Uncategorized

THE BURNING SEASON — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day: I would write a book, or a short story, at least three times–once to understand it, the second time to improve the prose, and a third to compel it to say what it still must say. ~ Bernard Malamud ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: Dialogue is so important to making… Continue reading THE BURNING SEASON — Review & Giveaway

Uncategorized

THE KING OF JAM SANDWICHES — Review

Thought for the Day: "Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be." ~ Mark Twain ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: I don’t think I pay as much attention to my secondary characters as I should. In fact, a… Continue reading THE KING OF JAM SANDWICHES — Review

Uncategorized

THE BLOSSOMING SUMMER — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day: “Imagine tension like holding a reader’s feet under water; you don’t want to pull them down until they drown. You have to let them come up for air.”~ Lauren Magaziner ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: Sarah (Sally) Hamer has a wonderful post HERE on Writers in the Storm about How… Continue reading THE BLOSSOMING SUMMER — Review & Giveaway

Uncategorized

QUEENIE IN SEVEN MOVES — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day: “Think of your main characters as dinner guests. Would your friends want to spend ten hours with the characters you’ve created? Your characters can be lovable, or they can be evil, but they'd better be compelling.”~ Po Bronson ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: I posted an article by Jan Fields… Continue reading QUEENIE IN SEVEN MOVES — Review & Giveaway

Uncategorized

THE ACCIDENTAL STOWAWAY — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day: “The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things.” ~Thomas Hardy ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: Every once in a while, I struggle through reading a book that has an unlikeable character at the center… Continue reading THE ACCIDENTAL STOWAWAY — Review & Giveaway

Uncategorized

SAM — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day: "The writer must have a good imagination to begin with, but the imagination has to be muscular, which means it must be exercised in a disciplined way, day in and day out, by writing, failing, succeeding and revising."
 ~ Stephen King ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: I keep saying one… Continue reading SAM — Review & Giveaway

Uncategorized

NOT LUCILLE — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day: "The characters in my novels are my own unrealized possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by them. Each one has crossed a border that I myself have circumvented."
 ~  Milan Kundera ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: Lisa Hall-Wilson has a great post… Continue reading NOT LUCILLE — Review & Giveaway

Uncategorized

BAD BADGER: A LOVE STORY — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day: "Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. Plot is observed after the fact rather than before. It cannot precede action. It is the chart that remains when an action is through. That is all Plot… Continue reading BAD BADGER: A LOVE STORY — Review & Giveaway

Uncategorized

CLARICE BEAN, SMILE — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day: "Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of."
 ~ Kurt Vonnegut ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: I think we all tend to focus on plot, but HERE… Continue reading CLARICE BEAN, SMILE — Review & Giveaway

Uncategorized

A DAY WITH MOUSSE — Review

Thought for the Day: "An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this."
 ~ Stephen King ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: I will meet with my critique group next week. There is always a little trepidation for me when… Continue reading A DAY WITH MOUSSE — Review