Quickie Review: Grit for the Oyster: 250 Pearls of Wisdom for the Aspiring Writer

Grit for the Oyster by Suzanne Woods Fisher, Debora M. Coty, Faith Tibbetts McDonald and Joanna Bloss is now available as an ebook.

The book is very structured and is aimed at the Christian writer in general and the Christian writer who is focussed on the Christian market.The book is divided into 4 sections and has multiple entries by each of the authors in each section.

• Section 1 is entitled: Getting Started. Can I? 
• Section 2 is The Joyful Grind. 
• Section 3 is I give up! Too Many Rejections. 
• And section 4 is Getting "It" Right: The Proper Perspective. 

Each section has further structure. It starts with a quotation from scripture. The an anecdote from the author of the entry. Then a prayer and reflection and finally quotations to inspire you. The structure makes it almost ideal for use as a devotional.

Also included are additional sections: On Our Bookshelves- Favorite Must-Haves, a Bible quotations reference, Plan Your Next Escape! What's your reading pleasure? And finally, an index of the other quotations in the book is included.

The book could be a useful tool for someone in the right mind frame. From the synopsis: "More than a how-to, this confidence-building book is designed to draw readers to a closer relationship with God." I believe it can achieve that goal. The entries are mostly interesting. I do think it would work best digested slowly such as a devotional. I can also see it being useful choosing an entry by title for whatever situation arises. I gave this book 3 stars out of 5. Interesting, but definitely for a niche market.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Review: The Writing Dead by Thomas Fahy

The Writing Dead: Talking Terror with TV's Top Horror Writers was published March 3, 2015 by University Press of Mississippi. The book is divided up into 4 main parts with an introduction to the book and acknowledgements.

“I just write about what scares me. When I was a kid, my mother used to say, ‘Think of the worst thing that you can, and if you say it out loud then it won’t come true.’ And that’s probably been the basis of my career.” -Stephen King

Each section of the book has interviews with writers related to that topic. There are quite a variety of writers interviewed including those who write or wrote for Hannibal, Dexter, Bates Motel, True Blood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, Grimm, Angel, The Walking Dead, Hemlock Grove, Being Human, American Horror Story, X-Files, and Millenium. Each part of the book that focuses on a particular writer or series type, starts with a brief synopsis of why they were included and then goes into a transcript of an interview by Thomas Fahy with the author.

What I found interesting about the book is somewhat the usual things that one would take away from such a book, how the writer’s come up with their ideas and write. I enjoyed reading about all of the authors and found it interesting to see some of the other things in their career that they wrote before they came to horror and how it affected what they wrote.

I ended up giving this book 4 stars. I would recommend it to others as a good read or as a gift for someone who enjoys learning more about the behind the scenes writing of their favorite horror programs and movies. It’s interesting to see the connections between a movie that has become a series or a series of books that becomes a tv series. It’s also interesting to see how a particular writer’s previous projects affected what they in turn wrote for the horror programs.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Any quotes appearing in the text come from an advance reading copy and may appear differently in the final copy.

Review: Process by Sarah Stodola

Published January 20th 2015
by Amazon Digital Services

Sarah Stodola has written an interesting book in Process: The Writing Lives of Great Authors. This book is of interest to more than just those drawn to the writing life. People who are interested in how their favorite books might have been written will enjoy it as well. 

From the Introduction: "Process will also interest those who love literature with without wishing to create it themselves, in the same way that seeing the way a car motor works can be fascinating for mere drivers. One of the great surprises of writing this book was that looking under the hood did nothing to diminish the awe that my favorite books inspire in me. If anything, I grew more fascinated."

There are all kinds of writers included from plotters to pantsers and more. Each entry contains a brief biography of the writer. At the end of the biography, there is "A Day in the Writer's Life" describing briefly how a day might go as the author works. Sections are: Nine to Fivers, Productive Procrastinators, Autodidacts, Plotting Ahead, Winging It, The Author as Protagonist, Slow and Steady, The Social Butterfly and the Lone Wolf, and Two Takes on the Digital Age.

Authors included are: Franz Kafka, Toni Morrison, David Foster Wallace, Richard Price, Edith Wharton, George Orwell, Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov, Salman Rushdie, Joan Didion, Jack Kerouac, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Junot Diaz, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Philip Roth, Margaret Atwood, and Zadie Smith.

        

I gave this book 4 stars. I enjoyed reading about these authors. It made me hungry to learn more about other favorite authors. This book is well written. Occasionally the bio and the day in the life overlap  a little in content, but that's really not an issue. It just puts some of the information in another context. I would give this book as a gift both to future writers and to people I know enjoy reading the authors included or just plain  love literature.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. 

All quotes come from an unpublished ARC and are subject to change in the final copy.