Category Archives: Guest Bloggers

GUEST BLOGGERS HARRISON DEMCHECK, PALLAS SNIDER ZIPORYN, ERIC D. GOODMAN, CLIFFORD GARSTANG, TOM WOOD, NANCY LYNN JARVIS, JOSEPH D. HASKE, JOHN VANDERSLICE, LEE SUMMERALL, PETER GORDON

Late Last Night Books

WE CELEBRATE LATE LAST NIGHT BOOKS’ 2-YEAR ANNIVERSARY WITH A REVIEW OF THE PAST YEAR’S GUEST BLOGGERS.

10/1/14 GUEST BLOGGER HARRISON DEMCHICKHarrison Demchick

FOR LOVE AND MAGIC.

There was a time when I determined, with absolute certainty, that I would never seek publication for my novel, The Listeners.

It wasn’t always that way. I was still in eighth grade when it clicked with me that writing is something one can do for a living, and from that moment on it was more than anything else what I wanted to do. (Continue reading)

Pallas Snider Ziporyn11/1/14 GUEST BLOGGER PALLAS SNIDER ZIPORYN

Author of the recently published serial novel A Cappella Drug Lord – sometimes described as a cross between “Glee” and “Breaking  Bad” – as well as the non-fiction book, The International Student’s Guide to American Colleges.

FIVE TIPS FOR MARKETING YOUR POETRY

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1 AUGUST 2015 FIVE TIPS FOR MARKETING YOUR POETRY

08/01/15 – FIVE TIPS FOR MARKETING YOUR POETRY

“I wrote this for myself. Would you mind taking a look at it?”

 One of my students at a poetry workshop asked me that recently. I asked, if she wrote it for herself, why did she care what I thought? She said, “Well, I might publish it someday.”

There are as many reasons to write poetry as there are poets. I’ve heard people say they write to express their inner feelings. Some say they write to “deal with” their depression, or understand their romantic relationships, or to heal after a loved one’s death. What I rarely, if ever, hear, is that their goal is communicate these feelings to readers.

When I started to write poetry in earnest a few years ago, I found many wonderful books filled with great advice about how to write better poetry, but none about what to do with your poetry once it was finished.

7/1/15 GUEST BLOGGER LEE SUMMERALL

Late Last Night Books
1 JULY 2015 7/1/15 GUEST BLOGGER LEE SUMMERALL

Writing is easy. Good writing is hard. Reviewing is harder.

Learning to write, until recently, was taught in schools. Reports, essays, even poems. I’m not sure it’s still taught, which would be too bad as writing is a discipline, it makes your thinking clearer and more logical. The requirements of written communication force you to look at things, with any luck in new and different ways. It requires focus, clarity and concentration.

But writing fiction is not the same as writing a report or an essay. When you decide to write fiction – unless you write solely for your own amusement, which I understand some people actually claim to do – you enter the gauzy, glittery, treacherous world of entertainment. In this world, there is one overarching rule: do not bore your reader.

Why Do Writers Act Like Robber Barons?

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1 JUNE 2015 Why Do Writers Act Like Robber Barons?

Why Do Writers Act Like Robber Barons?

Several weeks ago, at the university where I teach, I noticed something that disturbed and confounded me. The visiting artists brought in by other departments, most notably Music, did a lot more work—both on and off campus—than our visiting writers ever do.

The Kindness Connection

Late Last Night Books
1 APRIL 2015 The Kindness Connection

4/1/2015 – The Kindness Connection
The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation sent out its first newsletter recently. Most of you probably haven’t heard of MM, a plasma cell cancer, because it’s not high profile, but it’s a nasty beast. Until recently, average life expectancy was two years. You can understand why I cried all night when my husband was diagnosed with the disease.

2/28/15 — OUR MARCH 1, 2015, GUEST BLOGGER IS TOM WOOD

Late Last Night Books

2/28/15 — OUR MARCH 1, 2015, GUEST BLOGGER IS TOM WOOD

 

I’m sure there is a belief out there that the stereotypical writer is a shy introvert, who lives onTom Wood Journalist caffeine, speaks only to his cat, closets himself in a dark room hunched over a keyboard, and puts words to paper 24/7. Well, our guest blogger, Tom Wood, author of the inventive ‘fictional-true crime’ novel Vendetta Stone, will dispel that idea and give you a sense of how difficult it is to write a second book. When he’s not writing novels and Western short stories he is a freelance sports writer, and actor in the ABC series Nashville and films, such as, The Identical.

