Monday, September 2, 2024

Walter Mosley Mystery Novel Devil In A Blue Dress

 Many thanks to Triangle Sisters in Crime, guest speaker Jaden Terrell for mentioning this first novel by Walter Mosley. A master class in good writing. Great irony. Great vignette. In Chapter 1, the metaphor "a Black man with ten children and one on the way" becomes a vignette toward the novel's end. Great fix for the sagging middle. Great, economic style that is the small letter "c" continuity of thought that presages the mouse and Mouse of the novel. Evocative word choice in Chapter 4: bankbook. How long has it been since you've seen that term? Well done.

Mosley writes a first person narrative from an unflinching culturally accurate ethnic perspective. For several years, I had on a book shelf former president Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father and his highly praised account of his early years, another unflinching culturally accurate ethnic perspective. My drafts are much improved for reading these two great authors one after the other. What I really want to say: I first heard his name on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, NC. What Teevee and mass media presented to me was how Caucasian he comes across on a Teevee screen and in mass media. Dreams adds the puzzle pieces of Black family and Black culture, and after reading I can see why racist, bigoted folk get their teeth set on edge. Effective writing: he saves the chronological story of his grandfather and father until the last chapter; the final paragraphs are a tour de force. 

I'm looking forward to reading The Audacity of Hope.


Sunday, April 14, 2024

Effective Opening Paragraphs from Novels

 From the incomparable English writer Mary Stewart, who passed away in 2014, the opening of The Moonspinners, available where you buy your novels or ebooks. 



Friday, April 12, 2024

Short Story Coaching, Advice, Guidelines

 From The Writer's Digest Handbook of Short Story Writing: Preface by Joyce Carol Oates. "How will [my students] know they are writing their true subjects? By the ease with which they write. By their reluctance to stop writing. By the headachy, even guilty, joyous sensation of having done something that must be done, having confessed emotions thought of as unconfessable, having said what had seemed should remain unsaid."

Saturday, October 15, 2022

Book Launch and Signing Rock Roll and Ruin

 Lucky #7 to read in order of the Table of Contents. One mesmerized person listening on the front row. One mesmerized person listening on the back row. Rapt, unwavering attention equals storytelling success. One person came up to me after and said my story setting was the favorite. Great reward after wrestling with story setting. Another person mentioned looking up "girdling of trees" to understand the crime. We read from the podium wrapped in crime scene tape! We entered and exited to music: my was "Someday" with vocals accompanied by banjos. Afterwards, I signed several copies of my story.

My spa day: no cucumber pads, heated stones, or deep hot water, just a deep dive into creativity. SRO: We had guests from out of state on a Saturday of football and the NC State Fair.

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Amazon Has Rock Roll and Ruin

 The Triangle Sisters in Crime Anthology available for Kindle and in paperback. Excellent short stories, including mine, "Duet." 


https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Roll-Ruin-Triangle-Anthology-ebook/dp/B0BB3DV6N5/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Rock%2C+Roll+and+Ruin&qid=1664893868&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjAwIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sr=8-1