The world was new and life was simple then. The year, I think, was 1999. Facebook hadn’t yet been founded. The iPhone was a far-off gleam in Apple’s eye. People … Read More
Does anyone out there remember the 1941 Preston Sturges classic, Sullivan’s Travels? The protagonist of that wonderful film is a highly successful director of unabashedly escapist Hollywood comedies who wakes … Read More
Some books—the writing of them, I mean—just seem to start themselves. A first sentence pops into your head. You hear a scrap of dialogue—either out in the world or between … Read More
Some writers seem to know what they’re doing when they start a novel. Some—or so I’ve been told—even have a complete outline or a stack of index cards with planned … Read More
It’s a question that all novelists dread, generally because they don’t know the answer, and it’s a little embarrassing to be utterly baffled by a perfectly legitimate question regarding one’s … Read More
Consider this an invitation to a very quiet, long-distance sort of party. I’m inviting you to celebrate with me the completion of a project that’s been obsessing me for the … Read More
Writing novels is not the easiest thing in the world but it does offer definite rewards—for example, being read, hearing from readers, and getting paid. Those are the obvious satisfactions, … Read More
Like most writers, I think, I tend largely to forget about my own books once I’ve written them. This is fortunate, because if I kept my old stuff too firmly … Read More
Like many and probably most people who’ve muddled through to careers as novelists, I dipped a toe into fiction writing by way of the short story. In my twenties I … Read More
Call me a sap—I like happy endings. I don’t mean the sort of lazy, sloppy, unearned happy endings that one often sees in bad films and romance novels, as for … Read More