Anne Faye

Reading today's paper, I came across this article by Barbara Bernard: Paris Bookstore Shakespeare and Co. is a Bibliophile's Dream She tells how she came to experience the bookstore and it's owner, who recently passed away: George Whitman was delightful. He was a few years older than we, and this article reported he was 98 when he died. He was a true bibliophile who had gained the name of “Don Quixote of the Latin Quarter.” He had little money and lived in a small apartment above the book store with his daughter Sylvia and his cat and dog. He decided more than a half century ago that he wanted to have a haven for book lovers and a place where writers and would-be writers would always be welcome. My husband told him that I was a journalist, and he immediately introduced me to several people sitting in various spots in the bookstore, reading or chatting and interesting. All were writers, some still unpublished but not discouraged. The bookstore was also a library, a...

Girl Reading: A Novel by Katie Ward NY: Scribner, 2012 I had seen very positive reviews of Girl Reading: A Novel by Katie Ward and decided this was a book I definitely wanted to read. A novel about the stories behind works of art that depicted girls reading? This was a combination of several of my favorite things - history, art, and reading. When I saw a copy on the "new" shelf at my favorite local library, I grabbed it with enthusiasm. I eagerly delved into its pages. The first chapter, based on Simone Martini's "Annunciation," painted in 1333 reminded me a bit of "Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Tracy Chevalier. The story was engrossing, but one thing kept jumping out at me. There were no quotation marks and no attributions to speakers of any kind. It was incredibly distracting. While my brain finally adjusted to the literary device and it became less noticeable, it still seemed to distract from the mission of the book - to reveal the secret l...

I've been reading the March/April 2012 issue of Writer's Digest . In "5 Story Mistakes Even Good Writers Make," Steven James writes, "Believe it or not, you don't want readers to admire your writing: You want them to be so engaged in the story itself that they don't notice the way you use words to shape it." The story is what matters, and while all readers appreciate good writing, they don't want to be beat over the head with it. Anything that takes the reader out of the story is bad. I've had that experience recently with two books I've read. One author was so determined to make sure that the story took place in a given year that he threw in all sorts of unnecessary facts about that year. It took me out of what was otherwise a very good tale. A second book doesn't use quotation marks or attribute statements to characters. While I eventually adjusted to that, it was very disconcerting and detracted from the story. As a reader, I w...

I recently read the 1992 version of The Writer's Digest Handbook of Novel Writing (I picked it up in a library - there is a 1998 version on Amazon, but I don't think it is the same book.) It is basically a collection of articles that had appeared within the pages of Writer's Digest back in the day. While some of the advice has definitely changed, especially when it comes to how the publishing world works, the writing advice remains valid. I liked this passage by Tom Clancy: The only way to write is to write. You can dream about writing, make notes, make outlines, or sketch out your characters all you want, but the book will not get written until you write it. . . Success is a finished book, a stack of pages each of which is filled with words. If you reach that point, you have won a victory over yourself no less impressive than sailing single-handed around the world. Maybe you'll get published. Maybe you won't. . . What success really means, I think, is looking...