Author: Shannon Turlington
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Self-publishing’s quality problem…
When I pick up a book in a bookstore — which, more than likely, is a book issued by a publishing company, also known as a “traditionally published” book — I can usually assume that book will meet my baseline for quality*. In other words, it may not be a good story, the writing may…
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Exploding More Writing Myths « terribleminds: chuck wendig
Another great piece by Chuck Wendig myth-busting the writerly myths: Crotch-Punching The Creative Yeti: Exploding More Writing Myths « terribleminds: chuck wendig. My favorite myth is, of course, that you don’t have to know the rules. Writers who know the rules and break them purposefully are awesome. Writers who don’t bother to learn the rules…
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Recommended Reading: Geek Love
I was saddened to hear of the death of Katherine Dunn. I only recently read her “underground” novel, Geek Love. While it may not be what is conventionally considered horror, it is still a horrifying book–in only the best way. In Geek Love, the owner of a struggling carnival and his wife decide to “create”…
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Writing advice from Ursula K. Le Guin
The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination as a collection is something of a hodgepodge, but there are many valuable nuggets to be mined, so it’s a worthwhile book for any aspiring writer to consult from time to time. The personal essays in the first section, “Personal Matters,” are…
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The bleak futures of Octavia Butler…
I have put together a retrospective of Octavia Butler’s forward-looking science fiction and added my thoughts about Butler’s vision of the future of humanity.
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Recommended Reading: A Head Full of Ghosts
Finally, I have a new book to recommend, and it’s a really good one: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay. When she was eight years old, Merry’s big sister Marjorie developed severe schizophrenia–or perhaps, as their dad came to believe, she was possessed by a demon. Desperate for both money and a cure, Marjorie’s parents agreed…
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My North Carolina State of Mind – The New York Times
Here is a beautiful eulogy by author Allan Gurganis memorializing Nancy Olson, the owner of local independent bookstore Quail Ridge Books, and reflecting on the recently passed controversial law that, among other things, eliminates protection from discrimination for members of the LGBT community state-wide. This moving piece reminds me why I keep loving my home state and…
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Reading Journal: Beginning of April
It’s been over a month since I’ve posted a reading journal update. Most of my reading has lately not-so-inspiring–although I did enjoy reading Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor so much that I wrote a rather long response to it. Another post-apocalyptic book I enjoyed was Far North by Marcel Theroux. It is set in post-climate change Siberia and…
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Literary elephantiasis…
Recently, I attended a panel discussion of local writers on something entirely unrelated when one of them said something that confirmed a suspicion I already had. He said that an editor had actually asked him to shove 10,000 more words into his manuscript. Apparently, long books look more substantial on bookstore shelves, so I guess it…
Shannon Turlington 