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Great first sentences (and an analysis of the first sentences of my own novels)

I have no definitive favorite first line of a novel, though I am partial to the first line of Slaughterhouse Five: “All this happened, more or less.” Also, Fahrenheit 451:  “It was a pleasure to burn.” Of all my books, I like the first sentence of Chicken Shack, my unpublished novel that will hopefully see…

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An important (and painful) lesson about the people closest to me and the things I write

One of my wife’s friends told me yesterday that she reads this blog daily and feels like she has an oddly intimate relationship with me as a result. Then she said that there have been times when she has told my wife that she loved something I wrote on my blog, only to discover that…

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Today I feel like a real author – which doesn’t happen often – and not for any reason that you might imagine.

I’m not sure if other authors feel this way, but most days, I don’t feel like a real author. Its ridiculous but true. I’ve published three novels – two with Doubleday and one with St. Martin’s Press – and I have a fourth publishing in September. My last book was translated into more than 25…

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I won’t be reading my novel to my children. For a damn good reason.

My son asked me to read my novel, Unexpectedly, Milo, to him. “Too long,” I told him. “No pictures. Let’s find something else.” It also has an awkward and explicit sex scene in it (which I didn’t bother to mention), so I think he’ll be reading that one on his own some day.

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The moment for which every author longs, experienced by my wife.

My wife was checking out books at the library when a woman stepped up beside her and handed Unexpectedly, Milo to the adjacent librarian. “That’s my husband’s book,” Elysha said. “What?” the woman asked. “What?” the librarian asked. “That’s my husband’s book,” she repeated. “He wrote it.” “He did?” the woman said. “He did?” the…

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Working hard for the money: 2014 update

A few years ago, I posted a list of all the jobs I have held in my life in chronological order.  It was an interesting exercise that I highly recommend. Things have changed since I first posted the list, so here is my updated list: 1. Farm laborer, Blackstone, MA: When I was 12-years old,…

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“Where do you get your ideas?” is an understandable but impossible-to-answer question for authors. But “Nuns at Scout camp” will be one of my answers someday.

I’m often asked where I get my ideas for books, which is an understandable but impossible question to answer. There is no well of ideas. There is no secret formula. There is no one answer to that question, as much as fledgling writers seem to want there to be. Simply put, I hear something. I…

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Second-hand Milo

Once you publish a book, you never know where it will go. A friend found a copy of my second novel, Unexpectedly, Milo, in a second hand store last week. I can’t help but wonder about it’s journey from bookstore to secondhand store. Where was it originally bought? How was it chosen? Did a kindly…

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Amazon’s new policy on book reviews did not impact me thanks to the quality of my friends and family.

You may have heard that Amazon has a new policy when it comes to online book reviews. From a piece in The New York Times: Giving raves to family members is no longer acceptable. Neither is writers’ reviewing other writers. But showering five stars on a book you admittedly have not read is fine. After…

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I never know what I’m actually writing about

Long after I finished writing my first novel, SOMETHING MISSING, I discovered, only after my wife and therapist pointed it out to me, that I had written a book about my battles with post traumatic stress disorder, my hatred toward my evil step-father and my longing for my absent father. I didn’t know any of…

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