I think of all the readers who email me, who are waiting for my next book to come out, and of all the writers who ask for help, and I think: Wow, I should begin planting bits of advice here, drop hints on how to turn out essays and novels and better letters to Grandma.
And then I wonder why I would want to create competition. But here's the thing: I've been helping new writers for nearly thirty years. Just because I've stopped ripping around, finding, writing and selling feature articles and short stories, just because I've settled down to (gasp) write my own novels -- why change who I am?
So we begin.
You'll need to read. And read and read and read and read. I myself love to read mystery-suspense novels. Although my own books (Sweeping Up Glass, available in all bookstores now, and Playing With Matches which will be out next year) are shelved under literary fiction (think Opray-style books), they all needed and have, huge elements of mystery.
But wait -- I crave a cup of coffee. I'll be back....
Carolyn Wall
In case this author becomes a recluse, this is what she looked like....Courtesy Jennifer J. Parker
You want to see what poverty looks like? Do you want to know about the death and distruction which results from bigotry? Read Carolyn Wall's Sweeping Up Glass, her international best-seller has been compared favoroably to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
ReplyDeleteIn both of these classics, the consequences of abject poverty play a major role. Both dissect how economic class, inadequate income, race and social injustice affect our judicial system. Racial bigotry is exposed, but not until its disease has devasted individual and community lives.
Hiram K. Myers, Attorney, Author, Activists