Novels: The Importance of Ending
As I’ve written and re-written the ending to The Director of Happiness again and again, I’ve been thinking a lot about endings for novels. As they’re…
Word Count: Helpful Tool or Insidious Device?
When it comes to a first draft, for me there’s nothing like a good Word Count taskmaster sitting at the bottom of my Word document, chiding…
Burning from the Inside Out: Let the Great World Spin
Colum McCann recalls the moment when his own father-in-law barely escaped from the World Trade building and came straight to his house on the day of…
Joe Meno Does His Thing in The Great Perhaps
Joe Meno broke onto the literary scene at the auspicious and tender age of 24 with the coming-of-age novel Tender As Hellfire. Now with the publication of The…
Tom Perrotta’s The Abstinence Teacher
Like many, I first learned about Tom Perrotta from the movie, Election. Was Reese Witherspoon hot in that thing, or what? It came out in that…
Mission Accomplished? A First Draft
It’s printing as I write. Simon Krimple’s Wager. The first time I’ve printed any of it as a matter of fact. A first draft. 100,000 words…
hanging chad 