Blog
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Getting to the Why of Editing
In his wildly popular TED Talk video How Great Leaders Inspire Action, author Simon Sinek maintains that most businesses know what they do, and that some businesses even understand how they do it, but that few businesses truly understand why they do it. Why does your organization exist? he asks. Why do you get out of […]
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Four on the Floor with Kathe Koja
My Four on the Floor interview with Kathe Koja appears below. I first discovered Koja’s writing in the early ’90s, when as a college student I visited a bookstore (remember those?) and picked up the Dell/Abyss paperback edition of her novel The Cipher. (If you’ve seen either this edition or the Abyss edition of her novel Bad Brains, you’ll likely […]
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A Walk-Through of the Copyright Page
In their zeal to dive into the newest work by their favorite author, readers often flip quickly past the copyright page. After all, why pore over a bunch of legal information when the author’s voice is calling from just a few pages away? But the page, located on the back (or verso) of the title […]
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Four on the Floor with Sophie Playle
A specialist fiction editor who provides editorial services directly to writers, Sophie Playle also trains other editors through her online courses and is the author of the short story collection The Hours of Creeping Night—which I recommend highly! I’ve enjoyed following Sophie on Twitter and am also a fan of her newsletter, Liminal Letters (particularly of […]
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Book Pick: ‘Quack This Way’
At one point in Quack This Way: David Foster Wallace & Bryan A. Garner Talk Language and Writing (2013), Wallace suggests that usage dictionaries are perfect bathroom readers because the entries have the appeal of trivia, are brief, and connect with usages the reader will inevitably encounter soon thereafter. While Garner’s usage dictionary is one of […]
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Four on the Floor with Mitchel Whitington
[This interview originally appeared in the November 2017 edition of Ramparts, the monthly newsletter from Castle Walls Editing.] Writer and lecturer Mitchel Whitington, born in East Texas, has explored haunted locations all across the United States, and on top of that, Mitchel lives and works in a haunted house (The Grove) in Jefferson, Texas. Mitchel’s body of […]
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Four on the Floor with Writer/Producer/Director Al Gough
Alfred Gough III (@TheRealAlGough) is half of the prolific Alfred Gough-Miles Millar writing/producing team. Having achieved success with properties as diverse as Spider-Man 2, Lethal Weapon 4, Smallville, Into the Badlands, and The Shannara Chronicles, Al has ranged far from the quiet streets of his hometown of Leonardtown, Maryland. I grew up in that same town and was lucky enough to […]
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5 Tips for Winning NaNoWriMo
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is almost upon us. I participated for the first time three years ago and now have three successful campaigns under my belt (meaning I’ve hit the 50,000-word mark each time). Brag much, James? I know, I know, but if I’m going to offer tips for the event I should at […]
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Four on the Floor with Author J. J. White
[An abbreviated version of this interview ran in my September newsletter.] Author J . J. White has been kind enough to credit my editing with helping him land an agent and traditional publisher. Read on to learn more about the author and to see how he responded to the Four on the Floor interview. About […]
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Book Pick: ‘Do I Make Myself Clear?’ by Harold Evans
Too often people perceive the work of editors as so much pedantry or needless fussiness. But editors help authors communicate to their audience, and, as Harold Evans demonstrates in Do I Make Myself Clear? Why Writing Well Matters, writing well does matter—and sometimes it even saves lives. [bctt tweet=”“Words have consequences.”—Harold Evans, author of […]