I came across the Gotham Writers Workshop website http://www.writingclasses.com a couple of weeks ago and ordered some of their books. The two I've started on so far are worth getting excited about. Strange but true, The Portable MFA is both great bedtime reading and desktop handbook. It's got me checking my work for structure, making lists of … Continue reading Craft in a bottle: The Portable MFA in Creative Writing
Category: Reading
Books I’m reading and why
Upstairs/Downstairs
I have two books on the go right now, one on my night table--No god but God, by Reza Aslan, and The Plantagenets, The Kings Who Made England, by Dan Jones, downstairs by the fireplace. Of course they are very different, but they both involve the development of elites, warring for power and the quest … Continue reading Upstairs/Downstairs
Sticky pictures
For a few years now I've thought about writing a biography or historical fiction. I consider who I might research, who I might write about or develop a story about, and eventually set it aside. Next book, I think. But who? I recently read Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower, a novel about the poet Novalis--or rather … Continue reading Sticky pictures
The Queen with shock and awe
I recently finished Victoria, A Life, by A.N. Wilson. The first biography of Queen Victoria I'd read, I found it full of jaw-dropping surprises. She was not at all what I expected--only her taste in interior decoration fit the stereotype. More than a long-serving monarch and the Widow of Windsor, she was a fascinating personality … Continue reading The Queen with shock and awe
Judith Chopra 