17 Reasons Pastors Should Write a Book

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Pastor, you shepherd a church looking to you for leadership and spiritual guidance. Your days are packed with innumerable opportunities to influence and communicate God’s Truth.

So why, with your busy job and maxed-out social calendar, would you ever want to take the time to write a book? Glad you asked!

Here are 17 reasons every pastor should consider writing a book:

#1. Writing a book can increase the audience your message can reach

#2. Your message isn’t “cut-short” or minimized by a preaching clock

#3. A book is another way to pastor your church … not everyone is an auditory learner

#4. You will leave a legacy beyond your years

#5. A writing project can deeply motivate and get you up in the morning

#6. Writing will significantly expand your sermon repertoire

#7. You join a massive and historic church tradition dating back centuries

#8. Writing a book will increase clarity of thought and teach you to zero-in on your point

10 Steps To Getting A Literary Agent

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Last time, we covered 10 Steps to Writing a Novel. This time, it’s 10 Steps to getting a literary agent, though I have to warn you, the most important steps are the novel-writing ones.

1. Finish the book

You will annoy everybody you query if your novel isn’t finished. You want to be in the position where you can press ‘send’ as soon as an agent requests the full. If a waitress in a restaurant reads you the specials and you ordered one, then she returned to your table to tell you it would be four weeks, how would you feel? Quite annoyed. I had full requests within hours of emailing. Be prepared!

2. But don’t never finish the book

You’ll reach a stage where you are just tinkering. You take a comma out, you put it back. You can always better your prose – I just got the second round of edits from my publisher and still changed a couple of sentences that there was nothing truly wrong with – but you need to get to the point where you say ‘enough’s enough’, query, and leave well alone.

3. Research your agents

A good author friend of mine recommends batches of five. This way, you always have a few irons in the fire but you’re not spamming every agent in London, and, if you get a handful of rejections, you have some more agents you can query when you’ve maybe done some editing. So choose five agents who:

a. represent your genre – preferably they will explicitly state this on their submission guidelines, Twitter, or their manuscript wish lists.

b. you think would like your book. Thanks to the internet, there are myriad ways to ascertain this. My agent is on Goodreads, for example, and it’s pretty easy for me to see we have very similar tastes.

c. have a track record. They don’t have to have sold a novel to a publishing house personally (we all start somewhere… I think as long as an agent is supported by a reputable agency it doesn’t matter that they’re just starting out. They will have the agency’s name attached to their submissions and being junior may mean they have more time for you) but I looked for agents from a reputable agency who had great sales track records.

Agents often are quite public about looking for very specific things, so I followed a lot of them on social media when I was writing and took note of any who were looking for books that sounded like mine (and then when I was querying I stalked them and interpreted tweets like ‘having a great day!’ to mean ‘I love your submission, Gilly!’)

4. Write a synopsis

Oh, doom, I know. A synopsis is a horrible thing. I keep mine factual and I do spoil the ending in it. It’s a statement, really, of what actually happens in your book. You can include a note at the end stating that it includes themes of motherhood, or whatever, but what I think the synopsis should actually do is chart your main plot arc. Whether or not I include sub plots depends on how big a role they play in the main plot. If it’s just a best friend with her own small story arc I leave it out. If it’s that the heroine’s father dies which had a huge impact on a relationship story line, I include it.

A synopsis should be about a page. It shouldn’t take long. Many agents say that they look at the query letter, and then the chapters, and the synopsis is only there for reassurance that your contemporary romance isn’t going to have vampires appearing halfway through, so don’t worry.

