From The Wall Street Journal: In the popular perception of the typical white-collar case, a judicious government prosecutes a mendacious executive on a mountain of incontrovertible evidence. Think Bernie Madoff or Sam Bankman-Fried. Then there’s Michael Milken, the former “junk bond king” from the infamous “decade of greed.” If there were a Mount Rushmore of … Read more
From Jane Friedman: Imprints have long been getting closed, merged, reorganized, and reborn over publishing’s history, but this summer raised new frustrations and fears among authors about how and why it’s happening. In June, Penguin Random House (PRH) announced they would merge the long-respected Razorbill into Putnam Children’s (retaining the full team in doing so); … Read more
From Anne R. Allen’s Blog… with Ruth Harris: As last September ended, a report from the Association of American Literary Agents painted a bleak picture of the American literary agent — working long hours and struggling to pay the bills, worrying for their future. Among the members of the author community who had ever received a rejection … Read more
From Writers Digest: Write what you know. As a novelist, I’d argue that adage is bad advice. None of the 30-plus romance and romantic suspense novels I’ve written over the last 15 years would’ve been possible if I’d abided by it. I’ve never been Amish. I’ve never been stalked by a serial killer. I have, … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: ‘Brace your nerves and steel your face and be nothing daunted,” an Irish immigrant named John Stott wrote on the back of the trans-Atlantic tickets he was sending to folks back home in the 1848, hoping that they, too, would come to America, “this Great Continent.” He added: “There will … Read more
From Writers in the Storm: I’m going to take a break from technical advice about structure or the gaming world and how the Boss Fight relates to fiction, and talk about meeting other writers and what you can get out of that. I’ll throw in some Rules of Encounter and Warnings, Scary Moments, and maybe … Read more
From Engelsberg Ideas: On the evening of February 24, 2022, a few hours after Vladimir Putin ordered his army into Ukraine, thousands of Russians, most of them young, came out onto Pushkin Square in central Moscow. They stood around the statue of Alexander Pushkin, holding placards saying ‘No to War’ for a few minutes before their protest … Read more
From an account of the Pilgrims’ journey to Plymouth in 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton – Via The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page each Thanksgiving day: Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William … Read more
From ScreenCraft: What does it take to write a great spy thriller? From the James Bond franchise to every Mission Impossible installment — and everything around and in between — the spy thriller has long been one of the most intriguing genres in film and television. We’ve had spy thrillers based on true stories (Bridge of Spies and Argo), slapstick comedies (Spy, … Read more
From The Pulitzer Prizes: Shortly after 8 p.m. on January 22, 1938, the veteran actor Frank Craven appeared on stage at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, N.J., and began to speak. “This play is called ‘Our Town,’” he said. “It was written by Thornton Wilder.” It was the first time the character called the Stage … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: Most people think of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary as a quintessentially British production, but if you pore carefully over the first edition, compiled between 1858 and 1928, you will find thousands of American words. There are familiar words describing nature particular to the U.S., like prairie, skunk, coyote and chipmunk, but also more recondite ones, like catawba (a species of grape … Read more
From School Library Journal: There’s a good argument that Shakespeare is the world’s most popular author. About 90 percent of American schools assign Shakespeare to students. His work has been translated into more than 100 languages. Declare “To be or not to be,” and most will answer, “That is the question.” The Bard’s work is … Read more
PG is going to play with Google Bard for a bit to see how it might perform as an assistant to an author. He recognizes that Bard is most definitely a work in progress and is not in the same league as even a mediocre author. PG will do this off and on for a … Read more
From Publishing Perspectives: A key development in world publishing’s response to artificial intelligence technologies, today (October 31), four of the United Kingdom’s most prominent publishing-industry organizations have issued an adamant message to the government led by the prime minister, Rishi Sunak. The Publishers Association; the Society of Authors, a trade union; Association of Authors’ Agents, … Read more
From The Literary Hub: One summer morning in 1883, Alexander John Ellis sat at his desk in front of three large bay windows, opened wide to catch any breeze that London’s Kensington had to give. From his chair, he could hear the birds in the plane trees and see right down Argyll Road, its five-story … Read more
From Kristine Kathryn Rusch: This past week, I had a fascinating text exchange with one of my very best friends. We have known each other for more than forty years. We met in college—and no, this friend isn’t Kevin J. Anderson. This is another friend. We worked in different professions, but we’ve been at each … Read more
From Business Insider: Some of the most haunted places in the world give us a deeper look into the history of past cultures. From Château de Trécesson in France (supposedly haunted by a young woman who was believed to be buried alive on the premises) to Morgan House in India (said to still be visited … Read more
