former Virginia poet laureate (2008 […]