Saturday, March 16, 2024

New BOOKS FOR READERS # 232!!!




A new issue of Books for Readers # 232  with reviews of books by Jim Minick, Clarice Lispector, The Porch Poems, George du Maurier, Louise Fitzhugh, Natalia Ginzburg, Marilynne Robinson; Kathleen Watt; Hambly, Connelly, Alison HRubbard, Imogen Keeper, James McBride, Jenny Offill.  Reviews by Hilton Obenzinger, Eddy Pendarvis, Diane Simmons, Suzanne McConnell,and Christine Willis.




Sunday, January 14, 2024

New Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's BOOKS FOR READERS #231 January 15, 2024

 



New Issue Of Books For Readers #231!


Reviews of books by Anthony Burgess, S.A. Cosby, Eva Dolan, Janet Campbell Hale, Barbara Hambly, Marc Harshman, P.D. James, Michael Lewis, Mrs. Oliphant, Paul Rabinowitz, Nora Roberts, Elizabeth Strout, Olga Tokarczuk, and more. Review by Dreama Frisk.


Saturday, December 16, 2023

 Well, I asked ChatGPT to write a passage in my style, and it came back with this (Actually, more than this, but I can't stand even this much):

In the hazy embrace of a West Virginia morning, where mist clung to the rolling hills like whispered secrets, Clara ....a woman of quiet resilience, traced the worn spine of a paperback novel with calloused fingertips. The words within held a sacred resonance, echoing the stories of those who had tread the same path before her. Outside, a lone crow cawed from the branches of an ancient oak, its melancholic song carrying across the valley...In the distance, the river carved its course through the rugged terrain, a silver ribbon woven into the landscape's tapestry. Clara's thoughts, like the river's meandering flow, navigated the twists and turns of memory....Clara, with a reverence reserved for the familiar, stepped onto the worn porch. The rocking chair, an heirloom handed down through generations, creaked in rhythm with the sway of her contemplative thoughts.


"Mist like whispered secrets?" Yuck-a-poo. "A reverence reserved for the familiar"? Puh-lease.
What does that even mean?
It did a little better with a request for a short science fiction story.
Like
Comment
Share

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Latest Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Readers #230

The latest issue of Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Readers #230 (https://www.meredithsuewillis.com/bfrarchive230-234.html#issue230) is now available.  

Books by Henry Adams, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Jonathan Lethem, Magda Teter, Mary Jennings Hegar, Chandra Prasad, Timothy Russell, Carter Taylor Seaton, Edna O'Brien, Martha Wells, Thomas Mann, Arnold Bennett, and more. Reviews by Mary Lucille DeBerry, Joe Chuman, John Loonam, Suzanne McConnell, and Edwina Pendarvis.

 

Sunday, September 10, 2023

New Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Readers Newsletter #229 Now Available!

 

A New Issue of
Books for Readers # 229

Now online!

Reviews of books by Douglas Stuart, J. Nozipo Maraire, Camille Perri, William Makepeace Thackery, Larry Schardt, Rex Stout, Martha Wells and more! Diane Simmons reviews Erik Larson's book on Churchill; there's a poem by Dreama Frisk; and a special list of books to introduce us to Africa from Tinashe Chiura!

Saturday, August 26, 2023

BILLIE OF FISH HOUSE LANE by MSW published in Iran!

 The Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) has just announced that "Juvenile fiction book Billie of Fish House Lane by American author Meredith Sue Willis has been published in Persian and is available to Iranian Children."

What the???
News to me and my publisher! I once had a short story translated and published in Arabic, also without anyone telling me in advance. In this case, I heard about it from a friend in alumnae relations at Barnard College.
Just think how we might share our work and ideas if all the nations spoke to each other directly....Or maybe even (fantasy time) concentrated on sharing books for young people rather than threatening each other militarily and financially. Forgive the childish dreaming!
More information about Billie of Fish House Lane: (https://meredithsuewillis.com/commentary.html#billie)

Friday, August 04, 2023

 

Meredith Sue Willis
Fall 2023 Teaches
Novel Writing at NYU

 

ONLINE

WRIT1-CE9357
New York University
School of Professional Studies

10 Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. - 8:50 p.m.

September 13, 2023 - November 15, 2023.

Click for More

 

Monday, July 17, 2023

Meredith Sue Willis's BOOKS FOR READERS NEWSLETTER #228 now online!

Meredith Sue Willis's BOOKS FOR READERS NEWSLETTER #228 now online at Books for Readers #228 !

