Thomas Perry on Writing
Popular and critically acclaimed novelist Thomas Perry, best known for The Butcher’s Boy (1982) and the Jane Whitefield series, has died.
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Writing
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In Honor of Punctuation Day
When I was in grad school for the final time, one of my professors removed all the semicolons from the first paper I submitted to her. In high dudgeon, I fired up the word processor and changed them all to periods—not because I agreed with her, but because she had all the power. Since this
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Literary Links
#bookstodon #BookBlog #literature This Is Your Brain on Tropes: Why Readers are Addicted to the Familiar In the world of literature, a trope is: Monique Snyman explains that “tropes aren’t just lazy storytelling, as so many people like to say. Tropes are brain candy. And our brains are wired to crave them.” How Publishing Has
Literary Links
People Are Trying to ‘Deprogram’ Their MAGA Parents Through Book Clubs “Divisive politics have led people to go “no contact” with their right-wing parents. Some hope reading together could help bridge the gap.” A report from Wired. The Psychology Of Suspense: Why Are Thrillers So Addicting? I’m fond of thrillers, although I never thought to
Literary Links: Life Stories in Literature
Scientists uncover surprisingly consistent pattern of scholarly curiosity throughout history Sometimes the more things seem to change, the more they stay the same. By analyzing the recorded interests of thousands of scholars born before 1700, researchers found that intellectual curiosity tends to cluster around three broad domains: the human, the natural, and the abstract. These
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Literary Links
What’s Happening to Reading? “For many people, A.I. may be bringing the age of traditional text to an end.” “What will happen to reading culture as reading becomes automated?” asks Joshua Rothman in this article in The New Yorker. He examines how new technology such as ereaders and artificial intelligence have changed and will continue
Author Focus: Joy Fielding
I was surprised recently to learn that Joy Fielding has a new book that came out this month (August 2025), Jenny Cooper Has a Secret. About 30 years ago I read and enjoyed several of Fielding’s novels: That was before my book-blogging days. Then life got busier, and I lost track of Joy Fielding—another case
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Literary Links
A Harvard Professor Breaks Down the Real Rules of Writing Jason Hellerman summarizes an interview with Harvard linguist and cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker about “what makes great writing and how you can command attention in the modern era.” The target audience for this piece is writers interested in producing fiction and screenwriting for the general
Literary Links
After the Deluge: What Future for Climate Fiction? Keith Woodhouse discusses “an emerging subgenre that we might call the ‘climate assessment drama.’ These books are vast in size and scope and, at the same time, narrowly concerned with the particular political, ethical, and technical conundrums of the world climate change has wrought.” Why Do Doctors