-
Blog / Articles / Reviews
- Wisdom and Humor in the Sky
- It’s in the Cards
- Really Lost (Trail of the Lost by Andrea Lankford)
- Targeted Chaos (The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher)
- Nothing More (All That Is by James Salter)
- Beautiful (Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano)
- Winning Wager (The Wager by David Grann)
- Silent Reader (The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides)
-
Books -- Buy Here
-
*Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps To Writing Successful Fiction
Available Story Links
Tag Archives: Hubpages
“Dry Fly” of the St. Louis Ozarks
There’s no “matching the hatch” when I fly-fish clear Ozark streams near St. Louis, Missouri. While I am interested in insects, bugs, and so on, I’m more interested in catching smallmouth on my fly rod. I also enjoy seeing snakes slither acorss the water’s surface. So I’m often asked the common question, “What are you using for bait?” No worms, no stinkbait, or mechanical gagets, but simply “poppers.” My first choice is a yellow popper, followed by … Continue reading
Posted in Ask, Fish, Uncategorized
Tagged askwritefish, bluegill, fly fishing equipment, fly fishing gear, fly fishing Missouri smallmouth, fly fishing St. Louis, Hubpages, Jeffrey Penn May, largemouth bass, Missouri streams, rock bass, smallmouth, St. Louis fly fishing, St. Louis Stream Adventures, St. Louis streams, sunfish
Leave a comment
The Panic and Pain of Mind-Body Dualism
In the opening scene of the classic semi-autobiographical comic novel Three Men In Boat, the writer Jerome K. Jerome is looking for a hay fever treatment when he casually begins reading about other diseases. By the time he’s finished, he concludes that he has every disease on the list. “I had walked into that reading-room a happy healthy man. I crawled out a decrepit wreck.” He goes to his doctor, an “old chum” who gives … Continue reading
Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps to Writing Successful Fiction — Character
Establish Characterization Reveal Character Change character for good or bad If you become enamored with your plot twists and turns, you risk creating characters “beyond belief.” Your character can be a Terminator or a talking Sunfish and still be believable if their actions make sense. If our meek sunfish suddenly acts like a shark only to serve a plot twist, then Mr. Sunfish is no longer believable. On the other hand, if Mr. Sunfish has … Continue reading
Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps to Writing Successful Fiction — Plot
Note: “Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps to Writing Successful Fiction” – blog posts derived from my popular “Finding Your Fiction” workshop in association with St. Louis Writers Workshop and St. Louis Writers Guild. Completed guide will be available as an ebook, likely on Smashwords. (Feedback, incisive or otherwise, welcome.) Section I Choosing plot over character is dangerous. Plot is presented here first mainly because it might be “easier” to comprehend. On the other hand, characters … Continue reading
Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps to Writing Successful Fiction – Introduction
Note: “Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps to Writing Successful Fiction” – blog posts derived from my popular “Finding Your Fiction” workshop in association with St. Louis Writers Workshop and St. Louis Writers Guild. Completed guide will be available as an ebook, likely on Smashwords. (Feedback, incisive or otherwise, welcome.) Introduction You are a writer. You have been writing most of your life, writing term papers, developing business proposals, composing letters, email, and Facebook posts. But … Continue reading
Learning to Write Fiction
Thousands of “How to Write Fiction” books have been written, dating back to Sherwin Cody’s 1894 How to Write Fiction, Especially the Art of Short Story Writing. Cody hadn’t published any fiction when he wrote his “how to” book. And two years later, his novel failed miserably. Cody never wrote fiction again. Or at least he never tried to publish his fiction. (In today’s electronic world, he might have tried “self-publishing” on Smashwords or CreateSpace.) … Continue reading
Posted in Write
Tagged Hubpages, Huffington Post, Jeff May, Jeff Penn May, Jeffrey Penn May
Leave a comment
The Strange Life of Another Odd Short Story
I cannot remember when or why I wrote Nuclear Power and the Civil War Lizards. Judging from the initial setting, I think I’d just started working for McDonnell Aircraft in the old Falstaff Brewery Building across the street from Forest Park, now the location of the St. Louis Science Center. That was 1978. In digging through my collection of submissions and rejections, I found a May 17, 1979 submission to Bill Plummer of Quest/79. You … Continue reading
Posted in Write
Tagged fiction, fiction writing, how to write fiction, Hubpages, Jeff May, Jeff Penn May, Jeffrey Penn May
Leave a comment