Look how important perseverance is. DUNE (Frank Herbert) was rejected 23 times before it found a publisher. A WRINKLE IN TIME (Madeleine L’Engle) was rejected 26 times before it was published. GONE WITH THE WIND (Margaret Mitchell) was rejected 38 times before it was published. THE DUBLINERS (James JOYCE, for Pete’s sake!) was rejected 22 [...]
Sometimes we are tested by the natural phenomenon, like earthquakes, tidal waves, and blizzards. Sometimes we are tested by family members. Sometimes we are tested by our own inner demons. Sometimes we are tested by the vagaries of national or international politics. Today, I am being tested by Facebook. So far, I am failing the [...]
So far the first test (to link blog to FB) hasn’t worked. So this is a second test. Let’s see what happens THIS time. This is being posted 9:50 am EST on Friday January 27, 2012.
I just got word today that my (as-yet-untitled) novel about Iago will be published April 24, 2012. This is the week of Shakespeare’s birthday and attendant birthday celebrations, and I am delighted by the opportunity to celebrate the Bard’s birthday with a tribute to one of his greatest masterpieces.
Many thanks to all of you who participated in the Blog Tour de Troops for Memorial Day weekend. The response was so overwhelming that the Indie Book Collective will be donating 10,000 books to American troops. Amber Scott was the wunderkind organizing the Blog Tour, and Carolyn McCray is the enterprising writer who created the [...]
http://indiebookcollective.wordpress.com I’m honored to be a part of the Blog Tour de Troops, the Indie Book Collective’s original and heartfelt way to say thank you to American men and women in uniform. Throughout Memorial Day weekend, if you leave a comment on the blog of any participating author (there are 30 of us), not only [...]
I am about to plagiarize myself: what is written below is based on a post I just made to the lively, entertianing blog http://www.neptunuslex.com/ I was invited to be involved in something cool this weekend called the Blog Tour de Troops. It offers free ebooks, and even free Kindles, to troops. There’s about 30 writers [...]
Today was the funeral of Jon Lipsky, an extraordinary man: teacher, writer, director, father, husband, community member. His service at the Martha’s VIneyard Hebrew Center was possibly the most moving I’ve ever attended. Everyone who knew Jon has a story, or many stories, about him. My story is not about Jon directly, but about an [...]
Writing this blog does not make me an author. What makes me an author is that I write books, which are published – bound in paper, at least at first – and my publishing house distributes them to the world at large. I can live with that model; it’s been working for authors for a [...]
I have always been freaked out and scared of modern “transmedia” interactive stuff, I consider it artificial and awkward and alien – not to mention ignoble and embarrassing. I approached one panel here at South by Southwest, “The Future of Storytelling,” with that fear/bias. And immediately the moderator (I wish I could remember his name) [...]
As of this past weekend, I have finished the first half of my current novel (working title: Green-Eyed Monster). The first half being everything that happens in Iago’s life before the play -known-as-Othello begins, I now face the unnerving scenario of novelizing one of Shakespeare’s greatest hits, with a bias. I am, a confess, a [...]
As hard as it is for me to believe this, I have managed to stick to a fairly insane writing schedule, churning out words and scenes hour after hour, day fter day. It is all first draft, and the writing itself is probably atrocious (although my friend Jeremy Bornstein, who is reading it for me [...]
I am proud, relieved and honestly astonished to report that on Monday, I wrote the first of the seven scenes I’d sworn to write this week (a bad first draft, but still…) and on Tuesday I wrote the second scene (even worse). Today will be harder to reach the goal, however. Besides my editing a [...]
I had a great day writing yesterday (or rather, a great half-day – the wonderful serendipity of the Vineyard in summer called me away for an unexpected lunch date that lasted until 10 pm and included a tango lesson). Best of all, I was able to outline the first unit of my novel, specifying and [...]
I just managed to slip in a minor Merchant of Venice character into my Othello story. I got such a ridiculous kick out of it, I think I will end up doing more of it. I really am a geek.
