Not long ago, I received an email from a writer whose book I’d rated as 3 stars on Amazon. She complained that my ranking was too low and countered with the opinion of someone I did not know but whose reputation she considered to be greater than mine. He said her novel was a mas
The evening I met with the actors who would read my play, I was nervous, as if I were auditioning for a part. The drama requires 5 actors — 2 men and 3 women – so, with the director and me, 7 of us gathered round a table to get acquainted. I’d eaten earlier but the o
The war over the price of eBooks between Amazon and the large publishing house, Hachette, still rages. Hanchette wants more money for its books. Amazon wants to charge the public less. Recently, a petition signed by nearly 900 of Hanchette’s most prominent authors appeared in
Recently, a Facebook friend shared a quote attributed to — but not proven to be — by Mark Twain: “Censorship is telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.” I wrote back that I could make neither heads nor tails of this
Several years ago, I read a medical expert’s analysis of James Joyce’s Ulysses. He concluded that the book exhibited not genius but the workings of a diseased mind. If the doctor’s theory had been treated seriously, a number of literary critics and scholars who claim to
Recently, I deplored the way Twitter symbols had infiltrated our language. (Blog 8/26/14) But I was an innocent. I’d no idea how emojis, those little symbols used to clarify an electronic messages, had exploded into a complete language seen not only on social networks but
While I cling to my hope of finding a big agent for my 4th novel, I know the trend is against me. Self-publishing is becoming so acceptable, that big publishers are getting into the business. Even the New York Times Bestseller list includes self-published authors, something that w
I’ve just finished an article in Harper’s about life coaches. Though largely unschooled and uncredentialed, these people make a living as cheerleaders for those who can afford to pay. Their role is to tell strangers how to live their lives. Nice work if you can get it. (“50,
I knew the director I was about to meet hadn’t been born when I first sat down to write my play. Young enough to be my granddaughter, the giddy days of the struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment was a footnote in her history book. That baby boomers were once flower children mig
A few days after I published my blog, The Intentional Fallacy, (blog 8/8/14), a friend sent me a page from the Sunday edition of the New York Times Book Review. (July 29, pg. 31.) It contained two articles, one by Thomas Mallon and the other by Adam Kirsch, each taking different vie