5. Write a query letter

I found the internet kind of overwhelming when it came to querying. There was so much information out there that it made the task seem somehow more important than it really was. The aim of this is to write a professional letter that conceptualises what your book is about. That’s all. It should be personalised (Dear Joe Bloggs) and signed off formally (Kind regards, or some such). I used this format:

a. A paragraph about why I wanted to work with that agent. I made it very specific, because (see point 3), I had chosen these agents specifically. Maybe you love a book by one of their clients or they wrote a brilliant article in the bookseller or they’re great at Twitter or they’ve said they’re looking for crime thrillers…

b. My elevator pitch/blurb. I kept this pretty short. This is the hook of your book. If this was Harry Potter, it would be: Harry receives a letter inviting him to go to a witchcraft school, where the magical community is at war with an evil wizard. For The Girl On The Train, this would be: Rachel is on the train to work one morning, looking in at the houses along her commute, when she sees something suspicious. I then added a sentence which described where the book was going (he discovers that the wizard who killed his parents must be avenged by he alone/a woman is missing; does Rachel hold the key to discovering who is responsible?) and one more summing up what sort of book it was (it is middle-grade fiction/it is commercial women’s fiction) and the word count.

c. A very short sentence about me. I just said what I did for a living and where I lived. Do not include writing credits unless you have done something amazing.

6. Look at your first three chapters

If, at any point when you are writing your synopsis and query letter, you think ‘man, I wish I could send chapter 12, 14 and 29!’ then something has gone wrong. Your first three chapters should be sparkly, enticing and brilliant. They should begin with the call to action. They shouldn’t (in my opinion) really include any backstory at all, and it should be show show show, no telling. As a side note – and I know I’m not agent – I have discarded published books for these things:

a. dream sequences

b. chase scenes where the reader does not know or care who is being chased

c. swear words

d. alarm clocks/hero/heroine waking up/wondering where they are

e. huge amounts of exposition

f. a book that begins too early, working itself up to the action

g. phonetic spellings of sounds

7. Put it together and what have you got?

Send the synopsis, first three chapters, and query off to your five chosen agents. ADDRESS THEM ALL PERSONALLY AND DO NOT BLIND CARBON COPY THEM ALL IN. I pasted the body of my query letter in to an email, because attaching a Word document letter just felt too old school.

Keep a spreadsheet. The agent, the agency, the date you sent it, and their response times (usually listed on their websites). I then made an excel formula which told me on which date I could chase, because I am like this.

8. Be professional in all dealings

When you get a rejection, don’t argue. When you get a full request, just send the book with a normal email. (no OMG-ing)

9. When an agent wants to talk…

… They do not ALWAYS want to offer representation (take it from somebody who went to a meeting with somebody I thought would offer and then cried so much on the train journey home that a LONDONER asked me if I was okay). They sometimes want to see what sort of a person you are, or if you might be willing to do a big edit before signing, or anything, really. Stay professional. My agent offered at the end of our meeting. Once she had sussed me out. (I kept my craziness under wraps).

10. If they offer representation…

… Have a really big think. I cannot stress enough how important your agent will become to your writing career.

This is the person who will pitch your work to editors before going on submission, champion you at book fairs, call you with good news, bad news, sales figures, negotiate your royalty rates, weigh in on your idea for your next novel (and the one after that…), etc etc. It’s tempting – and exciting – to accept the first offer without thinking, but stop and ponder.

For further insight into the author/agent relationship, Gilly also took the time to interview her agent. Read her short interview with Clare Wallace at Darley Anderson here.

Gilly McAllister is an author with her debut novel to be published by Michael Joseph Penguin next year, lawyer and professional worrier. She is owned by a large ginger tom cat. She tweets from @Billygean

Write Something That Will Change Your Life

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It seems like a tall order, to write something that will change your life. And it is. But I think it’s still worth striving for.

By changing your life, I don’t necessarily mean that you have to write something that will earn you lots of money so you can buy an island or even enough money that you can quit your day job. Although, if becoming rich (or rich enough) is important to you, then that’s fine too.

And that’s the point, to write something that is important to you, something that comes from your heart, something that means a lot to you. As I said, money might be important to you, but it might be worth digging deeper to ask why money would be important.

If you want to use the money to buy a house for each of your kids, then it’s not the money that’s so important but your family’s long-term security. If it is an island you want, then maybe that’s because of your love for nature, quiet and rest.

