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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)
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*Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps To Writing Successful Fiction
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Tag Archives: Jeff Penn May
Untitled and Unpublished – Marketing Basement Manuscripts
While cleaning out the basement, I found an unpublished and untitled manuscript, read the first page, and instantaneously launched into revision. But then I stopped and flipped through the 300-plus pages. Did I really want to do this to myself? Again! Wasn’t it just a few months ago when I had exhausted myself revising my last ms, a 30-year effort, Roobala Take Me Home, which lays dormant (again) while I try to figure out what … Continue reading
Book Review Bluntness
Recently, I read a blog, “Like the author… but” by Sharon Wildwind, in which she discusses the awkwardness of responding to a “friend’s book,” a technical writer who decided to try fiction. The book was “boring.” But Wildwind is reluctant to tell the truth. How to respond? A common dilemma. We’ve all received book recommendations or gifts, but couldn’t get past the first few pages. An online acquaintance suggested I try reading Ayn Rand and … Continue reading
Posted in Write
Tagged Ficiton Writing, fiction, fiction writing, Jeff Penn May, Jeffrey Penn May, Where the River Splits, writing, Writing Ficiton
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Are We All Great Writers?
Warning: I’m going to act as if I were younger and full of braggadocio like most of you young writers who boast about your voice, your muse, your “work” and fearlessly market like crazy because you are full of yourselves, as I was. What a handicap age and experience is beyond the obvious! It’s a cliché of course but as we age we increasingly understand that we know very little. While young, we understand, theoretically, … 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
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
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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
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