From Electric Lit: Craft is often thought of as the backbone of literature, the scientific and mathematical side of the creative process that examines an artist’s techniques. In prose, it often involves terms such as plot, pacing, point of view, characterization, scene-setting, structure, dialogue… It is the rational breakdown of those mechanisms that work behind … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: Gay Talese and Frank Sinatra have enjoyed a rich, symbiotic relationship, one that has long outlasted the singer, who died at 82 a quarter-century ago. Back in 1965, Mr. Talese trailed Sinatra around Las Vegas and Hollywood for a profile for Esquire magazine. At his peak after a triumphant comeback, … Read more
From chat.openai.com: Query: Write me a murder mystery in the style of Dorothy Sayers Response: Chapter 1: An Unexpected Visitor The rain was relentless, beating a rhythmic tattoo on the windows of Wimsey Manor. Lord Peter Wimsey reclined in his leather armchair, a tumbler of fine Scotch in hand. The fireplace crackled merrily, casting dancing … Read more
From Kristine Kathryn Rusch: A series of articles have appeared over the summer about the ways that the pandemic affected us as human beings. One of the most obvious is that people have forgotten how to behave in public. Vox did a long article on this, citing various examples, including many that featured concert goers throwing things … Read more
From Kristine Kathryn Rusch: So, this week, I settled into the trusty writing chair, reviewed what I had on the Grayson novella…and found myself looking up restaurant menus in search of soup (teeth, remember?). I figured I was just distracted, so I went back…and found myself peering at the weather for the next month. I … Read more
From Jane Friedman: Two temporal elements—the time frame of the story and where you are standing in time while you tell your tale—are central to the idea of structure in memoir. But they are tricky to determine because you are still living the life you are writing about in your memoir, and you existed at … Read more
From Publishers Weekly: When my publishing career began in the late 1990s, a period that I refer to as the golden age of New York publishing, it was an enchanting time. From an outline, my first book, What Southern Women Know (That Every Woman Should), went into a four-day auction between several editors. (This was … Read more
From Publisher’s Weekly: When my publishing career began in the late 1990s, a period that I refer to as the golden age of New York publishing, it was an enchanting time. From an outline, my first book, What Southern Women Know (That Every Woman Should), went into a four-day auction between several editors. (This was … Read more
From Jane Friedman: A writer’s investment in their book is more than time and creativity. Our words, and sometimes visuals, are then turned into electronic files—another investment. Publishers cover the cost of creating publishing files, while indie authors bear the expense of creating the files for their books. This has long been the case, but … Read more
For visitors from outside the United States, today, July 4, is celebrated as America’s Independence Day, a major national holiday with picnics during the day and large fireworks displays, ideally with firefighters nearby, at night. The sun is shining on Casa PG and this will be the only post (he thinks) today. Below, you’ll find … Read more
From Electric Lit: Sunrise Foods, just a few blocks from my house, is marked by a glossy freestanding sign, a cheery egg-yolk yellow against an often gray, wintering Toronto sky. Back in December, just before I turned 14, Tracey “with an e” recruited a bunch of us from the school lunch table to work here … Read more
From Women Writers, Women’s Books: ….It was 1995. France beckoned, and a home I had long forgotten was found again. It was the beginning of how I thought of bread as a character. And the beginning of writing Tales of the Mistress… “When I said I’d like to drive past the Eiffel Tower I didn’t mean through the belly of … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: When journalist Monica Potts came across research detailing a striking drop in life expectancy among the least-educated white Americans, she returned to her depressed rural hometown of Clinton, Ark., to investigate. She was especially interested in understanding the rise in midlife deaths among white women, but her focus promptly narrowed … Read more
From Now Novel: Read dialogue writing examples from diverse genres as we compare them to examples AI gave given the same scenario, for seven ultimate insights: How we chose the dialogue examples for this study We took the first seven books listed under the Kindle Unlimited ‘Featured’ section on Amazon for a cross-section of authors … Read more
Not necessarily about books and writing, but an interesting story about the credo of those who fight our wars. From The Wall Street Journal: In the spring of 1944, Second Lt. Thomas V. Kelly Jr.’s mother received a one-page letter at her home in Livermore, Calif., informing her that her son was killed in action. … Read more
From Jane Friedman: Years ago, I had a freelance article go viral, or at least modestly viral, racking up over 50,000 Facebook shares. I received my first-ever invitations to appear as a guest on podcasts and even NPR. I also received dozens of friendly and often deeply personal messages from readers, plus a handful of … Read more
