letters & life
Reading Les Miserables is a serious commitment. Even if you’re a fast reader, it’s going to take a long time. At the same time, when you finish it, you’ll feel like it could have gone on forever. Like it should have gone on forever. When I read Les Miserables, it helped me realize a few things about writing … Continue reading 5 Things Les Miserables Taught Me About Writing
The first time I wrote a fan letter to an author, I was seven. I wrote to Jane Yolen, author of over 300 books for children and young adults, and told her how much I enjoyed her book The Girl in the Golden Bower. I had read the book about thirty times, poring over the details and … Continue reading Writing Letters to Authors
“I felt like the gloomy hero in a Russian novel, brooding in my bolt hole above the dramshop in the village of Dash, in the year Dot, with my story all before me waiting to be told.” – The Book of Evidence, John Banville John Banville’s 1989 novel, The Book of Evidence, is a Dostoyevsky-esque story about a … Continue reading What I Learned from John Banville’s The Book of Evidence
“History isn’t about dates and places and wars. It’s about the people who fill the spaces between them.” –The Storyteller, Jody Picoult I recently finished reading Jodi Picoult’s The Storyteller, a thrilling story about a young woman, Sage Singer, who discovers that the elderly man she befriends is actually a former Nazi SS guard. When the man asks … Continue reading What I Learned from Jodi Picoult’s The Storyteller
