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If you are a writer, you will understand why a man spends a lifetime doing something that, at best, is grueling and non-commercial. You will understand why a person can feel just fine when the world passes him by. You will understand that measuring success in terms of dollars and cents gives one a false […]

It’s no secret that we get all worked up at the slightest provocation. In fact, it has been suggested that you can set your watch by it. We don’t recommend this — we checked our watch today, and with the time changes and all, we were behind in a way that put us outside the […]

According to our trusty spreadsheet (which we spent a few minutes making even more complex — hard to believe it was possible, but we can be amazingly resourceful), we remain on track in this NaNo game. It is Thursday, and we have successfully written over and above our goal (which was either 5.5 or 6.6 […]

This just in: the new Graham Greene is stirring up controversy. Lots of controver…Wait, didn’t we just write something about this last month? We’re quite sure of it. Hold on, we need to check. Okay, the good news is we’re not crazy. The bad news is the New York Times is the kid who’s running […]

Now, we’re the first to admit we don’t know what’s cool with the kids today. But something tells us that even in the magical world of celebrity authors, there is a limit to name recognition. We believe we have found our benchmark: The New York Times recently reported that lawyers had attempted for [John] Gotti […]

Sarah Weinman has posted an excellent rumination on the idea of transcending genre (we’re quite jealous, but are too much of a lady to admit it). To some, the mere idea of squeezing beyond the strictures of a particular genre invites horror — it implies there’s something lesser in genre fiction or perhaps suggests that […]

In an effort to stay honest (we’re already wondering how it will last; truthfulness feels a little too much like reality), we did want to note that we managed to achieve our NaNo goal yesterday. It involved a) driving like the wind through the absurdly crowded downtown Los Angeles area (this is a city that […]

Fittingly, this story caught our eye on a day when we feel the need to lock ourself in our room and listen to Patti Smith. Unfortunately, our room doesn’t have a lock and we have many things to do. Never fear — we are past masters at figuring out how to accomplish goals while serving […]

At this point, we must ask: is there an agency out there not looking for quality literary fiction and compelling narrative non-fiction? We’re not trying to suggest the market is getting crowded, but, well, it seems like the market is getting crowded. How are authors supposed to make informed decisions as consumers? Oh, right, by […]

We don’t often link to Wall Street Journal Stories because they like people to subscribe (with cold hard cash, no less), but today’s story about a Nobel Laureate is freely avaiable. In other words, read it fast. But, wait!!! Stop. Before you read anything, we ask you to go vote. This whole government of the […]