Archive - small thoughts

all twist no spoiler (three on a theme)

books with great twists

Apr 12

March 2024

there is always a cost (three on a theme)

Three is small enough to be unabashedly specific, and when I can find three things that belong in a list together, I get a very bookish frisson of…

Mar 20

recent reads, feb 2024

February’s reading proceeded in fits and starts — a dash through the first few books in the Vorkosigan Saga and then a sputtering of books DNF’d at 40…

Mar 11

February 2024

How To Change Your Life In 30 Days

There was an article in the New York Times this week about something called “75 Hard” — a workout and lifestyle challenge set over a rigid two and a…

Feb 19

recent reads, jan 2024

I love talking about books: with patrons at the library, with friends, with family — I want to hear about what you’ve been reading, want to tell you…

Feb 12

July 2023

"I cannot say how men come to know the names of the angels...I can only tell you how the names came to me..."

New publication!

Jul 1, 2023

March 2023

13 thoughts on Literary vs. "Genre" writing

My eyebrows automatically raise when I hear anyone say “Literary vs Genre fiction.” A “genre” is a box we put a story into, based on the story’s plot…

Mar 27, 2023

September 2022

on building the body of your craft

I tried to integrate everything I read or heard into a Grand Unified Understanding of Craft — but, as I slogged through drafts, I found there is no…

Sep 17, 2022

June 2022

small thoughts on interiority

mostly other people's collected thoughts

Jun 20, 2022

December 2021

small thoughts on flash fiction

Dear Friends, When I first dreamed up this newsletter in late summer, I had grand ambitions: I would read a novel just for this newsletter every month …

Dec 4, 2021

August 2021

the spaces in between, 1/x

thoughts on narrative structure ("Meander, Spiral, Explode" and "Cannery Row")

Aug 19, 2021

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Aug 12, 2021

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