Last Friday I posted “Loving Diana Gabaldon.” It was general praise and admiration of the sort you might expect from that title. Today I want to cite some specific ways that writers would do well to follow her example. In particular, I will focus on vivid language. We have all heard or read that we should […]
Yesterday I finished reading the fifth book in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series—The Fiery Cross—for the second time. This is the one that begins in 1770, with Clare, Jamie, et al., in North Carolina—embroiled in the War of Regulation, early conflicts preceding the Revolutionary War. As with all the Gabaldon novels, it is an intriguing blend […]
I write short (for the most part) but I read long. This has been true all my reading life, especially for fiction series.
Canadian science fiction reviewer James Nicoll said, “The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” Among the […]
The flyer pretty much says it all. PBS has compiled a list of books—goodness only knows the criteria—and invites people to vote for their #1 between now and October 23. The list is pretty much alphabetical, which seems to be the only organizing principle. There are children’s books, such as Charlotte’s Web, The Little Prince, and Harry […]
For decades my escapist reading—with few exceptions—was mysteries. Once you know who did it, what would be the point? The one exception for me was Dorothy L. Sayers. My motivation for rereading the Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane mysteries was to discover the early clues and figure out how she built to the big reveal. But […]
From early childhood—before I was even old enough to know what the holiday commemorated—before I could even say “independence”—the 4th of July meant a family gathering. Given that my mother was one of thirteen children, that meant a BIG family gathering. It would be a potluck, with tons of food before dark, kids playing tag […]
…is that they are the perfect excuse to read instead of weed! The only question is, what shall I read? One favorite is a big, fat book to take me through the day and the rainy days to follow this week. According to the Guiness Book of World Records, Proust wrote the longest book […]
I did not grow up in a book house. In my earliest years, the only volumes we owned were a huge two-volume pictorial history of WWII and several Bibles. Dad subscribed to Field and Stream and Mom subscribed to True Confessions. So I wasn’t exposed to children’s books till I was in school and able to […]
We all know about Point of View. It’s the narrator’s position in relation to the story being told. With the objective POV, the writer tells the story entirely with action and dialogue. S/he never discloses anything about thoughts or feelings, leaving it for the reader to infer these from the dialogue and action. In […]