Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2018 i The Writer

Recently, I celebrated the one-year anniversary of my move from office life in Boston to working remotely in Middle-of-Nowhere, Virginia. So far, the transition has been almost suspiciously smooth; no Jack Torrance meltdowns to report here, even during the long, dark winter months. I realized early on that all work and no human contact would indeed make Nicki a dull-minded woman. My goals were simple: Go on walks. Spend as much time outside as possible. Work at a coffeeshop at least once a week. Never be ashamed to talk to your dog. (He’s the best coworker you’ve ever had.) Spend more time on social media, connecting with writers, editors, and friends from afar. The first four were easy. The last one is the one I’m struggling with. With so much…

I’ve written a trilogy (three book-length manuscripts), but I’m not sure where to end each book. Is it okay to end on a cliffhanger that’s resolved in the first chapter of the next book? When you write a book that’s part of a larger arc of conflict, you want to end in a way that creates closure but also spurs the reader on to the next book. A cliffhanger can certainly do this, but that approach can feel heavy-handed, particularly if the cliffhanger’s only role is to get you to the next book. Instead, you might think of how each book functions as an individual entity, in addition to its role in the larger storyline. To that end, create meaningful closure for each individual book. Bring resolution – in whatever…

The specialist versus generalist debate has lasted forever, probably because it ignores what makes writers happy. Freelance writing at its best is all about working on projects you want to do, not that you have to do. That’s why I disdain the concept of a specialist. I consider myself the Gay Talese of advertorials, but that is not a craft I want to spend eight hours a day honing. There are only so many cosmetic dentists and divorce attorneys I can interview before law school applications look alluring. We need to explore how to make money from our passions. That involves having a specialist’s command of the topic while thinking like a generalist. You take what you know and spread it as far as you can. After almost 12 years…

Considered a trailblazer in the thriller genre, Jon Land has a diverse publication list. Although this prolific author has written more than 40 books, both fiction and nonfiction, his skill with storytelling and the written word goes hand-in-hand with his involvement in the writer community. Recognizing the importance of creating characters not traditionally seen in the thriller genre, one of his popular fictionalized characters is fifth-generation female Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong; two others are a Palestinian detective and an Israeli chief police inspector. Land has also taken over writing the popular Murder, She Wrote mystery series, featuring female amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher. As an emeritus board member and current marketing chair of the International Thriller Writers (ITW) organization, Land deeply embraces the mission of the group – helping debut and…

My birthday cake was her latest project because it was not from a mix but instead built from scratch—the flour, the baking soda, lemon-flavored because at eight that had been my request; I had developed a strong love for sour. We’d looked through several cookbooks together to find just the right one and the smell in the kitchen was overpoweringly pleasant. To be clear: the bite I ate was delicious. Warm citrus baked batter lightness enfolded by cool deep dark swirled sugar. But the day was darkening outside, and as I finished that first bite, as that first impression faded, I felt a subtle shift inside, an unexpected reaction. As if a sensor, so far buried deep inside me, raised its scope to scan around, alerting my mouth to something…

Giving me one final glance in preparation, he kneeled and shoved his thick fingers into the tuna, wedging them into the cut he had already made in its belly to halve it. Then he lifted. Minister, I do not have the words to describe the mixture of shock, sickness, and amusement I felt at what I saw when Kimura opened that tuna. I say amusement because as my initial horror receded, I was certain (more certain than when Saburo had first appeared in my office that morning) that someone was playing a joke. This feeling did not last long. Inside was the body of a woman, naked, gutted, perfectly halved, just like the fish, from crotch to crown. She was not a midget, nor a girl, but a miniature adult…

Brooklyn-based writer and cartoonist Alison Wilgus immersed herself for a year in the minute details of space exploration and crafted a short story, “A Barrow for the Living,” about three people just barely surviving on a Mars base when they receive a shipment from Earth. Editor Trevor Quachri read her story and immediately felt it was perfect for Analog Science Fiction and Fact. The protagonist is female – Wilgus believes strongly in featuring women and people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender within her stories – and there’s plenty of scientific research to back up her conflict-heavy narrative about Mars colonization. “She did the research and approached the piece with a different voice and angle,” Quachri explains. “You want to keep people on their toes, keep them interested.…

