I have respect for authors who manage to write incredibly long, complicated sentences — but with such consummate skill and daring that I inhale deeply and then read it aloud, trying to see if I can make it to the end in all one exhale. These sentences enter the text to condense a moment into […]
Barry Unsworth and the Best Long Sentence Read More »
When it comes to writing novels, I am tortoise. At least with the first half, and there is something thrilling about the second half, like sliding down a long snowy hill, or as in below, leaping off the top step. I am still the tortoise right now. For assistance, I return to a 1968 Paris Review
When the Tortoise and Then the Hare Sit Down to Write Read More »
One of the greatest pleasures is reading Sicilian folktales midday while drunk on a dense-full-bodied beer (16.2 percent) produced locally in Boulder. Like the beer, the stories are rowdy, naughty, mythic, and full of gullible and wise fools who make donkeys appear to shit gold, drive menial men to do self-destructive things and conspire to
Plank’d and Research Read More »
In anxious moments while working on the current novel, I turn for assistance to a 1968 Paris Review interview with the great Canadian author Robertson Davies, where he describes his writing process, a laborious and methodical investigation long before the narrative is written. "I am at the moment winding up to write another novel, and
When Struck by Fear of Writing, Refer To The Masters For Help Read More »
I am having a wonderful time reading 16th-century Basile's splendid introductions to stories in his Tales of Tales. And while the tales are wicked-wonderful, these observations on the human condition have me enthralled — I suspect because they remain surprisingly current. Plus ça change… "…artisans leave their shops, merchants their trade, lawyers their cases, shopkeepers
Startling Moments from Basile That Still Ring True Read More »
Near the end of the novel The Pirates of the Levant by Arturo Perez-Reverte, Captain Alatriste finds himself the highest ranking survivor of one of three ships that are battling for their lives against the Turks, who out-gun, out-cannon, and just sheer outnumber the Spaniards. There is a hasty meeting of the remaining "commanders" from
Last Lines and Cool Captains Read More »
There is a passage in Arturo Pérez-Reverte's The Pirates of the Levant that struck me as true. We are a military family and for over ten years it has been my pleasure (mingled with a mother's worry and sometimes grief at the violent deaths) of being in the company of remarkable men who have served
Honor & Loyalty in Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s The Pirates of the Levant. Read More »
In the midst of reading The King’s Gold, Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s fourth volume in his swashbuckling series “The Adventures of Captain Alatriste,” I came across one of those brilliant, long, elegant, artfully constructed sentences that takes up almost the entire paragraph. I’ve read it over several times and just can’t get over how gorgeous it is.
The Art of the Long Sentence: Arturo Pérez-Reverte Read More »
This is a complicated moment in the novel when several threads come together, all for the purpose of resolving Anna’s terrifying possession. Having accepted the maenad’s mask, and now in its spell, Anna throws herself into the bloody revels of the maenads following Bacchus. Two men with separate interests in Anna have been searching for
Excerpt from The Innamorati: Anna’s Return Read More »
I am trying to remember that moment in writing The Innamorati — constructed mainly around the characters of the Commedia dell'Arte– when I decided I needed the Siren Herminia to join the cast. I cannot now conceive of the novel without her — but neither can I recall conceiving the necessity of her in the
Homeric Sirens II: Enchanters of All Mankind Read More »
