by Jamie Chavez | Jan 16, 2017 | Books You Might Like, The Writing Craft
I’ve already written about The Summer Before the War—which I read first (and which is, in fact, the more accomplished novel)—but I really enjoyed Helen Simonson’s novel-writing skills in Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand (the New York Times calls it “funny, barbed,...
by Jamie Chavez | May 16, 2016 | Books You Might Like, The Writing Craft
It’s nearly 500 pages long—and I flew through Helen Simonson’s second novel set in an English village. I never wanted to put it down. Also, it made me angry (on behalf of a character I loved), and it made me cry a couple times. This is a sign that I was fully...
by Jamie Chavez | Nov 23, 2015 | The Writing Craft, Your Editor Says …
Not long ago an author friend of mine mentioned on Facebook that the book he was reading had too much repetition. “Characters frequently curl their fingers into their palms,” he said. “And everything smells like cinnamon.” In the amount of time it took three people to...
by Jamie Chavez | Oct 15, 2015 | The Writing Craft
Intellectual treat or not, the significance of all that blood was hard to miss once I started reading over my beer- and tea-spattered first-draft manuscript [of Carrie]. So I started to play with the idea, image, and emotional connotations of blood, trying to think of...
by Jamie Chavez | Feb 12, 2015 | The Writing Craft
Here’s another in my Study This series about intentional reading—that is, novels you writers will read for pleasure (always pleasure!) but also to study. To deconstruct. To have a look at how the author made the magic. You know I love YA, so it should come as no...
