"[I] read books because I love them, not because I think I should read them." – Simon Van Booy While on a recent bargain table binge at a local bookstore, a certain cover jumped out at me: shades of blue, the Eiffel Tower, the name Christopher Moore. I’m a fan of Moore’s Lamb, so I grabbed one of the multiple copies of his Sacre Bleu that lined the table. The fact that Vincent Van Gogh factored into the plot of…
A book is a gift you can open again and again – Garrison Keillor Today I read the sad news that screenwriter Syd Field died over the weekend. I learned the techniques of writing for the screen from some of Field’s books while in college and have carried the skills into future projects, including novel writing. It got me thinking about the various books throughout my life that have taught me and inspired me. The books that encouraged my love of…
“New York is a writer’s city.” – Blanche Devereaux, The Golden Girls Several months ago, I wrote a post called How I Got My Agent, which told the tale of my becoming a client of Stephen Fraser at the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency way back in August of last year. Funny thing about having an agent: unless you live in the same geographic location or cross paths at a writing conference, there’s a chance you’ll never meet him or…
“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” – Albert Einstein At the end of my last post, where I told you the story of how I became a client of Stephen Fraser at JDLA, I eluded to something else special that happened the same day. To fully appreciate it, we must first visit my writing roots and the sources of inspiration that propelled me into pursuing it as a career. My…
In August 2012, I signed with the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency in New York. Once people hear such news about a writer, which they often do because that writer is going on and on about it to anyone who’ll listen, they generally want to know how it happened, especially if they too are an aspiring writer. In fact, that very question is the frequent subject of Chuck Sambuchino’s “Guide to Literary Agents” blog from Writer’s Digest. Today, I thought I’d…