The literary world has been having a long-overdue conversation about the practice of blurbing, that is, writers providing promotional endorsements for each other’s books. This was spurred by Sean Manning, publisher at Simon & Schuster’s imprint of the same name, who wrote an essay for Publishers Weekly explaining why they’d no longer expect their writers…
Thanks to author Stephanie Carpenter for contributing a post about crafting characters within the setting for her debut novel. Her essay makes for a good start to both Women’s History Month as well as Small Press Month this March (and look for more small press-focused posts in the coming weeks). Moral Treatment was published by Central…
I’m very happy to have Alix Christie here on the blog with her essay about the family history behind her latest book, a family saga set in the Rocky Mountain West. Her debut, Gutenberg’s Apprentice, was one of my favorite novels of 2014, and her second, The Shining Mountains, was just released in paperback by…
Continuing with the Small Press Month focus, I’m pleased to welcome Lorraine Norwood to Reading the Past with an essay about her long journey to publishing her debut novel. What do you do when you’ve chosen a compelling subject and have developed your fiction writing craft but find it impossible to break into the trend-focused…
Mary Wollstonecraft is perhaps best known for two accomplishments: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), a treatise that caused her to be remembered as the first feminist; and her status as the mother of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. As significant as these are, Wollstonecraft’s life was extraordinary for many other reasons. N.J….
In the Time of Spirits is a novel of the late 19th-century spiritualist movement, seen from the perspective of those who performed seances for gullible audiences. Its plot takes unpredictable, often confounding turns, much like its strong-minded heroine. Are her actions irritating or all too fitting? They certainly offer much to think about! After losing…
Why do we read fiction? It’s pretend. None of it is true. All the great stories from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, whether it’s H.G. Well’s War of the Worlds or Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001 A Space Odyssey—they’re all made up. None of them are real. So why do they captivate…
Are you a historical fiction fan looking back fondly on the years of Tudormania, when novels set in 16th-century England (especially about the royals) were eagerly scooped up by publishers? The good news is these books are still around, in smaller quantities perhaps, but novelists are still writing them, and readers still want them. During…
My latest novel, coming out this Friday, is The Minotaur. It’s a tribute to the Polish novel Solaris. I love writing tribute pieces to classic science fiction from the Golden Age, as often these stories are lost in time. They can be dated in styling, technology and pacing, but they still pack a punch and…
Here are some articles and other news items that caught my attention in the last week. The 2025 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction shortlist is out. The winner of this £25,000 Prize will be announced on June 12th at Abbotsford, the country house which was Scott’s home in the Scottish Borders. The Heart in Winter,…
