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Index Interviews: Dan Simmons Jodi Picoult Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: Show and Tell Understanding Electronic Publishing: Part I A Roundtable Discussion With Lois McMaster Bujold, Dave Duncan and Michael Swanwick Book Reviews Events Calendar Return to This Issue's Index Return to Homepage Subscribe
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Reviews of Writing BooksA Good Book is the Best of Friends: A Reader's Journal by Robin Doak, introduction by Natalie GoldbergHyperion, July, 2001Paperback, 155 pages ISBN: 0786867191 Ordering information: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk 
This book is a delightful journal filled
with pages that readers can use to write
down their thoughts about a book or
novel they are enjoying. The book
includes room for entries about
twenty-five books; each entry provides
plenty of space to record your thoughts.
Also included are a section
for you to record book information,
questions for you to answer to get
you thinking about what you read and
blank pages so you can record
their own personal feelings. The book
also includes some inspirational
thoughts from author Natalie Goldberg.
This is a very useful and attractive little book for readers and
writers. It would make a great gift for
anyone who frequents a book club or
reading group.
Hooking the Reader: Opening Lines that Sell by Sharon Rendell-SmockMorris Publishing, July, 2001Paperback, 215 pages ISBN: 0965498123 Ordering information: Amazon.com 
Beginning writers are often told to open with a bang. But how
do you come up with that killer opening line?
This writing book focuses on creating
effective openings. The book contains advice
from hundreds of authors, as well as
the opening sentences from their books.
Some of the authors featured include
Anne McCaffrey, Stuart Woods,
Michael Connelly, Poul
Anderson, Dana Stabenow and
Larry Niven.
The book also includes "Off the
Shelf" sections, which contains
lists of good openings to books.
Some example openings are
"I felt compelled to report that at the
moment of my death, my entire life
did not pass before my eyes in a flash,"
from Sue Grafton's I is for Innocent;
"For more than two hundred years,
the Owens women have been blamed
for everything that has gone wrong in
town," from Alice Hoffman's Practical
Magic; "Nobody thinks about death
on a nice spring day," from Ed McBain's
Ten Plus One; and "The world had teeth and it could
bite you with them anytime it wanted,"
from Stephen King's The Girl Who
Loved Tom Gordon.
The most interesting part about the
book is what each author has to say,
which is often enlightening and
entertaining.
Hooking the Reader is an interesting and useful
book for writers needing assistance
with writing openings or just
curious about how other authors create
openings to their bestsellers.
The Writer's Guide to Queries, Pitches and Proposals by Moira AllenAllworth Press, August, 2001Trade Paperback, 274 pages ISBN: 1581150997 Ordering information: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk 
Most editors at top-notch magazines
want to see a query before they will allow a writer submit
a complete article. Because of this fact,
effective queries are one of the most
important skills a freelance writer
can develop. A great query can open the door to
good paying freelance opportunities.
As the book's author, Moira Allen,
says, "To compete with the thousands
of 'good' writers in the marketplace, you
have to be able to develop queries and
proposals that are more than simply 'good'.
They have to stand out in every respect:
content, preparation, and presentation."
Author Moira Allen has been
on both sides of the fence. As a highly successful freelancer,
she has submitted queries to publications. As
as an editor of print magazines and websites
she has received hordes of queries and article submissions.
Moira Allen now writes books and continues to freelance, as well.
She also runs her own Query
Letter Clinic and writer's resource
at
Writing-World.com.
Moira's latest book
provides advice and instruction on the
difficult task of writing queries, backed up
with examples of successful queries. The
book covers a number of different types of
queries, including electronic
queries, book proposals, newspaper queries,
novel proposals and many others.
Moira provides plenty of advice, examples,
tips and links to additional resources
to help writers learn to write queries
that can help them get sales.
This is an excellent book for freelance
writers looking for a way to beat out the
competition.
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