Mary Karr and “The Art of Memoir”
I admit openly: I had, until recently, never read a Mary Karr book. Until I ordered “The Art of Memoir” (Sept, 2015) a few days ago, and devoured it. Since I am a book editor who recently worked on a spectacular memoir—Christian Picciolini’s “Romantic Violence: Memoirs of an American Skinhead,” about one of the first neo-Nazi skinheads in America in the 80s who got out of the movement and changed his life for the good—and since, furthermore, I am working on outlining and rese
GETTING YOUR BOOK TO AN AGENT
Many writers out there wonder how, in the hell, can they get their book into the worthy and capable hands of a literary agent. Well, it’s a process. For one thing, I’ll be blunt: If you have a connection of any kind, use it. If you can nail down a referral, that will help big time. But assuming that’s not an option, and you have to go in ‘cold,’ here’s how you do it. First off, start by writing the book all the way through. You’d be amazed how many agents tell me that writers
FORGET THE MUSE
Today I wanted to talk about the process and act of writing. What I mean by that is the simple craft of regularly putting pen to paper. As Stephen King famously said, “Amateurs wait for the muse to come. The rest of us get working.” That is so incredibly true. When I was a creative writing undergrad at San Francisco State University, like many young [writing] students, I thought that, when the ‘muse’ came, I could then write the Great American Novel. The truth is—any professi
