by Dan Gibson

One would imagine Lynda Drews wishes she didn't have the material for her first book, Run at Destruction, a murder mystery involving a member of her running group in the 1980's.

While losing a friend in a violent manner is a terrible event to experience, Drews serves her friend's memory well with a book that honors her memory and shows how a group of people tied together by a common love can become a sort of family.  Lynda Drews (virtually) sat down with Between the Lines' Dan Gibson to discuss how Run at Destruction came to be.

By Jesse Steele

It is an astonishing fact that many experienced as well as inexperienced writers with whom I have worked have not given much thought to what the reader is experiencing in each scene of a novel. Perhaps it is because courtesy—considering the experience of the reader—is often ignored in dry schooling, where literature is examined for structure and technique more than effect. Consider also that many newcomers to writing want to get something off their chests, which leads them to imagine the audience as passive receptors rather than active enjoyers of a heightened experience fashioned for them by the writer.

~ Sol Stein, How to Grow a Novel, Chapter 1: The Responsibilities of the Writer

Matt Richtel is the bestselling author of Hooked: A Thriller About Love and Other Addictions, his debut. Richtel is a veteran reporter for the New York Times, largely on the topic of technology and telecommunications, as well as the writer of “Rudy Park,” a comic strip set in an internet café. He lives in San Francisco where he is working on a sequel.

with Adriann Ranta

LMZ: What I really like about your book on being a writer in the 21^st century, Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times, is that its overall theme is so optimistic. Lately, all I’ve been reading, hearing, and observing is that a new writer’s chance of getting published today is dismal at best, so your book has a refreshing message. Can you tell our readers why, in your opinion, aspiring authors should keep writing in the hopes of getting published—despite the odds?

With Kevin Allison

Janet Burroway is the author of eight novels, plays, poetry, essays, texts for dance, and children’s books. Her Writing Fiction : A Guide to Narrative Craft, is the most widely used creative writing text in America, and her multi-genre Imaginative Writing is in preparation for a third edition. She is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor Emerita of the Florida State University. She divides her time among Florida, Wisconsin, and London.