Ice storms, school closings, illness, malaise — under what better conditions could I have read Shelley Winters’ autobiography? Instead of being stuck in sleety Charlottesville this week, I was partying all over 50′s Hollywood with Shelley and pals, at least in my mind. Winters’ story is really remarkable, even if you discount half of it [...]
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Thanks to Rachel for passing this along.
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I had heard the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries by Dorothy Sayers were very good, but I had never read one until I picked up Gaudy Night on the strength of Maureen Corrigan’s recommendation in Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading. She had singled it out as a book that treats women’s issues, particulary questions of career [...]
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The New York Times (pdf) has a little feature today about how book covers are designed. I’ve noticed for a long time that there tend to be fads in cover design, although I don’t know enough about design to be able articulate what I see. This article explains how these fads become institutionalized. Take these [...]
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Wild Strawberries is the story of a Swedish man in his seventies who undertakes a day-long journey by car to attend a ceremony in which he will receive honors for his career as a doctor. Along the way he falls into contact and conflict with his fellow passengers: his daughter-in-law, three young hitchhikers, and a [...]
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We had our first bookbinding class at VABC Thursday night. It was very relaxed and casual. The instructors were endlessly patient. We started off with our sheets of book paper, and tore or cut them into the size we wanted for our books. I tore mine into quarters, then folded each quarter in half. Four [...]
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Last week I wrote a very rough draft of a new story in three days. The story had been kicking around in my head awhile, and seemed like such a clever idea, but of course when I got it all down on paper it looked like a disaster. It was my turn to submit something [...]
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Let’s say you’re writing a novel about a young, swinging British couple. Let’s call them Audrey and Simon. You can hear their voices in your head — but wouldn’t it be nice to hear them speak your words out loud? This text-to-speech demo is one step in that direction. Bonus: The atavars’ eyes follow your [...]
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(According to John Dufresne, whose book I am still reading, slowly, slowly.) Sit your ass in the chair. Thou shalt not bore the reader. Remember to keep holy your writing time. Honor the lives of your characters. Thou shalt not be obscure. Thou shalt show and not tell. Thou shalt steal. Thou shalt rewrite and [...]
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The Echo Maker weaves together the most disparate subjects in such a seamless way that I was left wondering why I hadn’t seen the connections before. Neuroscience, consciousness studies, medicine, bird migrations, and environmental destruction intersect in the lives of a handful of ordinary people who live on the broad Nebraska plains near the Platte [...]
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