I recently finished my sixth draft of a new novel, which takes place in the Iraq war. I’m ready to show it to agents as I look for new representation. At the recent AWP Conference in Los Angeles, I attended a panel called “Agents on Agenting,” where afterward I asked Noah Ballard, an agent at…
Relationships are at the center of each of these stories. They will make you think about your own life, the people that you know, and what each of them might encounter in their day-to-day lives. Each of these stories is an extremely real slice of life. They are very well-written, and the characters are so genuine…
Describing a character in your story is usually an easy task. After all, you can see the character clearly in your mind. It’s as if this person is real and standing right in front of you. He might even speak to you, allowing you to hear the sound of his voice. Let’s say, in this…
A teacher of English literature was lecturing a class of adolescents on one of the syllabus’s prescribed modern novels. She selected a short passage which included the following two sentences: “Vanessa’s passage was impeded by the building’s front door. The door was blue.” She read the sentences aloud and said to the class, “What did…
A sadistic killer slashes the throats of his victims and then does something to them that would make anyone cringe. Each of these murders occurs at 11:05 pm. And each one happens on a Tuesday. Throw in a stalker and a mysterious informant, and things get even stranger.
Is a female sheep a ewe, a yew, or a you? When you accept something, do you except it or accept it? Is a surplus an excess or an access? When you get rid of something, do you exercise it or exorcise it? When you speed up, do you exhilarate or accelerate? ewe, yew, you A ewe is…
Waterkill is a high-tech thriller that weaves a story around nanoscience and fanatical religious terrorism. This gripping story takes place on three continents. It’s a thrill of a ride that you won’t want to step off of once you open its cover and turn the first page. It took me only about four months of…
From the beginning of the book, you know the death and destruction the terrorists are planning. The tension builds chapter by chapter until it finally explodes. Lives are at risk, and the action never slows down. Taking you to locations in the United States, Yemen, Germany, Iran, Austria, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Mexico, this fast-paced…
Is an epitaph or an epithet written on a tombstone? Is a male horseback rider an equestrian or an equestrienne? Is a mistake an era or an error? Do you essay or assay something when you test it? epic, epoch Epic means heroic or very large. It is also a narrative poem, such as The Iliad by Homer.…
How many chances will you take on Take a Chance Day? Will you visit a mad scientist on World Laboratory Day? On Talk Like Shakespeare Day, will thou talkest like Shakespeare? What will you see up above on Look Up at the Sky Day? On Reach as High as You Can Day, what will you…
