Aug 26, 2022Member-onlySome Thoughts on DuendeOr possibly svadhishthana. Stand by … — Recently, I was excited to see that a writer I know and follow, Grant Faulkner, had posted a story about duende. Duende is Francisco Garcia Lorca’s hard-to-define term for … for … well, it’s hard to define. Reading Grant’s article is a great start. Grant Faulkner is the executive officer…Writing6 min readWriting6 min read
Nov 11, 2021Member-onlyA Great Leap ForwardNanowrimo novelists, there’s no need to be tied down to chronological order — It’s mid-November, and I’ve joined the worldwide scrum of happy, anguished writers participating in National Novel Writing Month. Today, in search of inspiration, I went to the Nanowrimo’s archive of pep talks. There, I discovered founder Chris Baty’s pep talk from 2010. He wrote about Week Two and some of…NaNoWriMo3 min readNaNoWriMo3 min read
Oct 27, 2021Member-onlySpecious Vs. Spurious: The Definitive GuideIf you love super-fine distinctions, you’re about to be quite pleased — Sometimes, the English language can be a real jerk. Like a cat pushing a delicate champagne flute off the edge of the table. Need evidence of this? Look no further than the existence of “specious” and “spurious.” …Language3 min readLanguage3 min read
Oct 19, 2021Member-onlyHow’d They Do That? James Crumley’s ‘The Last Good Kiss’This noir novel’s central mystery is solved about 2/3 of the way through the book — and holds our attention anyway — What is it about Montana that produces, or inspires, such great writers? If you don’t believe me, here’s an entire article on the unlikely rise of Livingston, Montana, to a literary epicenter. …Books8 min readBooks8 min read
Oct 11, 2021Member-onlyThe Truth Is Out ThereObjectivity belongs to all of us. Don’t let anyone tell you different — On my first day in the seventh grade, in math class, we were working through a difficult problem in the textbook. The teacher was prompting us for the correct answer, which none of us could come up with. …Covid-198 min readCovid-198 min read
Oct 1, 2021Member-onlyNick Carraway, PIWas ‘The Great Gatsby’ the forerunner to the hardboiled crime story? (Caution: Many spoilers) — In my younger years, my father gave me some advice — wait, that wasn’t me. Let’s try again: In my younger years, I read The Great Gatsby twice. Once in high school, again in college, sprinting through its nine economically-written chapters so I could write the obligatory paper on “Car…Books18 min readBooks18 min read
Published in The Writing Cooperative·Sep 24, 2021Member-onlyFlout Versus Flaunt: The Definitive GuideGet ready to show off your mastery of these two vexing verbs — Earlier this week, I edited a very tense psychological thriller. So tense that I almost failed to notice two very common errors in language (but not quite) These were reign in used for rein in, and flaunt instead of flout. …Writing3 min readWriting3 min read
Sep 23, 2021Member-onlyA Word From the People for the Ethical Treatment of AdverbsHow did an entire part of speech become off-limits? — Two years ago, I was on a Slack board for writers and editors, reading an introductory, happy-to-be-here message from a new member. Her brief bio wrapped up with a whimsical list of loves and hates, ending with her avowed hatred of adverbs. …Writing4 min readWriting4 min read
Sep 11, 2021Member-onlyWhat Latin Teaches Us About Writing Strong SentencesEvergreen lessons from a dead language — Everyone loves the Latin language. So romantic, so historic, so ceremonial. Up until the point that we actually start studying it. Then it’s so foreign, so incomprehensible, so unnecessarily complex. The main reason that people think Latin will be easy to learn is because of its vocabulary. Latin words are…Language7 min readLanguage7 min read
Sep 9, 2021Member-onlyOrigins: Sarah PribekOn the character at the center of my first novel — Note: A version of this essay ran on my website. Since I no longer maintain a site for my novels, and there’s been some interest in Sarah with the release of the third book in the trilogy, I’m reproducing it here. The year that Sarah Pribek began to appear in…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
