I’d like to tell you about a book that not only teaches you about fiction, but is fiction. The Fiction Class, by Susan Breen, is a story about Arabella Hicks, teacher of a weekly fiction class on New York’s Upper West Side. An author herself, Arabella can’t seem to find an ending to a novel she has […]
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Upmarket Fiction – Commercial and Literary Fiction
It’s important for fiction writers to be able to categorize their work, if for no other reason than to help agents, publishers, marketers, and retailers match it to what readers want. One of the first fiction category breakdowns is easy, since it’s determined by word count: Flash fiction, for instance, is usually 1500 words or less; short stories under […]
Manuscript Makeover
No matter how advanced you are as a writer, it never hurts to take one last look at your manuscript before sending it off to an agent or editor. And Manuscript Makeover, by Elizabeth Lyon, is just the book to help you do it. Lyon spent the last twenty years teaching writing and mentoring writers in classes, critique groups, […]
Setting Up A Blog, Part I
Why didn’t anyone ever tell me that setting up a blog was easy? Until I read Blogging for Dummies, I thought I needed to consult an expert to get me started or, at the very least, master complicated technological skills that I didn’t have the patience or inclination to learn. Guess it was a case of, “You never asked.” If the […]