From Kristine Kathryn Rusch: [Note on 5/5/23: As most of my regular readers know, I’m dyslexic. I have a first reader to catch errors, but this post–which was late–went live without the assistance of that first reader. As a result, I made two typical errors for me, which have been discussed in the comments. Normally, I leave my … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: When he was 28, Burkhard Bilger learned a jarring family secret: Shortly after World War II, his grandfather spent two years in jail while on trial as an accused Nazi war criminal. The revelation shocked Mr. Bilger. His parents, who moved to the U.S. from Germany in 1962, seldom spoke … Read more
From Publisher’s Weekly: Despite some slowdown, manga is still leading graphic novel sales in North America. But that success hasn’t necessarily trickled down to the professionals who help bring manga to market: translators, letterers, and editors, including many freelancers. After the last manga boom/bust cycle (roughly 2007-2008), which resulted in layoffs at many publishers, freelancer … Read more
From Kristine Kathryn Rusch: I suspect spring in Las Vegas will always have reminders for me. In those first dark days of the pandemic, when we were wiping off our groceries and viewing our neighbors with great suspicion, when we were wearing cloth masks that were makeshift at best, and running out of toilet paper … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: In the November 1923 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, Lucy Truman Aldrich published an account of an unusual experience she had in China earlier in the year. “For the rest of my life,” Aldrich began her tale, “when I am ‘stalled’ conversationally, it will be a wonderful thing to fall … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: In 1973, 10-year-old Jonathan Rosen and his family moved to New Rochelle, N.Y., a culturally sophisticated, intellectually vigorous middle-class suburb of New York City. It had been founded in 1688 by Huguenot refugees who fled France when Louis XIV declared Protestantism illegal. Jonathan’s father, Robert, was himself a European refugee. … Read more
From The Future of Publishing: Like just about everyone in the world who can read and write, and who likes to look at pretty pictures, I’ve been captivated by the developments in artificial intelligence, LLMs, DALL-E, GPT-3 (and -4) and ChatGPT. Tonight I was watching the wonderful Polish film, EO, mostly about a domestic donkey. There’s … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: Humanism was born in Renaissance Italy as an approach to reading Roman literature. It later turned into an Enlightenment philosophy for reorganizing society along rational lines, especially in France. No one called it “humanism” in English until the 19th century. Our humanism is a Euro-American ideology, and its keynotes are … Read more
From The Grammarly Blog: Writing clear and professional emails can improve how competent you appear in the eyes of your colleagues, clients, or managers. However, this means emails can often be a source of anxiety and insecurity, especially because you can’t clarify a mistaken word or sentiment, read the recipient’s reaction in real time, or … Read more
From The Road to AI We Can Trust Earlier this month, Microsoft released their revamped Bing search engine—complete with a powerful AI-driven chatbot—to an initially enthusiastic reception. Kevin Roose in The New York Times was so impressed that he reported being in “awe.” But Microsoft’s new product also turns out to have a dark side. … Read more
From The Nation: The United States can be a harsh place to be a child. There are guns galore and bullies in school. Suicide is on the rise, homelessness is rampant, and many school budgets have been scraped down to the bone. In New York City, almost one in five children are poor. One in … Read more
From Electric Lit: When I sat down to write Users five years ago, I had no intention of writing a particularly topical novel. At the time, a story about a lead creative working at a VR start-up who goes to war with his user-community, whose hasty solution ultimately leads to his downfall, felt like an … Read more
From Public Books: What happens when, a century after a genocide, the perpetrator returns to attack the victim? This is exactly what happened during the Second Karabakh War, when Azerbaijan attacked Armenia and Armenians in mountainous Karabakh in 2020. This is a unique event, with no parallels in history. It would be like if, in … Read more
From Publisher’s Weekly: I’m an editor by trade, and that’s where my talents lie. My superpower is my ability to polish any piece of writing until it shines, and I’ve been making a living off that gift for years now. But any editor will tell you that they’re also a writer at heart—and I’m no … Read more
From Helping Writers Become Authors: Making a return to writing after a long time away can feel overwhelming or even bewildering. Depending on the reasons for your break, you may be confronting a wide array of emotions—everything from anticipation and excitement to trepidation and confusion. If you find yourself worried or uncertain about how to … Read more
From The New Yorker: In 2011, Karen Levy, a doctoral candidate in Princeton’s sociology department, spent the summer as a research intern at Intel’s offices near Portland, Oregon. Her official remit was fuzzy and open-ended, but the company had at one point emphasized its resolve to fnd use cases for its chips in vehicles. Levy … Read more
From Electric Lit: I never thought I’d be one of those people,” she said. T Kira Madden and I were sitting in the private room of a fancy strip-mall restaurant in Albany, New York, and I was eating a very expensive salad. Earlier that afternoon, we had given a reading at a local bookstore with … Read more