Brittle leaves rattled around outside and scratched against the glass door of Longfellow Books in Portland. A group of bibliophiles, many of them writers themselves, listened to James Hayman channel Poe. This wasn’t poetry though, it was a reading from the latest in his murder mystery series set in Portland, Maine: The Girl in the Glass.
Out of the Fog and Toward Manuscript Submission
Anne Lamott wrote, “E.L. Doctorow said once that ‘Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make […]
Find Your Retreat: Your secret hiding sense and place
An experience this weekend reminded me of the necessity for finding my “retreat,” that muse-infused space where magic happens. I don’t mean a formal “writing retreat,” complete with workshops and lectures. Although, […]
Aiming for Audience: How Peaks Island Authors Do It
In an era when many people are tempted to debate the future of books and libraries, it’s comforting to me that the discussion on Peaks Island centers more around how we can […]
Where Munjoy Hill Memories Meet Masts of Tall Ships
I have decided to watch the Tall Ships Parade of Sail from a corner of Portland most meaningful to me-Munjoy Hill. Here my Irish and French Canadian grandparents found a welcoming […]
Author/Illustrator Jamie Hogan Exhibits at Portland Public Library
Peaks Islander Jamie Hogan – illustrator of ten books and author of Seven Days of Daisy – presented at the Portland Public Library this evening with Matinicus Island author Eva Murray, with […]
Streetcar named “Narcissus” has a new chapter
It feels good to write another chapter of a story, especially when the plot is headed toward a climax. Last year, I published an article in Portland Magazine about a historic Maine […]
Brenda Buchanan debuts “Quick Pivot” novel on beloved Peaks Island
Human remains bricked into the wall of an abandoned mill. An unsolved mystery as brittle as the newsprint it was printed on. Attorney-author Brenda Buchanan shares a few things in common with […]
Calling Authors & Readers to PeaksFest Dock Day
One of the many ways that Peaks Islanders celebrate their literary community is by visiting the author table on “Dock Day” of the annual PeaksFest celebration. Authors will display and sell their […]
Choosing a Genre—Anatomy of a Best-Selling Story Part 7
Originally posted on Kristen Lamb's Blog:
Understanding structure helps us write cleaner and faster. Whether we plan every detail ahead of time or just intuitively have the architecture in our head,…