In the most recent issue of Poets & Writers, Steve Almond writes about some interesting issues in his article, "The Problem of Entitlement: A Question of Respect." In it, he attempted an amateur psychoanalysis of his students' skepticism towards the actual greatness of the stories anthologised in Best American Short Stories. To this extent, I…
Elliot Rodger: Loneliness In American Cinema Embodied
As anyone who follows this blog would tell you, I have a keen interest in the loneliness of the American male. Being that loneliness is the primary theme of my novel, I've studied its presence in movies such as Taxi Driver (1972), Falling Down (1993), One Hour Photo (2002), The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004),…
The Dangers Of The Semi-Autobiographical Novel
There are quite a number of relatively successful novels that I find to be nothing more than thinly-veiled autobiographies. Surely there are others out there who share my sentiment when they come across some book that smells like nothing more than the re-imagination of the author's life. Anis Shivani says, "Bad writing draws attention to…
A Writer Or Father: A Fork In My Road
When I entered the classroom to begin another semester of workshopping my fiction, I felt a gentle warmth in my body. I smiled, which I rarely do. I said hi to a classmate from the prior semester, which I don't ever do. What I was feeling was love. I felt like I was at home.…
The Prison of Imagination
After all these years dedicated to developing mg writing skills, I find that I most often draw inspiration from the real world--and heavily so. Without the real world to stimulate my mind, I find it difficult to write about much of anything. Therefore it can be said that I am not truly creating anything. Rather,…
