Dear Kitchen Table Writers, Below is a list of summer reading I plan to do — and I recommend for you. I’ve dipped into each of these and am eager to find a hammock somewhere and read for hours on end. Share your reading list in the comments! Summer Reading List Let Me Out Here, […]
Fiction Writing
A Field, A Quilt, A Novel
In his seminal novel Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe gave us an extraordinary place. In writing my new novel, INDIGO FIELD, I was inspired in part by Wolfe’s lush and vivid prose descriptions of extraordinary North Carolina places. To me, Indigo Field is a place so full of layers of history and mystery, plants and […]
Hemingway in Pittsboro
I used to think that as a writer I had to hole up in my little room and write and write, and never come out until I was done. But it dawned on me that unlike in journalism, with creative work nobody really cared if I ever finished something. That gets a little weird after […]
Michael Jarmer’s Monster Talk
Just read Michael Jarmer’s novel Monster Talk and tweeted about it. It’s extraordinary. Why isn’t it a best seller? Everyone read this book! about love, childhood, the monster within, and Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. A young child, Victor, lives in Arizona, grows up with the family story that he is descended from ‘the monster’– the boy […]
Blog Hopping
Thanks to Peggy Payne for inviting me to her blog hop! Peggy is one of my favorite fiction writers–for her love of character, her illuminating images, her deep and surprising encounters with the holy. Her new novel, released on Good Friday, is Cobalt Blue, and you can read about her book at http://www.peggypayne.com/blog/?p=2384 1. What is […]
Ucross and Open Spaces
One of the great gifts of the writing life is the chance to be with other writers and artists in cross-genre communities. One of the ways to do that is through a residency. When a residency comes as a gift, and it includes the wide-open spaces of Wyoming, moonrise, prairie dogs, and antelope–what could be […]
Pen/Hemingway Recognition
Every writer has a dream award, the one that she knows would change life forever. Pen/Hemingway, an award for first fiction book, has always been one of those for me. It’s the kind of award that you can get only when you are starting out. Only first-time fiction writers are eligible. It’s a fairy tale […]
Accidental Birds garners SIBA Nomination!
This has been an amazing year for me, and one of the reasons is independent bookstores. Their support for my fiction debut — Accidental Birds of the Carolinas — has been nothing short of heartwarming! Bookstores in the Southeast have made it a staff pick, written nifty little reviews on small paper tags, and placed […]