“Every murderer is probably somebody’s old friend.”—Agatha Christie The world is harsh. Just last night a young man was murdered in our small town – a town that was recently rated the safest little burg in the state. The community mourns the loss, feeling the emptiness and the stark sense of helplessness that surrounds pointless tragedy. In today’s world, there is no such thing as sanctuary. Even places of worship can no longer guarantee refuge. Reality TV slams us with additional unrest, and even best-selling fiction jars our minds with scenes of alarm. We’re torn between the desire to be courageous and the temptation to give in to debilitating fear. But while the world grieves, I find myself contemplating murder. Not murder in the physical sense, but murder in a…

“I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.”—Edgar Allan Poe 1. QUOTH THE POE “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity,” reads this graphic black-and-white print from Obvious State. $24, obviousstate.com 2. POE-KA DOT SCARF It’s chilly down in the catacombs. Keep your neck warm and unstrangled with this festive scarf. $32, outofprintclothing.com 3. ANNABEL TEE What, like he’s supposed to write about the undead when it’s sunny out? 4. TELL-TALE ART Picture now a midnight dreary, while you color, neat and clearly, in this quaint and curious book of illustrated lore… $10, amazon.com 5. POE ANOTHER CUP Because it’s hard to write gothic horror when you’re undercaffeinated. $20, amazon.com 6. POP ART POE-STERS Protect your tomb’s surfaces and serve your Amontillado in style with this…

Pairing up with an agent is at the very top of the to-do list for any aspiring authors looking to take their career to the next level. Whether it’s always been your dream to publish a book or to sell a manuscript to a TV or movie producer, getting your work in the hands of an agent can help propel you to toward your goal. Yet even the idea of connecting with an agent often feels like something that’s very far out of reach. Many in the writing community wonder how they can find an agent. The answer, most of the time, is by simply reaching out. You could perhaps do that in person, at book events or conferences, writing workshops, or agent showcases. But most of the time, the…

What types of books do you like to read for pure pleasure? Thrillers, of course, but I also love to be scared. Most books fade away once you finish them, but books like Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep or his son Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box still stand out in my mind. The ability for a book to still scare you reminds us we’re all still kids at heart. When you read for pleasure, do you prefer print books, eBooks, or audiobooks? I’m strictly a hard copy reader. Love having a book in my hands. Do you ever have days when you are “unconnected” from the web? I seldom am “unconnected” for longer than an hour! So guilty as charged! Do you use any writerly apps, and if so, what are…

I was but a smallish bulb—a bulbette, really—sleeping cozily beside my mother, when quite to my horror I was wrestled from that safe underground home and yanked into the face of an unblinking sun. The shock of blue sky wide above frightened me, and I never grew to my fullest size. Too young for such solitude, I became forever sad. No longer could I root happily into my mother’s company and find comfort in her rounded shape. There was no one to tell me the facts. How much nutrition to pull from the dirt? Would the beetles bring harm? And what of the worms? Friends, foe, or nevermind? Is it any wonder I was always so silent? Always so small? No, I was not ready to leave her at all.…

WE ALL KNOW THE OLD ADAGE don’t judge a book by its cover. But the truth is, that’s exactly what readers do. Based on the colors, the font, and the design, a cover creates a mood causing readers to make an instant assessment and decide if the book is worthy of more attention. A high-quality cover signals to readers that the content inside is high quality; a poor design does the opposite. So a well-designed cover is vital to a self-published book’s success – and well worth the time and money to create the best one possible. Whether you create your own or hire a designer, understanding the elements of a good cover is important. Keep in mind how and where books are purchased. According to Author Earnings, 45.5 percent…

