Joy of Re-Writes

when writing is actually fun

How Can You Waste Your Time Writing About Murder While Ignoring Global Warming, Income Inequality and the Need to "Level the Playing Field?"

This is almost too easy. I know from having done this for the last 40 years that the best non-fiction stories are never about issues, per se. At the very least they are about people involved with those issues and at best they are just about people trying to cope with the awful terror of the human condition. Politics have nothing to do with it.

Non-Fiction Story Checklist

Not every story will work. A brief checklist to help you weed out the ones which will never work.

Ghost Town: A Venice California Life

How long does it take to research a non-fiction book? Pat Hartman took six years to research hers (and she apparently didn't waste a minute). This book hammers a stake through the notion that all we have to do to cure racial tension is mix everyone up in a big diverse salad and the result will be the promised land. If there were any justice in the world, this book would be required reading at the UCLA School of Management and the Communications School at USC.

Murder On The Last Turn

Good story. Voluminous records. Lots of people to interview. There was only one (big) problem. Of the couple dozen or so people I interviewed for this story only one of them I thought actually told me the  truth.
     Mike Goodwin, a bright and resourceful murderer, has been fighting his conviction tooth and nail from day one. He currently (July  2014) has another appeal in the works, which could very well succeed.  Do I think Goodwin was behind the murders of Mickey Thompson and his wife, Trudy? Yes, I do. Did the prosecution prove that in court? I'm not so sure.

Should A Writing Instructor Sleep With A Student Who Shows Up On His Doorstep With A Bottle of Merlot In Hand?

Absolutely not!

Anne of the Shining Eyes

Writing about yourself in the third-person--an (only somewhat fictionalized) story telling how to do it