Category: Literary

Posts on literary topics including book reviews, literary analyses, and quotes or excerpts from books.

Want to be a Better Writer? Trust Your Reader.

So, you want to be a better writer. Every writer does, right? Even bestselling authors can be dissatisfied with their writing skills and want to be better writers. If we have the right mindset, we’ll constantly work to improve some aspects of our writing craft and grow better at it. I thought I was a […]

The Best Books I’ve Read on the Writing Life

There comes a time in every aspiring writer’s life that they decide they want to learn writing from the best writers out there. And that means reading books on writing by successful and well-loved authors. Fortunately, there are plenty of options to choose from. It seems that nearly every successful and established writer has written […]

(Re)Write What You Know – A Twist on Writer’s Advice

A common bit of writing advice that you will find if you read books on writing or attend a writer’s conference is this: Write what you know. I’m not refuting that bit of advice in this post, but I do want to offer a little twist on the main idea. First of all, let’s discuss […]

Book Review of “Book Proposals That Sell” by W. Terry Whalin

I just read “Book Proposals That Sell” by W. Terry Whalin. And here’s the one-sentence review: If you are a writer – especially if you are a writer aspiring to be a traditionally published author one day – this book is extremely helpful and informative. And here’s the longer book review of Book Proposals That […]

How to Kill a Mockingbird, a Longing for Belonging, and the Power of Story

A Strange Introduction to Boo Radley The autumn I was 12, my big brother, Emmanuel, invented a name for our neighbor across the street: Boo Radley.  The man’s name was actually Doug. Although in his late thirties, he still lived with his mother. Doug had narrow eyes and a strange, perpetual smile. We had been […]