 

2/1/2015 GUEST BLOGGER CLIFFORD GARSTANG

Late Last Night Books

MORE THAN MERE SETTING

When we first study creative writing, we’re told that the principal elements of fiction are plot, character, and setting. My sense is that teachers of writing spend a good deal more time on plot and character than they do on setting. Perhaps that’s justified. After all, the plot of a novel or short story is essential, whether it’s an action-packed thriller or a psychological drama. Without the plot there is no story. And it is widely recognized that plot and character are inextricable. Plot—a convincing plot, anyway—arises from character, and the reader learns about the characters in a work of fiction from observing how those characters react to the complications that develop in the plot.

But what about setting?

AUTHOR CLIFFORD GARSTANG IS GUEST BLOGGER ON FEBRUARY 1

Late Last Night Books

01/29/2015   AUTHOR CLIFFORD GARSTANG IS GUEST BLOGGER ON FEBRUARY 1

For author Clifford Garstang, the setting in a story is crucial. As heClifford Garstang said in an interview here last month, “[Setting] is part of the reason I read fiction. I want to be transported, not only to whatever the story is but also to the place.” As you would expect, setting plays an important role in Garstang’s award-winning writing, including In an Uncharted Country, a collection of short stories, and What the Zhang Boys Know, a novel-in-stories. In Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet, a collection that Garstang curated and edited, each story takes place in a different country. As our guest blogger on February 1, Garstang will explain why the best fiction uses setting as more than just a backdrop.

Eric D. Goodman on the Secrets of Good Dialogue

Late Last Night Books
1 DECEMBER 2014 Eric D. Goodman on the Secrets of Good Dialogue

12/1/14 — BREAKING BAD DIALOGUE: BE CAREFUL WHO YOU TALK FOR

You’ve probably heard the advice before: be careful who you talk to. But when dealing with dialogue, it’s even more important to be careful who you talk for.

When putting dialogue into the mouth of a character, it is important to make sure they speak the way that sort of character would really speak.

PREVIEW OF OUR DECEMBER 1ST GUEST BLOGGER, ERIC D. GOODMAN

Late Last Night Books

11/29/14 — OUR DECEMBER 1ST GUEST BLOGGER IS ERIC D. GOODMAN

Goodman 3Writers and readers know that good dialogue is crucial to a novel’s success. It helps define characters, moves the plot along, and adds credibility to the story and setting. Bad dialogue, on the other hand, will stop a reader in his or her tracks. Guest blogger Eric D. Goodman will examine some of the secrets of good dialogue in this space on December 1. When he’s not blogging for Late Last Night Books, Eric writes about trains, wombs, and animals gone wild. He’s the author of Tracks: A Novel in Stories and Flightless Goose, a storybook for children.

 

WHAT AMAZON WON’T TELL YOU

Late Last Night Books
1 NOVEMBER 2014 WHAT AMAZON WON’T TELL YOU

11/01/14 – WHAT AMAZON WON’T TELL YOUA Cappella Drug Lord

All I wanted to do was write, but I held back.

Before spending the next two months slogging away, I needed to make sure that my story was going to be read. And in today’s competitive world of indie publishing, there are no guarantees.

10/1/2014 GUEST BLOGGER HARRISON DEMCHICK

Late Last Night Books

10/1/2014 GUEST BLOGGER HARRISON DEMCHICKHarrison Demchick

FOR LOVE AND MAGIC.

There was a time when I determined, with absolute certainty, that I would never seek publication for my novel, The Listeners.

It wasn’t always that way. I was still in eighth grade when it clicked with me that writing is something one can do for a living, and from that moment on it was more than anything else what I wanted to do.

9-30-14 OUR OCTOBER 1, 2014, GUEST BLOGGER, IS HARRISON DEMCHICK.

Late Last Night Books
30 SEPTEMBER 2014 9-30-14 OUR OCTOBER 1, 2014, GUEST BLOGGER, IS HARRISON DEMCHICK.

9-30-14 OUR OCTOBER 1, 2014, GUEST BLOGGER, IS HARRISON DEMCHICK.


Harrison Demchick

Read what Harrison says about the romance of being a writer versus the reality. He knows what he’s talking about. Harrison is an award-winning, twice-optioned screenwriter, and the author of literary horror novel The Listeners (Bancroft Press, 2012), and the editor of novels as diverse as Purple Jesus and Hume’s Fork by Ron Cooper, The Trials of the Core by Michael E. Thies, Renhala by Amy Joy Lutchen, The Understory and The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns by Elizabeth Leiknes, the Young Inventors Guild novels by Eden Unger Bowditch, The Goddess Letters by Vicki Matthews, and a couple dozen more.

Late Last Night Books’ guest bloggers round-up

Late Last Night Books

9/1/14  A ROUND-UP OF OUR FIRST YEAR’S  1ST-OF-THE-MONTH GUEST BLOGGERS

To read their full posts, click on “guest bloggers,” above. A biographical sketch appears at the bottom of each blogger’s full post.

