Writing Advice from a Master: “There’s Only One Question and One Answer.”
Monday, May 20th, 2013 Posted in Interviews & Appreciations, Readings, the writing process | No Comments »I have an uncomplicated relationship with the books of Stephen King. For the longest time, I ignored 'em. The problem was two-fold: 1) for whatever reason, I didn't get around to them in high school, which was too bad, because of what happened ...
Living with Tragedy
Wednesday, April 17th, 2013 Posted in Before You Go, Interviews & Appreciations | 1 Comment »For the paperback publication of my young adult novel, BEFORE YOU GO, I was asked to answer a few interview questions for the back matter. I didn't really intend to share this here, but given recent events, and the fact I ...
A Murder of Crows, Etc.
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013 Posted in Family, Interviews & Appreciations, Scary Tales | 2 Comments »In Book #3 of my SCARY STORIES Series -- launching this summer, so don't make any plans -- and I mean that, no plans whatsoever -- I featured a whole mess of crows in the story. You know, when it ...
On Lois Lowry and the Perils of The New York Times Comments Section
Monday, October 15th, 2012 Posted in Around the Web, Interviews & Appreciations | 1 Comment »There was a nice piece on Lois Lowry, written by Dan Kois, in the October 3 edition of The New York Times. It's worth reading. I'm not a fanboy by nature, but with Lois Lowry I make an exception. I ...
Why a Character Talks about Kurt Vonnegut in BEFORE YOU GO
Monday, September 24th, 2012 Posted in Before You Go, Interviews & Appreciations | No Comments »For starters: I've always done it. Always? Yes, in fact, always. It's a tradition that started when I was six months old and referenced Go, Dog. Go! during a Skype with Granny. I continued to do it with my Jigsaw Jones ...
It’s Like Riding a Bike
Monday, September 3rd, 2012 Posted in Around the Web, Interviews & Appreciations, Readings | No Comments »I basically took the summer off from blogging, so feel a little wobbly about it, my palms sweating on the handlebars, not sure I remember how to do this. I don't know what happened, exactly, just somehow tired of the ...
Ray Bradbury: A Stopped Watch, A Loss, An End, A Darkness
Wednesday, June 6th, 2012 Posted in Current Events, Interviews & Appreciations | No Comments »“Death doesn't exist. It never did, it never will. But we've drawn so many pictures of it, so many years, trying to pin it down, comprehend it, we've got to thinking of it as an entity, strangely alive and greedy. All ...
Celebrating 4 Years of Bloggy Goodness: An Appreciation of Bernard Waber
Friday, May 4th, 2012 Posted in Greatest Hits, Interviews & Appreciations | No Comments »I originally posted this in October, 2008. It's nice to come across old writing and think, okay, not terrible. I still agree with myself. ---- "When I am writing, I think of myself as a writer. But when I am illustrating, I ...
GUEST BLOGGER: Lewis Buzbee Interviews James Preller About His Upcoming YA Novel, “Before You Go”
Monday, March 26th, 2012 Posted in Before You Go, Interviews & Appreciations, the writing process | 3 Comments »Greetings, I'm Lewis Buzbee, guest-blogger for the day. Guest blogger: Lewis Buzbee. It's true, I've hi-jacked James Preller's blog to bring you a very cool conversation with Mr. Preller (he makes me call him that) about his newest book, Before You Go ...
Advice for Young Writers
Friday, February 17th, 2012 Posted in Interviews & Appreciations, the writing process | No Comments »"All the work necessary to learn how to write boils down to reading and writing." -- Scott Raab I've been paying my bills with writing since the mid 80's. I went freelance in 1990 and, at this point, have pretty much ...