Writing

Story of a Novel

Or, how NOT to write a novel. Here, to celebrate Hallowe’en, is the story of 13 drafts of my historical novel, INVENTING PARIS: 1st draft—a dog’s breakfast; the story told from four points of view. Big holes. Barely a draft. Set in Dijon, France, in the summer of 1890. Tons of research on Japanese history, …

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Learning to write from the birds

Last night I was sitting in my office looking out the window at the darkening sky when a crow flew past. I watched him go on his birdy way, and it struck me that lately I had been spending a disproportionate amount of time on pointless stuff. What is pointless? To a writer, it’s anything …

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Book Review: Wake Up & LIVE!

Wake Up & LIVE! Dorothea Brande. The cover of this little self-help book, first published in 1936, says {A formula for success that really works!} Or, “What would you do if you knew it was impossible to fail?” The premise is that we fail (or don’t reach our potential) because we’re always second-guessing ourselves. We might …

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