Dec 31st, 2012 by writethebook
Interview with Vermont Writer Rowan Jacobsen. We discussed his book The Living Shore: Rediscovering a Lost World. His latest book is Shadows on the Gulf: A Journey through Our Last Great Wetland. Both books were published by Bloomsbury.
Today's Write The Book Prompt is to write about an experience visiting the shore (any shore...)
Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several South Burlington High School students)
Posted in Writing, Politics, Creative Nonfiction, Nonfiction, Environment, Travel Writing, History, Journalism, Structure, Essays | Comments |
Dec 25th, 2012 by writethebook
Interview from the archives with award-winning poet Charles Harper Webb. We discussed his 2009 book (part of the Pitt Poetry Series), Shadow Ball. His next collection, What Things Are Made Of, will be published by Univeristy of Pittsburgh Press in February 2013.
Today's Write The Book Prompt is to write about a terrible experience that, over time, becomes a cherished memory.
Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several South Burlington High School students).
Posted in Writing, Publishing, Poetry, Writers' Block, Science, Writing Craft, Structure | Comments |
Dec 21st, 2012 by writethebook
John Homans, author of the new book, What's A Dog For? , published by Penguin, and executive editor of New York Magazine.
From Anton Chekhov's Lady With Lap Dog to Jack London's Call of the Wild, dogs, of course, feature prominently in literature. This week it's your turn to add to the canon; the Write The Book Prompt is to write about an unexpected encounter with a dog.
Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.
NOTE: Check out the guidelines for submitting your writing prompt outcomes for possible inclusion on the show!
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students, now alums).
Posted in Writing, Publishing, Politics, Creative Nonfiction, Nonfiction, History, Psychology, Journalism, Structure, Essays, Writing Coach, Animals, Dogs | Comments |
Dec 14th, 2012 by writethebook
Bestselling author Robin Cook, M.D. - perhaps best known for his breakout novel Coma - whose latest medical thriller is Nano, published by Putnam.
This week's Write The Book Prompt is to write about something that is small, literally, but is large in another sense.
Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students, now alums).
Posted in Uncategorized, Writing, Fiction, Science Fiction, Mysteries, Novels, Research, Medicine, Crime Fiction, Thriller | Comments |
Dec 7th, 2012 by writethebook
Vermont author and veterinarian Steven B. Metz, D.M.V., whose new memoir is Exotic Tails: A Veterinarian’s Journey, published by Wind Ridge Publishing in Shelburne, Vermont.
Steven B. Metz, with representations of his two favorite hobbies: the motorcycle, and Bach.
This week's Write The Book Prompt is to write about a person who inherits a cat, a ferret, a tiger, an elephant or a hedgehog. You can't call it the Life of Pi, though, as that's been done. (Twice, in fact, if you count the fact that Yann Martel freely admits that the inspiration for his Booker-prize-winning novel came from a story by Brazilian author, Moacyr Scliar, whose "Max and the Cats" features a teenage Jewish boy adrift in a boat with a panther after a shipwreck.)
Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.
We ran out of time for the Bookworm's Calendar this week, so here it is:
- The Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center presents Alex Kershaw, Friday, December 7th, at 7, with his book, The Liberator.
- And then on Saturday, December 8, at 7, James Gustave Speth will be at the Northshire with his book, America the Possible: Manifesto for a New Economy.
- Archer Mayor will read from his latest Joe Gunther mystery, Paradise City, on Dec 8 at 11 at Bridgeside Books in Waterbury. Later that same day, at 3, he'll be at the Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock. And on Monday, Dec. 10 at 8, he'll be at the Latchis Theater in Brattleboro, where he'll be at the 2012 Vermont Arts Awards Gala, receiving a Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts.
- The Dorothy Alling Memorial Library in Williston presents another pair of "Shape and Share Life Stories," Monday, December 10 & 17 from 12:30-2:30. Prompts trigger real life experience stories which are crafted into engaging narratives and shared with the group. Led by Recille Hamrell.
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students, now alums).
Posted in Writing, Publishing, Creative Nonfiction, Nonfiction, Nature, Memoir, Medicine, Family, Animals | Comments |
Nov 26th, 2012 by writethebook
Rebroadcast of an interview with author Jim DeFilippi, whose latest book is Limerick Malfeasance, a collection of over two-hundred original limericks.