It’s not always so easy to know what’s truly important to you, but there are—of course—some useful exercises to help determine your deeply held values.

1. Ambitions

We develop many of our most important values at an early age, and one way to find out what matters to you most is to go back and try to remember what your ambitions were as a child.

Think back to when you were young. What did you imagine your future would be like? Did you want a happy life with a family? Did you have a hero, someone you wanted to be like when you grew up? If so, what qualities did that person have that you admired?

Use these questions to write a few lines about your ambitions as a child. From your answers, you should already get a sense of what is most important to you. It could be that family, career, justice, or friendship is what matters most. Other values could be anything from adventure and assertiveness to sexuality and spirituality.

2. The interview

Even if you only write in those few spare moments you have in the week, it’s still useful to think of your work as an author as a career. What, for example, do you want to achieve with your writing? And what special skills do you have to make that happen?

Imagine you’re preparing for a job interview to be an author, your kind of author. Think about some of the following questions and even make short notes if you want.

• What are your most important personal qualities for this job? As with a real interview, find specific examples of when you displayed these qualities in the past.
• Why is writing important to you?
• What would you like your readers to say about you?
• What would you like other writers to say about you?
• If you had to have a personal motto, what would it be?

3. The speech

It’s your 90th birthday, and you’re a successful author. The people close to you have organized a party. Imagine then that one of them, the person most important to you—either in your personal life or your writing career—gives a speech. What would they say about your life? What did you stand for? How did you make a difference?

You could write the whole speech or just answer those few questions.

These exercises will give you an indication of what’s most important in your life. Look for recurring themes from all these answers and identify the most important values to you. Examples of typical values not already mentioned are: fairness, responsibility, kindness, safety, romance, conformity, gratitude, and humor.

You can use these values to give your writing direction, to write about the things that matter to you, to make the kind of change—in your life and others—that you would like to see. These are the principles that guide you through your life and which can inspire your writing.

The recent increase in popularity of feelgood books in the so-called up-lit genre—Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and Jamie Thurston’s Kindness, the Little Things that Matter—make use of qualities like kindness and gratitude.

So, if, for example, family is an important value for you, you could explore that in your writing, perhaps by having a main character who ignores her family only to finally have to turn to the unconditional support of her family. If fairness is an important value, you could test your hero’s commitment to always being fair, and show that it was the right way to go despite being confronted with many difficulties and dilemmas along the way.

By Jim Dempsey.  Shared from Writer Unboxed

10 Ridiculously Simple Steps for Writing a Book

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The hard part of writing a book isn’t getting published. It’s the actual writing. In this article, I offer 10 steps for writing a book along with 10 bonus steps. To download them all, click here.

As the bestselling author of five books, I can tell you without hesitation that the hardest part of a writer’s job is sitting down to do the work. Books don’t just write themselves, after all. You have to invest everything you are into creating an important piece of work.

For years, I dreamed of being a professional writer. I believed I had important things to say that the world needed to hear. But as I look back on what it really takes to become an author, I realize how different the process was from my expectations.

To begin with, you don’t just sit down to write a book. That’s not how writing works. You write a sentence, then a paragraph, then maybe if you’re lucky, an entire chapter. Writing happens in fits and starts, in bits and pieces. It’s a process.

The way you get the work done is not complicated. You take one step at a time, then another and another. As I look back on the books I’ve written, I can see how the way they were made was not as glamorous as I once thought.

How to really write a book

In this post, I’ll teach you the fundamental steps you need to write a book. I’ve worked hard to make this easy to digest and super practical, so you can start making progress.

And just a heads up: if you dream of authoring a bestselling book like I have and you’re looking for a structured plan to guide you through the writing process, I have a special opportunity for you at the end of this post where I break the process down.

