I'm grateful to The Washington Post for publishing on Saturday my letter to the editor. My beef was with the paper's nonfiction book reviews. With novels, the reviewers break down both the story and the writing. But far too often, for nonfiction books The Post recruits an expert in the field, who then critiques the …
Continue reading What Leads You to Choose the Next Book You’ll Read?
I'm honored today to be a guest blogger on K.M. Weiland's Wordplay. K.M.'s blog provides useful tips and resources for fiction writers, and as some readers know I'm currently focusing on creative non-fiction. Thus my guest post titled "What Non-Fiction Authors Can Teach Novelists." I'd love for you to visit Wordplay, check out my guest …
Continue reading Writing Better Fiction by Reading Nonfiction
"What do you do?" "I'm a writer." "What do you write?" That used to be a simple question to answer. My Capitol Hill days? Speeches and constituent correspondence. Journalism? Breaking news and investigative series. Think tank? Research papers. Nonprofit arts advocacy CEO? Testimony, filings, and a blog. I need a short answer now. In the …
I was one of thousands of writers who descended on Washington, D.C., last week to soak up the wisdom of skilled – and successful – creative writers at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) 2011 Conference and Bookfair. I attended about a dozen sessions and had many phenomenal conversations with many compelling creatives. …
The Artist's Road 