by Jack Woodville London ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 2, 2014
A brief but energetic guide that makes good use of sample passages to turn readers into practitioners of clear, effective...
A common-sense approach to turning inspiration into a novel.
In this how-to guide for aspiring writers, London (Virginia’s War, 2009) offers a series of simple recommendations for writers looking for help in researching a topic, suggestions for maintaining motivation and advice on avoiding grammatical errors. London draws heavily on his own experience writing military historical fiction, but to illustrate his points, he also makes use of numerous excerpts from well-known books: e.g., Girl with a Pearl Earring is an example of deft research; A Scandal in Bohemia opens an exploration of the character-driven story. A discussion of pacing uses Debt to Pleasure and The Da Vinci Code as particularly effective examples of the extremes plots may reach. A concluding section addresses polishing and revising the completed manuscript—London recommends hiring an editor—and the importance of book reviews. The book’s approach to fiction writing, particularly historical fiction, is on the whole reasonable, urging readers to develop literary skills by reading widely and evaluating other works. The tone is encouraging but not given to cheerleading; it’s directed at the reader who prefers a tutor to a support group. The book’s brevity, also one of its assets, allows targeted analysis with a clear, incisive point regarding a scene from, say, Gone with the Wind. London doesn’t get bogged down in extended literary criticism, and his book has its limitations. Some will find the dogmatic tone excessive—“Your first commitment is to write one thousand words a day. Every day”—while descriptivists will bristle at the depiction of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves as the modern authority on grammar. Minor but notable mistakes may catch the reader’s eye: London treats “Strunk and White” as a title instead of a pair of authors, and Jane Austen fans will cringe at multiple references to “Elizabeth Bennett.”
A brief but energetic guide that makes good use of sample passages to turn readers into practitioners of clear, effective writing.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-0990612100
Page Count: 98
Publisher: Vire Press, LLC
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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developed by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
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by Charlayne Hunter-Gault ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1992
From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-17563-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
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