Chris Abouzeid's Blog, page 49

As The Writer Turns . . . and Pitches

By Laura Zigman Today, on Beyond the Margins’ soap opera, our heroine gets used by her frenemy, as he forces her to do that most awful task: pitching an idea.Will she crumble? Will she stay strong? Only the bold and beautiful know.

Debut Novelist Sam Thomas: His Midwife Is No Pansy

        By Julie Wu It’s a rare treat for me to read a mystery, but I didn’t realize just how much I would enjoy Sam Thomas’ The Midwife’s Tale, a historical mystery launching today! My impression of midwives had been one of nurturing women pursuing a heartwarming but ...

The Psychology of Books: Why We Read What We Read

By Dell Smith Buying and reading books are deeply emotional and personal acts. Your choices of reading material are based on an intricate and truly limitless combination of marketing influences and mercurial emotions. This goes for both buying books and deciding which book to read next. Two different things, but ...

Revise in Haste; Repent in Leisure

  By Randy Susan Meyers   Just when you think you’re done with revision, guess what? There’s room to do one more (or maybe two, or three.) The smartest thing my agent did for me recently (uh, except for selling my book) was suggesting that one more revision on my ...

Writers Wearing Costumes, Baking Cookies, & Other Mad Men Tricks

  By Randy Susan Meyers Nobody can buy a book they never heard of.  M.J. Rose, bestselling writer and former advertising madwoman. Why does someone pick up a book? Smashing cover? Reviews so good they’ve been memorized? Stunned by The Most Memorable Title Ever? Is it on that all-important front table ...

Scent, Sound, Words and Memory

  By Nichole Bernier The lobby was empty, decorated in the orderly, outdated way that nursing homes are. Tired but precise, precisely tired. My mother waited in a corner chair. I was late, but she wasn’t disappointed. It had been a long time since I’d come to visit, but she ...

Day in the Life of a Writer

Guest post by Wendell Smith. Transcribed by Dell Smith. This piece was written by my late father in the early 1960s. At the time he had moved, with my family, to Cape Cod with the idea of being a writer and artist. Today’s writers should recognize many of the same ...

Interview the Interviewer! Shelf Awareness’ Marilyn Dahl

By Nichole Bernier Beyond the Margins caught up with Marilyn Dahl, Book Reviews Editor for Shelf Awareness, to ask her about her well-respected Book Brahmins interviews….and then turned the tables and asked her submit to her own questions, infamously hard to answer in brief. Favorite books?! it’s the Sophie’s Choice ...

In Praise of Writing Workshops [delete: and Editing Tips]

  By Necee Regis It all started innocently enough. A bunch of writer pals and I were stuffing ourselves sharing a lazy-Susan-full of Sichuan delights at our local fave Chinese restaurant not far from Fenway Park, home of the fabulous, world-champion Boston Red Sox. In the midst of gossiping urbane ...

First Line to Last Line: A Fine Balance

By Randy Susan Meyers The perfect first line. How we chase it, scrambling phrases and our brains, seeking magic words to pop open our stories like magic keys.( Sometimes I want to create an entire book because a great beginning sentence pops into my head.) Tougher, can be that last ...