All well-written stories have a compelling shape. Think of story shape as the underlying form or structure of a piece, often called the story plot. Some writers envision story shape like a pyramid, hourglass, stack of blocks, or a line graph. I like to imagine the tale as a lump of clay which takes on human form and meaning in the hands of a skilled writer.
There are nine essential parts of a story:
THE RUINED HOUSE, Ruby Namdar, Harper 2017 in the USA – the first novel by Jerusalem-born Ruby Namdar, a work that marks the arrival of an important writer in Jewish-American literature.
The National Book Foundation announced winners of the National Book Awards on November 15, 2017. See the full list on their site. Jesmyn Ward is the winner of the fiction category. Here are added details about her winning novel.
Joy Jordan-Lake’s new novel, A TANGLED MERCY, is the result of 20 years of research and writing that began when she was a young PhD student at Tufts. Set in Charleston, SC in present day and in 1822, she intertwines the stories of a gifted but enslaved 19th-century blacksmith and a floundering Harvard grad student who is researching the planning of a slave revolt.
THE VINEYARD Maria Dueñas Atria Books, ISBN 9781501124532, Authorlink Audio Interview with Maria Dueñas Audio Length: 15 minutes MARIA DUEÑAS, the New York Times bestselling author of THE TIME IN BETWEEN (now a hit series on Netflix) and THE...
Last Ride to Graceland by Kim Wright (Gallery Books, 2016) has been named the 2017 Winner of the 10th Annual Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction. On the 10th anniversary of its creation, the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction (www.williemorrisaward.org)...
The American Society of Journalists and Writers has named Dawn Anahid MacKeen winner of its ASJA Writing Awards for Books in the Biography/History category. She will receive the award for her winning title, The Hundred-Year Walk – An Armenian Odyssey, at the annual...
Light Years, Emily Ziff Griffin, Simon Pulse – Writer and film producer Emily Ziff Griffin survived two experiences of devastating grief.
So, you are about to self-publish a book in e-book or print-on-demand format. It seems like a no-brainer to sign an exclusive contract with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and up goes your book to Amazon’s vast online audience. After all, presumably they own 60...
Hope Jahren's Lab Girl (Alfred A. Knopf, 2016) has been named Winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Film Prize for Excellence in Science Books. Ms. Jahren received the award during the AAAS Annual Meeting in...