But first, let’s look at the big picture. What does it take to write a book? It happens in three phases:

• Beginning: You have to start writing. This sounds obvious, but it may be the most overlooked step in the process. You write a book by deciding first what you’re going to write and how you’re going to write it.
• Staying motivated: Once you start writing, you will face self-doubt and overwhelm and a hundred other adversaries. Planning ahead for those obstacles ensures you won’t quit when they come.
• Finishing: Nobody cares about the book that you almost wrote. We want to read the one you actually finished, which means no matter what, the thing that makes you a writer is your ability not to start a project, but to complete one.

Below are 10 ridiculously simple tips that fall under each of these three major phases plus an additional 10 bonus tips. I hope they help you tackle and finish the book you dream of writing.

To download a quick reference guide for all 20 writing tips click here to get them all for free.

Phase 1: Getting started

We all have to start somewhere. With writing a book, the first phase is made up of four parts:

1. Decide what the book is about

Good writing is always about something. Write the argument of your book in a sentence, then stretch that out to a paragraph, and then to a one-page outline. After that, write a table of contents to help guide you as you write, then break each chapter into a few sections. Think of your book in terms of beginning, middle, and end. Anything more complicated will get you lost.

2. Set a daily word count goal

John Grisham began his writing career as a lawyer and new dad — in other words, he was really busy. Nonetheless, he got up an hour or two early every morning and wrote a page a day. After a couple of years, he had a novel. A page a day is only about 300 words. You don’t need to write a lot. You just need to write often. Setting a daily goal will give you something to aim for. Make it small and attainable so that you can hit your goal each day and start building momentum.

3. Set a time to work on your book every day

Consistency makes creativity easier. You need a daily deadline to do your work — that’s how you’ll finish writing a book. Feel free to take a day off, if you want, but schedule that ahead of time. Never let a deadline pass; don’t let yourself off the hook so easily. Setting a daily deadline and regular writing time will ensure that you don’t have to think about when you will write. When it’s time to write, it’s time to write.

4. Write in the same place every time

It doesn’t matter if it’s a desk or a restaurant or the kitchen table. It just needs to be different from where you do other activities. Make your writing location a special space, so that when you enter it, you’re ready to work. It should remind you of your commitment to finish this book. Again, the goal here is to not think and just start writing.

Phase 2: Doing the work

Now, it’s time to get down to business. Here, we are going to focus on the next three tips to help you get the book done:

5. Set a total word count

Begin with the end in mind. Once you’ve started writing, you need a total word count for your book. Think in terms of 10-thousand work increments and break each chapter into roughly equal lengths. Here are some general guiding principles:

• 10,000 words = a pamphlet or business white paper. Read time = 30-60 minutes.
• 20,000 words = short eBook or manifesto. The Communist Manifesto is an example of this, at about 18,000 words. Read time = 1-2 hours.
• 40,000–60,000 words = standard nonfiction book / novella. The Great Gatsby is an example of this. Read time = three to four hours.
• 60,000–80,000 words = long nonfiction book / standard-length novel. Most Malcolm Gladwell books fit in this range. Read time = four to six hours.
• 80,000 words–100,000 words = very long nonfiction book / long novel. The Four-Hour Work Week falls in this range.
• 100,000+ words = epic-length novel / academic book / biography. Read time = six to eight hours. The Steve Jobs biography would fit this category.

6. Give yourself weekly deadlines

You need a weekly goal. Make it a word count to keep things objective. Celebrate the progress you’ve made while still being honest about how much work is left to do. You need to have something to aim for and a way to measure yourself. This is the only way I ever get any work done: with a deadline.

7. Get early feedback

Nothing stings worse than writing a book and then having to rewrite it, because you didn’t let anyone look at it. Have a few trusted advisers to help you discern what’s worth writing. These can be friends, editors, family. Just try to find someone who will give you honest feedback early on to make sure you’re headed in the right direction.

Phase 3: Finishing

How do you know when you’re done? Short answer: you don’t. Not really. So here’s what you do to end this book-writing process well:

8. Commit to shipping

No matter what, finish the book. Set a deadline or have one set for you. Then release it to the world. Send it to the publisher, release it on Amazon, do whatever you need to do to get it in front of people. Just don’t put it in your drawer. The worst thing would be for you to quit once this thing is written. That won’t make you do your best work and it won’t allow you to share your ideas with the world.

