Avi
word craft
blog
“Marley was dead, to begin with.” That’s the opening words of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and they are, in my judgement, as remarkable as they are memorable. Indeed, the first words of any piece of writing are crucial, being as they are, the window, the door, the invitation, the inducement, call it what you will, to
Series books, sequels, are perhaps more complex to write than readers think. Yes, certain things are given. For example, if you’ve established that your continuing protagonist has blue eyes, they are going to remain blue in subsequent books. But the fact that there are things that must remain consistent demands that things also be different,
The great Nineteenth Century French novelist, Balzac (1799–1850), once wrote, “It is as easy to dream a book as it is hard to write one.” Breathes there a reader who has not thought, “that IDEA would make for a great novel”? Indeed, if there were as many books as ideas for books, there would not be
Writing a book is one thing. But what happens when people wish to take that book and turn it into another form? Film, audio, theatrical play? Over the years books of mine have been turned into plays, and audio books. There have also been efforts to turn the books into film, but none have ever materialized.
I recently evacuated a storage bin of books and papers and came across a few boxes of letters that pertained to my publishing; letters from editors, to editors (carbon paper, anyone?), marketing folks, publicity, from teachers and librarians, friends. For those not familiar with letters, I speak not of computer fonts, but exchanges, written on
Over the years any number of my books have been optioned for movies. What this means is that someone purchases from me the rights to a book I wrote, so that they might create, organize, and proceed to make a film using that book. Mind, it does not mean they must make an absolute replication
Consider names, names of characters. Alice in Wonderland. Hamlet. Huckleberry Finn. Do we accept (and know) these names because the literary works are famous? Or do we know the names because they could be none other? Would The Tragedy of Ted, Prince of Denmark, work just as well? Years ago, when working as a librarian at
I do not know what you think about when the city of Venice, Italy, passes through your mind—if it ever does. A city built on water—to be sure—and a republic for one thousand years. (In 1783, there were only two republics in the world: The USA and Venice.) But for writers and publishers there are
In the long process of publishing, I have always loved the moment when the first “proofs” of a book arrive on my desk. Strictly speaking a proof means, “Something that proves a statement; evidence or argument establishing a fact or the truth of anything, or belief in the certainty of something; an instance of this.”
I had left my librarian’s position at Trenton State College, and set in to write full time. That said, I was not so sure I could make the financial bar. In any case, at the same time my wife accepted a six-month academic position at UCLA. I’m not sure quite what happened but, when she arrived,