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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)
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- Winning Wager (The Wager by David Grann)
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*Finding Your Fiction: Concise Steps To Writing Successful Fiction
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Tag Archives: Jeffrey Penn May
Why I Stopped Revising My First Novel
Over a 35-years span, Roobala Take Me Home was rewritten, revised, reworked, and partly re-imagined so many times that I’ve lost count. Despite my best efforts to stay current and true to my ever developing self, Roobala Take Me Home inevitably, like all novels, turned into a historical document. Even “historical” novels are rooted in the imagination of the writer looking back. A historian from 1980 looking back at 1900 has a different perspective than … Continue reading
Posted in Write
Tagged dreams, Ficiton Writing, First Novel, Jeffrey Penn May, Pushcart Prize, Where the River Splits, Writing Ficiton
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Untitled and Unpublished – Marketing Basement Manuscripts
While cleaning out the basement, I found an unpublished and untitled manuscript, read the first page, and instantaneously launched into revision.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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At What Age
At what age do you prefer sleep to wakefulness, prefer the dream— climbing the clouds atop a faraway mountain— To the step by step slog legs too heavy to move air too thin to breathe the dream a painful reality. At what age does the body prefer the mind asleep? Share on Facebook
“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
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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
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
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