It’s been a busy time. In addition to completing rewrites for my next novel, my legal practice, being a dad, step-dad, and a husband, and the myriad challenges of turning the dream of the Unbound Book Festival into a reality, there’s been little time or space in my head to write anything new. I’ve been living with my new, as-yet-unwritten book for …
What’s Important
I’ve spent the last two weeks without a computer. And I lived to tell the tale. One morning my cherished MacBook Pro would not wake up. I took it into the local Apple retailer and they confirmed that the hard drive had committed ritual hara-kiri the previous evening. Luckily all of my law firm documents and my novel-in-progress were backed …
The Waiting Game
My friend Joe Wallace has been a busy man lately. He has been baking souffles, reading a great deal, traveling a lot, and posting the occasionally provocative and entertaining opinion on Facebook. (Since he is one of the warmest and most engaging people on Facebook, this is an excellent thing.) Why has he been so busy? Because he has been …
Gaithersburg Book Festival
One of the very best things about publishing a book is being invited to events where one can meet readers and other writers. I’m particularly excited for this weekend, which is the Gaithersburg Book Festival, a hugely popular event in Maryland which brings dozens of writers from across the country to talk about and read from their books. The line-up …
Writer, C’est Moi. (Finally.)
An interesting thing happened the other day. The kids and I decided to take the puppy for a walk around our new neighborhood. Dog walking is an excellent way to meet new people – if you are accompanied by a cute dog and two (equally cute) small children, you are generally not considered too much of a threat, even if …
Back in the Saddle
Did ya miss me? It’s been an AGE since I wrote a post for this blog. 2012 has been, without question, the nuttiest year of my life, and it’s only the start of May. In the last four months I have: published a novel; gone on tour to promote said novel; become an American citizen; got divorced; bought a house. …
Cry Me a River
Amazing the things you learn on twitter. I discovered a little while ago that a certain well-known book blogger, who lives and works in New York, decided only to read my book while she was at home. Apparently she was worried about crying while she read – and, as she put it: “There is nothing like crying on the subway …
Missing Link
It occurred to me this morning that there was a photo missing from my last post, which illustrated an absolutely critical part of the process. Here it is: This is a page chosen more or less at random, during the second six month rewrite, after I had signed my deal with Amy. I am hopeless at editing on screen – …
A Story in Five Photos
Once upon a time, there was a blank sheet of paper. You know, that thing Ernest Hemingway was allegedly so scared of. This blank sheet of paper (and a few hundred others) got written on. Some guy had an idea for a story, and every morning at five o’clock, he hauled himself out of bed, switched on the coffee machine, …
Words of Wisdom from Ann Patchett
Last week a bought a Kindle. I know, I know. Now, I’ve been down this path before. I wrote here about my brief and unfulfilling flirtation with a Nook, and this post shows another problem with e-readers generally. I will never, ever stop buying books… but, well, let’s be honest – there’s a certain inevitability about it all, isn’t there? …