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, and hundreds of spy and detective novels are like long lost friends from the Cold War when I return to this space where my father now writes tall tales for his grandchildren. To the surprise birthday party for dad, my cousin Larry brought his date, Heather McElhatton, the author of Jennifer Johnson Is Sick of Being Married: A Novel, to be released October 9 by William Morrow. This is her fourth book and follows, Jennifer Johnson Is Sick of Being Single. She writes “fiction,” but her sense of the absurd clearly stems from real life experience. You can’t make up this kind of funny. She fit right into the Swenson storytelling tradition: tragicomedic. Larry’s younger sister, Julie, asked me for new book recommendations. But it was Julie who told me she’d just finished Immortal Bird: A Family Memoir. She said she couldn’t put it down, offered a compelling plot, and the story haunted her weeks later. An unsolicited rave review. And yet I stalled on reading it for 10 weeks. Sounded like such a sad story of a 12 year old boy with a heart…
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]
Filed Under: Amanda Bennett, Atlanta, Herald-Leader, Inquirer, Lexington, Philadelophia, Terence Foley, The Cost of Hope, The Oregonian, Wall Street Journal
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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]
Should the “f” in Facebook be capitalized? The icon, logo and brand identity of this popular social networking site use the lowercase letter. Brilliant marketing by breaking the style rule. But what is a copyeditor to do? Of course, I googled it. (Notice as a verb, Google is not capitalized). My research revealed lots of posts and comments regarding the marketing genius behind NOT capitalizing Facebook…. [Read More]
Filed Under: capitalization, Facebook, Google, Kate Turabian, Manual of Style, nouns, University of Chicago, verbs
For authors it can be difficult, even shameful today, to be an introvert in a media culture where being social and outgoing are valued above all else. The reclusive literary artist who disdains self-promotion is silenced, even suppressed, in a system that rewards extraverts. Yet, when it comes to creativity and productivity among authors, we need more introverts. “There’s zero correlation between being the best… [Read More]
Filed Under: Carl Jung, Extroversion, Introversion, Myers-Briggs Personality Test, Quiet, Susan Cain
Discover your voice. Let loose your inner sleuth. Learn new skills and polish your work-in-progress. This two-day non-fiction writing workshop will help you identify a story, learn new research methods, write fresh history, edit for publication, and prepare your pitch. Five 90-minute sessions will focus on 1) story 2) facts 3) genre 4) style and 5) publishing. WHERE: Retreat in scenic rural Brooktondale at the… [Read More]