meta adjective \ ˈme-tə \ Definition of meta – 1informal : showing or suggesting an explicit awareness of itself or oneself as a member of its category : cleverly self-referential Point of view is instinctive in storytelling, so embedded in the subconscious that it hardly has to be explained. Children get it: you’re telling a story that’s happening to you. Where’s the…
With ROBERT ANTHONY SIEGEL Robert Anthony Siegel, an American writer and professor, writes about the complicated knot of family and place, the imaginative freedom that books and art provide, and the beauty and confusion of cross-cultural encounter. Interviewer studied [remotely] with Siegel at the 2021 Iowa Summer Writers’ Festival and is honored to renew the…
I’m such a geek when it comes to story structure – not that I attempt to follow any particular guidelines while I’m in the spewing stage. But after the first draft I find it interesting to delve into the manuscript with an eye to structuring it in some time-honored fashion. So many craft essays and…
I love lists, especially this one: the Bill of Rights. I remember studying for something generations of American 8th graders have learned to dread; the Constitution Test. The Titles, the Articles, all that was pretty dry but the Bill of Rights was a list I could memorize. I loved the lofty language, the sentiments expressed…
Only in the 21st century, with the tools we have to reach across the miles and over the years, would Pastor Jeff Garrison and I enjoy the happy accident of meeting online. We both responded to a post on Quora about memorable train rides; he mentioned the same Jogja to Jakarta run in Indonesia that…
If you’ve ever sat before a computer screen moaning ‘What did I just do right?’ in despair you’ll understand: you’ve been deep in the wormhole with some software that won’t behave when suddenly a random keystroke makes everything work again and you don’t know why. And so it is with Amazon advertising. Just when indie…
If ROI is judged solely on ‘did I take in more than I laid out’—this would indeed have been a bust. The Goodreads Giveaways, which used to be free, are now pay-to-play; however, authors can offer Kindle e-books, which wasn’t previously the case. With their no-cost fulfillment, the outlay to run a paid, 100 e-book…
Thanks to Lisa Lickel, Editor Dan Burns and the staff at Windy City Reviews for their coverage of the independent press. Book Review: Overland: Remembering Southeast Asia
So you enter your book in a contest because–well, you know. You love winning. Raffles are OK but contests of skill, way better. There are numerous categories and you gravitate to one of the broadest and most competitive because–well, you know. It’s more fun to beat lots of people than just one or two. You…
When you’re deciding whether to buy a book, is it your habit to pick it up and read the opening line? I’ve never done that. I’ve always applied what I call the “random sentence test.” I let the book fall open to any page and light upon a – yes – random sentence. If I…