Creator of Circumstance

Social Media Resources for Writers

I'm teaching a sold out class tomorrow at Grub Street on Social Media for Writers. One of the things that I do for the students is give them access to a list of social media resources that I've compiled that may be helpful for them as readers and writers. I ...

The End of Hardback Books, Part Deux

Cover of Twilight (Twilight, Book 1) Just a follow up note on my last post about Hachette's freak out about eBooks. According to The BookSeller: Hachette Publishing pushed its earnings before interest up by 61.1% to €112m in its half year to end-June, according to results put out by its parent company ...

French publisher predicts end of hardback books

Image via Wikipedia Yesterday the Financial Times published an article about how Arnaud Nourry, CEO of French publishing group Hachette Livre, the world's second largest publisher, lashed out at Google, Amazon and ebook retailers, stating that ebooks will, essentially, rip the bottom out of the publishing industry and kill hardback books. This ...

Reading vs. Writing

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="192" caption="Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus"][/caption] I have been writing (including a small stint with the moleskine at the bar where my main character's mother decided she was going to do something unspeakable!) but lately I have to admit to doing more reading than writing. So what has captured my ...

Is there such a thing as a Churchhill gene?

“Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than it has taken out of me.” ~ Winston Churchhill Today in the mail I received an early birthday present (YAY!) from one of my oldest and dearest friends. The gift included some shot glasses, each with a quote from a ...

Pivotal Decisions – Point of View

Last summer I completely rewrote my book. That said, my book only consists of 13 chapters or so at this point—roughly 166 pages. On the suggestion of an excellent workshop instructor, I switched from third person limited to omniscient. Well, I tried to, at least. All along as I have been writing ...

Although Creativity is Cyclical, Incubation is Often Crucial

Image via Wikipedia For years creativity experts have agreed that for most people, creativity comes to them in a cyclical fashion. It's a rare person who can create and create and create nonstop (people with hypergraphia come to mind...but that almost seems more like torture in many ways). I'm ...

No Mushy Carrots and Peas for Me, Please

Yesterday I spent 3.5 hours writing, but I came away feeling less than accomplished. I reworked one chapter and added a measly 655 words to it when I had intended to finish that chunk altogether. Instead I'll try and tackle it again tonight and snip it off so I can ...

So Many Books, So Few Shelves

You know that post I did awhile back about the ridonkulously expensive books? Well, my other half came through for Christmas with a big box of books under the tree. All ten volumes of the Harvard Loeb Classical Library of Pliny Natural History! YAY! I realize that's a fairly geeky thing, ...

Looking forward – 2009

Has it really been since August since I posted here last? Wow. I mean, sometimes I have a little lapse in blogging but wow, that's a long one for me. It's that polymath in me...my interests lying in so many areas that I tend to become distracted by the latest obsession ...