Now this must qualify as a quality problem: I’m on Martha’s Vineyard and it’ summertime, so I can’t access the necessary libraries for obscure tomes I require for my research. Rescue comes from unlikely sources. Peter Kramer (famous for writing Listening to Prozac and Against Depression) responds to my Facebook plea for help – he [...]
A continuing experiment to combat writer’s block: If I put into public space (by blogging) a promise to myself to write Thing X by Deadline Y, will I then do it? It helped the other day with a 6-page scene from my current project. (Caveat: it was set in a brothel, which made it fun [...]
Two days ago, I declared that I’d combat writer’s block and stick to my writing schedule by committing to a daily “I will do this!” on my blog (which is public, even though I’m sure nobody ever reads it). I am pleased, and relieved, to announce this worked on its inaugural try. I reached my [...]
I have had a really ghastly case of writer’s block for weeks now, no doubt made worse by the challenge of recovering from a divorce. I have no structure in my life, no daily tribe, so to speak, and this is difficult for me. I envy the writers who thrive on solitude. But in truth, [...]
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your eyes… I am honored and excited to be part of a groundbreaking project that combines literature, technology and a bunch of other things. Please read the description below (which I did not write), or if you happen to have an iphone or the like, check out the free sample [...]
…but it’s Passover, so it seemed vaguely appropriate. The star of David is actually on the SECOND floor of the synagogue – the first floor of the building is completely pancaked beneath it. I just spent a week there, volunteering at a medical clinic. Still not quite ready to talk about it. But wanted to [...]
If you happen to be a New Yorker, and you’re seeking free entertainment Sunday evening, please come to the Metropolitan Playhouse, 220 East 4th street between Avenues A &B, at 7 pm. I will be performing segments of my on-going serialized novel MOBY RICH as part of the Playhouse’s MELVILLAPALOOZA, a celebration of the work [...]
I want to share my extracurricular life here a moment. My friend Chelsea McCarthy and I began a project this fall called “Shakespeare for the Masses” (I wanted to call it “The Free and Easy Shakespeare Company”). We take Shakespeare plays, edit them down to about 80 minutes, and add a rather sarcastic narrator (usually [...]
Tonight in our house we had my menorah blazing with 4 candles, close to my in-laws’ Christmas tree full of white lights and ornaments that all have special meaning ( sort of a charm bracelet in the form of a tree), as we all watched Addams Family Values together. It was lovely. Tomorrow we’ll open [...]
This is the Harvest Ferry. She flies around the United States on Thanksgiving Eve, landing on rooftops and leaving mash potatoes and gravy on everyone’s stovetops. At the end of her trip, her beloved magic turkeys sacrifice themselves that others might feast, in a ritual of selflessness that many religion scholars believe the Catholic Church [...]
Until October 20, I am working for the Martha’s Vineyard Museum (formerly the Dukes County Historical Society) as assistant lighthouse keeper to the Edgartown Light. Since I’m the only one there, I am not sure to whom I am assistant, unless it is to the lighthouse itself, but that would make me an assistant lighthouse, [...]
This is my excuse for falling behind in blogging. I’ve been directing Shakespeare’s As You Like It, with an amazingly talented and dedicated cast… and since it opened, I’ve been a besotted fan, attending as many performances as I can. This is my first directing gig in 10 years, and the first one ever I’ve [...]
Tragedy struck Main Street, Vineyard Haven, the morning of the Fourth of July. Shortly after a morning visit and champagne toast at my grandmother’s grave with friends and family (her birthday is 4th of July), I learned that a terrible fire had erupted from Cafe Moxie on the little one-way strip of Main Street in [...]
I haven’t kept this blog up as actively as I’d hoped to (life is gleefully crazy, and in a few days I start directing a Shakespeare play, having not directed at all in more than a decade), but I do have a few tidbits today…. First and most thrilling: the Vineyard’s very own, supremely talented [...]