9. Embrace failure

As you approach the end of this project, know that this will be hard and you will most certainly mess up. Just be okay with failing, and give yourself grace. That’s what will sustain you — the determination to continue, not your elusive standards of perfection.

10. Write another book

Most authors are embarrassed by their first book. I certainly was. But without that first book, you will never learn the lessons you might otherwise miss out on. So, put your work out there, fail early, and try again. This is the only way you get better. You have to practice, which means you have to keep writing.

Every writer started somewhere, and most of them started by squeezing their writing into the cracks of their daily lives. That’s how I began, and it may be where you begin, as well. The ones who make it are the ones who show up day after day. You can do the same.

The reason most people never finish their books

Every year, millions of books go unfinished. Books that could have helped people, brought beauty or wisdom into the world. But they never came to be. And in one way or another, the reason is always the same: the author quit.

Maybe you’ve dealt with this. You started writing a book but never completed it. You got stuck and didn’t know how to finish. Or you completed your manuscript but didn’t know what to do after. Worse yet, you wrote a book, but nobody cared about it. Nobody bought or read it.

I’ve been there before.

In fact, the first couple books I wrote didn’t do that well at all — even with a traditional publisher. It took me years to learn this, but here’s what nobody ever told me:

Before you can launch a bestseller, first you have to write one.

What I mean by that is so many writers sit down to write their masterpiece, assuming that’s all there is to it. Just sit down and write. But as I’ve studied the world’s most gifted and successful authors, I’ve noticed this is not what the masters do. They are far more intentional than simply sitting and letting the words flow.

Every great writer needs a system they can trust. You and I are no different. But an author’s system for how they produce bestselling book after bestselling book is not always the easiest thing to access. So, as a matter of survival, I’ve had to figure it out for myself and create a clear book-writing framework that works. This is what I call the “Write a Bestseller Method” which helps me get a book written and ready to launch.

This is the part that I never learned in any English class. Producing work that sells is not just about writing what you think is good. It’s about finding an idea that will both excite you and excite an audience. It’s about being intentional and thinking through the whole process, while having proper accountability to keep you going.

In other words, the writing process matters. It matters a lot. You have to not only finish your book but write one worthy of being sold. And if you want to maximize your chances of finishing your book, you need a proven plan.

Writing books has changed my life. It helped me clarify my thinking, find my calling as an author, and has provided endless opportunities to make an impact on the world and a living for my family.

If you’re serious about doing the same, click here to learn more about the Write a Bestseller Program.

Bonus: 10 more writing tips!

If you need some help staying motivated, here are another 10 tips to help you keep going in the process:

11. Only write one chapter at a time

Write and publish a novel, one chapter at a time, using Amazon Kindle Singles, Wattpad, or sharing with your email list subscribers.

12. Write a shorter book

The idea of writing a 500-page masterpiece can be paralyzing. Instead, write a short book of poems or stories. Long projects are daunting. Start small.

13. Start a blog to get feedback early

Getting feedback early and often helps break up the overwhelm. Start a website on WordPress or Tumblr and use it to write your book a chapter or scene at a time. Then eventually publish all the posts in a hardcopy book. This is a little different than tradition blogging, but the same concepts apply. We created a free tool to help you know when your blog posts are ready to publish. Check out Don’t Hit Publish.

14. Keep an inspiration list

You need it in order to keep fresh ideas flowing. Read constantly, and use a system to capture, organize and find the content you’ve curated. I use Evernote, but use a system that works for you.

15. Keep a journal

Then, rewrite the entries in a much more polished book format, but use some photocopies or scans of the journal pages as illustrations in the book. You could even sell “deluxe” editions that come with photocopied versions of the journal.

