When I’m feeling disheartened by the fiction I’ve been reading (it happens), I reach for something by Philip Roth. He never lets me down. It’s not that his books are all masterpieces of the order of Sabbath’s Theater or The Counterlife, but that, even when he misfired (Our Gang, the Nixon satire, or the disastrous… Continue reading Philip Roth: ‘It was my good luck that happiness didn’t matter to me….’
Read moreThis the second of my Top Nine Writer’s Rules, a series of blogs with which writers, would-be writers and readers will eventually be able to build their own rulebook for writing, based on the words of authors past and the present. Today’s theme answers a question familiar to any writer who has answered questions from… Continue reading Top Nine Writer’s Rules: #2: Inspiration
Read moreFor many years, I have collected the thoughts and observations of writers about the process and the profession of writing. The authors can be dead or alive, famous or obscure, literary titans or contemporary crowd-pleasers. If they have something interesting, funny or perceptive to say about the strange business of creating in words, then I… Continue reading The Top Nine Writer’s Rules (the tenth is yours) #1. STARTING
Read more