Word Pirates

The “New York Times” has an essay about literary dealbreakers. Is there a book that, if seen on the shelf or favorites list of a potential mate, would make you turn around and run?
We all have our dealbreaker lists, I’m sure. Although, in the throes of passion, these kinds of lists usually disappear until the […]

I really enjoyed this list of 100 best last lines from novels–at least what I read of it so far. It reminded me how beautiful the English language can be. Here are a few that I liked:

You have fallen into art- return to life -William H. Gass, Willie Masters’ Lonesome Wife (1968)
The offing was barred […]

Here’s an interview with Anita Thompson, wife of Hunter S Thompson. She talks about his last days, what it was like living with him, and the struggle with his estate. It’s all pretty predictable and gossipy, but interesting none-the-less:
“The best thing about our marriage was that it was like being married to a teenage […]

Hollywood is a mess and the studios are blaming the writers. Now that the writers are back at work after the strike, the studios are restricting raises and reluctant to make new deals, according to this fascinating article in Variety.
In the same way that some execs were convinced that WGA leaders were hell-bent on striking, […]

The Huffington Post has a fun thingy — FundRace 2008 –that lets you look up political donations based on all sorts of criteria. Searching for political donations by those who list their occupation as “writer” shows that writers donated almost $2 million … with about $1.7 million of that going to Democrats.
Some people I’ve […]

Is the Orange Prize sexist? The all-woman literature prize has been won by writers I deeply admire, like Ann Patchett and Margaret Atwood. But then, here’s someone else I deeply admire–AS Byatt–saying that “such a prize was never needed.”
This is a tough issue. After all, the traditional canon of English literature is dominated by white […]

Steve Moran, a judge for an English contest called the Willesden Herald short story competition, wrote a list of reasons why he rejects short stories. It starts out with common critiques such as too many characters or weak endings and quickly descends into a highly personalized and whimsical list. For example:
Ankles. Particularly ankles in Asia. […]

If you have a short story, you best submit it to Glimmer Train. There’s no reason not to. It’s a quality publication. It’s free to submit your story, and payment for accepted stories is $700 plus 10 issues. The current reading period is the entire month of April, so you still have a few weeks […]

Memoir (and) is a new literary journal that will be hitting new stands this spring. Looks like they need submissions. Here’s the deal:
Memoir (and) is an up-and-coming journal for the exploration of memoir as “the” genre of the 21st century. We are based in Sausalito, California, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge.
We strive […]

On March 4, the Word Pirates talked about characters. What makes a good character? What characters stick in our minds and why? How likable does a character have to be? etc. It was a good discussion.
For the prompt, we wrote with the John Gardner Writing Award in mind.
HERE’S WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR:
We want to see […]

Word Pirates, let me introduce you to Gender Guesser. It claims it can tell whether a man or a woman is writing a paragraph. See, maybe you didn’t know, but women and men write differently. Men use ACTION verbs and women write about their feelings. Thus, using a handy algorithm, it can predict what sex […]

“Mail & Guardian” has a commentary by Tim Lott called “Whatever happened to literary love?” In it he says that stories about love are becoming rare, though they were once the standard of great literature.
Richard Curtis, screenwriter of “Four Weddings and Funeral,” “Notting Hill” and “Love Actually,” brings the point home:
“If you write a […]