Entries from May 2010
May. 31, 2010
“Matterhorn”
“Matterhorn” by Karl Marlantes is original, authentic, and heartfelt. The book of the moment, it is as good as advertised.
Tags: Karl Marlantes · Vietnam
May. 23, 2010
Bloggiversary
Yesterday was the first anniversary of this blog, which went up on May 22, 2009. As I’ve written here before, I doubt that the blog will generate significant book sales, which was why I started doing it, but I’ve come to enjoy blogging for its own sake and I’ve made a few new friends in [...]
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May. 21, 2010
Writing Like It’s 1999
Why I use a ten-year-old, slow, WiFi-free ThinkPad: it’s the perfect writer’s computer
Tags: computers · technology · ThinkPad · writing tools
May. 11, 2010
The Murder Gene
The Murder Gene may indeed be junk science, for now at least, but it is a haunting idea.
Tags: behavioral genetics · Defending Jacob · law · science
May. 10, 2010
The Mystery Writer’s Dilemma
“Hugger-mugger takes a lot of explaining, a lot of diagramming. An additional trouble with it, which keeps the suspense thriller, however skillful and polished, a subgenre, is that the novelist, manipulating his human counters on the board, must keep them somewhat blank, with selective disclosure of their inner lives, lest the killer or mole or [...]
Tags: John Updike · quotes for writers
May. 8, 2010
“I have lived alone in the woods”
The Boston Public Library in Copley Square, where I often go to write, is running an amazing year-long exhibition called “Cool + Collected: Treasures of the BPL” which highlights some of the rare holdings in the library’s collection. The contents of the exhibit rotate every few months, and the current crop is truly remarkable. It [...]
Tags: Boston Public Library · Henry David Thoreau · Walt Whitman
May. 6, 2010
A Male Jodi Picoult
Yesterday my novel-in-progress reached a critical milestone. My editor and I had a long talk in which we agreed that the story is now all in place. A new ending, which takes the story in a direction I never dreamed of when I began writing page 1, now seems right and credible, even inevitable — [...]
Tags: Defending Jacob
May. 5, 2010
New Money
Designer Michael Tyznik’s concept for a redesign of American currency (rejected, of course).
Tags: graphic design
