Its hands-on, completely accessible approach walks writers through each stage of the creative process, from the initial triggering idea to the revision of the final manuscript. It is unique in combing the three main aspects of creative writing instruction: process (finding inspiration, getting ideas on the page), craft (specific techniques like characterization), and anthology (learning by reading masters of the form). Succinct, clear definitions of basic terms of fiction are accompanied by examples, including excerpts from masterpieces of short fiction and essays as well as contemporary novels. A special highlight is Alice LaPlante's systematic debunking of many of the so-called rules of creative writing. This book is perfect for writers working alone as well as for creative writing classes, both introductory and advanced.

    Butterflies in the stomach. Pacing back and forth. There is no doubt this character is nervous. But isn't there a more original, more vivid way to express this emotion? Absolutely. In this unique book, Ann Hood will help you find fresh, creative images, words and gestures to evoke feelings in your fiction. In 36 "mini-lessons, " Hood sheds new light on love, hate, fear, grief, guilt, hope, jealousy and other major emotions. Each lesson offers instruction on rendering that particular sentiment; "good" and "bad" examples illustrating how writers have succeeded and where others have gone wrong; and imaginative exercises for putting the feeling into words.

    Too often missing from these conversations is the fact that writing is also a business. The reality is, those who want to make a full- or part-time job out of writing are going to have a more positive and productive career if they understand the basic business principles underlying the industry.The Business of Being a Writer offers the business education writers need but so rarely receive. It is meant for early-career writers looking to develop a realistic set of expectations about making money from their work or for working writers who want a better understanding of the industry. Writers will gain a comprehensive picture of how the publishing world works—from queries and agents to blogging and advertising—and will learn how they can best position themselves for success over the long term.

    With both humor and reverence, Room to Write playfully prevails on us to experience the world through a writer's eyes, and respond to the creative sparks that charge good writing.In two hundred daily essays, the author invites the reader--whether an experienced writer or someone just starting out--into the crucibles from which creative writing erupts: emotion, imagination, intellect, and soul. Once there, she urges the reader to grab a pen, grasp a keyboard, and seize the moment when perception fires revelation and language becomes art.Each page features an essay exploring an aspect of the writing process, an exercise to get the reader writing, and a quotation to tickle the mind and keep the writing going. Ultimately, readers learn about how they write, and how to trust their intuition. Room to Write is a collection of beguiling provocations, an irresistible invitation to all those who believe that writing, like any creative endeavor, is a way of life.

    After three decades of fatherhood, there are certain things he has learned during his tenure. His way of raising his children involves, of course, lots of humor (don't curse near a mimicking child), but also the sound advice of a lifelong educator (you can't start reading to a baby too early). With PAPADADDY'S BOOK FOR NEW FATHERS, a great storyteller shares his wisdom with other dads, young and old alike. Writing from experience, observation, and his vivid imagination, Clyde Edgerton conveys both caution and joy--mostly joy.

    As a result, writers will dig deep within and explore their own values and worldviews in order to create an effective story. Writers will come away with an extremely precise set of tools to work with--specific, useful techniques to make the audience care about their characters, and that make their characters grow in meaningful ways. They will construct a surprising plot that is unique to their particular concept, and they will learn how to express a moral vision that can genuinely move an audience.The foundations of story that Truby lays out are so fundamental they are applicable--and essential--to all writers, from novelists and short-story writers to journalists, memoirists, and writers of narrative non-fiction.

    Magic runs in Jane Howard's family. Her brother hunts werewolves, her sister vanished without trace twenty-five years ago, her mother is the worst witch of all, and her grandmother just might blow up the world - despite having drowned somewhere on the ferry route from Cairnryan to Largs. Jane wants to be a good witch . . . but that's not all she wants.

    The story begins in 1973, in the offices of The Atlantic Monthly, in Boston, where a young freelance writer named Tracy Kidder came looking for an assignment. Richard Todd was the editor who encouraged him. From that article grew a lifelong association. Before long, Kidder’s The Soul of a New Machine, the first book the two worked on together, had won the Pulitzer Prize. It was a heady moment, but for Kidder and Todd it was only the beginning of an education in the art of nonfiction.Good Prose explores three major nonfiction forms: narratives, essays, and memoirs. Kidder and Todd draw candidly, sometimes comically, on their own experience—their mistakes as well as accomplishments—to demonstrate the pragmatic ways in which creative problems get solved. They also turn to the works of a wide range of writers, novelists as well as nonfiction writers, for models and instruction. They talk about narrative strategies (and about how to find a story, sometimes in surprising places), about the ethical challenges of nonfiction, and about the realities of making a living as a writer. They offer some tart and emphatic opinions on the current state of language. And they take a clear stand against playing loose with the facts. Their advice is always grounded in the practical world of writing and publishing.Good Prose—like Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style—is a succinct, authoritative, and entertaining arbiter of standards in contemporary writing, offering guidance for the professional writer and the beginner alike. This wise and useful book is the perfect companion for anyone who loves to read good books and longs to write one.

