articles on writing
Author Interview Alma Alexander Interviewed by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel https://AlmaAlexander.com https://bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/bvc-author/alma-alexander/ https://bookviewcafe.com/book/fractured-fairy-tales/ Alma Alexander has the resume to be a storyteller. She was born on the banks of the blue Danube in a country whose name is but a memory. She left that home at ten and lived in five countries on four continents before …
Where do Ideas Come From? Originally published 5/21/2010 by Phyllis Irene Radford. Many years ago, when I first started taking my writing seriously, I thought I was writing romances. I belonged to Romance Writers of America and met regularly with a critique group and had written a contemporary and was working on an historical. Then …
A pound of sugar. A yard of silk. A tael of silver. A liter of water. We take our units of measurement for granted. They’re pervasive in our lives, infiltrating everything we do; you can’t bake a cake, build a house, or drive a car go without someone, somewhere, having done the work of weighing …
Ah, but what if it hadn’t been “James Bond”? What if the name Ian Fleming gave his super spy had been “Crane, Ichabod Crane?” Clearly, a name that worked for the nebbish, nervous protagonist of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow would not work for the decisive, suave hero of Fleming’s tales of espionage and danger. …
The Name of the Prose, Part 2: The Name is Bond—James Bond Read More »
Originally published April, 2020. [Ironically, the serial I started back then lapsed—I wrote myself to a point where I got lost, and until I find the trail again, I’m waiting for inspiration to lope along. This is a hazard of writing—the unfinished idea—no matter what technique is used.] I’ve been thinking of a lot this …
Apollo 13 is one of my favorite movies; I’ve watched it many times. And every time I do, there’s a moment in the movie where I boggle yet again that we sent men to the moon WITH SLIDE RULES.
Author Interview: Shannon Page Interviewed by Phyllis Irene Radford Shannon Page has been a member of Book View Café since 2013. Her collection of short fiction, Eastlick and Other Stories,https://bookviewcafe.com/book/eastlick-and-other-stories/ marked her debut with us. Since then, she has published several solo novels; an essay collection, I Was a Trophy Wife; https://bookviewcafe.com/book/i-was-a-trophy-wife/ and a collaborative …
Counting to ten: it’s simple. Obvious. We have ten fingers; counting in units of ten is the only natural way to do things. Right? Not so fast.
Call me a late bloomer, or maybe just musically ignorant, but I came to Leonard Cohen very late in life. And indirectly, at that. The first time I heard a song called “Hallelujah” it was sung by k d lang, and it FLOORED me… and then and only then did I discover Leonard Cohen as …
Here’s a question for you, Dear Reader. What publisher would have taken Bram Stoker seriously if he’d submitted a book about a mysterious, terrifying vampire named . . . Count Humperdink? Can you just imagine the how the scene might have read if our nemesis (perhaps looking like Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee) had swept …
The Name of the Prose, Part 1: What’s in a Name? Read More »
One of the great promises made by many religions is that evil is not unopposed. Sins can be atoned for; damnation and suffering can be escaped. But how?
Why does evil exist? This is one of those basic questions people have been struggling with since time immemorial. (Spoiler: I’m not going to solve it in this essay.) If God is good, and God is powerful, then why do pain and suffering exist? Why does God permit people to do bad things? Why do …
Hello, my name is Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, and I’m a recovering research-aholic. I know that research addiction is common among writers of speculative fiction (genres that begin with ”what if…?”). This doesn’t mean there aren’t writers who hate research with a passion, but whether you loathe research or love it, it is necessary to writing …