16. Deliver consistently

Some days, it’s easy to write. Some days, it’s incredibly hard. The truth is: inspiration is merely a byproduct of your hard work. You can’t wait for inspiration. The Muse is really an out-of-work bum who won’t move until you do. Show her who’s boss and that you mean business.

17. Take frequent breaks

Niel Fiore, the author of The Now Habit, says, “There is one main reason why we procrastinate: It rewards us with temporary relief from stress.” If you’re constantly stressed about your unfinished book, you’ll end up breaking your schedule. Instead, plan for breaks ahead of time so you stay fresh: minute breaks, hour breaks, or even multiple day breaks.

18. Remove distractions

Try tools like Bear or Scrivener to let you write in a totally distraction free environment. That way, email, Facebook, and Twitter won’t interrupt your flow.

19. Write where others are writing (or working)

If you’re having trouble writing consistently by yourself, write where other people are also working. A coffee shop or library where people are actually working and not just socializing can help. If you’re in a place where other people are getting things done, then you’ll have no choice but to join them.

20. Don’t edit as you go

Instead, write without judgment first, then go back and edit later. You’ll keep a better flow and won’t be interrupted by constant criticism of your own work. And you’ll have a lot more writing to edit when it’s time to do so.

It’s not just about the writing

Most books go unfinished. That’s the reality. And those that do get finished quickly fade into anonymity amongst the hundreds of thousands of new books that are published every year.

If you want to be different, you’re going to need a plan. I’ve tried to share that with you in this post. But maybe you want to not only get your book done, but you want to make sure it’s something worth selling. You want a proven plan, something you can trust — checklist that ensures you will get the work done.

The Write a Bestseller program is just that.

Remember: Before you can launch a bestseller, you have to write one. Fortunately, I’ve broken down my process piece by piece — this is what I’ve learned from publishing five books and from talking to many of the world’s bestselling authors.

In this program, I share with you exactly what it takes to write a bestselling book and why this is something you need to be thinking about from Day 1. This quick but thorough online course will help you:

• Figure out how to come up with a compelling idea for a book and turn it into something people will want to read
• Finally finish that book manuscript you’ve been playing with for years
• Follow a proven plan to write not only a good book but one that will continue to sell

To learn more about that and have me walk you through each step of writing a best-selling book, click here.

You can also download a quick reference guide for all of these writing tips here.

Written by Jeff Goins

How to write an eBook in 2018 and make

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How to make money writing and publishing eBooks Part 1. The first post in this series is on how The cash wrap is composed out of old hardcovers at The Last Boottkstore in Los Angeles. (While in LA I also learned about the Portland, OR, store tradition of handing you a beer while you browse records…I pedal over to Kensington just after dark. As I roll along the lane towards the railway underpass, a young Asian woman on her way home from the station walks out of the tunnel towards me. After she passes there’s a stillness, a moment of silent freshness that feels like spring.Helen Garner is one of Australia’s greatest writers. Her short non-fiction has enormous range. Spanning fifteen years of work, Everywhere I Look is a book full of unexpected moments, sudden shafts of light, piercing intuition. flashes of anger and incidental humour. It takes us from backstage at the ballet.

to the trial of a woman for the murder of her newborn baby. It moves effortlessly from the significance of moving. house to the pleasure of re-reading Pride and Prejudice.I pedal over to Kensington just after dark.As I roll along the lane towards the railway underpass, a young Asian woman on her way home from the station.

The sections of The Fighter that describe Melbourne’s postwar Jewish community are wonderfully evocative and vibrant. The reader feels transported back in time. What’s it like for you as a writer to go back and relive those times

I love writing about those times and places, partly because I knew them so well. I love writing about the physical neighbourhood, the textures, the changes of an inner suburban neighbourhood during the turning of the seasons. I love taking the reader both into the streets and into those small terraced houses, and out into the backyard boxing gym, and to introduce them to a range of characters across cultural boundaries—although of course, there are darker and disturbing elements to the times, and to the streets, which must be brought to light.

