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"HUDSON SCHOOL", SHORT STORIES, Writer's Advice, Writer's Blog

HUDSON SCHOOL – Chapter 1

HUDSON SCHOOL: a novel by SK Figler (Copyright, 2020 by SK Figler) HUDSON SCHOOL is a novel of two young brothers parked in a boarding school while Mother and Father do battle in divorce. Jacob is nearly 12; Henry is 6 ... and has just started to stutter. The year is 1947, and the story begins at---You guessed it---Hudson School...
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Writer's Blog

Best Simile

Literary writing often flows with similes and metaphors. Also, not so literary writing. And, of course, poetry. Here is the best simile I’ve yet encountered, and it comes from the pen of a critic, not a “creative” writer: “…tombstones cried out of the earth, like teeth around a scream.” This is from John Leonard upon visiting the Jewish Cemetery in...
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Writer's Blog

“Unrelateable” Heroes: new coinage, old problem

Are we in a new era of word coinage? Bill Morris, who publishes on-line at The Millions, thinks so. He offers “fracking,” “illliquid,” and “repurpose” among other coinages. In the following excerpt, “relateable” is a new coinage in the context of a story’s main character. It’s particularly relevant to writers concerned with how readers might respond to an “unsympathetic” (i.e.,...
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Writer's Advice

My Love-Hate Relationship with Writing Advice

I have a spouse (roommate/compatriot/lover/best friend) who expresses strong ideas about my lack of self-promotion. I am in three critique groups, each worthy of my devotion. I have attended various writing retreats/programs (Centrum five times). I was in a masters degree writing program (UC-Davis) before blowing town. I spend several computer hours each day reading and researching about writing. And...
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Writer's Blog

The Fiction-writing Apocalypse… Or Not?

In the Ever-Tweakable World of Writing On, If Not For, the Internet... E-publishing Division, Amazon has added another tweak: Kindle Serials, as expounded upon by Porter Anderson (on the great Jane Friedman’s blog). Home base of the discussion seems to be, “If Charles Dickens could serialize his novels, why not 21st Century writers?” And Amazon, as usual, is the provider (or...
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