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Isle of Harris Choosing a book title is a time-consuming task for me. The fourth title I've auditioned for the new book is now laying in the road, run over twice. I've decided to try out a new technique—combine something from the novel with something everyone knows, the names of popular films. The book starts in Scotland (where else) in the year 1720. I appeal to my readership, help me sort the following down into the best of all: The Good, The Bad, and the Presbyterian Raide

Neist Point Lighthouse I first penned this ensconced in a creaking fifty-year-old chair in a pub in Dornoch, Scotland. My host was Keith, and I'd a half pint of McEwan's 80 Shilling in front of me. I had already been to the bog twice to drain off a previous pint. But that sidesteps the question: Why on God's earth was I in Scotland waiting out an opaque fog in September when I could be watching the sunburned English frolic in Majorca or be on a whale cruise out of Vancouver?

Posted Up On Amazon and titled Brilliant Noir -- Thank you, Dear Reader The Moth, a contemporary noir novel, by Scott Archer Jones, is an unvarnished portrait of a man trying to get by in the unvarnished but compelling world of East Los Angeles. Moth, the man, runs a pawn shop that purveys not only the cast-offs of the desperate, but also the tools of crime. Jones masterfully describes a life spent on the dangerous fringes of a world where no deed—good or bad—goes unpunished.

History Doesn’t Repeat, But Its Rhythms Tell Us Of Future Surprises The Elephant In The Room AI has arrived, a giant puncturing of the world. We’re all stirring around in its flood as we predict and use and fight its effects, the great cataclysmic rushing out of the waters of change. The dam has been broken and we are downstream. Much of what we say is based on our limited perceptions of change, and much of what we say is necessarily wrong since we are in the moment. For inst

Sorry we're late --- I've got a thousand word post on technology and change on the way, surely by Monday. Wait For It

Interviews with the Best Regional Indie Authors Want the background story on the award-winning The Moth? Listen to a July Radio interview on KSJE with DelSheree Gladden. The podcast is Write On Four Corners – A chance to talk about The Moth. Click to Listen --> KSJE

Need A Bridge? We’ll highlight two ways that the writer’s text can have a larger impact on the reader (or codeswitching into MFAtalk, to Show, to promote Feeling and Experience). John Gardner lists as a glaring writing failure “the needless filtering of the image through some observing consciousness. The amateur writes: ‘Turning, she noticed two snakes fighting in among the rocks.’ Compare: ‘She turned. In among the rocks two snakes were fighting . . .’ Generally speaking—tho

I found this list of clichés on the web years ago. Don’t use them as a writer (unless it’s in dialogue) and don’t stand for them as a reader. Heard That Before Add insult to injury All else being equal All things considered Along those lines Ample opportunity Armed to the teeth As a matter of fact At a loss for words At long last Awesome Be caught dead Benefit of the doubt Better late than never Bone of contention Break the bank By the same token Calling names Chop up the sma

Let us search the recent winning titles of the Booker, the Pulitzer, and the New York Times Bestsellers (ranked by time on the list) on for those that utilize THINGS.

Culture Name or Reference or Activity What Can We Say? It’s The Culture "Music is the emotional life of most people." — Leonard Cohen Let us search the recent winning titles of the Booker, the Pulitzer, and the New York Times Bestsellers (ranked by time on the list) on for those that start with some mirror of the culture (think MUSIC and WRITING). This is a less-represented category, but as you’ll see has some strong candidates. A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, Daniel

Attribution — Who’s Talking? Having been boiled in John Gardners’ books The Art of Fiction and On Becoming a Novelist, I’m fully in on attribution being subtle and near-invisible to the reader. Consider: He said, “I am outraged.” versus He cried in a strident far-reaching shriek, “I am outraged.” A lot easier to go purple-prose with bad attribution. A lot easier to clutter the page with semaphores to instruct the reader how to interpret the tone and delivery of the dialogue.

Organization or Event Event? Organization? Grounding a Book "At the back of my mind I had a sense of us sitting about waiting for some terrible event, and then I would remember that it had already happened." Ian McEwan Let us search the recent winning titles of the Booker, the Pulitzer, and the New York Times Bestsellers (ranked by time on the list) on for those that start with Organization or Event. This is a less-represented category, but as you’ll see has some strong candi

So far my picaresque crime novel has racked up: 2025 Faulkner - Wisdom Finalist 2025 CIPA EVVY Bronze (3) for Literature and General Fiction 2025 NM Book Awards — Finalist in Adventure or Drama, 2025 NM Book Awards Cover Design 2025 NM Book Awards — Winner in Fiction — Crime 2025 Shelf Unbound Indie Best Awards — Longlisted 2026 National Indie Excellence Book Awards — Finalist

Place Place: Have You Been There? "The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location." Flannery O’Conner Let us search the recent winning titles of the Booker, the Pulitzer, and the New York Times Bestsellers (ranketime on the list) on for those that start with Place. A particularly rich list — contemporary writers are still obsessed with Place. Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders Elmet, Fiona M

Obscure Titles Tricky Titles And Obscurity What utilitarian role does a book title provide? I would contend there are four that I look for in my own titles: 1. Grab the Reader—choose more like Demon Copperhead than I Was A St. Louis Steampunk Zombie. 2. Portend the Major Theme—if your book is about spies, then choose by global conflict and not by thing (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy rather than Peanuts and Eggcups). 3. Deliver the Book’s Aesthetic—if you’re writing a book abou

The Title Starts The Journey Let’s make an experiment that could lead you to choosing an excellent title for your own novel. Prize winning book titles can be all over the map (or the language, as it were). There are certainly times when we are beset by a formula. Take one of my least favorite—books titled [Profession]’s [Relative], e.g. The Bookie’s Illegitimate Nephew. Yes, I made that one up. Here’s a list starting in 2005, an 11 year sample. There are some great writers on

A larger-than-life character and a moment of cowardice When you buy a book, do you use the Amazon book description (full of soft ambiguous words), or the jacket copy (a torrid one hundred words), or a friend’s recommendation, or the New Yorker 3,000 word review? Consider the first lines instead. Pay attention and perhaps your own first lines will become the immediate link to your best reader. Grab the Character If you are writing a book about A person, the best decision may b

How Droll Is That? Shopping for a new book? The author will have put her most work into the first lines and the last. Pay attention, and perhaps you’ll buy the book you want. Pay attention and perhaps your own first lines will become the immediate link to your best reader. Don't follow (a Writer's Digest) Formula. This Isn’t Kansas Anymore Let the reader think they are in the regular universe, and then throw in a shock so that they are disoriented and asking, Where the hell

Consider the First Lines This is not one of those formulaic pieces of advice where you are exhorted to include two or four or five key elements in your first sentence in order to have a winning start to your book. Writers Digest tells you to use direction, (no static) characterization, distinctive voice, and basic plot (conflict), but then, they are into pat answers. Instead, there is a list of examples that could be used as deep reads—how did the author do that? First lines