What books are you enjoying reading at the moment

Like many others I caught Ferrante fever, and have read all four of her Neapolitan novels. There are parallels between the streets of Naples, and the worlds she describes, with postwar inner Melbourne, but of course the enduring poverty and the violence it produces was, for historical reasons, more intense and disturbing, and the fight to get out of it all the more riveting. I love the visceral nature of Ferrante’s writing, and her exploration, especially of the women of the neighbourhood—the impact on the mothers, yet another parallel—her range of characters and depth of perception is astonishing, and her writing, at times so intense it become hallucinatory. She is a writer’s writer

and the power of her writing inspires writers. I am moving onto Atticus Lish, Preparation for the Next Life, and early indications are that here is also a powerful voice, documenting the gritty streets and working-class immigrant lives of the inner city.

21 Quotes That Remind Us Just How Much

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How to make money writing and publishing eBooks Part 1. The first post in this series is on how The cash wrap is composed out of old hardcovers at The Last Boottkstore in Los Angeles. (While in LA I also learned about the Portland, OR, store tradition of handing you a beer while you browse records…I pedal over to Kensington just after dark. As I roll along the lane towards the railway underpass, a young Asian woman on her way home from the station walks out of the tunnel towards me. After she passes there’s a stillness, a moment of silent freshness that feels like spring.Helen Garner is one of Australia’s greatest writers. Her short non-fiction has enormous range. Spanning fifteen years of work, Everywhere I Look is a book full of unexpected moments, sudden shafts of light, piercing intuition. flashes of anger and incidental humour. It takes us from backstage at the ballet.

to the trial of a woman for the murder of her newborn baby. It moves effortlessly from the significance of moving. house to the pleasure of re-reading Pride and Prejudice.I pedal over to Kensington just after dark.As I roll along the lane towards the railway underpass, a young Asian woman on her way home from the station.

The sections of The Fighter that describe Melbourne’s postwar Jewish community are wonderfully evocative and vibrant. The reader feels transported back in time. What’s it like for you as a writer to go back and relive those times

I love writing about those times and places, partly because I knew them so well. I love writing about the physical neighbourhood, the textures, the changes of an inner suburban neighbourhood during the turning of the seasons. I love taking the reader both into the streets and into those small terraced houses, and out into the backyard boxing gym, and to introduce them to a range of characters across cultural boundaries—although of course, there are darker and disturbing elements to the times, and to the streets, which must be brought to light.

What books are you enjoying reading at the moment

Like many others I caught Ferrante fever, and have read all four of her Neapolitan novels. There are parallels between the streets of Naples, and the worlds she describes, with postwar inner Melbourne, but of course the enduring poverty and the violence it produces was, for historical reasons, more intense and disturbing, and the fight to get out of it all the more riveting. I love the visceral nature of Ferrante’s writing, and her exploration, especially of the women of the neighbourhood—the impact on the mothers, yet another parallel—her range of characters and depth of perception is astonishing, and her writing, at times so intense it become hallucinatory. She is a writer’s writer

and the power of her writing inspires writers. I am moving onto Atticus Lish, Preparation for the Next Life, and early indications are that here is also a powerful voice, documenting the gritty streets and working-class immigrant lives of the inner city.

Books Mini Poster, the love of real books

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How to make money writing and publishing eBooks Part 1. The first post in this series is on how The cash wrap is composed out of old hardcovers at The Last Boottkstore in Los Angeles. (While in LA I also learned about the Portland, OR, store tradition of handing you a beer while you browse records…I pedal over to Kensington just after dark. As I roll along the lane towards the railway underpass, a young Asian woman on her way home from the station walks out of the tunnel towards me. After she passes there’s a stillness, a moment of silent freshness that feels like spring.Helen Garner is one of Australia’s greatest writers. Her short non-fiction has enormous range. Spanning fifteen years of work, Everywhere I Look is a book full of unexpected moments, sudden shafts of light, piercing intuition. flashes of anger and incidental humour. It takes us from backstage at the ballet.

to the trial of a woman for the murder of her newborn baby. It moves effortlessly from the significance of moving. house to the pleasure of re-reading Pride and Prejudice.I pedal over to Kensington just after dark.As I roll along the lane towards the railway underpass, a young Asian woman on her way home from the station.

