Stumbled across this Mark Twain quote as I'm going through revisions to a new novel I hope to get to my editor tomorrow: "If you tell the truth, you don't have …
Ink on the Rejection Slip
A passage that ought to give all struggling writers hope, from Booker-prize winner Graham Swift's Making an Elephant. He's talking about the time before he'd …
Calling loudly, "J.D. Salinger"
In 1941, J.D. Salinger had seven stories rejected by The New Yorker. Apparently undaunted, he submitted an eighth the same year, "Slight Rebellion off Madison," …
Dolen Perkins-Valdez: Connecting
I'm absolutely delighted to have Dolen Perkins-Valdez, the author of the just-released Wench, as this week's guest author. Randall Kenan, author of A Visitation …
Unrecognized Talent (or the Lessons of Rodin)
I was drawn to a documentary about the sculptor, Auguste Rodin, this afternoon because one of my favorite places to write when the weather is good is on a bench …
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The All-True Confessions of a Serious Book Group-aholic
I think of January as Book Club month, I suppose because my neighborhood book group first met one Wednesday evening in January six years ago now, to discuss A …
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You Must Write It
Thought I'd start the new year with a very hopeful quote, from Toni Morrison: If there is a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then …
2,000 Words or 2:00, and Writing Friends
The history of my writing starts with a little brown lunch bag. Like the character of Linda in my novel, The Wednesday Sisters, my first writing teacher—at a …
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Holiday Giving: Free Copies of The Language of Light, and Personally Inscribed Copies of The Wednesday Sisters
Holiday Greetings! I've been casting about for a way to do some good for the holidays, and have two offers to share: free copies of my hard-to-find first novel, …
Dropping the Turkey
For Thanksgiving week, I did a guest post on Debutante Ball that I thought I would share here - with auxiliary photos. It's a little bit about writing, but …
