Louise Marley's Blog

• Never, never respond to the press

  July 2, 2009

  • This is a lesson I learned in my musical career.  Whatever the press says, you just have to suck it up.  Anne Rice did a great job of dramatizing this principle by embarrassing herself with a long, egocentric letter on Amazon.com complaining about the bad reviews for her last book.  Now Alice Hoffman--Alice Hoffman!--has done the same, Tweeting to her fans about a review in The Boston Globe.  ...
  • Continue Reading » 0 Comments

• Reading tea leaves

  June 25, 2009

  • Who could have predicted Stephenie Meyers's phenomenal success with the Twilight series?  Who could have known that Tom Sawyer would become a classic beloved by readers for decades?  Did Tolkien know, when he spent thirty years or so writing The Lord of the Ring, that the series would become the very definition of high fantasy?  I really don't think so.  But still, on a listserve I follow, ...
  • Continue Reading » 2 Comments

• Clarion West Writers Workshop

  June 17, 2009

  • In 1993, I had an experience that changed my life.  I attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle, with magnificent instructors like Greg Bear, Connie Willis, Geoff Ryman, Lucius Shepherd, and the wonderful Pat Murphy.  I had been studying writing, and the six weeks of intensive work at Clarion West crystallized everything.  It was an epiphany, really, as if I had suddenly woken up ...
  • Continue Reading » 0 Comments