David Abrams's Blog, page 107

The Christmas I Realized I'd Become My Father

Novelist Brenda Bevan Remmes shares a Christmas memory with Quivering Pen readers today.  Brenda is the author of The Quaker Cafe and a contributor to the new anthology Serving Up Memory , from which this essay is reprinted with her permission.  Serving Up Memory is a collection of stories, recipes, and poetry by members of the Camden Writers group in South Carolina.


My father loved Christmas more than any person I know.  He told us when he was a boy growing up in a strict Metho...

Trailer Park Tuesday: Gray Mountain by John Grisham

Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesday, a showcase of new book trailers and, in a few cases, previews of book-related movies.



Like him, love him, loathe him or leave him, one thing's for certain: John Grisham's new novel, Gray Mountain , has a tense, breathless trailer.  A woman runs through the woods.  A phone rings...and rings...and rings, then clicks over to voicemail.  We hear a frantic message: "Pick up!  C'mon, pick up the phone!"  In short order, we learn a body has bee...

My First Time: Valerie Joan Connors

My First Time is a regular feature in which writers talk about virgin experiences in their writing and publishing careers, ranging from their first rejection to the moment of holding their first published book in their hands.  Today’s guest is Valerie Joan Connors, the author of the novels  Shadow of a Smile , In Her Keeping and Give Me Liberty .  She is the current President of the Atlanta Writers Club, an organization with more than 600 active members and a 100-year history in t...

Sunday Sentence: "The Mistletoe Bough" by Anthony Trollope

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.


She had shipwrecked her own happiness in rejecting Godfrey Holmes, but it seemed to her to be the proper thing that a well-behaved young lady should shipwreck her own happiness.  In the last month or two she had been tossed about by the waters and was nearly drowned.  Now there was beautiful land again close to her, and a strong, pleasant hand stretched out to save her; but, th...

Friday Freebie: When the Cypress Whispers by Yvette Manessis Corporon, The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, Fosse by Sam Wasson, The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta, Selections from Melville House's Art of the Novella series, Hit

Congratulations to Amy Morgan, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: Pickett’s Charge by Charles McNair, Sometimes the Wolf by Urban Waite, Three Bargains by Tania Malik, The Family Hightower by Brian Francis Slattery, and Big Little Ma n by Alex Tizon.

This week's "book contest" is a little something different, designed to assist you in your holiday gift-giving quandary (if, in fact, you find yourself in a quandary).  This giveaway has a little something for just about every reader on yo...

Friday Freebie: When the Cypress Whispers by Yvette Manessis Corporon, The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, Fosse by Sam Wasson, The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta, Selections from Melville House's Art of the Novella series, Hit

Congratulations to Amy Morgan, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: Pickett’s Charge by Charles McNair, Sometimes the Wolf by Urban Waite, Three Bargains by Tania Malik, The Family Hightower by Brian Francis Slattery, and Big Little Ma n by Alex Tizon.

This week's "book contest" is a little something different, designed to assist you in your holiday gift-giving quandary (if, in fact, you find yourself in a quandary).  This giveaway has a little something for just about every reader on yo...

Friday Freebie: When the Cypress Whispers by Yvette Manessis Corporon, The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, Fosse by Sam Wasson, The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta, Selections from Melville House's Art of the Novella series, Hit

Congratulations to Amy Morgan, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: Pickett’s Charge by Charles McNair, Sometimes the Wolf by Urban Waite, Three Bargains by Tania Malik, The Family Hightower by Brian Francis Slattery, and Big Little Ma n by Alex Tizon.

This week's "book contest" is a little something different, designed to assist you in your holiday gift-giving quandary (if, in fact, you find yourself in a quandary).  This giveaway has a little something for just about every reader on yo...

Friday Freebie: When the Cypress Whispers by Yvette Manessis Corporon, The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, Fosse by Sam Wasson, The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta, Selections from Melville House's Art of the Novella series, Hit

Congratulations to Amy Morgan, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: Pickett’s Charge by Charles McNair, Sometimes the Wolf by Urban Waite, Three Bargains by Tania Malik, The Family Hightower by Brian Francis Slattery, and Big Little Ma n by Alex Tizon.

This week's "book contest" is a little something different, designed to assist you in your holiday gift-giving quandary (if, in fact, you find yourself in a quandary).  This giveaway has a little something for just about every reader on yo...

Friday Freebie: When the Cypress Whispers by Yvette Manessis Corporon, The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, Fosse by Sam Wasson, The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta, Selections from Melville House's Art of the Novella series, Hit

Congratulations to Amy Morgan, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: Pickett’s Charge by Charles McNair, Sometimes the Wolf by Urban Waite, Three Bargains by Tania Malik, The Family Hightower by Brian Francis Slattery, and Big Little Ma n by Alex Tizon.

This week's "book contest" is a little something different, designed to assist you in your holiday gift-giving quandary (if, in fact, you find yourself in a quandary).  This giveaway has a little something for just about every reader on yo...

Friday Freebie: When the Cypress Whispers by Yvette Manessis Corporon, The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, Fosse by Sam Wasson, The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta, Selections from Melville House's Art of the Novella series, Hit

Congratulations to Amy Morgan, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: Pickett’s Charge by Charles McNair, Sometimes the Wolf by Urban Waite, Three Bargains by Tania Malik, The Family Hightower by Brian Francis Slattery, and Big Little Ma n by Alex Tizon.

This week's "book contest" is a little something different, designed to assist you in your holiday gift-giving quandary (if, in fact, you find yourself in a quandary).  This giveaway has a little something for just about every reader on yo...