Randy Susan Meyers's Blog, page 13

Give Mom Some (Reading) Schadenfreude for Mother’s Day!

Four years ago, at an event at the incredibly wonderful Reading Public Library (in Reading Massachusetts) one of the librarians bought my second novel book, The Comfort of Lies, for her mother. For Mother’s Day. Using a large amount of not-usually-available-to-me control, I didn’t say any of the following: “Nothing says Happy Mother’s Day like a […]

Loving Roman à Clef Novels

  Roman à clef is a form of fiction I’ve always enjoyed reading, from Primary Colors to The Devil Wears Prada). Encyclopaedia Britannica defines roman à clef like this: (French: “novel with a key”) novel that has the extraliterary interest of portraying well-known real people more or less thinly disguised as fictional characters. In The Widow of […]

Worshipping at the Library Alter

“The library was a little old shabby place. Francie thought it was beautiful. The feeling she had about it was as good as the feeling she had about church.” A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith. Some books etch themselves on your soul. I don’t remember how old I was when I first read […]

The Panacea of Novels

What’s the word for impotent worry activated by reading the morning paper? When your mind swirls with horror at people’s pain and you think of how you can effect, perhaps, if you work very hard, a fingernail’s length of change. Perhaps the word should be horror-fever. Symptoms: choking on overseas flood worry, aching with news […]

Win An Early Reader Copy of TIFFANY BLUES by MJ Rose!!!

Sign up (click on this form ) for my (occasional!!) newsletters (filled with news of books I love, skin products I adore, gardening tools that send me reeling with delight, recipes to swoon for . . . and occasional updates about me and my books) and you’ll be entered to win one of five copies advance […]

Distracted, Tired, Worn-Out: Writing and Reading the Darker Side of Parenthood

  Between pretending to be perfect mothers (and fathers) the reality of flawed (real) moms lay murky truth: We always love our children; we don’t always love being mothers. We’re M&M’s, our shells of goodness covering malleable centers of insecurity, always seeking evidence we’re not alone. Great books of being raised by evil parents abound; […]

The Doctor’s Rules for Writing

By Kathy Crowley A number of years ago, Wall Street Journal sent a big notice to writers, the gist of which was, “Don’t quit your day job.”  According to the article, I could sell not only my first and second novels, but also my fifth, twelfth and seventeenth and still have better luck covering the rent by […]

Writers on Stage: 12 Tips for Readings & Events

The first time I read in public, (a Grub Street open mike event at the now-defunct Johnny D’s in Somerville, Massachusetts) I flopped. I failed. I sucked. Years later (no more experienced) with my debut book launch looming, I was terrified. My mouth became dust each time I practiced, but a glass of water in hand, […]

Ten Books for Ten Moods

  If you read like I do (constantly, never sticking to any one genre, and always with a backup book (or ten) just in case, you need books to match your current mood, yes? Pride and Prejudice won’t do when you’re in a Frankenstein mood. There are times nothing will work except dark and broody-moody, to be […]

Dear Doc Dreidel: Is This The Year I Solve My Santa Crisis?

    Dear Dr. Dreidel, must I deal with my existential cognitive dissonance about Santa forever? Oh, Santa. Baby. How many years have I been writing about our tortured love? In 2009 I shamelessly pled for you, staying together, once again, until finally breaking up in 2012. In 2013 we acted like friends with benefits. In 2014 […]