by Cynthia Newberry Martin | May 15, 2012 | craft of writing, reading |
I am reading, reading, reading. Finished a book last night and, with no had-to-reads awaiting, I chose four, thick paperbacks (all given to me by friends) from my to-be-read stack. Two I discarded easily based on subject matter–generally not interested in novels...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Mar 20, 2012 | craft of writing, novels, truth |
Margaret Atwood The Handmaid’s Tale Anchor paperback 1998 (1st pub 1985) On moving in and out of the present action: Frowning, she tears out three tokens and hands them to me. [13 paragraphs of backstory and interior monologue] I take the tokens from...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 22, 2012 | craft of writing, details, novels |
Really? you might be thinking. More on The Forgotten Waltz? Yes, there’s more. Consider the following: …there was no doubt that we felt easier about the world, for the fact that our father was no longer in it. We loved him, of course, but we both knew that...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 18, 2012 | craft of writing, novels |
Anne Enright The Forgotten Waltz Norton hardback 2011 On chronology: Still, I can’t be too bothered here, with chronology. The idea that if you tell it, one thing after another, then everything will make sense. (55) On how to write it so you see it: Aileen set...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 17, 2012 | craft of writing, journeys, novels |
If you were to ask me to recommend a novel written in the first person, I would say Anne Enright’s The Gathering. I’ve read it twice and I’m thinking about reading it again. But I just finished her most recent novel, The Forgotten Waltz, and although...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 31, 2012 | craft of writing, essays, Pam Houston, truth |
New essay by Pam Houston–now up at Hunger Mountain. Here’s the first paragraph: When I was four years old my father lost his job. We were living in Trenton, New Jersey at the time, where he had lived most of his life. With no college education, he had...
