My Writerly Life

Category: Uncategorized

  • EDGING INTO JAMES JOYCE

    For a very long time, I have been avoiding that great Irish writer, James Joyce (1882-1941) even though I have a thing for Irish authors (Sebastian Barry, John Banville, Colum McCann, Kevin Barry, Sara Baume, each with a wonderful lilt to their writing, and each more accessible than Joyce). Take McCann’s emotional short story, “Everything…

  • INTRIGUING PLOT TWISTS

    Stories told in every medium may take advantage of the literary device informally known as the plot twist, but none do it quite so well as the older short stories. Today let’s take a look at four of my favorites—and fair warning: I intend to report the surprise endings! Kate Chopin wrote in the late…

  • MY FAVORITE READS

    My reading preferences have always bent toward literary novels, and over the years I have devoured some of the great works, like William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire. In the last 10-15 years, I shifted my focus to modern works that had a chance of earning a coveted place in…

  • DISCOVERING SHAKESPEARE

    Like many people, I suspect, I was slow to embrace Shakespeare. In fact it did not happen until the senior year of my BA in Literature, when I had no choice. Fortunately, my instructor was the head of the department and a Shakespeare scholar. As a result of her forced immersion, I now include a…

  • CITY MOUSE & COUNTRY MOUSE

    Years back, I was living just down the road from my cousin—the inspiration for the lead character in my novel, WRANGLE. The blogsite, Women Writing the West, was kind enough to print this post about Sharon’s ranching life, and I’m sure they would not object to a reprint: My cousin Sharon McAmis was the inspiration…

  • SURRENDERING TO POETRY

    Poetry was once a major literary form, but has faded from popularity in a world of impatient, busy people who write in emojis. Now imagine trying to get college freshmen to slow down and dig through the elevated language and hidden meanings and to stop and absorb the poem’s emotional gifts. As an instructor, I…

  • FROM CAIRO TO TEXAS

    As a former journalist, I am interested in the career of others in the profession—and that of Lawrence Wright has confounded me for some time. Why does the author of the internationally acclaimed book, The Looming Tower, choose to write two politically charged books on Texas in later years? That strikes me as a strange…

  • CREATIVITY & THE CLASSROOM

    When it comes to creative classroom experiences, one would be hard-pressed to find a teacher who delivers that better than Robyn Carter, a writer and prolific innovator who has her fifth graders producing graphic novels and videos. I am in awe of the results—an explosion of imaginative ideas, sights and sounds. I have been wanting…

  • HARDING: THIS OTHER EDEN

    Paul Harding roared onto the literary scene in 2010 by winning the Pulitzer for his first novel, Tinkers—a beautiful work of art marked by its rhythmic prose reflective of his musical background. Harding’s third novel, This Other Eden, certainly maintains his reputation for lyrical, complex writing that forces you past the surface plot into deeper…

  • THE CRAFT OF WRITING

    Let me start with an admission that no writing conference would dare ask me to lecture because I am far too blunt with young writers. The average conference wants every kind of budding author to come, enjoy, return; I want to share the truth about the rigors of our craft. I have this firm belief…