Category Archives: writing
The Road to the Overlook
Writing about writing is usually boring except to writers, and when writers read writing about writing it’s often because they’re procrastinating or blocked or otherwise not writing. In this blog post I’m writing about writing, but I’m going to dress … Continue reading
Books Afoot
So last May, totally out of the blue, I get an email. I’m writing to ask if you might be interested and able to meet with a group of readers who will have read your novel, The Mud of the … Continue reading
Our Challenge
When the Obamas vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, they don’t stay as long as the Clintons did. This is good, not because I begrudge the president a long vacation but because it gives the press corps less down time to run … Continue reading
Pen Not for Hire
I write to make sense of the world. I generally don’t write for money. If someone wants to pay me for what I’ve written, hey, fine, no problem, but I don’t write for hire. There are a couple of reasons … Continue reading
Drumming in the Rain
The second of the three jobs that have kept me crazy-busy since Memorial Day has gone home (on time!). Finally I’m getting back to Squatters’ Speakeasy. What little writing I managed to do in June was mostly tweaking and revising. … Continue reading
That Capital “I”
When I first went to work at the Martha’s Vineyard Times, around 1988, I quickly learned to capitalize the I in “island” when it referred to Martha’s Vineyard. Martha’s Vineyard was “the Island.” Nantucket, Naushon, or Manhattan were just “the … Continue reading
Plot
Plotting fiction is like making rock candy. Left to itself, boiled sugar water just sits there. Nothing happens. Well, yes, things happen, but they take so long that it’s a rare soul who’ll just sit there and watch. Not the … Continue reading
Benefit Art Show
After reading The Mud of the Place a friend told me, “I’ve never met any of these people, but I feel like I could run into any of them in the grocery store.” Maybe my favorite compliment ever, not least … Continue reading
Tripod in the Backseat
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned as a fiction writer came from a theater director. “Make interesting choices,” he said. What’s an interesting choice? One that opens up possibilities. Watch a good improvisational theater troupe at work. Its … Continue reading
Drummer
More about the weirdness of writing: In Squatters’ Speakeasy young Mark Churchill has a band, and of course the band has a drummer. Drummers usually sit back in the shadows with their drum sets so until a few months ago … Continue reading
From the Seasonally Occupied Territories . . . 