December’s been another good reading month. I’ve managed to read a lot despite being very busy. Some of what I read was for research, and I have to say that when you have the word “avengers” in your title, you’re duty-bound to write a really good book. I think that book, which is not named […]
Continue ReadingFirst, an anecdote: It comes from the November issue of Vanity Fair. The magazine published an excerpt—if that’s the right word—from Truman Capote’s legendary unfinished novel, Answered Prayers. In an accompanying article, Sam Kashner describes the history of the novel, why it remained unfinished from the 1960s to Capote’s death in 1984, and how it […]
Continue ReadingI initially started this list because I was no longer editing, and I wanted to recommend what I’m reading to you. I’m editing again in a limited capacity for Fiction River, and I’m reading some marvelous stories. You’ll have to see those, especially the ones in the volumes that list me as editor (not just […]
Continue ReadingI finished writing a particularly troublesome novel in September. That novel only let me read very dark fiction, nonfiction, or YA novels. (Yes, what I write often dictates what I read.) So I was limited on the first half of the month. As for the second half, I started a lot of books I thought […]
Continue ReadingI should never read the comments on other people’s writing information blogs. The comments discourage me, generally for one of two reasons. If the blog is about traditional publishing, and the authors are traditionally published only with no desire to change, I get discouraged at the amount of misinformation. If the blog is about indie […]
Continue ReadingI read a lot in August, but at the beginning of the month I felt like I was paying for my successful July. A book I really looked forward to by a writer new to me turned out to be a slog. Characters I didn’t like saying disagreeable things about other characters I didn’t like. […]
Continue ReadingI promised I would get the Recommended Reading List up by the 10th of every month, but some hacker conspired against me. Rather than clutter up everything the week that I came back, I left this one for the end of the month. Here’s the best stuff I read in April of 2012. Despite this […]
Continue ReadingThe Business Rusch: The Changing Definition of Publishing Kristine Kathryn Rusch This week, the announcements for the Pulitzer Prize shocked the publishing world because, for some reason, the Pulitzer board declined to chose a winner from the three fiction nominees. Lost in the controversy (besides the hurt feelings of the fiction nominees and the fact […]
Continue ReadingI was extremely busy in March, but somehow I managed to read a lot of good stuff as well. Some of my reading came at a workshop at the end of February, beginning of March. If the stories that I liked appear in print, I told the students to contact me with that information. So […]
Continue ReadingGot a lot of reading done in January. Much of it had to do with a novella I was working on, so I dipped in and out of a dozen research books. I also started a lot of books that I didn’t finish. Two of the books were from long-running series. One of those books […]
Continue Reading