    Graphs are not included, but both the graphs and the concepts behind them are explained; only basic math is included, and you can even skim over the math and still come away with an understanding of the concepts; statistics is not included at all.BASIC ECONOMICS FOR STUDENTS AND NON-STUDENTS ALIKE is an easy way to learn concepts relating to economics and the economy. It is a product of thousands of hours spent online, teaching basic concepts in economics to hundreds of students worldwide over the course of the past several years. From back and forth communications, I have discovered the explanations for the concepts that students find easiest to understand, as well as the areas that most often get misunderstood and under-emphasized.I have worked with students located throughout the United States and from many different countries, on six different continents; students from many different school systems with different points of emphasis; students with different levels of knowledge, different backgrounds, and different levels of interest in the subject. I have received numerous comments and testimonials regarding the teaching methods that I incorporate in BASIC ECONOMICS FOR STUDENTS AND NON-STUDENTS ALIKE.The subject matter included in BASIC ECONOMICS FOR STUDENTS AND NON-STUDENTS ALIKE comes from a compilation of many different textbooks at the introductory and intermediate levels. My goal was to include every subject in economics that normally will be found in an introductory level textbook of economics, microeconomics, or macroeconomics. Since different school systems, different classroom instructors, and different textbooks cover a slightly different combination of topics, BASIC ECONOMICS FOR STUDENTS AND NON-STUDENTS ALIKE is a little more comprehensive than most single introductory textbooks of economics. Some of the topics will be found in introductory classes in some schools, but in intermediate-level classes in other schools.

    ...An essential resource for any writer -- beginning, published, or just plain stuck. -- Amy TanOakley Hall cites the works and methods of such great novelists as John Steinbeck, Joyce Carol Oates, Leo Tolstoy, Agatha Christie and Milan Kundera to show readers what works in the novel, and why. This book features advice on taking a novel through each of its stages, from the beginning of an idea to The End, and guides writers through the process of writing a novel.

    It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet. Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you fundamental priciples as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more than a million copies sold, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valuable resource for writers and would-be writers.

    More and more of us are opting to eat fewer animal products or to cut them out entirely. Eating well to support a training regimen presents its own challenges, but as celebrated nutritionist Anita Bean shows, it is possible to eat delicious, healthy food and reach your athletic potential. Her new cookbook offers athletes--from weekend warriors to professionals--more than one hundred easy-to-prepare vegetarian and vegan recipes for breakfast, main meals, snacks, and more to allow the kind of performance every athlete aspires to, featuring gorgeous food photography and nutritional information for every recipe.

    In this book you will find the funniest 288 of them (with a few all-new funny pages squeezed in just because we couldn’t help ourselves). That’s page after page after page of laugh-out-loud dumb jokes, dumb jocks, toasts, pranks, kings, kittens, caboodles, and, of course, poorly translated kung-fu movie subtitles—such as. "It took my seven digestive pills to dissolve your hairy crab!” So whether you like your humor witty or witless, light or dark, or silly or sublime, you’ll laugh until your head explodes. Chortle at…Dumb crooks: The robber who ran face-first into a wall because he forgot to poke eye holes in his pillow case.Witty wordplay: If Snoop Doggy Dogg were to marry Winnie the Pooh, his name would become Snoop Doggy Dogg Pooh.Flubbed headlines: "British Left Waffles On House Floor”Quirky stars: Billy Idol’s concert rider demands he have one large tub of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter in his dressing room.Job Lingo: If you hear an E.R. doc mention a "VIP,” be on the lookout for a "Very Intoxicated Patient.”Comedian quips: "I wonder if deaf people have a sign for "Talk to the hand.’” --Zach GalifianakisSputtering sportscasters: "If only faces could talk.” --Pat SummerallAnd much, much more!

    You can describe what you're thinking but you don't know the name for it. Flip Dictionary solves this common problem! Best-selling author Barbara Ann Kipfer has created a huge reference that offers cues and clue words to lead writers to the exact phrase or specific term they need. It goes beyond the standard reverse dictionary format to offer dozens of charts and tables, listing groups by subject (such as automobiles, clothing types, plants, tools, etc.) Flip Dictionary is an excellent resource for everyone. Writers of fiction and non-fiction will use it to find that elusive word they need, and word lovers will find it an entertaining book to simply sit and browse through. Crossword puzzlers will also find it invaluable. An indispensable desk reference, as necessary as a dictionary or thesaurus, but a whole lot more fun.

    However rich and complex the subject of wine may be, he insists it is also hugely rewarding and great fun. Curry's informative and entertaining program begins with a description of work in vineyard and cellar. It outlines the many choices faced-by grape-grower and winemaker, resulting in the variety of different styles of wine produced. It continues with wine's journey from winery to gullet, with advice on cellaring, buying, serving, food-matching and tasting. It then moves on to thumbnail sketches of the grape varieties most commonly used, their natural habitats and related styles of wine. And it continues with a lengthy section devoted to all major wine regions, in the Old World and the New. Written and recorded especially for Naxos AudioBooks, and enhanced by the music of Beethoven, De Falla, Godard, Gershwin, Granados, Mascagni, Offenbach, Paterson, Piazzolla, Rossini, Strauss and Verdi, A Guide to Wine is the perfect gift for wine aficionados and those with just a passing interest in the subject alike!