When starting the first book, all that’s wanted is to finish it. When it’s finished, all that’s wanted is for it to get published. When it’s published, all that is wanted is for people to read it and like it. Then it’s on to the second book. How do you write a second book? It has to be better than the first, yet you have … Continue reading Writing Your Second Book
Reblogged from Faulkner House Books in New Orleans, one of my favorite book stores anywhere: William Faulkner came to New Orleans early in March 1939 for three days of fishing with local friends. (The Deutches? Hermann was the model for the reporter in his novel Pylon.) Someone from the newspaper spoke with Faulkner at the friend’s home and soon after published an article in the … Continue reading Faulkner in New Orleans
Reading Dr. Allen Josephs’ book On Hemingway and Spain: Essays and Reviews 1970-2013, I came across a great little nugget of information that Josephs has observed about how Hemingway wrote. These were 5 keys to Hemingway’s method: 1) inventing from experience 2) omitting 3) visualizing 4)making the reader feel it 5)secretly writing poetry I try to remember these things when I write. Not because I … Continue reading Keys to Hemingway’s Writing
Nearly 20 years ago, when I was either 16 or 17 years old I bought a 7’2 single-fin funboard from a pawnshop. It was only $40 and I thought it would be cool to try out a retro board. At the time I rode 6’3 shortboards. I was forty pounds lighter than I am now and more agile. I took the 7’2 out a few … Continue reading A Surfboard Returned
Beware: NOT SAFE FOR WORK or the FAINT-HEARTED. To celebrate St Patrick’s Day I thought I would share some of the Irish Wordsmith James Joyce’s love letters to his wife Nora, love poems really. But seriously, if you are unfamiliar with these, they will make Larry Flynt blush. Read at your own risk. Enjoy! http://arlindo-correia.com/joyce.html Continue reading James Joyce’s Love Letters
Author L.L. Barkat thinks so: https://janefriedman.com/its-time-for-many-experienced-writers-to-stop-blogging/ I will not lie. I have not heard of L.L. Barkat until I came across her blog post. So, is it a waste of time? I looked at her Amazon page, her twitter account and even saw that she has a lifecoaching business and website. She wrote a blog about blogging being a waste of time, yet it exposed … Continue reading Is blogging a waste of time for writers?
The short answer to this is because all the bad asses of the literary world have: Flannery O’ Conner, Joyce Carol Oates, Hemingway, Raymond Carver and the list goes on. But why ask this question? Because I like the short story. I like writing them and I like reading them, but the problem is that they don’t really sell. Sure, don’t write because you want … Continue reading Why write short stories?
Final edits of Native Moments are finished. Besides promoting the book, there is nothing else I can do with it. Now I turn my attention to my next project. I have a novella already finished and maybe twenty short stories. Was thinking of trying to get a collection of short stories published, but I don’t know how well short stories sell. I still think, if my … Continue reading What Next?
I’ve not read much Stephen King, but a piece of advice from his book On Writing has always stuck with me: “[N]ever say ‘John stopped long enough to perform an act of excretion’ when you mean ‘John stopped long enough to take a shit.’” Continue reading The Importance of Being Concise and Precise
My publisher asked for us to send any press mentions we’ve had regarding our upcoming releases and I didn’t have anything to send her. I did a Google search to see if anyone by chance had mentioned my book and sure enough something came up. The Lumberjack, a student paper of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ wrote an article about anticipated books for 2016 … Continue reading Native Moments First Mention in the Press
Nic Schuck 