What do you want in a diner? A place to eat, and decent (if heavy) food to eat. Hm…decent service? Pfft. I didn’t ask, “What’s reasonable in a diner?” What do you really want? Fine. I want basic comfort food so good it puts most restaurants to shame. Plus some weird stuff. I want to […]

One of the speakers at PPWC was talking about using photo references for facial expressions. Just for fun, I’ve found some for Alien Blue: Martie Washington. Caveman exterior (but without a basement or steps up). The look on Bill’s face after Nina comes in. Nina, when she smiles. When she doesn’t.

So on Friday I’m in a read-and-critique session, one where a reader reads the first page and three people give their first impressions. I have Ginger Clark, Jeffrey Deaver, and Rose Hilliard (editor at St. Martin’s). I have (yet again) rewritten the first page, based on Miss Snark’s First Victims Secret Agent first page contest

PPWC Thursday, we performed mock interviews for our current book projects. Margaret Brettschneider’s interview, for her true-life account of taking a 29-year-old virgin around Europe decades ago, called Mama Told Me not to Come, had tears running out of my eyes. True love and slapstick comedy.

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg borborygmus MEANING: noun: A rumbling noise caused by the movement of gas through the intestines. ETYMOLOGY: From Greek borborygmos (intestinal rumbling), an onomatopoeiac word to describe the sound. NOTES: Borborygmi are usually harmless, they are simply a result of gas movement around the stomach. And the rumbling sound doesn’t mean one

This might be it: A barkeep tries to save his town from alien invasion using a mysterious blue beer. I talked to someone at the conference about it yesterday. She was a very good listener – I don’t say that often.

This is the first year of Thursday add-on material for PPWC. I chose Track 3: Giving it Wings (Publicity, Promotion, Marketing). I have mixed feelings about the day. The track itself, I think, was good, sound stuff. We even wrote trial press releases and gave interviews. But I talked myself into listening to the wrong

By Billy Collins. The neighbors‘ dog will not stop barking.I close all the windows in the houseand put on a Beethoven symphony full blastbut I can still hear him muffled under the music,barking, barking, barking…

DeAnna– Thanks very much for sending “Fragile,” my way. My assistant editor and I both enjoyed the narrative voice, but overall, the piece isn’t quite what we’re seeking for Farrago’s Wainscot, so we’re going to pass. Best, Darin BradleyFiction Editor Such is the life. However, I will happily take the compliments where I can get

Kate over at KT Literary reviewed 50 first pages over at Miss Snark – it starts here. Here’s what I learned: So far, I see I give people about four-five sentences before I’m bored. Grammar issues are grating. I hate running into a plethora of weird names. Irony is good. I want to start off