The Lonely Life of a Writer

March 14, 2012

John Steinbeck, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939),  said: A writer out of loneliness is trying to communicate like a distant star sending signals. He isn’t telling or teaching or ordering. Rather he seeks to establish a relationship of meaning, of feeling, of observing. We are lonesome animals. We spend all [...]

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Ann Patchett – Kindle Single about Writing

March 8, 2012

Have you heard about this? Amazon has launched Kindle Singles, one-off pieces of fiction, non-fiction and journalism which are typically much shorter than a novel, but longer than a magazine article. The Singles can be read on any of the many Kindle platforms, from the Kindle itself through smart-phones to your desktop (download the Kindle reader [...]

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Judging Books by Their Covers – Part 2

March 2, 2012

This guest post came in from writer friend and reader of this blog, John Grabowski. If you enjoyed my earlier post this week (see post here), I think you’ll enjoy this P.S. about additional book covers. Here’s what John had to say: Here are the various covers to Joseph O’Neill’s novel Netherland. The American hardback: [...]

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Judging Books by Their Covers: U.S. Vs. U.K.

February 29, 2012

I found this over at the Millions Blog and thought you might be interested. Read the entire article here. U.K. and U.S. covers often differ from one another, suggesting that certain layouts and imagery will better appeal to readers on one side of the Atlantic rather than the other. These differences are especially striking if [...]

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Hug a Writer Today

February 15, 2012

I’ve decided to exercise my power as Master of the Universe (mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha) and proclaim today as official Hug A Writer Day.  Writers don’t always know they’re appreciated as they stuggle to get words on the page. Especially since writing is such a solitary endeavor (most of us are introverts) and we don’t always hear that we’re doing a good job or [...]

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