Rebecca Gilbert, who runs Native Earth Teaching Farm on the Vineyard and has offered to be a consultant for “Becca’s” knowledge base in Moby Rich, sent me the following e-mail earlier this week: “greetings – I am really enjoying the nettle tops before they flower, also the lamb’s quarters which is so prolific as a [...]
The fabulously talented Steve Durkee of the Martha’s Vineyard Gazette designed this cool “logo” for the weekly installments of my novel Moby Rich in that paper. My extreme techno-ignorance means I’m not sure it’s going to fit on the site. Let’s see…
Here’s my feeble attempt to display the outline of Martha’s Vineyard Island, off the coast of Massachusetts. The Vineyard is the setting of MOBY RICH, a story I’m writing that is now appearing in serialized form in the Vineyard Gazette, in “real time” (each chapter appears the day the events of the chapter take place). [...]
My in-laws (Lobdells) and I recently planted 135 baby trees. Planting a baby bare-root tree requires digging a hole, then putting most of the dirt back in and stomping on it… and THEN you plant the tree. After several hours of this activity, I made up a song, to the tune of the Mexican Hat [...]
Delighted to report we’ve returned to Martha’s Vineyard, where my husband and I both grew up. In true Vineyard style, it’s not really spring yet, but there are good things coming along (like our house, still in skeleton form, although no longer as skeletal as depicted). In a few weeks, the Vineyard Gazette will begin [...]
A wonderful quote from Taylor Branch (“At Canaan’s Edge”) in today’s New York Times, adapted from a speech he just gave at the National Cathedral about Dr. Martin Luther King: “There is no more salient or neglected field of study than the relationship between power and violence. We recoil from nonviolence at our peril. Dr. [...]
I had a very unusual experience this morning. I was scheduled by the excellent PR folks at HarperCollins for an hour-long interview on a radio show to talk about CROSSED. Only after I was on the air, live, did I realize it was a conservative Christian call-in show based in an unnamed Southern state, pictured [...]
CROSSED:A Tale of the Fourth Crusade, just got reviewed in the New York Post, leading the list of books considered, “Required Reading.” As with the CCT interview, I’m pleased that they’ve reference modern parallels. Here’s a quote: ” …The result is a funny (really!) look at this disastrous Crusade through the eyes of a wacky [...]
Hello everyone – CROSSED: A Tale of the Fourth Crusade is now available on your local bookshelves. It’s in paperback from the get-go (first two books came out in hardcover first, but historical fiction tends to sell better in paperback, so they cut to the chase this time). Please read and enjoy, and if you [...]
And while I’m on-line… Laurie Higgins interviewed me for the Cape Cod Times, in an article I especially appreciate because it emphasized the parallels between history (i.e., the Fourth Crusade) and current events. Thank you, Laurie Higgins! I’m too much of a Luddite to know how to imbed a URL into this blog, but here’s [...]
Some wise person said a poem is never finished, only abandoned. I think the same is true of any creative work. And so at 5:30 am yesterday, December 31, I abandoned my newest novel, and sent a copy of it to my agent. (The novel begins in an abbey, hence the photo.) Not a bad [...]
If you’ve read my novel, The Fool’s Tale, you know about Wigmore Castle, home base of the powerful Mortimer family for centuries. As castles go, on the historical-political map of Britain, it’s a biggie, although it is in ruins. It’s also – yes, really – for sale! Maureen and Alan Crumpler, the English couple who [...]
I just learned that Nancy Whiting, former librarian of my hometown library, passed away two nights ago. She was already a senior citizen thirty-five years ago, when she was introducing us (the 25 or so students of West Tisbury Elementary School) to the wonders of reading. The library then was a small but elegant old [...]
Yesterday, at the Miami Book Fair International, I spoke about Revenge of the Rose. I did this in the company of two lovely and talented fellow writers, Gina Nahai and Ellis Avery. Ellis discussed her debut novel, and Gina her fourth – and each was very on the ball. I wasn’t (if you’ve read Revenge [...]
