Agorafabulous: Dispatches from my Bedroom
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October 6, 2012

“When I was seventeen years old, I met the hottest guy…,”so begins Sara Benincasa‘s memoir about a boy who would never pick her as his girlfriend. “Kevin entered a new high school in a new town and was immediately nominated for Best Looking, Most Likely to Succeed, and Best Personality – stunning trifecta of high school laurels… Then, one night in the spring, he walked… [Read More]

2012 Military Writers Society of America Conference September 27-29 in Ohio
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September 25, 2012

Military Writers Society of America convenes in Ohio September 27-29 for the annual conference and awards Banquet. An association of more than a thousand authors, poets, and artists come together by the common bond of love for the men and women who defend our nation, and a deep and personal understanding for their sacrifice and dedication. Their stories weave the fabric of our nation’s history…. [Read More]

Familiar by J. Robert Lennon
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September 22, 2012

J. Robert Lennon makes the surreal perfectly plausible with his eye for details from observed everyday reality in his new novel, Familiar, to be released on October 2, by Graywolf Press. The clarity of his prose offers the reader a fresh, stark, and swift opening that situates the reader’s sympathies with the main character, Elisa Brown. Driving across Wisconsin, she recalls her sons’ early years… [Read More]

Copyright Permissions: 5 Myths debunked for authors
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September 18, 2012

Do you have a song lyric you plan to use as your epigraph? Is there a piece of artwork you’d like to see between the pages of your book? Do you want a poem to be inserted into the narrative? Have you excerpted a long passage from another book? Do you use trademarked brand names? Are there tables or diagrams, schematics or sketches that are… [Read More]

The importance of narrative arc in non-fiction and memoir
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September 15, 2012

Blame Aristotle.  Blame classical Greek culture. Blame all of Western Civilization. But every story must have a beginning, middle, and end. And more than that. Without narrative structure, a non-fiction book is just a boring recitation of one thing after another. You may think because your book is based on your real life experiences (memoir), historical events, scientific experimentation, or natural observations that you don’t… [Read More]

The devil is in the details: description in historical non-fiction narrative
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September 11, 2012

In 1953 Walter Cronkite anchored the first episode of You Are There with a reenactment of the Hindenberg. The early days of CBS news embraced a style grounded in reporting events based on eyewitness accounts, authoritative sources, and observational methods and packaging them into a story. After the end of WWII, CBS deployed the news editorial talents of Edward R. Murrow, Eric Severaid, and the… [Read More]

Immortal Bird: A Family Memoir by Doron Weber
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September 4, 2012

In June I had the good fortune to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday with a visit to Minnesota and a reunion of cousins. That my Midwestern family likes to read good books became self-evident during my visit home. Dad’s office is an entire room lined with bookshelves. His well worn copies of Will & Ariel Durant’s The History of Civilization, William Shirer’s The Third Reich,… [Read More]

For the love of (old) books: Cornell University Kroch Library Division of Rare & Manuscript Collections
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September 1, 2012

Labor Day weekend is an omen of the new school year. It’s an exciting time of year for those who love books. Last fall Lindsay Debach shared this adventure on the campus of Cornell University when she toured the unique collection of manuscripts and rare books. This fall Lindsay begins her graduate students in English Literature in the UK. We wish her well in her… [Read More]

The Cost of Hope
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August 25, 2012

Amanda Bennett’s memoir, The Cost of Hope: The Story of A Marriage, A Family and a Quest for Life, is one of the most intelligent memoirs I’ve read in years. Bennett takes her own personal experience fighting to save her husband’s life in his struggle against a rare form of kidney cancer and as an investigative reporter she uses his story to illustrate what all… [Read More]

The use of exclamation points and caps flag authors as amateurs
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August 21, 2012

Flagrant misuse of grammar rules hurts a writer’s chances for publication. Agents and editors take one quick glance and form a strong first professional impression. Don’t send up red flags and get rejected by your amateur abuse of punctuation or capitalization rules. Your email query may never be opened if you put the subject line of your message in all caps. WHEN YOU ARE USING… [Read More]