"
De Villiers has spent most of his life cultivating spies and diplomats, who seem to enjoy seeing themselves and their secrets transfigured into pop fiction (with their own names carefully disguised), and his books regularly contain information about terror plots, espionage and wars that has never appeared elsewhere. Other pop novelists, like John le Carré and Tom Clancy, may flavor their work with a few real-world scenarios and some spy lingo, but de Villiers’s books are ahead of the news and sometimes even ahead of events themselves." (SLNYT)
posted by Rustic Etruscan
on Jan 31, 2013 -
26 comments
"Book TV's
After Words features the author of a recently published hardback non-fiction book interviewed by a guest host with some knowledge, background, or connection to the subject matter of the book." There's also a
podcast version (link goes to XML feed), for those who'd rather listen. Many more non-fiction author interviews can be found at
Booknotes (transcripts and streaming video). If your tastes run to interviews with authors of fiction, check out the BBC's
Modern Writers archive.
(BookTV (but not specifically After Words) previously, Booknotes (but before the series ended) previously.)
posted by cog_nate
on Jun 22, 2012 -
7 comments
You have a great idea for a novel and
it's almost November, so you think now is the time to get cracking. You've decided that
hiring a ghostwriter is too easy, but you don't have
100 days to write your novel and
the snowflake method seems too frilly. Snowflakes, those delicate little monsters that papered your car when you were stranded on the road in Minnesota. A single snowflake is beautiful, but millions make an avalanche. You were cold, so cold, yet you survived. You're not sure if you have time to
read a book on what not to do (
UK edition), and
the search results are daunting. Forget all that, because you already know how to write, right? Embrace your awesome, magnificent, spellbinding abilities, go forward but never back, ever spinning, shake the rain off your bedspread, and now that you have brewed a delicious pot of steamy, hot, life-giving coffee, you can learn
how to write badly well. [via
mefi projects]
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Oct 22, 2009 -
35 comments
Booktribes is a new site from the creators of
writing site Abctales where bibliophiles can compile lists of every book they've ever read. Replete with a simple, intuitive interface, compiling your life's reading list becomes strangely addictive, and for the whole of March, the best comment of the day on this as-yet underpopulated site wins a copy of David Mitchell's
Black Swan Green, with the best comment of the month winning the entire 21 volume Sceptre Collection. And if you're worried your reading list isn't up to scratch, don't panic -
you can always cheat.
posted by RokkitNite
on Mar 3, 2007 -
20 comments
Interviews:
Russell Banks,
Susan Orlean,
Tibor Fischer,
Azar Nafisi.
| Writing on
social justice:
Susan Power on Bosnia.
Barbara Erenreich on poverty.
| e-books:
Aristotle,
Emma Goldman,
Buddha.
| New
Non-
fiction,
fiction.
| Hundreds of
Reviews. Graphic Art, Poetry, Music, and much more from
identity theory, one of the best literary websites I've encountered, thanks to an incredulity-inducing amount of work by what seem to be volunteers. Wow.
(Specific interviews already MeFid in these threads.)
posted by louigi
on Jun 1, 2005 -
1 comment
Who Wears Short Shorts? Micro Stories and MFA Disgust Being a writer in today's lovely world of fiction and creative nonfiction is like reliving 70's TV hell, where that Nair commercial jingle has been conveniently rewritten into "Who writes short shorts?" Poetic vision rarely shows up. After all, how can you express vision in 100 words? As for plot and character development, give those antiquated goods to Goodwill. All that matters with short shorts is a competent writing style and a desire for lots of publication credits.
posted by ColdChef
on Nov 22, 2004 -
33 comments