“The science fiction writer is tied to the front end of a locomotive that is speeding across the landscape. No matter how far and how fast the locomotive is going, the writer is looking ahead and sees an endless vista.”—Isaac Asimov James Atlas’ latest book, The Shadow in the Garden: A Biographer’s Tale, discusses his work as a writer and publisher of biographies. He’s penned biographies of the author Saul Bellow and the poet Delmore Schwartz and also launched the Penguin Lives series of short biographies, the Eminent Lives series of biographies jointly published with HarperCollins, and the Great Discoveries series jointly published with W. W. Norton & Company. Atlas is the author of several novels; he’s also an editor, anthologist, and the founder of the publishing companies Atlas Books…

I’m not talking just to hear my own voice,” Grace insisted. “I’ve got a big job here!” Indeed, she does. Or the dialogue does. Only in a raw beginner’s manuscript – or a creative writing student’s desperate attempt to meet a page requirement – does dialogue drone on simply to fill the airways. Dialogue is a powerful tool. Imagine for a moment gazing on a family reunion devoid of speech. Or try your favorite television show without sound. A haze of confusion falls over the action. What does it all mean? Does Dad’s deadpan expression disguise a joke, or is he angry? Or disappointed? Mom and daughter seem to be in the midst of a heartfelt talk. Is daughter announcing an unexpected pregnancy? Or are they deciding to hire a…

Magical realism – sounds a bit like an oxymoron, does it not? Let’s begin with realism. Nineteenth-century realism was a revolt against romanticism, with its use of the supernatural and its unreal picture of life – after all, how many Ahabs are out there feverishly chasing whales, and how many Roderick Ushers are immured in darkened gothic castles, about to descend into a dark tarn? Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne are the major literary exponents of American Romanticism, but as with any literary movement, it ran its course. Under the aegis of William Dean Howells and Henry James, literary realism evoked the kind of life ordinary people lived, at first the middle or business class. Gritty naturalism in the hands of Stephen Crane soon brought this down…

When Time was a little girl, she couldn’t wait to grow up. At four, no stranger to blood, she got her period. At six she married a train conductor. Nobody ever loved her so well as the train conductor. Except perhaps the country of Switzerland. History, who walked around with warheads and that inaugural wheel and fightin’ words and a triceratops or two and the Golden Horde and creation myths featuring a landscape cobbled together from the hips and breasts and randomly strewn extremities of a savaged body and the Big Bang and bombardiers and bad decisions and Stonehenge and a Flat Earth and its dead partisans and the Vin Fiz Flyer and blazing villages and Marie Antoinette and multiple paradigm shifts and the Bronze Age and Aramaic and slave…

Fourteen people sit around a table. The room is spare, decorated with only a few New Yorker posters and a splash of yellow paint. Every so often, an ambulance screams by. We’re just a few blocks from Times Square. The mood is intense, thoughtful, and occasionally very loud. This is the novel critiquing class I’ve been teaching for Gotham Writers Workshop for almost 10 years. Over that time, I’ve read hundreds of manuscripts and met as many writers, and one thing I can say definitively: A writer’s success depends on how well she can absorb and deal with criticism. Which is not to say that dealing with criticism is easy. I’ve been on the receiving end of it for as long as I’ve been a writer, which is a long…

Many writers think only of the big-name magazines as outlets to publish work. But smaller magazines that specialize in a niche market are often looking for solid writers to contribute to each issue. The magazines in this section are a small sampling of what the industry has to offer. Find more market listings at writermag.com. Information in this section is provided to The Writer by the individual markets and events; for more information, contact those entities directly. Subscribers to The Writer have online access to information on publishers, publications, conferences, contests, and agents. Go to writermag.com and click on Writing Resources. ANIMALS/PETS ANIMAL WELLNESS Natural pet magazine aimed at helping pet owners make wise healthcare choices for animal companions. Accepting articles of 500-1,500 words. Particularly interested in submissions for Animal…