Reviews of Books by Edward P. Jones, Denton Loving, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. Lee Martin, Jesmyn Ward, Michelle Zauner, Valérie Perrin, Philip K. Dick, Burt Kimmelman. Reviewes by Ernie Brill, Joe Chuman, Eddy Pendarvis, Diane Simmons, & Danny Williams. Also special links for writers, things to read online, and more

 

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

MSW's Books for Readers # 227 Available Now!



New Issue of Books for Readers # 227!

Reviews of Books by Cheryl Denise, Larissa Shmailo, Eddy Pendarvis, Alice McDermott, Kelly Watt, Elmore Leonard, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Suzy McKee Charnas, and more. Also special links for writers, things to read online, etc. etc.

 

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

New Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Readers #226

 New Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Readers #226   (https://www.meredithsuewillis.com/bfrarchive225-229.html#issue226)   with reviews of books by Jim Minick, Gore Vidal, Valeria Luiselli, Richard Wright, Kage Baker, Suzy McKee Charnas, Victor Depta, Walter Mosley. David Hollinger reviewed by Joe Chuman, and more.

Monday, February 13, 2023

Spring 2023 Novel Writing Class with Meredith Sue Willis

 Private Classes with Meredith Sue Willis





New Class with Meredith Sue Willis

Spring 2023!!

Starting March 1st!!



Starting and Sustaining Your Novel Part II

This is a six session Novel Writing class appropriate for beginners and for those who want to restart or continue working on novels. The teacher will critique up to 50 pages per student during the six weeks. The sessions will be 6 Wednesdays from March 1 - April 5, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The cost is $360 dollars, payable in advance by check, money order, PayPal or Venmo.

For information about how to sign up and other questions, please look at MSW's online Classes page and/or  e-mail msw@meredithsuewillis.com (This is the business e-mail).


Online Writing Classes with Meredith Sue Willis are creative writing classes taught by Meredith Sue Willis through e-mail and the Internet, usually by Zoom. (To get a free Zoom account, go to Zoom). The classes include short lectures, online readings, writing & reading assignments in class and out, oral discussions and peer critiques for live (Zoom) classes, and one-on-one responses to homework from the teacher.








Monday, January 30, 2023






Reviews of Demon Copperhead, Thomas Hardy, Miriam Toews, Kate Chopin, Alberto Moravia, Elizabeth Strout, Carson McCullers, Garry Wills, Valerie Nieman, and Cora Harrison. Troy Hill on Isaac Babel; Belinda Anderson on books for children; Joe Chuman on Eric Alterman; Molly Gilman on Kage Baker; and l more.

 

 

Sunday, December 25, 2022

For Writers and Everyone Interested in Good Writing!


For writers and those who like to think about the process of writers, take a look at some of these articles on everything from writing using Artificial Intelligence to learning how to write about war--even if you aren't a veteran.
 
                          Above all, enjoy the winter and have a healthy, productive, and hopeful 2023!
 
                                                                                     Meredith Sue Willis
 
                                                                  
 
 
-- Nikolas Kozloff sends us another article on writing by AI--a pretty even-handed piece-- an interview of indie para-normal cozy writer Jennifer Lepp who sees the bad and the good.    
 
-- "What I Learned from 90 Queries!" by Eva Langston via Jane Friedman's blog.
 
-- Also, one of the best ways to learn writing is by reading. As always, I and others have lots of suggestions at Books for Readers, and Emily Temple has a good list of books she read in 2022--from the past!
 
-- Learn from the Victorians and their children: I just read Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd. And if you haven't read it, maybe now is the time to read it or Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady. Or Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. So many big old books from the end of the nineteenth, early twentieth centuries.
 
-- Yiun Li in Lithub on what writers can learn from War and Peace.
 
-- Philip Klay on how to write about war.
 
-- An article with Writing Tips from young, British writersAndrew O'Hagan, Esquire editor-at-large and author of books including Mayflies, The Illuminations and Our Fathers offers these:
 
1.    Look past your first idea.
2.    Your first thought is never your best thought. It's just your first.
3.    Most of your ideas are banal. Dig deeper.
4.    Go and find things out. Make a fetish of research. Most of the things worth hearing aren't already sitting in your head.
5.    Stop bothering people with your early drafts. Bother yourself with your early drafts.
6.    Work every day. It's not an amateur's game.
 
 
--Various types of third person in fiction
 
-- Check out my big collection of random Articles for Writers!