Writing is a physical act. And for author Michael Parker, it is an act done by hand. Pen and paper. Michael’s latest novel is All I Have in This World, which he wrote, of course, by hand: “I wrote it in Mead composition notebooks—one for Marcus and one for Maria—and then, when I added theContinue reading

The Twitter Fiction Festival, which started yesterday and goes through March 16, includes Algonquin authors Bill Roorbach, Sara Farizan and Gabrielle Zevin. Each author is creating an original work of fiction, meted out in 140-character installments. (Check them out. They’ve each done amazing things with the form, and their stories are fantastic.) Even if you’reContinue reading

In Drew Perry’s new novel, Kids These Days, an expectant father is paralyzed by the idea of taking responsibility for another human life when he can’t seem to manage his own. While Perry, the father of two young boys, drew from real life while writing the book, he also finds inspiration in less conventional sources.Continue reading

  Lest one think being a published author is all bubbles and brownies, consider all the work author Drew Perry  put into nailing down the perfect title for his just-published novel. Kids These Days takes aim at the two sides of a man’s impending fatherhood: abject terror and unconditional love.  In an irony that probablyContinue reading

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve gotten? The novelist Alison Lurie said that when writing a novel I would have to find a “passive gear” and let my characters take over the story and surprise me. I have found that suggestion useful again and again. How do you get yourself back on trackContinue reading

It’s only fitting that one of our first “On the House” posts should feature the words of co-founder Louis Rubin, whom we lost recently but whose ethos we try hard to keep alive. Rubin’s astute observations of a manuscript’s problems could be as pointed as they were keenly observed, but they were always, always deliveredContinue reading