One of the greatest biographies ever written was James Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson. In the biography is a quote by Mr. Johnson that many writers repeat ad infinitum: “No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.” I must confess that, as per his universal claim, I am that blockhead. Giving the benefit […]
“It’s so easy to become an author of novels. Others have done it, why not me?” Authordom In writing a novel, all you have to do is follow the formula. Classes abound that teach the formulas. Hell, you probably believe you can imagine and create stories as good as any of them. You have things […]
There is ample statistical evidence showing that adult women read more novels than men, attend more book clubs than men, use libraries more than men, buy more books than men, take more creative writing courses than men, and probably write more works of fiction than men. If, as a demographic, they suddenly stopped reading, the […]
For writers of the imagination, what we fear the most is a disruption, a blockage, a sudden dam that changes the course of the river of creativity. Back in the late sixties and early seventies when technological innovation began to creep into the public consciousness, I shunned all the so-called marvels of computers when […]
I am a member of the Lotos Club in Manhattan, a literary club celebrated for having Mark Twain as its most famous member. Apparently he had spent many happy hours with fellow members there in his declining years. A few years ago at Lotos event, we were regaled by James Humes, a distinguished professor, historian, Pulitzer […]
Amid all the abrasive and conflicting arguments prompted by the so-called torture report released by Senator Feinstein, I am baffled by the absence of the crucial, indispensable question that never entered into the conversation, pro or con. That question is simply why those men who were chosen to endure water-boarding never reacted to other less […]
Roderick Thorp was part of a small group of novelists who came together on a monthly basis in the late eighties in Los Angeles to chew the fat. Rod had made a breakthrough success at the age of twenty-seven with the novel The Detective, which became a very successful movie starring Frank Sinatra. Rod’s novel […]
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