CarolynSienkiewiczCarolyn Sienkiewicz, October 1, “I have a particular attraction to mysteries translated from another language. When I see an author’s name that is clearly not English in origin, I’m inevitably enticed to pick up the book. The draw for me is that I know that there, between those inviting covers, will be a story that comes from another culture.”

roncooperheadshotRon Cooper, November 1, “If you prefer stories about laid-off sheet metal workers driven to sell weed to pay rent on their roach-infested shotgun shacks, bankrupt farmers trying to figure out how to commit suicide yet have their families still collect double indemnity life insurance, and out-of-work grocery store clerks living out of their cars and who convince themselves they’re really not whores as they blow another stranger for the price of a shot of cheap liquor, rather than another NYT best seller about Hartford suburbanites swapping neuroses, you now have choices.”

“The Spirit Moves Me,” guest post of Garry Craig Powell, author of Stoning the Devil

Late Last Night Books

THE SPIRIT MOVES ME

I sometimes wonder why I do it—why I write. On occasion I’m inspired and it’s fun, but if I’m honest, it’s usually a struggle. It rarely comes easy and when it’s not going well I am in a perennial state of anxiety and gloom. So why don’t I just give it up?

Garry Craig Powell, author of Stoning the Devil, guest blogger

Late Last Night Books

6/29/14 OUR GUEST BLOGGER ON JULY 1 WILL BE GARRY CRAIG POWELL, AUTHOR OF STONING THE DEVIL 

GARRYCRAIGPOWELLheadshotGarry Craig Powell was educated at the universities of Cambridge, Durham, and Arizona. Living in the Persian Gulf and teaching on the women’s campus of the national university inspired him to write his novel-in-stories, Stoning the Devil (Skylight Press, 2012), set in the UAE. His short fiction has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2009, McSweeney’s, Nimrod, New Orleans Review, and other literary magazines. He has been awarded fellowships by the Arkansas Arts Council and the Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow.

PREVIEW OF OUR JUNE 1 GUEST BLOGGER, BARB GOFFMAN.

Late Last Night Books

PREVIEW OF OUR JUNE 1 GUEST BLOGGER, BARB GOFFMAN. 

Barb Goffman is an award-winning writer of crime short stories. In 2013, her first story collection, Don’t Get Mad, Get Even, was published by Wildside Press. Her blog will be “The Best Kind of Trouble is Girl Trouble.”BarbGoffman

4/1/2014. GUEST BLOGGER PEGGY PAYNE ON NOVELS OF THE SUPERNATURAL AND EXTREMELY NATURAL

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1 APRIL 2014 4/1/2014. GUEST BLOGGER PEGGY PAYNE ON NOVELS OF THE SUPERNATURAL AND EXTREMELY NATURAL

4/1/2014.   GUEST BLOGGER PEGGY PAYNE ON NOVELS OF THE SUPERNATURAL AND EXTREMELY NATURAL

The question most writers are asked second (after the universal “What do you do?”) is “What do you write?”

Not such an easy question to answer for novelists whose books deal with both spirituality and the raw details of physical and emotional life.

More important, what if you’re a reader and want to read such a book: where do you look?  Again, not so easy.

AUTHOR PEGGY PAYNE IS GUEST BLOGGER ON APRIL 1

Late Last Night Books

3/29/14.  AUTHOR PEGGY PAYNE IS GUEST BLOGGER ON APRIL 1

Author Peggy Payne has chosen to craft her novels around the intersection of spirituality and physical/emotional life. Or, asPeggy Payne she explained in an interview here earlier this month, the subject chose her. The results include Revelation, Cobalt Blue, and Sister India, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Despite her novels’ success, Peggy says she has difficulty explaining their nature and an even bigger challenge categorizing them so readers know where to find them. She’s come up with possible, somewhat whimsical, solutions to the labeling dilemma, which she shares along with actual sources for books of “expanded realism” on a guest blog post here April 1.

GUEST BLOGGER BARBARA WESTWOOD DIEHL ON THE ENDURING APPEAL OF THE SHORT STORY

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1 MARCH 2014 GUEST BLOGGER BARBARA WESTWOOD DIEHL ON THE ENDURING APPEAL OF THE SHORT STORY

3/1/14 – GUEST BLOGGER BARBARA WESTWOOD DIEHL ON THE SHORT STORY’S ENDURING APPEAL

Yes, I complain about the volume of submissions. (502 in the last 22 days, and 256 of those are short stories.) I complain about the time away from my own writing. I complain about all the administrative tasks of running a literary journal—I won’t put you to sleep with that laundry list—but all those tasks have nothing to do with the intoxicating work of reading hundreds of short stories each submission period. Yes, all of them, not only the stories that we finally publish. I’m humbled , stunned really, to have all those stories entrusted to me.