Amazon Kindle to let readers question authors

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Don’t you just hate it when you finish reading a book and you’re still stumped about one part of the story, and none of your friends seem to be able to explain it either? Sure you could look it up on Google, or ask a question on Yahoo! Answers – but nobody seems to know the answer, what do you do then? Since not every author has his/her contact details published online, it might be hard to get in touch with them to ask them for a direct answer. Because of that, Amazon has decided to launch a new program which solves this problem.

Amazon recently launched a test version of Kindle that gives users the ability to question authors about their work. Called the @author feature, it lets Kindle users highlight passages in an eBook, add questions about the passage and send them off to the book’s author(s) to get a response from them. If you ask me, that’s a pretty smart idea – why didn’t other eBook companies think of it sooner? So far only 16 authors have taken part in the program, but we should expect more of them to join in the future.

What do you think of the @author feature in Kindle? Is it something that you’d find useful?

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Four Authors of Classical Contemporary Literature Defined the Craft of Writing Perfect Prose

From academicians to book critics to lay readers, each is often eager to recommend a list of authors who will provide aspiring writers with a sound foundation from which to build.  Any suggestions should be revered, and it would be ridiculous for one person to state that her/his idea of quality prose is better than another's.  

However, there are four aspects of the craft of writing that many who understand literature would argue have never been better addressed:  Steinbeck's perfection with dialogue, Faulkner's depth of characterization, Hemingway's precise narrative, and Fitzgerald's palpable creation of mood.

One of the quickest ways to appreciate John Steinbeck's brilliance in the realm of dialogue is to read TORTILLA FLAT, THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT, and OF MICE AND MEN.  Accents are often hard to maintain in a novel without eventually grating on the reader, yet Steinbeck's last line of dialogue in TORTILLA FLAT is as fresh as his first.  THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT provides a perfect medium for demonstrating his range.  And it is then a simple step to OF MICE AND MEN to gain an understanding of Steinbeck's genius in the art of writing divergent dialogue at an extraordinary level.        

The mere mention of William Faulkner can cause many to quail.  But a lot of Faulkner aficionados, of which I am included in this group, feel he is unchallenged in the realm of characterization.  (As an aside, if his work is broken down to the length of his clauses, it is often much easier to appreciate his talent.)  Many erudite souls recommend ABSALOM, ABSALOM as an ideal example of why Faulkner rules the world of characterization, and one needs to read only the first paragraph in the initial chapter to realize the reason for this praise.  Another suggestion is that serious writers read THE SOUND AND THE FURY.  The characterization of Dilsey the maid is, in itself, a masterpiece.  

Hemingway's art is an example of elevating a single element of writing to such a high level that the weaker aspects of (his) prose can be ignored.  With simple words his narratives were so powerful and his depictions so poignant that he is credited with creating a unique style.  An efficient way to experience his skill is to read THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA.  What is often overlooked about Hemingway's crisp, concise style is the quality of pitch his technique enables.  His passages of perfect pitch, in themselves, can be important to analyze by anyone desiring to become a better writer.     

Mood like voice is one of those magical areas that is easy to recognize but impossible for a great many people to define.  But whatever mood happens to be, it can be experienced in the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald.  In THE GREAT GATSBY, THIS SIDE OF PARADISE, and TENDER IS THE NIGHT, there is an unmistakable mood that is so sentient the reader can easily (and pleasantly) become enveloped by it.  A leading example is the opening paragraph in TENDER IS THE NIGHT, which sets the mood for the entirety of a story as well as any novel that comes to mind for many learned readers.  Whatever Fitzgerald's voice was, he found it.  And whatever mood is, he created it with exceptional flair.  

There are numerous other writing elements, and subcategories of each, that anyone serious about becoming a novelist must consider.  But for those who desire an understanding of what many regard as the four pillars necessary for developing a proficiency in writing quality prose, especially if the interest is to be published by a major royalty publisher, it is difficult to argue against venturing into the oeuvres of Steinbeck, Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald.

Robert L. Bacon

http://theperfectwrite.com

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What Modern Day Authors Can Learn From French Literature

French writers throughout the ages have practiced a very introspective kind of writing. They have provided us with stunning insights into the complexity of our human nature, and they have excelled in analyzing the permutations and combinations which take place when individuals form relationships. I sensed this as an undergraduate. My impression was confirmed when I did my Ph.D. at Yale in the literature of France and decided to concentrate on the Classical Period, i.e., the 17th century.

The great writers of that time like Molière, Racine and La Fontaine made statements about the way people interact with one another which are as meaningful for us living in the 21st century as they were for their contemporaries over three hundred years ago. In fact, they combined depth of perception with elegance of expression to such an extent that they became an artistic gold standard for me. I eventually moved on to many other research areas, but the lessons of truth and artistic beauty they taught me have remained with me to this day.

The characters in my novels have been profoundly influenced by these 17th century masters. For one thing, I try to incorporate crisis, specifically, marital crisis. Secondly, I probe into the hidden, often unconfessable motives of my main characters. Their emotional clashes move the plot forward. Thirdly, as the great Franco-Swiss writer, M. Michel Goeldlin, was kind enough to observe, I have striven to tell my stories in a pure, sober style, despite the more than occasional use of coarse language.

Leonard Rosmarin is Professor Emeritus of French literature and former Chair of the Department of Modern Languages at Brock University in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada. He received his Doctorate from Yale University where he began his teaching career in 1964, then was appointed Assistant Professor at Wesleyan University, also in Connecticut.

Leonard has become a novelist rather late in life, at the ripe old age of 70 when he wrote his first fiction novel, Getting Enough.

You can visit Leonard Rosmarin at http://www.LeonardRosmarin.com

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