Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 135
November 19, 2014
A Psychologist Gets Questioned by A Novelist…
I feel good writers are, in a way, psychologists…
Image from Intelligence Squared
They deal in human motivation—cyphering-out character and persona.
And, an understanding of psychology could help any writer portray the complexities of character interactions.
But what of the psychology of writing itself; and, the psychology of the reader?
Enter, stage right, Steven Pinker, “…a Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University.”
Enter, stage left, Ian McEwan, “a critica...
November 18, 2014
Books You Probably Haven’t Heard of That You Might Want to Read
“A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Listsis an off-beat, genre-defying, head-spinning story that defies all the rules of narrative, space and time.”
Image courtesy of Eduardo Siqueira Filho ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/edududas
That intriguing elevator-pitch is from .
A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists isJane Rawson‘s debut novel.
More from the newspaper article:
“A Wrong Turn has won this year’s Most Underrated Book Award, a literary prize s...
November 17, 2014
Holidays & Writer’s Depression
It’s commonly believed that all writers get regularly depressed…
Image Courtesy of Nihan Aydin ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/skaletto
Common beliefs can often be wrong…
Many writers can get periodically depressed—God forbid some doctor should prescribe anti-depressants—unless absolutely called for…
Not only writers get periodically depressed—our culture has many aspects that could depress anyone…
Some writers—some people—can’t rise above periodic depression—stay in the bottomless pit—fall pr...
November 15, 2014
Send An Appeal To Free An Imprisoned Writer
Today is The Day of The Imprisoned Writer…
Image from PEN International
“Each year PEN Centres and members worldwide commemorate the Day of the Imprisoned Writer to raise awareness of the unjust imprisonment and other forms of attack against writers around the globe, to remember those who have been killed, and stand in solidarity with imprisoned and threatened colleagues. – See morehere.”
“In order to demonstrate how freedom of expression is being curtailed, each year PEN’s Writers in Prison Com...
November 14, 2014
Friday Poll ~ What’s Your Writing Schedule?
First come the results of last week’s poll—What’s Your Favorite Place To Read?
We had eight responses—not a lot but definitely varied and interesting :-)
Image Courtesy of http://www.freeimages.com/profile/resignent
* Wherever the book is, basically.
* bed, sofa, garden bench
* Cathedral of learning in Pittsburgh
* porch swing
* In an armchair in my study.
* anywhere quiet and I won’t be interrupted for hours
* Snugged-up in my apartment
* A real Cafe with a low buzz going on…
~~~
Now, for this week’s po...
November 13, 2014
Is Book Piracy Bad for Authors?
It seems our digital world is the perfect place for pirates to plytheir trade—copy someone’s book and offer it free to others.
Image Courtesy of Bartek Ambrozik ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/ambrozjo
I’m not talking about stealing a book then selling it as one’s own—or,plagiarizing—just the increasingly popular piratical sharing of books.
It appears it’s nearly impossible to get any solid figures on how much piracy is going on; but, all indications point toward it being huge…
Should an auth...
November 12, 2014
Imprisoned Writers
The woman in the picture is a poet from Iran, serving her 7th year of a 20-year prison term.
Photo from Baha’i World News Service
She is, according to the Bahá’í World News Service: “A teacher and educator…charged with and ultimately sentenced on wholly fabricated charges of ‘espionage’ and ‘propaganda against the Islamic Republic’.
Her name is Mahvash Sabet.
Somehow, versesshe’d written while incarcerated made it out and have been adapted from the original Persian by Bahiyyih Nakhjavaniand publi...
November 11, 2014
Book Shelf-Life ~ Physical & Digital
Last July, I wrote:
Image Courtesy of Julia Freeman-Woolpert ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/juliaf
“Do you think readers care if a book is traditionally published, as long as they like it?
“Do you think authors who want to write for a living care about the ‘prestige’ of landing a traditional deal?
“Do you think writers are more important to our civilization than large corporate publishers?
“It’s questions like these that cause otherwise mature adults to display some incredibly childish logic...
November 10, 2014
Freelance Editors for Writers
Writers who choose the self-publishing route have some critical choices to make about all the things that happen after a manuscript reaches “final draft”…
Image Courtesy of Mikhail Lavrenov ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/miklav
One of the most important is how the book should be edited…
With my last book I chose an English graduate student who only wanted a mention in the book for their services…
You can read about some of the challenges that presented…
Doing a Google search for freelance edi...
November 7, 2014
Friday Poll ~ What’s Your Favorite Place To Read?
As usual, I’ll first give the results from last week’s poll—What’s Your WritingSpace?
Image courtesy of Horton Web Design ~ http://www.HortonGroup.com
We had only 8 responses but they’re quite interesting…
“where I set down my MacBook Pro…”
“A dive diner is my favorite, but I have many!”
“tiny room, butt load of books, gigantic desk, pc, paper, pens, comfy chair”
“Mine is a Cave/Apartment”
“little red desk in the living room, looking into the (ahem, untended) garden”
“My Writer’s Space in inside me....
