Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 179

Symbolism In My Novel ~ Should My Readers Agree With Me?

Should writers feel confident enough in their work to welcome differing interpretations of its meaning? I’m almost tempted to stop writing and ask for your answers in the Comments… But, this is a Friday post—part of the series Behind The Scenes of the novel Notes from An Alien—and, I have a reader’s questions to answer [...]

14 Awesome Writers’ Resources

Lots of people visit blogs but not all of them dig deep into past posts. Things like the Top Tags widget in the left side-bar can definitely help but it still means looking through lots of posts… Using the Search Box in the upper right corner can help, too, and you get to choose the [...]

Authors As Fans of Other Authors

I’m a fan of C. J. Cherryh, when it comes to famous authors. When it comes to authors I know, it’s Jane Watson… I’ve learned how to write by reading other authors. In my previous post, The “Self”-Education of Writers . .., I said: “Many are the writers whose education—beyond that which is learned from [...]

This Blogger’s Other Life . . .

Since January, 2011, I’ve written (counting this) 613 posts… Only one other time, to the best of my memory, have I come to this blog and said, “I’m sorry, I can’t give you a helpful post today…”. My other life is fraught with concerns… I’m taking measures to deal with those concerns so they don’t [...]

Why All Writers “Should” Consider Having A Google Plus Account . . .

I normally don’t like to tell anyone they “should” do something… But… If… You’re a writer and you produce content on the Web, you “should” get a Google Plus account. And, a “maybe should” is: If you’re a writer and you don’t produce Web content, perhaps you “should”… Back in February, I wrote a post [...]

Symbolism In A Novel ~ Who Decides The Meanings?

This post is part of the new Friday series: Behind The Scenes of the story Notes from An Alien. If you want to avoid having “spoilers” intrude on your enjoyment of the book, just grab a free copy and read it before you dive deeply into this series of posts—the book is short… and, deep… [...]

So What The Hell Is Wrong With Traditional Publishers?

David Gaughran has written a fascinating post on his blog—Publishers Behaving Badly, Part… I’ve Lost Count. Right after he indicates that the two essential players in the book-world are writers and readers and that retailers are at least acting somewhat rational about justifying their cut of the money (leaving agents, publishers, and distributors in a [...]

Do Homeless People Read Books?

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” That quip by Groucho Marx is from the WebSite of a marvelous organization—Footpath Library—in Australia. I love dogs (it’s even my Chinese Zodiac sign) and due to my perverse habit of not conforming to most of [...]

Foundation Announces Plans for $10 Million Global Literacy X PRIZE

There are a number of posts on this blog about literacy. Today’s is quite exciting! “The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity…” It was founded by Peter H. Diamandis. In 2004 the Foundation gave $10 million to the developers [...]

A Tribute To My Virtual (Real) Friend . . .

Regular readers of this blog know well my work on Book Island in the virtual world Second Life. Some of you have read the guest post I did for Joel Friedlander, Second Life: Virtual Book Promotion and Word of Mouth. Some folks claim that friendships in virtual worlds aren’t real… I would say two things: [...]