Yusuf Toropov's Blog: Literary Striver, page 7

Khizer Khan Nailed It -- Now Mainstream Journalists Need to Follow Up

Mr. Trump may or may not have a "black soul," as the Gold Star father of a fallen American soldier suggested in a recent interview, but the Fascist/Republican nominee's familiarity with the US Constitution is a valid and important question this election cycle. Journalists have a responsibility to pursue it.

Mr. Khan electrified the Democratic National Convention with a powerful speech celebrating his son's memory and questioning Mr, Trump's qualifications to be Commander-In-Chief. In what has...

DUBLIN SEVEN

Careful. The gifted Irish writer Frankie Gaffney, no Islamophobe or conspiracy theorist he, happens to bear the name of a prominent, deeply paranoid right-wing activist in the USA -- Frank Gaffney. The relevant Amazon searches can be instructive. Their lesson: People can and do surprise you, even when -- especially when -- you think you already know who they are.

Gaffney's wonderfully erratic debut novel DUBLIN SEVEN carries a similar lesson about its protagonist Shane Laochra, an aspiring, do...

Ramadan: Surah Luqman

Ramadan: Fasting

Fasting gets easier as you go along, alhamdulillah!

This Just In: William Shakespeare backs REMAIN in EU Referendum

Bulletin from Stratford: The noted playwright and poet has joined Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, in calling for a REMAIN victory in the June 23rd vote. Via courier, Mr. Shakespeare forwarded a passage from SIR THOMAS MORE in defense of his position:

Ramadan

"Ramadan is the (month) in which the Quran was sent down, as a guide to mankind and a clear guidance and judgment." (Q 2:183)

Ramadan and JIHADI: A LOVE STORY

Ramadan is here, a blessed month, the month in which the Holy Quran was revealed.

For us Muslims, this is a month of sustained prayer, fasting, and reading the holy scripture. On this first day of fasting, I wanted to share something I have not shared before about an important event in the development of my novel JIHADI: A LOVE STORY.

Maybe three years ago -- don't ask me for the precise date -- I was working on the book, trying to figure out which verse of the Quran would make the most sense a...

WOW. Superb one-sentence writing seminar for fiction writers from Brooks Landon

[Skip all this stuff in small type if you want. On the other hand, if you'd like some background to what Landon shares below, this may be helpful. A "cumulative sentence" is a sentence that adds modifying phrases to a main clause as it goes along and isn't afraid to unfold its meanings at length. Good fiction doesn't rely solely on cumulative sentences -- short sentences are important, too -- but skipping cumulative sentences altogether leaves the reader with an empty husk of a book. The key...

Fiction Writers: Seven Reasons to Hit a Daily Word Count of 1000, Six Days Out of Seven, No Matter What

1. Stephen King says you should, and there's a pretty good chance he knows what he's talking about. He doesn't give anybody a day off, though. I found the day off necessary. So I gave it to myself.

2. You will actually be a writer. When you ask yourself what it is that you do here on earth, what your job is, you can answer with that one word, "writer," and be sure you are telling yourself the truth. You're not trying to write. You're not hoping to get around to writing when the inspiration hit...

Hey (supposed) journalists covering Trump -- that persistent rumbling at your feet is Edward R. Murrow spinning in his grave

"Some people like Joe McCarthy, some people hate him, but one thing's for certain -- nobody can ignore him. And you have to admit, the guy is a heck of a salesman."

Replace the name "Joe McCarthy" with "Donald Trump" and you have the default lead for about 70% of the current coverage of the Fascist candidate for president. You know who you are. That's the lead you are working with. And I hope you die a painful natural death for settling for it.

At the end of the day, though, Trump is not the pr...