-
Blog / Articles / Reviews
- It’s in the Cards
- Really Lost (Trail of the Lost by Andrea Lankford)
- Targeted Chaos (The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher)
- Nothing More (All That Is by James Salter)
- Beautiful (Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano)
- Winning Wager (The Wager by David Grann)
- Silent Reader (The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides)
- Not Too Good Night (Good Night, Irene: by Luis Alberto Urrea)
-
Books -- Buy Here
-
*Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps To Writing Successful Fiction
Available Story Links
Tag Archives: fiction writing
Untitled and Unpublished – Marketing Basement Manuscripts
While cleaning out the basement, I found an unpublished and untitled manuscript, read the first page, and instantaneously launched into revision. But then I stopped and flipped through the 300-plus pages. Did I really want to do this to myself? Again! Wasn’t it just a few months ago when I had exhausted myself revising my last ms, a 30-year effort, Roobala Take Me Home, which lays dormant (again) while I try to figure out what … Continue reading
Book Review Bluntness
Recently, I read a blog, “Like the author… but” by Sharon Wildwind, in which she discusses the awkwardness of responding to a “friend’s book,” a technical writer who decided to try fiction. The book was “boring.” But Wildwind is reluctant to tell the truth. How to respond? A common dilemma. We’ve all received book recommendations or gifts, but couldn’t get past the first few pages. An online acquaintance suggested I try reading Ayn Rand and … Continue reading
Posted in Write
Tagged Ficiton Writing, fiction, fiction writing, Jeff Penn May, Jeffrey Penn May, Where the River Splits, writing, Writing Ficiton
Leave a comment
Confessions of a Failed Fiction Writer
As I was hiking along the Meramec River (St. Louis, Castlewood State Park), I mulled over a sort of memoir concept that I’ve been thinking about for over a year now. The only thing stopping me is that I know I will expend lots of time, energy, hard work, getting it as perfect as I can and it will go nowhere. That is the crux of the story. As I near 60 (I’ll be 58 … Continue reading
Are We All Great Writers?
Warning: I’m going to act as if I were younger and full of braggadocio like most of you young writers who boast about your voice, your muse, your “work” and fearlessly market like crazy because you are full of yourselves, as I was. What a handicap age and experience is beyond the obvious! It’s a cliché of course but as we age we increasingly understand that we know very little. While young, we understand, theoretically, … Continue reading
Kindle Crossing – Why Buy an ebook Reader?
I went to turn the page but there was none. I had crossed over. I had forgotten that I was reading an electronic device. I suspect, like many of you, I was fond of explaining why ebooks would never replace real books. Throw them both on the ground and which one could you still read? Which would you rather have at poolside, a $150 dollar electronic device or a five-dollar used paperback? A friend recently … Continue reading
Posted in Write
Tagged amazon, askwritefish, ebook, ebooks, Ficiton Writing, fiction, fiction writing, how to write fiction, kindle, nook, smashwords, writing, Writing Ficiton
Leave a comment
The Strange Life of Another Odd Short Story
I cannot remember when or why I wrote Nuclear Power and the Civil War Lizards. Judging from the initial setting, I think I’d just started working for McDonnell Aircraft in the old Falstaff Brewery Building across the street from Forest Park, now the location of the St. Louis Science Center. That was 1978. In digging through my collection of submissions and rejections, I found a May 17, 1979 submission to Bill Plummer of Quest/79. You … Continue reading
Posted in Write
Tagged fiction, fiction writing, how to write fiction, Hubpages, Jeff May, Jeff Penn May, Jeffrey Penn May
Leave a comment