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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)
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Books -- Buy Here
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*Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps To Writing Successful Fiction
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Tag Archives: writing
Complete Your Book
Do you have a memoir, autobiography, or novel you cannot seem to finish? Or an idea that needs jump starting? Sometimes all it takes is someone who understands the writing process, someone who can guide you around pitfalls to successful completion, or someone who can get you started and set you on your way, available as needed. I can help you find your voice and develop your unique style regardless of topic. Rates are fair … Continue reading
Posted in Ask
Tagged Ficiton Writing, fiction, how to write fiction, writers, writing, Writing Ficiton
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Mountains, Streams, and Plywood Wings: How the Outdoors Influenced My Writing
Behind our new subdivision home in northwest St. Louis County, farmland stretched for miles where my two older brothers and I ran through cornfields and apple orchards, waded flooded creeks, and rode bareback. Once, on our way home, responding to our Dad’s powerful whistle, we cut through a hog pen and my foot got stuck, a hog charged, and my oldest brother pulled me to safety, leaving my shoe in the mud. Another time, while … Continue reading
Posted in Write
Tagged climbing, fly fishing, fly fishing Missouri smallmouth, Missouri streams, mountain climbing, mountains, outdoor, outdoor activities, outdoor fiction, outdoor fishing, outdoor writing, outdoors, smashwords, steams, Where the River Splits, writers, writing, Writing Ficiton
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Untitled and Unpublished – Marketing Basement Manuscripts
While cleaning out the basement, I found an unpublished and untitled manuscript, read the first page, and instantaneously launched into revision.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
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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
I Could Have Been
I could have been a man famous for song for art for science and for love I could have been someone other than who I am But in the end I am who I am and we are all the same Share on Facebook
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
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Tagged amazon, askwritefish, ebook, ebooks, Ficiton Writing, fiction, fiction writing, how to write fiction, kindle, nook, smashwords, writing, Writing Ficiton
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Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps to Writing Successful Fiction — Character
Establish Characterization Reveal Character Change character for good or bad If you become enamored with your plot twists and turns, you risk creating characters “beyond belief.” Your character can be a Terminator or a talking Sunfish and still be believable if their actions make sense. If our meek sunfish suddenly acts like a shark only to serve a plot twist, then Mr. Sunfish is no longer believable. On the other hand, if Mr. Sunfish has … Continue reading
Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps to Writing Successful Fiction — Plot
Note: “Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps to Writing Successful Fiction” – blog posts derived from my popular “Finding Your Fiction” workshop in association with St. Louis Writers Workshop and St. Louis Writers Guild. Completed guide will be available as an ebook, likely on Smashwords. (Feedback, incisive or otherwise, welcome.) Section I Choosing plot over character is dangerous. Plot is presented here first mainly because it might be “easier” to comprehend. On the other hand, characters … Continue reading