Chris Abouzeid's Blog, page 53

As The Writer Turns, Episode 2: “I Loved It (But It Needs a Ton of Work.)”

By Laura Zigman Today, on Beyond the Margins’ soap opera, our heroine gets critiqued by her frenemy. Yes, once again, these are the days of our writing lives. Will she crumble under his damning with the faintest of . . . praise?Will she stay strong? Only the bold and beautiful ...

Don’t Scoff at Sonata Form: the Human Structure of Song and Narrative

By Julie Wu Ever been to a live performance of a Beethoven symphony?  What happened when it ended?  Did the audience A) Look around at each other, scratching their heads and wondering whether the piece was over, B) Fling their programs at the stage, demanding their money back and yelling, ...

Reconsidering On the Road

By Dell Smith A movie version of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, a novel long thought unfilmable, has finally been produced and will be released this year. The Millions has a great overview of why it took so long for the book to become a movie, something Kerouac himself hoped ...

The Page Turner

 By Marilyn Dahl I have shelves of books that I love, and many I consider “underserved” in terms of being read or even carried in bookstores. Winnowing the list down is tough, even when I limit myself to a sub-genre: English mysteries of a certain period–I could go on and ...

Fiction vs. Nonfiction: Must Writers Choose?

Guest Post by Peter Golden Josef Stalin can kiss my ass. There, I said it: Want me to say it again? OK. Josef Stalin can kiss my ass. Oh, the pleasure, the absolute visceral sense of satisfaction I felt repeating that sentence as I stared at the dozen books spread ...

View to A Kill: Finding the Best Point-of-View

Sometimes you start a novel and the voice is so clear you don't have to think about the point-of-view. And sometimes it's a struggle to figure out how the story should be told, by whom. From the detective's point-of-view? From the killer's? Over the victim's shoulder? I've changed the point-of-view (POV) no less than five [...]

Hunger Games – Victorian Style

I have a confession to make:  I'm addicted to Victorian "hunger games."  No, I'm not talking about some new infestation of bastardized romance novels, like Pride and Prejudice and Decapitation or Sense and Sensibility and Swordplay. And I'm not referring to little known versions of Jane Austen or Charlotte Brontë novels where the heroines are [...]

The Dead Writer Interviews: Fyodor Dostoevsky

At Tagged & Towed, we're not above chasing down an author or two for some juicy Q&A.  Now, in our continuing effort to push the envelope, think outside the box, and grab any idea that comes our way, we are proud to introduce a new feature:  The Dead Writer Interviews. Up-close, personal, in-depth, with the [...]

Book Review: Try to Remember

Iris Gomez's TRY TO REMEMBER is a beautifully written novel that manages to keep you on the edge of your seat–not through a steroid-pumped plot, but by painting the very real terror of an immigrant teen's life. Deportation, jail, drugs, rape, pregnancy–these are all the dangers awaiting Gabriela de La Paz, adolescent daughter of Colombian [...]

Book Review: The Murderer’s Daughters

I admit it: When it comes to books, I’m a twelve year old at heart.  Thirteen, max.  So most of what I read comes off the Middle Grade and YA shelves.  Randy Susan Meyers‘ novel, The Murderer’s Daughters, isn’t a YA title, and it’s not likely to end up on the YA shelves anytime soon.  [...]