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]
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]
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]
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]
This week I’ve read a number of excellent articles and blogs on the subject of publishing. But, as I am continually playing catch up with my e-mail inbox, I must warn that not all of these links are current (i.e. within the past week). “Hashtags – How to Use Them without Abusing Them” – Writerland’s Meghan Ward offers a solid list of writerly hashtags, with… [Read More]