Adrian Tannhauser came home from Iraq alive—but survival came at a cost. A roadside bomb killed two of his closest brothers-in-arms and left Adrian carrying scars that never truly healed. Years later, he has built a new life as a private investigator in Boston, helping others find answers while avoiding the questions that haunt him. […]
writing
Character Introductions
Not too long ago, and on a whim, I picked up Elric of Melniboné once again. I was two pages in, and this passage stuck out to me: “If the young emperor has found any advantage in his lifelong weakness it must be in that, perforce, he has read much. Before he was fifteen he […]
The Importance of Dialogue
I love words. I also love moments in TV and film where characters I enjoy engage in a meaningful conversation. It’s not a fistfight, a chase scene, or a conflict. It’s just them talking, using words to show us who the character is, what they believe, and how they feel. A film like Before Sunrise. […]
Heroic Myth and Adrian Tannhauser
During class last week, one of my students asked about the importance of creating a character for our stories. I responded with this quote: “For me, the novel is character creation. Style is nice, plot is nice, structure is OK, social significance is OK, symbolism worms its way in, timeliness is OK too, but unless […]
What’s YOUR Story?
“Don’t ever apologize to an author for buying something in paperback, or taking it out from a library (that’s what they’re there for. Use your library). Don’t apologize to this author for buying books second hand, or getting them from bookcrossing or borrowing a friend’s copy. What’s important to me is that people read the […]
The Right Words
“At Cornell University, my professor of European literature, Vladimir Nabokov, changed the way I read and the way I write. Words could paint pictures, I learned from him. Choosing the right word, and the right word order, he illustrated, could make an enormous difference in conveying an image or an idea.” — Supreme Court Justice […]
