On Coincidence and What Was Meant To Be ... from the Glimmer Train Bulletin

The good people at Glimmer Train recently invited me to contribute a piece about some aspect of writing for their Bulletin of advice. So here are some thoughts about reading coincidences in one's own life and making them work in fiction:

http://www.glimmertrain.com/b40cokal.html

Thanks, Glimmer Train!

New York Times Book Review Up Front 1-11-09

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/books/review/Upfront-t.html?partner=rss&emc=rsshttp://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/01/11/books/upfront-190.jpg

Pollak award

Thanks to Richmond magazine for giving me the Theresa Pollak award for Words, to Chris for the wet mermaidish photo, and to Dustin for putting this nice writeup on the web (without telling me!): http://www.dustinlacina.com/2008/10/susann-cokal-in-richmond-magazine.html

advice for fiction writers

I offer this advice to my fiction writing workshops ...
Great writing--even when it’s comedic--puts characters at risk in a way that feels important to readers. We have to have an emotional relationship with the people, premise, and language of a story, or else we simply won’t read it. Your job is to be first a feeling person, then a calculating editor who shapes your fiction so as to provoke feeling in your audience: You are here to learn how to manipulate others.
Read on for some rules of thumb.

in URGE

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