The Strange Sensation of Being a Book Star for an Hour
A few weeks ago, I debuted as an author. Just me, no one else. I’d read in public many times, but I had always read alongside other fellow writers, never on my own. This was the first time I would give a talk and read from The Forgetting Flower, solo. People were coming, if any came at all, to see me and no one else. I was the sole entertainment for about an hour. And it scared the sh*t out of me. Don’t Panic, Yes, Panic To stave off the…
Chuck Wendig: Cool Writer to Be Like
This last week I’ve been hammering out how I can bring my literary offerings to the forefront of my website. So I’ve been studying other author sites. Some I like, some I don’t. I won’t mention which ones are barely useful or clunky but they are sadly by some writers I love. A few strong highlights are Neil Gaiman’s whose site is as alluring, mysterious and witty as he is; Gary Shteyngart’s, which is wacky and ironic; Paula McClain’s is full of dreamy Parisian history. The website I recommend checking out the…
Might and Main Monday: Why Read? Katherine Paterson
I’ve been thinking about why fictional books matter. Do they? Why read? What would happen if we could no longer read stories? Fiction readers would live like people who choose not to read. A world of the here and now only, a world where one doesn’t join the dreams of others. There are a lot of people in the world who do this, a few who I know well. They are often happy. So if a person experiences the real world in the now, what have they given up? I’ve…
