Writer Unboxed

What writer can’t help but giggle at this upon Thursday Next’s meeting with Rochester in THE EYRE AFFAIR:
I thought about the incident at Haworth all those years ago when I entered the book of Jane Eyre and caused Rochester’s horse to slip.
“It was a long time ago.”
“Not to me.  You remember?” [Rochester said.  He’s swirling Maderia in […]

Philip Pullman’s children’s book NORTHERN LIGHTS (called the Golden Compass in the U.S.) has been named the best children’s book published in the past 70 years and been awarded the Carnegie Medal. Though I wouldn’t envy the task of the selection committee–the last decade or so really has been a golden age in children’s […]

We’re thrilled to announce that WU’s own Marsha Moyer has a new book on the shelves! Heartbreak Town was released yesterday, June 26th, and is the third installment in her well-received Lucy Hatch series, following The Second Coming of Lucy Hatch and The Last of the Honky-tonk Angels. It doesn’t take reading Marsha’s work for […]

My daughter and I were doing some Amazon shopping the other day–one of our very favorite activities–and stumbled upon a book that seemed to want to slide onto her shelf: Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo by Obert Skye. We both admired Skye’s opening line, “It was at least forty degrees above warm.” Skye […]

A few weeks ago, I blogged about my ignorance of the thriving world of fan fiction writing. As an editor, blogger, and aspiring novelist, pretty much all my spare time is devoted to those three things, and oh yeah, trying to squeeze in a family life. But I’d run across some fan fic […]

Bibliophiles and classics buffs are well acquainted with author Jasper Fforde and the erudite lunacy of his wildly popular Thursday Next and Nursery Crime books.  With worldwide sales reaching into the millions, reviewers and fans alike have hailed Fforde for his inspired satire and viciously funny observations on institutions and popular culture.  His first book, […]

Last month I posted about a workshop I’d presented for young writers and included some of the very good questions the participants had asked. Someone suggested I should post my answers as well, so here’s a sample:
Q. How old were you when you began writing?
A. About five—my first year of school. I was an obsessive […]

I recently wrote two posts called “Finished” and “Finished, Part 2” about my feelings after submitting the manuscript of my fourth book to my publisher. As you may have surmised from the title of this week’s post, I’m back at the drawing board. Having talked to my editor on the phone on Friday and subsequently […]

Quick note: New books-and-business links are up on the Google Notebook HERE.
Last week I mentioned my craft-book collection in my 7 Deadly Sins post; this week I’m going to point to one in particular that I recommend everyone purchase and mark up ASAP. A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation by Noah […]

I’m reading an advance copy of Philip Roth’s new novel Exit Ghost and I’m enjoying it hugely. I haven’t read any Roth in a while and I’d almost forgotten what a great writer he is. This book might be one of his all-time best.
I’ll write more about the book in another entry or on my […]

Missed parts 1 and 2 of WU’s interview with screenwriter/producer/director Dale Launer? Click HERE and HERE, then come on back. In the third and final part of our interview, Dale and I talk about screenplay mangling, teaching creativity, the Top Five Tips for aspiring screenwriters, how Dragon Tales inspires him and more. Enjoy!
Part 3: Interview […]

Poof! That’s the sound of the bubble bursting after your book has come out.
After all of the build-up to release day, it would hard not to have the entire post-mortem be slightly anticlimactic, and I’m here to tell you that, indeed, the weeks following your book publication are a bit of a […]