An interview with, and a new dark thriller novel by, Eric Shapiro.

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An interview with, and a new dark thriller novel by, Eric Shapiro.

October 8, 2020October 8, 2020 505

“Red Dennis,” Eric Shapiro’s new novel, is out. I haven’t read it yet but the reviews are excellent, which isn’t news to me. Eric and I co-founded Ghostwriters Central in 2002. We were partners for some 15 years. While we had this business together, he did an astonishing amount of writing, so I can assure you Red Dennis won’t disappoint. He’s a passionate and supremely capable writer.

Stanley Wheeler interviewed Eric recently. One of his other books, designed to motivate writers to write, is “Ass Plus Seat.” What a great title. Sit down and freakin’ write. LOL

Read Mr. Wheeler’s interview with Eric Shapiro here.

Best wishes, Eric.

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

E. L. Doctorow

Don’t annoy an author, you’ll end up in their book and you won’t look good.

Lawrence Wray

The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

John Campbell

Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk — away from any open flames — to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.

George Singleton

If you wait for inspiration to write, you’re not a writer. You’re a waiter.

Dan Poynter

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the Internet.

Zadie Smith

No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing.

E. B. White

I write the last line, and then I write the line before that. I find myself writing backwards for a while, until I have a solid sense of how that ending sounds and feels. You have to know what your voice sounds like at the end of the story, because it tells you how to sound when you begin.

John Irving

If you haven’t got an idea, start a story anyway. You can always throw it away, and maybe by the time you get to the fourth page you will have an idea, and you’ll only have to throw away the first three pages.

William C. Gault

Books aren’t written, they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.

Michael Crichton

It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly.

C. J. Cherryh

I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop.

Clarence Budington Kelland

Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out.

Michael Burke

A true author, no matter the medium, is an artist with godlike knowledge of his subject, and the proof of his authorship is that his pages smack of authority.

Robert McKee

It is only natural to pattern yourself after someone. But you can’t just copy someone. If you like someone’s work, the important thing is to be exposed to everything that person has been exposed to.

Bob Dylan

It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil, trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.

William Faulkner

If you have an idea that you genuinely think is good, don’t let some idiot talk you out of it.

Stan Lee

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.

Orson Scott Card

The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities.

Raymond Chandler

Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.