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“Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads in Them”– Why Bother with Poetry?
This poem by the contentious, straightforward major American poet Marianne Moore came to mind tonight and I thought it was worth sharing. Cogently and succinctly she takes on the common objections and...
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“The Second Coming”–Circles or Lines? Cyclical or Linear? – History, Life and...
I had a fascinating exchange of emails with a gifted poet recently about a poem he had written entitled “Circles.”Initially, I had mis-read the poem, missed his intent and allusions (happens to all of...
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The Personal Library
This week’s New Yorker. If only I were that composed and organized!!!Filed under: Literature, writing Tagged: books, library, reading
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Mystery Book Blog Tour – Look Out!
Some of you may be aware that I am not simply a dull over-educated literati, but also have a wild frivolous side to my writing and writing tastes. This “side” of me has produced to date two crazy funny...
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“How to Write a Sentence” from the New Yorker (seriously)
Well, here you are, looking at this, trying, hoping, floundering, scrabbling, wishing, dying to find out the mystery of “how to” write a sentence. Or possibly you have tried write sentence and failed...
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Just Have to Share
Readers of this blog know I’m opinionated, have high writing standards (for myself at least and in what I read). So it is particularly gratifying when an astute reader of one of my works takes the time...
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This is Poetry – and one of my favs – a lagniappe for tonight!
In a Dark Time By Theodore Roethke In a dark time, the eye begins to see, I meet my shadow in the deepening shade; I hear my echo in the echoing wood— A lord of nature weeping to a tree. I live...
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What’s Your Genre, Bubba? “A Better Way to Think About the Genre Debate” from...
Everybody (readers, writers, Amazon) thinks they know what genres are, but do they really–today? [EXCERPT from this fascinating article] It’s hard to talk in a clear-headed way about genre. Almost...
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Hibiscus Christmas: A Child’s Christmas in Florida
Hibiscus Christmas (c) Copyright 2014, Margaret Langstaff, All rights reserved “It’s not fair! It sucks! It’s warm here, the grass is green and flowers are blooming—still!—everywhere! There oughta be a...
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The Ongoing Angst of Culling My Library – Collected Stories of Katherine Anne...
My long-suffering bibliomaniac followers have endured several of my white knuckled announcements of this or that treasured title that has to take a hike to a new home. Now I’ve stumbled on something...
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“Satisfaction is a lowly thing, how pure a thing is joy.”— Marianne Moore
Need a lift or some inspiration to escape the gloom of winter and the doldrums of the winter heart? Here’s a short, beautiful poem that might impart the courage and resolve to get through the season...
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Apropos of Twitter Self-Promotion and New “Authors?”
“The better the writers, the less they will speak about what they have written themselves.” —Ernest Hemingway http://bit.ly/1n7nZpz THE PARIS REVIEWFiled under: Literature, New and Recent Books,...
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Are You a Writer? Most of the Followers of This Blog Are…
I am too, have been for nearly 30 years. I also own a Writing and Editorial Consultancy firm, Margaret Langstaff Editorial. I work every day with writers trying to make their books better before...
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“Authors are Upset at Amazon. Again.”— New York Times
[In a surprisingly candid and forceful piece the NYT 12/27/14 covers the widespread Kindle author rage at Amazon’s latest bells and whistles–“enhancements” which cost ‘em big bucks. Some best-selling...
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Free Books! Not Many, But Good Ones
[Also posted as separate page on the blog] Review Copies Each month I’ve informally off the record given away review copies of my books, usually three to five a month, to my followers with the...
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Oh, The Joys and Hardships of Revision!
As every serious writer knows, a good book has to be assiduously and meticulously revised to reach a satisfactory (if not “perfect”) state before publication. After the initial flush of inspiration,...
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Writers, Is it a calling or a job? NYTBR
I don’t know how something can be both interesting and pedestrian at the same time. In this case it may be that it’s interesting that the New York Times Book Review has chosen to spotlight so...
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Stephen King’s Top 20 Rules for Writing
As you know I in the habit of publishing “writing rules” from various well-known writers as I stumble over them on the web. They won’t write your books for you, but they are food for thought. For what...
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The Pain and Perils of Revision
I just “finished” a book I’d been working on for nearly a year. Every writer will understand why I put the word finished in quotes, because, truly, it is never really finished until it is published, is...
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Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen
Where have I been? What have I been doing? Working! Some of you may know that I run a professional editorial and writing business Margaret Langstaff Editorial. Well, lately I’ve been swamped with book...
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Trials and Tribulations of the Writing Life
I have been watching with some resentment, not to say a gimlet eye, a book (one of three in a series) that I wrote in 2002 as “work for hire” (for a flat fee, no royalties) perform rather well on...
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“Omit needless words!”–William Strunk Jr.
Patient blogging, book-loving followers, I have just finished editing a 385 page manuscript, and I am here to report that such a long editorial stint is corrosive to one’s own writing. Many of you may...
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What’s the Big Idea?
I was scratching my head yesterday at the astronomical number of new books on writing on the market today–most by people I’ve never heard of before with slim writing resumes and credentials. If you...
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A List of Creative Writing Competitions in 2015
Originally posted on Nicholas C. Rossis: Start reading Infinite Waters for free with Kindle Unlimited You all know how much I love short stories, right? Well, enough to have published two collections...
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Time to Update Your Book Marketing Methods!
Books have wings I ran across the following article online the other day and thought it was quite timely and helpful for most authors. Here is a brief excerpt, and you can (and should!) read the rest...
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GOODREADS HORROR STORY: Writers, Listen Up!
Consider this a public service announcement for authors. I can’t believe it, but it happened. And it happened to me. Two days ago I simply changed my GR password and email –for security reasons –and...
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Love is the slowest form of suicide–Fiza Pathan
(C) Copyright 2016, Margaret Langstaff, http://www.margaretlangstaffeditorial.com, All Rights Reserved AN INTERVIEW WITH AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR FIZA PATHAN OF MUMBAI, INDIA Fiza Pathan, a very young...
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Mark Twain for President – 1879
MARK TWAIN * A Presidential Candidate I have pretty much made up my mind to run for President. What the country wants is a candidate who cannot be injured by investigation of his past history, so that...
View ArticleIn the Game of Life, Bad Spelling is Like Bad Breath
Why You Should Bother About Spelling I love the BBC. They are so smart and always take time to do things right. They dot their I’s and cross their T’s, you know what I mean?. I stumbled on this...
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