A few people who’ve read Mamba Point have emailed, PM’d, or even come to my house to tell me that the Millennium Falcon is a wingless ship, in reference to the scene (minor spoiler!) where Linus unpacks and discovers that his model ship is broken. I wanted to set the record straight. Continue reading
“[I]f I’d a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn’t a tackled it” – Huck Finn
I am putting the spit-shine on another book and sending it in. Finishing a draft makes me giddy; finishing a final draft (in this case, copyedits) makes me reflective. Here’s another book that, once brilliant in my mind, a bright jewel beckoning from the dark road up ahead, is now nothing but a bright dime in my hand. Not worthless, but less than what I’d hoped for. I dot that last “i” and move on to the next one. Continue reading
This article appears in a different form in the book Dear Bully
I was the new kid seven times between first and twelfth grade. In every year but one, I was the smallest boy in my class. Not only was I smart, I was a smartass. I made fun of other kids when they used words wrong or got their facts mixed up. Heck, I made fun of the teacher when she used words wrong or got her facts mixed up. Continue reading
“Go, little book!”
– Robert Louis Stevenson
The day I closed the book deal with Knopf nearly two years ago, my wife and I went to a baseball game. I don’t remember who the Twins played or who won that night. I do remember standing outside, waiting for the doors to open. Continue reading
Rules: E.B. White had a book full of ’em and George Orwell boiled it down to six. Stephen King has a book of his own. It seems like when you start hanging around in writing circles, everyone has a few of their own and recite them like gospel. I don’t mean grammatical, syntactical rules, but the maxims like “use strong verbs” and “forgo prologues” and “begin as late in a story as possible.” Some are common sense, some are debatable, and some are contradictory.I’ve become an agnostic when it comes to these rules, even though two of the most famous rule-mongers are on my short list of favorite writers (White and Orwell, with all due respect to Mr. King), but I’m particularly struck by Elmore Leonard’s rules, because even with my agnosticism and belligerence in regard to various listings and rubrics, I usually fare pretty well by them — but by Elmore Leonard’s rules, I am a total failure. Continue reading
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