Stephen King
October 14, 2009
- The jig is up. There is no secret handshake. No magic formula. No deus ex machina for writers. Aghast? I was. Next thing you know, they'll be telling us there is no Santa Claus. Yeesh. Leaving the big red guy out of it for a moment, I have to admit, when I started out writing, I was certain there was a secret formula. All I had to do was figure it out and the bestsellers would flow from my ...
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October 13, 2009
- I recently read this interesting essay (by way of Erika Dreifus’s awesome blog, Practicing Writing) about writing as a second career, by necessity. As a writer who, until recently, has always had a day job, I loved reading this — and even got a little nostalgic for my former day jobs.The essay, by Emily St. John Mandel (a writer who’s held myriad day jobs herself) features two novelists who ...
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September 12, 2009
- Author Recommends Book – Just After Sunset Title: Just After Sunset Author: Stephen King Paperback: 560 pages Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks (3 Sep 2009) ISBN-10: 0340992999 ISBN-13: 978-0340992999 Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 3.8 cm Product Description Just after sunset, as darkness grips the imagination, is the time when you feel the unexpected creep into the every day. As familiar journeys ...
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August 25, 2009
- "STOHHHHHP!" This morning, I flip-clicked through my blog roll and landed on Craig Lancaster’s always-interesting blog. [Craig Lancaster is the author of a novel soon to be released by Riverbend Publishing.] In the entry, “How Do You Do It,” Lancaster answers a question–”How do you do it?”–posed by a facebook friend who wanted to know how Lancaster gets started on a story. ...
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August 9, 2009
- When my second novel A GRAVE IN GAZA was being translated into German, I received an email from my translator. He had a number of penetrating questions about certain phrases I'd used in the book. He also happened to be the only translator who asked me a question about any of my books (and my work is translated in 22 languages so far.) Perhaps it’s not for nothing that Germany is the country ...
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August 9, 2009
- When my second novel A GRAVE IN GAZA was being translated into German, I received an email from my translator. He had a number of penetrating questions about certain phrases I'd used in the book. He also happened to be the only translator who asked me a question about any of my books (and my work is translated in 22 languages so far.) Perhaps it’s not for nothing that Germany is the country ...
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August 7, 2009
- In his terrific “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft,” Stephen King notes that the best way to start a novel is with a compelling “what if.” Try this one: “Vacation Killer” sends out a chain email declaring that he’s kidnapped a woman and that if you don’t forward the email to 10 friends he’ll “slit the bitch’s throat.” That’s about as good a “what if” as anyone--Big ...
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July 22, 2009
- A couple of days ago I posted a blog that I'd written a few years ago, which had been originally published in Absolute Write. It was a tongue-in-cheek look at one of the reasons why I wanted to be a successful writer, which was to be a part of the Rock Bottom Remainders. I recall the article that had inspired that blog, but I don't recall where said article was published. I do remember while ...
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July 20, 2009
- This is a fascinating article on book publishing in the era of digitization — it deconstructs the industry, showing how the pie is divided (as writers know, it’s not so great for writers), and how this will likely change with increasing digitization; the three big waves currently hitting the industry; and what a future of e-products might look like for authors, agents, publishers, and ...
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July 12, 2009
- In his terrific book On Writing Stephen King notes that he once asked Amy Tan what she's NEVER asked about at public readings. "They never ask about the writing," Tan tells him. Which spurs King to write a book about exactly that.Now controversial UK publishing guru Scott Pack goes one better. Public appearances by writers. With no readings. And no questions about...books.The idea, as ...
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