Lately, I'm interested in revision exercises. So this week's Write The Book Prompt is to flip to the middle of a project you're working on and read one page: any single page. Take notes. Try to divorce yourself from the rest of the content of the project, if it's a long one, and just focus on what you see happening on that one page. Look for mistakes, but perhaps more importantly, look for larger issues. Is your voice evident on the page? Is your narrator's voice in evidence? Are any characters who show up there behaving in a consistent manner with your ideas about how they should behave? Is the project's overarching purpose or vision in evidence on the page? Take notes, think about what you see right there in front of you, and see what ideas that might give you about what is or is not working with the piece as a whole. Maybe it will help. Good luck with this prompt and tune in next week for another.
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students, now alums).
Posted in Writing, Agents, Publishing, Fiction, Poetry, Blogs, Book Selling, Mysteries, Novels, Self-publishing, Crime Fiction | Comments |
Nov 14th, 2012 by writethebook
Interview with National Book Award Finalist and Author of Fiction and Memoir, Joan Wickersham. Her latest book is The News From Spain, published by Knopf.
This week's Write The Book Prompt was suggested by my guest, Joan Wickersham. When she teaches, she often encourages her students to read Tim O'Brien's extraordinary story, The Things They Carried, from the collection by the same name. After reading the story, which is, in fact, a long list in itself, make your own list. In fact, make a list of lists. What are some ideas for structuring a story in the form of a list? Here are a few ideas I've come up with: a grocery list, a packing list, a to-do list, a category on Craig's List! Come up with a few of your own. Then pick one of those ideas and see if you can write a story using that list form as a structural device, or just for inspiration.
Good luck with this prompt and tune in next week for another.
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students, now alums).
Posted in Writing, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Novels, Short Stories, Memoir, Writing Craft, Structure | Comments |
Nov 6th, 2012 by writethebook
Award-winning fiction writer Ann Hood, in an interview from 2010 about her novel The Red Thread, published by W. W. Norton & Company.
It's election week, as I'm sure most of you are painfully aware. When I was a child, voters weren't allowed to wear any campaign buttons into the voting booth. I have a vivid memory of walking with my parents into the building where they would both vote a second time for Richard Nixon. The lobby of this building was absolutely littered with campaign buttons, removed by voters and thrown on the ground before they entered the school gymnasium where they would cast their ballots. I still have a Nixon Agnew button that I picked up that night while I waited for my parents to vote. This week's Write The Book Prompt is to use a memory from long ago about an election or a vote: it doesn't have to be a presidential election, and it doesn't have to come from a time when you were any certain age. Just whatever comes to mind. Recall it, write about it, and tomorrow - if you haven't already - please do vote.
Good luck with this prompt and tune in next week for another.
Posted in Writing, Fiction, Novels, Research, Writers' Block, Writing Craft, Structure, Family, Parenting | Comments |
Oct 31st, 2012 by writethebook
Vermont Writer and Writing Coach, Tamar Cole (tamarcole21@gmail.com).
This week's Write The Book Prompt is inspired by a prompt that Tamar Cole has used in her writing workshops. She offers a word and then has participants write six lines about that word, or influenced by that word. So let's do that. In honor of Hurricane Sandy, the word for this week's prompt is STORM. Think about the word storm, and write six lines. Or more!
Good luck with this prompt and tune in next week for another.
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students, now alums).
Posted in Writing, Agents, Publishing, Fiction, Playwriting, Book Selling, Mysteries, Novels, Screenwriting, Self-publishing, Writers' Block, Crime Fiction, Writing Craft, Writing Coach | Comments |
Oct 22nd, 2012 by writethebook
Local Writer and Tai Chi Teacher Bob Boyd, author of Snake Style Tai Chi Chuan: The Hidden System of the Yang Family.
This week's Write The Book Prompt is some basic, helpful advice suggested by my guest, Bob Boyd: Sit down and just start putting words on paper. The process evolves. If you don't get started, Bob says, you'll never get finished. He adds that being prone sometimes helps him come up with ideas. Though if you write in your job, as he did at Burch & Co., lying down at the office can create difficulties. Bob acknowledges that everyone's different. Lying down might help some people. For others, a walk might be the relaxing activity that gets the ideas flowing. Figure out what works for you. Then, as soon as you have an idea, even if it's in the middle of the night, put something on paper. You can always get back to it later. But preserve the idea so it's waiting for you.
Good luck with this prompt and tune in next week for another!
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students, now alums).
Posted in Writing, Publishing, Blogs, Creative Nonfiction, Nonfiction, Book Selling, History, Memoir, Writing Craft, Structure, Health, Exercise | Comments |
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