Last night at the 49 Writers Crosscurrents event, I was so gratified to hear that Snow Child author Eowyn Ivey, now at #8 on the UK Bestseller list and #27 on the New York Times Bestseller list (what must that be like? I still can’t quite imagine) admit that she is obsessed with–or shall we […]
Andromeda: Amazon analytic craziness, ebooks, and other distracted-author thoughts Read More »
The most exciting literary news this week is the publication of The Detour, the second novel of 49 Writers co-founder, Andromeda Romano-Lax, which takes place in Italy in the days leading up to World War II. Booklist calls it “a gently haunting work of subtle and surprising wisdom” and Library Journal describes the author as
Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up Read More »
It’s getting close now: starting Thursday Feb. 23, Andromeda is teaching a short course about that dirty word and subversive subject: plot. This will be a small, focused class that will cover lots of fertile ground. Sign up at http://www.49writingcenter.org/. “Psssst. Let’s talk about plot.” No, I didn’t say pot, I said plot. So why
Andromeda: Psssst…got plot? Read More »
We’ve all been in writing classes or conferences where some brash, garrulous novice insists on putting the cart before the horse. Let’s call him Bob. Bob has spit out one or several or a dozen unrevised manuscripts, and may be talking about a series, and maybe even a movie spin-off, before he has learned how
Andromeda: The Agent Game Read More »
What an amazing time I had at the writers’ conference in Aspen, Colorado in 2002, studying with Ted Conover, a writer I’d admired for years,, who had so much to teach us. About that time, I remember…very little. And how exciting to have attended the Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference, two times– or was it three?
Andromeda: Keeping (brief!) notes Read More »
Today, I was working on a creative nonfiction essay about lachrymosity, a.k.a. tearfulness, including my own increasing, often unexpected susceptibility to brief bursts of emotion. While I won’t necessarily well up during a sad song or movie and rarely cried as a kid (not when pressured by bullies, not at funerals), I do find myself
Andromeda/Your Turn: Make them laugh, make them cry — if only writers knew how! Read More »
The top national spelling bee champions are not the kids with the highest verbal ability or the kids who simply have short-term self-discipline. They have something else: what researcher Angela Duckworth calls “grit.” It very likely applies to all of us determined to log those 10,000 hours– which I mentioned yesterday — in order to
Andromeda: Grit — Do You Have It? Read More »
This week marks the closing of one interesting chapter in my life and the opening of another – how appropriate that this transition should coincide with the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. I like it when life comes neatly packaged, and if you wait long enough sometimes it actually
Linda: On Transition Read More »
A few of you asked me what I learned at my latest MFA residency. You may have expected a shorter answer, nonetheless…. Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of attending a graduate seminar taught by visiting guest Rick Moody (Ice Storm, The Black Veil), often lauded as one of our top chroniclers of contemporary
Andromeda: Buy Fresh Fish Here: Rick Moody and Why Great Writing Is Hard to Teach Read More »
What a year! Next week we’ll run a 49 Writers 2011 retrospective, but in the meantime we’re looking ahead toward 2012. Mark your calendars first for January 1, when online registration opens for our spring term. From our “Publish and Promote” series to plot, poetry, submissions, and more, we’ve got something for pretty much everyone.
Ela: 49 Writers Weekly Round-up Read More »
