Hello, I am currently under threat of hurricane, and electrical power/internet access could be cut at any moment, so I will be brief: I recently attempted to write a short story in the form of the narrating character’s first-person blog. It was difficult, to say the least, largely because the narrator was a low-key software engineer approaching 30 and living in Maryland with his wife and child. The main difficulty came from the fact that this character was in no way realistically allowed to be verbose. He could have some wisdom, and make insightful observations … Continue reading Why Is Every “I” Also a Genius? →

In August, Charlottesville author Jane Barnes published her third book, Falling in Love with Joseph Smith: My Search for the Real Prophet. She has written for films and publication and has two novels: I, Krupskaya, and Double Lives. Falling in Love with Joseph Smith is her first full length work of non-fiction. She describes the book as a spiritual memoir wrapped around a biography of Joseph Smith. Though the book has landed fortuitously in the middle of the “Mormon moment,” it has nothing to do with either Mitt Romney’s campaign or the Book of Mormon, the long-running Broadway musical. Her passions … Continue reading Channeling Jane Barnes →

Just about the worst thing a book jacket designer can do is, in my opinion, depict any of the characters on the cover. It seems almost a cruel thing to do, like he’s stealing imaginative power from the reader before the reader even gets to open the book. Story writing, by its nature, engages the imagination, but the imagination loves shortcuts, and any cover-art with a character in it is like a pizza delivery guy showing up when the author has spent hours cooking up a gourmet meal of prose. (Now, if you’ll please forgive that … Continue reading A Cover of Contempt →