Despite the cheesy title, Donald Maass’ book, Writing the Breakout Novel, is a guide to writing good novels, not a guide to selling out. Maass is not fond of generic thrillers and has a soft spot for literature as a genre. A novelist and New York agent, Mass is in a unique position to help […]
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Now reading: Ages of Wonder , edited by Julie Czerneda and Rob St. Martin. This is one of a pile of books I brought back from Ad Astra. It will take me months to get through my stack of new SF novels, especially since I’m supposed to be writing. So far I’m really enjoying this
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I have to recommend Christopher Moore’s Fool: A Novel. It’s a rollicking pastiche of Elizabethan and Pagan sensibilities, played for maximum sex and mayhem. I was impressed that an American who has not lived in England got the mix of Shakespearean and colloquial English right. Historically accurate language would get in the way of farce,
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After all that agonizing, the staged reading of my 10 page piece at the Alumnae Theatre went well. There were about 8 plays, all very different, all based on a field trip to a Winners location. My one regret is forgetting my camera. These are low-lit cell phone pictures. Molly Thom, the director/dramaturge (right side)
Staged Reading – Fun! Read More »
I have done a few competitive timed writing contests. I’ve completed a manuscript of sufficient length (let’s not consider quality) for the 3-day novel contest. It’s 72 hours of wrist-burning over-caffeinated hallucination — but a great experience. I’ve also entered Toronto Fringe Festival’s 24-hour play writing contest. This summer I completed my longest timed manuscript
Nuit BlancheThis art installation in the Distillery District asked visitors to record their secrets on little cards. The messages where allowed to float up, attached to helium balloons. Secrets were also recorded using a low tech rotary telephone hooked up to a hidden recording device. Resulting messages were later broadcast for the world to hear,
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A very short play I wrote is being produced by the Alumnae Theatre Company as part of the Nuit Blanche festivities on Oct. 4, 2008. It should play on the main floor, “Fran’s Cafe” for the evening, sometime between 10:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. It’s a vampire story with a late night waitress, an innocent
I recently finished reading Stephen Clarke’s Merde Happens and Stephen Colbert’s I Am America (And So Can You!), two humorous books that take an ironic look at American life by two men both called Stephen C. Conspiracy? I certainly think so. The thing about humour is it doesn’t change people’s minds. Nobody laughs at something
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I enjoyed Georges Flipo’s Le Vertige des auteurs. The anti-hero, Sylvain Vasseur, is a middle-aged functionary forced into early retirement. Vasseur has very simple tastes. Until the day of his retirement, he shows interest only in cycling, sex with his long-suffering wife, beer drinking and watching the Tour de France. At his retirement party, his
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Last night we had a lovely party for my husband’s mother with cake, way too much food and, of course, chocolate. Today I am hoping the driving rain we had most of yesterday is over. The Swedish family is off to Canada’s Wonderland to ride roller coasters. I can’t attend because of a funeral. Although
Stephanie Plum does the numbers Read More »