David Quammen’s new book Spillover, on emergent diseases; or more specifically, on emergent zoonoses, came out a few months ago to a series of middling good but somehow lukewarm reviews. I vehemently disagree, but it takes a bit of unfolding. Why do some readers find such a book fascinating while others find it dull? First: …
Tag: Writing
Quotes on Boooks and Writing
From Larry McMurtry: “The reader might well ask why this account of the expanding and contracting of my various libraries matters at all. “I could give several answers to the question but the simplest one is that you write what you’ve read, to a large degree– and, just as importantly, you write what you will …
Les Line
The material below got me thinking about the late great Les Line, who edited Audubon mag from 1966 to 1991. I reminisced to a younger friend: “Les Line: only genuine mag editor genius I ever knew- never met Pat Ryan– light when he weighed 250 pounds, walrus mustache, long hair, turquoise on a bolo tie– …
Hemingway, Faulkner, and longer sentences
Reid’s post below absolutely delighted me, because it showed me once again how my good friend and I share certain tastes and beliefs even when we don’t know it. If you haven’t read his post below read and come back… All set? Next month Lyons publishes my A Sportsman’s Library: 100 Essential, Engaging, Offbeat, and …
Place, Water, and Writing…
I was thinking about the proposed water grab on the Plains of San Augustin and thinking about writing as I put some notes together for Lauren, when I read this post by Chad Love on the Sand Hills and a little connection sparked across my synapses. I remembered how I used to use a passage …
Publicity!
And an even more thoughtful one from Tom Davis here.
True Writing Quote
From Walter Hingley: “Delay is natural to a writer. He is like a surfer—he bides his time, waits for the perfect wave on which to ride in. Delay is instinctive with him. He waits for the surge (of emotion? of strength? of courage?) that will carry him along. I have no warm-up exercises, other than …
Some lines…
From a short story by Phil Grayson, sometime Q contributor and local descendant, soon to be published in the literary magazine Aloud (links to come)… “If you walk west from Avenue B late at night, you have to swim, but eventually you can get to the desert. Tack a bit south. “The smoke comes up …
Three Thousand Posts!
Scribble, Scribble… Sometimes I feel like it too. Ages of a writer… (recent suggestions added since yesterday) Pre- Malaria: fat in Zim Writers with first books MANY years later
Quote
“Thus my advice to the aspiring fiction writer: don’t be tempted by that graveyard of literary talent, creative writing courses. Take a sharp turn and study history instead.” – Caleb Carr, WSJ Weekend