In the Write

BEMIDJI PIONEER NOVEMBER 18, 2023 WILL WEAVER’S NEW NOVEL IS A DEEPLY PERSONAL STORY By Dennis Doeden Will Weaver’s great aunt went to her grave with no justice from an assault that shattered her life. In his newly published novel, “Power & Light,” Weaver attempts to right that wrong.“I don’t know if justice can be […]

Actually, there’s no question. At least not to me. If a book-to-be comes at me from someone I know, or via the friend-of-friend, or the infinite interconnections of the writing and reading community, and it has at least some promise, I’ll try to help . Why wouldn’t I? Sad to say, I might be an […]

Several authors use the title “Lost Boys,”  including Orson Scott Card and crime writer Faye Kellerman. But I want to talk about real lost boys–male tweens and teens in America who don’t read. Many grew up in book-free homes where the habit of reading was missing entirely. Others “hate” reading, though that’s often from fear […]

If you’ve finished a manuscript and think it’s ready to submit, your timing at this moment in the history of book publishing is unique.  On the one hand, the “old school” brick and mortar publishing houses of New York are still buying and producing books.  However, they are far more cautious about their bottom line. […]

I’m working with a couple of aspiring writers, editing their first attempts at young adult fiction.  Both are thoughtful, bright, clever people.  Both have teaching experience and/or kids at the grade levels their work is aiming toward.  Both would be fine dinner party guests; both could carry a conversation with wit and style.  However, both have […]

Or more like you have a need to write?  That’s a very good thing; it means (1) you’re not dead, and (2) you have something to say.  About the world.  About the people in it. About your place in it.  Most people don’t feel a need to express themselves or to examine their own lives […]

I’ve been remiss on the blog but for  good reason:  I’m a reader for a national literary contest.  I won’t name competition herewith, as work is ongoing.  And I truly mean ongoing.   I have 275 novels to read over the course of 4 months.  Nearly every day the courier comes with another box.  These […]

There’s nothing juvenile about the Prairie View School–at least from the outside.  Its an old State Hospital–built in the 1930’s is my guess–set on a hilltop on the outskirts of Waseca, a farming town in southwestern Minnesota.  Foreboding on the outside with heavy roofline brows and stone sides, wire-meshed windows and fenced passage ways between […]

Last night I had the pleasure of listening to a fine poetry reading by Natasha Tretheway, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 2007 for her book Native Guard.   She was up in Minnesota as part of the Northwoods Writers Conference, held by the lake on the campus of Bemidji State University. Born […]

A recent national report bemoaned the lack of male teachers in the lower grades: only nine percent of elementary teachers are male, which is a 40 year low. While the percentages go up in middle and high school, children in grades K-12 are far more likely encounter women teachers than men. This disparity has various […]

1.  Don’t Do It The whole matter of self-publication is a delicate, tricky business.  Say you’ve written for years with very little success, and you’re feeling a desperate.  Your family (husband, wife, partner, etc.) is beginning to give off odd vibes about all the time you spend writing “with nothing to show for it.”  They […]

1.  Gearing Up To Write Right now, in preparation for writing, I’m reading novels.  Actually “reading” is misleading.  Tasting. Dipping.  Sipping.  Skimming. Looking for a voice.  Looking for a tone, for a vision, for something. . . .  What interests me more than plots and character development are (1) sentences and (2) authorial voice. There […]