Crazy Rich Asians – Read the Trilogy!

I just finished reading the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy by Kevin Kwan which consists of Crazy Rich Asians, China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems.  As one of Kwan’s characters might describe it: Tons. Of. Fun. The trilogy is a smart, super sophisticated three-issue version of Us Weekly. First, you get pages… read more

Fiction Writing as a Way of Life: An Event

Fiction Writing as a Way of Life was an event sponsored by the Blackburn Series at Duke University on Wednesday, November 7. It featured Maria Kuznetsova and Lucy Corin who are left and right, respectively, in the title image. I love the title of the event: Fiction Writing as a… read more

Secondary Characters: Five Tips for Creating Them

Main characters are the prime movers of your story. Their goals and motivations fuel the plot. Secondary characters are there to provide support for the main action, to generate a subplot, and/or to help develop thematic material. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy are the main characters. The… read more

Lucy Corin: Five Questions with a Multigenre Author

Lucy Corin is a short story writer and novelist, and she also teaches at the University of California, Davis. Her short story collections include One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses and The Entire Predicament. Her first novel is Everyday Psychokillers: A History for Girls, and her second, Swank Hotel, will… read more

Halloween Romances: On Holiday Themes

Halloween romances are a more vexed sub-genre than I would have thought. However, after reading a bunch this week, I now know they have two big problems to surmount. First, effective titles are restricted by a limited number of holiday-related words such as trick and treat – and if you… read more

Karen Finley – Poet, Playwright, Painter, Performance Artist

Title image: Left: Karen Finley book cover of Shock Treatment  (2015); Right: Image from the performance “Don’t Hang the Angel” (1985) Yesterday (Thursday, October 25) Karen Finley gave a heart-felt and eye-opening presentation at Duke University in the course “Performance Art: History and Theory” taught by Professor of Art and… read more

Trendy Charlotte, NC – A Hipster’s Tour

Trendy Charlotte, NC. I continue my quest to chronicle mid-sized American cities undergoing a Renaissance or, rather, a full-blown explosion. The title image is of downtown Charlotte, with the pointy-top Duke Energy building in the middle-ground center left and the spiky-top Bank of the America building in the background off-center… read more