by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Aug 29, 2009 | shapes, stories |
In Mary Gaitskill’s story collection, Don’t Cry, is a story entitled, “Mirror Ball.” It’s one of my four favorites in the collection and is described on the book jacket as an “urban fairy tale” in which “a young man...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Aug 25, 2009 | details, memory, reading |
The Music Room by Dennis McFarland was published in 1990. I read it the first time in 1991, and then again at the beginning of August–eighteen years later. I enjoyed it just as much. Here, McFarland could be describing his own writing, instead of a feeling:...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Aug 21, 2009 | details |
Okay, here’s the thing. I got carried away in my post about the detail hunt. When I started writing it, I just wanted to write about how hard it was to catch details and maybe generate a discussion about where all the good ones were hiding and how other people...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Aug 17, 2009 | craft of writing, details, Pam Houston |
The more I think about Pam Houston’s writing advice (via Henry James), that a writer ought to strive to be “someone on whom nothing is lost,” the more I want to be aware of what is going on around me. A couple of weeks ago, in the interest of...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Aug 11, 2009 | accumulation, life |
If your life includes reading, writing, and books, then it’s likely filled with piles of books and papers and other things you’ve cut out or printed for ideas and then there are all the little notes for inspiration and the notes of daily reminders and the...
