-
From Rain Man to The Maid: Autistic Archetypes in Contemporary Fiction
Autism Awareness (TM) is starting to impact reader interpretations of texts which seem to star Autistic main characters.
-
Lemon Girl
Callous and Unemotional Traits After Charlie’s psychologist talked to her mum, Charlie overheard her mum leaking Charlie’s private business over the phone. “Hun,” Michelle began. ‘Hun’ meant Lionel, Charlie’s dad. Michelle had shut herself inside her own bedroom, but Charlie heard everything from the other side of the wall. “Are you sitting down, hun? Because we
-
Mrs Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat by Roald Dahl Short Story Analysis
“Mrs Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat” is a misogynist short story by British author Roald Dahl, and an excellent example of Hate Your Wife humour. You’ll find it in Dahl’s 1959 collection Kiss, Kiss. I call this story “Mean-spirited Gift of the Magi”. WHERE TO LISTEN You may be able to unearth the BBC dramatization
-
Drafts and Rewriting: How many “drafts” do authors really write?
How many drafts do fiction authors really write. Also: what counts as a draft?
-
White Literary Taste
Did the 2020 efforts towards diversity and inclusion in the wake of George Floyd impact the systemic racial bias in publishing and reviewing?
-
The Floating Camera Technique In Writing
Here’s an example of the floating camera technique opening a novel by Marian Keyes: June the first, a bright summer’s evening, a Monday. I’ve been flying over the streets and houses of Dublin and now, finally, I’m here. I enter through the roof. Via a skylight I slide into a living room and right away
-
About
I’ve disabled right-click and copy functionality on this blog after more than a decade without it. This was prompted by trackbacks from AI-powered paraphrasing sites. While it makes no difference to me personally if someone uses info on this site to get an essay written or whatever, these technologies can’t mean anything good for humanity
-
How To Write Like Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury was an influential American science fiction author born in 1920. He died in 2012.
-
Heirs of the Living Body by Alice Munro Short Story Analysis
“Heirs of the Living Body” is the second story in Lives of Girls and Women (1971), sometimes considered a novel, sometimes a collection of short stories. Each of these stories can be read in isolation, but all concern the life of a woman called Del Jordan growing up in the small fictional Ontario town of…
-
The Flats Road by Alice Munro Short Story Analysis
“The Flat’s Road” is a short story by Canadian author Alice Munro. This story opens Munro’s 1971 collection Lives of Girls and Women.
-
Postcard by Alice Munro Short Story Analysis
“Postcard” is a short story by Canadian author Alice Munro, first published in Dance of the Happy Shades, Munro’s first short story collection (1968). This one’s about a player, and his unwitting bit-on-the-side who thinks he’ll eventually marry her.
-
Boys and Girls by Alice Munro
“Boys and Girls” is a short story by Alice Munro. Find it in Dance of the Happy Shades (1968), Munro’s first collection.
-
Review: Troubleshooting & Using a Kobo Libra 2 in 2023
Finally, I decided to switch to a dedicated eReader. Here’s what I think of the Kobo Libra 2.
-
Thanks for the Ride by Alice Munro Short Story Analysis
“Thanks For The Ride” is a short story by Canadian author Alice Munro. Find it in Dance of the Happy Shades (1968). “Ride” has two meanings in this one. Yes, those two meanings.
-
The Peace of Utrecht by Alice Munro Short Story Analysis
**UPDATE LATE 2024** After Alice Munro died, we learned about the real ‘open secrets’ (not so open to those of us not in the loop) which dominated the author’s life. We must now find a way to live with the reality that Munro’s work reads very differently after knowing certain decisions she made when faced