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How the Past Comes into the Present

A 19th-cen­tu­ry fact, writ­ten down by my grand­moth­er in 1939, edit­ed by my twin sis­ter in 1978, writ­ten into my fic­tion in 2024. My way of orga­niz­ing the past into a con­tem­po­rary fic­tion­al narrative.

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winter sun

The Red Fox

Some­times, liv­ing in a for­est as I do, I get a glimpse of nature in all its liv­ing beau­ty, its calm­ing beauty.

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The Maltese Falcon

The Pleasure of Re-Reading

I’m sure I’m preach­ing to the choir here when I speak of the plea­sures of read­ing. But per­haps not enough is said about the plea­sure of re-reading.

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Among Friends

How Publishing Used to Feel

Among Friends is “a his­to­ry of an indus­try trans­formed by con­sol­i­da­tion and shift­ing tastes.” I have been part of that indus­try since 1968, when my first book, Things That Some­times Hap­pen, was accept­ed for publication.

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Monster Walter Dean Myers

Inarticulate

If peo­ple can­not be taught or expe­ri­ence how to express their feel­ings, frus­tra­tions, and con­flicts with words, they will find ways—destructive ways—to express their emotions.

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hourglass waiting

Waiting

There are many skills that pro­fes­sion­al writ­ers have to mas­ter. But one of the skills a writer must mas­ter is one that I don’t think is often men­tioned: waiting.

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Royal No 10 typewriter

Revising 80 or more times

Mol­ly wrote to ask, “You said some­where that you revise your books eighty or more times. Is that true? Why do you do that? Do I have to do that?” 

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read on

Give Me Some Space

If you think as I do, that the phys­i­cal book can be a form of art, then typog­ra­phy … is vital to the art of bookmaking. 

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