The sections of The Fighter that describe Melbourne’s postwar Jewish community are wonderfully evocative and vibrant. The reader feels transported back in time. What’s it like for you as a writer to go back and relive those times

I love writing about those times and places, partly because I knew them so well. I love writing about the physical neighbourhood, the textures, the changes of an inner suburban neighbourhood during the turning of the seasons. I love taking the reader both into the streets and into those small terraced houses, and out into the backyard boxing gym, and to introduce them to a range of characters across cultural boundaries—although of course, there are darker and disturbing elements to the times, and to the streets, which must be brought to light.

What books are you enjoying reading at the moment

Like many others I caught Ferrante fever, and have read all four of her Neapolitan novels. There are parallels between the streets of Naples, and the worlds she describes, with postwar inner Melbourne, but of course the enduring poverty and the violence it produces was, for historical reasons, more intense and disturbing, and the fight to get out of it all the more riveting. I love the visceral nature of Ferrante’s writing, and her exploration, especially of the women of the neighbourhood—the impact on the mothers, yet another parallel—her range of characters and depth of perception is astonishing, and her writing, at times so intense it become hallucinatory. She is a writer’s writer

and the power of her writing inspires writers. I am moving onto Atticus Lish, Preparation for the Next Life, and early indications are that here is also a powerful voice, documenting the gritty streets and working-class immigrant lives of the inner city.

24 Images About Bookstores That Every

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The cash wrap is composed out of old hardcovers at The Last Boottkstore in Los Angeles. (While in LA I also learned about the Portland, OR, store tradition of handing you a beer while you browse records…I pedal over to Kensington just after dark. As I roll along the lane towards the railway underpass, a young Asian woman on her way home from the station walks out of the tunnel towards me. After she passes there’s a stillness, a moment of silent freshness that feels like spring.Helen Garner is one of Australia’s greatest writers. Her short non-fiction has enormous range. Spanning fifteen years of work, Everywhere I Look is a book full of unexpected moments, sudden shafts of light, piercing intuition. flashes of anger and incidental humour. It takes us from backstage at the ballet.

to the trial of a woman for the murder of her newborn baby. It moves effortlessly from the significance of moving. house to the pleasure of re-reading Pride and Prejudice.I pedal over to Kensington just after dark.As I roll along the lane towards the railway underpass, a young Asian woman on her way home from the station.

The sections of The Fighter that describe Melbourne’s postwar Jewish community are wonderfully evocative and vibrant. The reader feels transported back in time. What’s it like for you as a writer to go back and relive those times

I love writing about those times and places, partly because I knew them so well. I love writing about the physical neighbourhood, the textures, the changes of an inner suburban neighbourhood during the turning of the seasons. I love taking the reader both into the streets and into those small terraced houses, and out into the backyard boxing gym, and to introduce them to a range of characters across cultural boundaries—although of course, there are darker and disturbing elements to the times, and to the streets, which must be brought to light.

What books are you enjoying reading at the moment

Like many others I caught Ferrante fever, and have read all four of her Neapolitan novels. There are parallels between the streets of Naples, and the worlds she describes, with postwar inner Melbourne, but of course the enduring poverty and the violence it produces was, for historical reasons, more intense and disturbing, and the fight to get out of it all the more riveting. I love the visceral nature of Ferrante’s writing, and her exploration, especially of the women of the neighbourhood—the impact on the mothers, yet another parallel—her range of characters and depth of perception is astonishing, and her writing, at times so intense it become hallucinatory. She is a writer’s writer

and the power of her writing inspires writers. I am moving onto Atticus Lish, Preparation for the Next Life, and early indications are that here is also a powerful voice, documenting the gritty streets and working-class immigrant lives of the inner city.