Avi
word craft
blog
In April and October, I am paid the royalties for my books. I learn what half my income for the year is, based on the sales of my books over the previous six months.
To be sure, it was only a coincidence, but the week of March 7th — the week of the recent financial chaos — was also the week that marked the one-hundredth anniversary of the publication of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
The process behind getting a book from my mind to the publisher onto your bookshelves.
My own definition of a novella is that it is a novel that you can read — in its entirety — in three or four hours.
Our language is full of what I call “fossil phrases,” terms we still use that are based on things or acts from the past. After reading, reader, you are invited to add your own fossil phrase in the blog comments.
Over the years, a number of my books have been optioned for movies. What does “optioned” mean?
In all the current political debates about immigration, it is sometimes forgotten, that unless you are connected to Native People, we are ALL immigrants or descended from immigrants, people in search of a better life.
BLURB: “A short laudatory phrase — or even a word — that praises a piece of creative work.”
In 1975, to my great surprise, No More Magic was nominated for the “Best Juvenile Mystery of the Year,” by the Mystery Writers of America. Back then, new to the world of children’s books, I had never heard of the award or the organization.
If I have learned anything in my career it is that nobody — nobody — writes anything very well in one go.