When I have an intimidating pile of books I want to read and am not sure where to start, sometimes I’ll go through and read the just first chapter of each book in turn. Then I’ll read the second chapter of each, and so on, until I get hooked on one and drop the others.Continue reading “Mothers and Children”
Category Archives: Books
My Rules for Writing
This week the Guardian published a piece in which 29 writers give their rules for fiction writing. Here are mine: 1. Realize no one cares about your stupid novel. Seriously. Even if it gets published. Even if it wins the freakin Nobel Prize for Literature, most people you pass on the street are never goingContinue reading “My Rules for Writing”
Not Sucking Is Hard
Before I get into the subject of this post, a couple of news items. First, I’ve had another essay accepted for publication, this time in a literary magazine called Hotel Amerika. This is a really exciting place to get published, because although they’re a relatively young journal, launched in 2002, they’ve already had something likeContinue reading “Not Sucking Is Hard”
Snow and Settling
Holy cow, it’s snowing a lot here. The snowbanks are taller than my toddler. This is the front of our little townhouse—you can see that the snow is as tall as our trash can. So I got some great news this past week. One of my nonfiction essays got accepted for publication in a literaryContinue reading “Snow and Settling”
Still Alive, Kinda
Sorry, just a slapdash howdy this week. I’ve been down with a nasty flu bug the past several days. Novel manuscript all typed up. Into revisions now. Woot. Read The Backslider by Levi S. Peterson. Great, as promised. I think that was the first cowboy-themed novel I’ve ever read, and it was refreshing, a niceContinue reading “Still Alive, Kinda”
The Great (Ex)Mormon Novel
Apparently this summer there was a mini-brouhaha over the question of whether “The Great Mormon Novel” would ever be written, and if so who would write it. A non-Mormon writer named Wallace Stegner said he thought it hadn’t been written yet, and it would probably be written by someone who’d left the Church and thenContinue reading “The Great (Ex)Mormon Novel”
Story Vs. Language
Hope everyone had a great Christmas, if you celebrated it. The highlight of ours was the food – along with all kind of roasted things (turkey, potatoes, carrots), we had a Quebecois theme going, with homemade doughnuts (beignes) for brunch, “sugar pie” for dessert at dinner, and poutine for lunch the next day. I’d neverContinue reading “Story Vs. Language”
Ups, Downs, and Qualifiers All Around
I’ll start with the bad news. I’ve now come to the part in the novel I’m currently working on where my heroine gets her heart broken. Up to now, the book has been mostly ironic philosophical humor mixed with giddy teenage infatuation, and it has been really fun to write. But now it’s going toContinue reading “Ups, Downs, and Qualifiers All Around”
Advantages of Having Written One Novel, However Lousy and Unpublishable
One of my mom friends (Ms. Connect-the-Dots) and I are going to see New Moon tomorrow morning. And I am not ashamed. I know Stephenie Meyer has her share of detractors, but I think it’s an amazing accomplishment on her part to have tapped into a fantasy that so many people can participate in. What’sContinue reading “Advantages of Having Written One Novel, However Lousy and Unpublishable”
Cool Quote from Cormac McCarthy
I don’t know about you all, but I loved The Road and can’t wait to see the movie. Just read the recent interview with Cormac McCarthy in the Wall Street Journal. McCarthy says: Creative work is often driven by pain. It may be that if you don’t have something in the back of your headContinue reading “Cool Quote from Cormac McCarthy”
Therese Doucet 