by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Aug 17, 2011 | craft of writing, details, novels |
In Await Your Reply, published in 2009, Dan Chaon uses repetition in a very cool way. Instead of bogging down the original scene, he pushes the action forward first, then a bit later, moves in for a close-up or two, adding additional details. For example, on page 246,...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Aug 16, 2011 | accumulation, craft of writing, novels, stories, time |
In the surprisingly interesting Reader’s Guide at the back of Dan Chaon’s Await Your Reply, Chaon writes: As a writer, I feel like I’m always in conversation with the books that I’ve read. Yiyun Li, the author of The Vagrants, feels the same...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Aug 15, 2011 | craft of writing, details, novels |
From the first page of Dan Chaon’s novel: On the seat beside him, in between him and his father, Ryan’s severed hand is resting on a bed of ice in an eight-quart Styrofoam cooler. Enough said? Dan Chaon’s second novel and fourth book, Await Your...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Aug 8, 2011 | life, reading, shapes, the day, time |
I adore this portrait of May Sarton. I used it in a blog post on August 8, 2009. I also used some of the same quotes, but I had a very different reaction to them two years ago. There is nothing to be done but go ahead with life moment by moment and hour by...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Aug 1, 2011 | How We Spend Our Days |
Annie Dillard wrote, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” On the first of each month, Catching Days hosts a guest writer in the series, “How We Spend Our Days.” Today, please welcome writer Heather Newton: x I leave my husband and...
