Give the gift of literature

Well its black friday. That day when everyone rushes walmart pepper sprays others for a tv and plenty of other stupid stuff in order to get the most modern i device or tv or video game. This year for Christmas give someone a book. Now don't just go buy the latest NY Times best seller. Seriously think about the person. What are their interests/hobbies? What books have they told you about? It can be anything from a cookbook to a novel to a scholastic journal. The point is to think deeply about the persons characteristics and how those are reflected in literature. Now the interesting part. What does this say about your writing? Who is your audience? Who would you buy your book/story/essay for? Seriously think about it and how it is reflected in your writing. If it's not the audience you are looking for, change. Don't change your personal voice just try to be more conscientious of your audience.

Get To Know: Patricia Cornwell

This will be the first in a hopefully long series where I find you readers interviews of writers on the internet so you can get to know professionals, especially since we don't get many professional writers here at coe. This weeks is Patricia Cornwell. Patricia is a writing veteran with the first book of her most famous series, the Kay Scarpetta series, being Postmortem (1990). She is also an avid reader as well as writer and says her most recent favorite has been American Sniper by Christopher Kyle. She continues to write and you can check the link earlier to see the full interview she gave with the New York Times.

Outliving the Horrors

Just within the last month a very interesting book came out. My Crazy Century by Ivan Klima details the life of a czech national who survived the World War 2 nazi concentration camps in Terezin. Ivan survived and later credits his survival to the fact that he has always had an irrepressibly optimistic personality. If you would like you can read more about it, with a few quotes from the author here. Or if you feel so compelled here is the amazon posting.