On Monday morning, the nice UPS man knocked on my office door with a package from New York. In it were five galleys, or Advanced Reading Copies, or ARCs, of A GOOD AMERICAN. These are, essentially, final softcover versions of the book (it will be published in hardback) complete with (brilliant) cover art, embarrassing author photo, blurbs, and what-have-you. Penguin …
Take Cover!
I am very proud finally to be able to show you the US cover for A GOOD AMERICAN. I had discussed various possible themes with Amy soon after the text was finished, but really had no idea what to expect when this little electronic file plopped into my inbox. I was, I can admit now, a little apprehensive. But I …
Maine
Earlier this week I arrived back in Missouri after a blissful week in Maine. From ME to MO. What a difference a letter makes. I wrote a lot, read a lot, climbed a few mountains, and ate an awful lot of delicious fresh seafood. My cottage was on a secluded cove near Acadia National Park. It was a one-room wooden …
UK News
I’m just back from a wonderful and refreshing vacation in Maine, which I will write about shortly, but I wanted to share a little bit of exciting news before then. The UK edition of A GOOD AMERICAN now has a publication date. It is scheduled to be published by Fig Tree Books, an imprint of Penguin UK, on August 2, …
Friends in Funny Places
My name is Alex, and I am a lawyer. I began my first legal job in a large firm in London almost exactly nineteen years ago, and I’ve practiced law in England, France, and the United States. It’s not something that I talk about much on this blog, because (a) this is a blog about writing, mainly, (b) I want …
What Matters
Yesterday I returned to Missouri after a wonderful week with my children in San Francisco, where we stayed with my sister and her lovely family. Living in mid-Missouri, going to San Francisco is, understandably, always a bit of an event. Weeks ahead of time, we raid the library for travel guides and plan what to do. This trip we went …
Music for the Ages
Finally, a respite from all the advice. Now it’s my turn to ask for your help. (And, I know. You never asked for mine.) I’ve been having a fine old time lately enjoying Spotify, a music website that has (finally) been made available over here in the US. It is an amazing resource and I have been discovering lots of …
Finding Time to Write, Part 3 – Prevarication/Getting Started
So, to business. If for no other reason than in a doubtless doomed attempt to impress you all, let’s start with a quote from the mercurial French writer, Jules Renard, writing in his journal: “A fly alighting on the sheet of white paper was excuse enough to give himself the right to be idle. He did not write, for fear of …
Finding Time to Write, Part 2 – Required Reading
A while ago my friend Tim Miles gave me a gift. It was a book – THE WAR OF ART by Steven Pressfield. This is what it looks like: It is a short and brilliant book. And if you are serious about writing, you should read it. Pressfield writes in a refreshing, no-bullshit way about the creative process. He beautifully …
Finding Time to Write, Part 1
A couple of years ago I was asked to give a talk to the Mid-Missouri Writers’ Guild about how to find time to write. I suppose I was quite well qualified to waffle on about this, since – at the time – I was running my own law firm, overseeing operations of the largest outside water park in mid-Missouri (both …