Bøger udgivet af LISA HAGAN BOOKS

This book really makes you want to write! Whether you are starting your first novel or blogging up a storm, this book will make you a better communicator in the 21st century, the Age of Brevity and the Internet.If you can keep your writing brief and concise, you can save countless hours of frustration -- for yourself and your readers. It's hard at first. But by mastering a few simple "tricks of the trade," you will not only keep it short. You will also discover new ideas, find new angles, and write with more zip. This short guide shows the way.If you need to steal or borrow it, go ahead. Otherwise buy a copy. While you're at it, buy some for your coworkers and friends too."I wrote short for 30 years because I was a journalist and critic for a newspaper, notoriously stingy with column inches. Keep It Short would have been really helpful. Instead, I learned it all on the job. Take if from me, reading this before you start is easier." -Bernard Holland, former chief classical music critic, the New York Times, and author of Something I Heard"If all writing, in one way or another, seeks to solve riddles, as Charles Euchner poses, Keep it Short is a guidebook for a riddle-master. No matter what you write, Keep it Short will help you write a tighter, more focused, more inspired text." -Kris Spisak, Author of Get a Grip on Your Grammar: 250 Writing & Editing Reminders for the Curious or Confused "My ecstatic blurb was considerably longer than this before I read Keep It Short." - Ben Robinson, Chief Creative Officer, Thrillist.com

It seemed that Landon Harris had every reason to expect that after writing seven successful novels, he would be entitled to an Eighth. He dutifully spoke at the luncheons created by his publisher and the NPR Interviews and was preparing himself for the coming Book Tour. Landon loved his readers, enjoyed meeting them, but hated their questions after the talks and readings, or at the interminable dinners, be they in Memphis or Los Angeles . Landon Harris had a ritual created by him and his now departed young wife when he began writing, and she was still beside him. After the hoop-de-do, they would settle in bed and all night long, read the book with the express purpose of learning for themselves, at a bit of distance from its inception, if it was as good a book as they hoped. This was an instructive process that seemed to make each book better. When Landon applied this ritual to his eighth book, he learned that he had, very simply, written a bad book. Two bad things would ensue: he would have to endure the agony of promoting this bad book, and his internal process of creating the Next Book would be shunted because the natural bridge to that idea was blown away. Here is where Landon learns that writer's block is only one region of writer's hell. This new region he was exploring internally was trip-wired with ego, insecurity, an inability to "face-up-to-it", plus a willingness to exploit the wrong opportunity. Given the opportunity to comment on the manuscript of short stories by a young writer, Landon turns himself into the Devil and makes a deal with the young writer to let Landon edit, throw out, add in and generally fix this writer's work into a book of his own, to be published under the name of Landon Harris. This, he thinks, will give him time and leeway to build the bridge to his ninth novel. The deception works, and yet no new fresh idea or concept is forthcoming. Falling into a new opportunity to repeat the devil's deal, moving ever deeper into Writer's Hell, Landon attempts to make a similar arrangement with a young woman from Washington Courthouse Ohio --- and fails. Fails so badly, that she will become a devil of her own, to surface later to give Landon his comeuppance. Flailing about, Landon tries to continue his regular life, get a girlfriend, visit his father, give talks about being a successful writer --- to include one at Stanford University, where he studied --- and finally, to meet a retired New York psychiatrist while they were splashing together trying to sort out a teenaged kid problem in the reflecting pool at the Alice in Wonderland sculpture in Central Park. Through the unusual retirement life of this old Doctor, Landon feels the presence of forces creative, and begins to internalize them. Though his writing, notes, thoughts, life chances and risks, we watch Landon Harris create his ninth novel, a fresh new look at teenaged runaways in Manhattan, called Shadow Angel. The ensuing reviews, will say that Landon Harris has found a new voice, one that truly resonates past his earlier novels.

Mother loss, no matter when it happens, is a pivotal event in a person's life. How profound it is to lose the first person you have known in life, the person who has known you the longest and who holds memories of you from your very beginning. Whether her parenting was nurturing, mediocre, or damaging, you still experienced her as your mother. Biological or adoptive, regardless of what transpires, there is a bond between mother and child. Saying Goodbye to Our Mothers for the Last Time includes 35 authors/contributors, both women and men, who write about the death of their mothers. The volume is rich in variety, from different locations to assorted cultures and ethnicities, from ways of dying to types of funerals, from methods of dealing with loss to strategies for self-care. Some of these stories are elegant in their simplicity, others intricate in their complexity. Some incite laughter and others elicit tears. Saying Goodbye tells people's stories, and like fairy tales and myths, these stories offer readers an opportunity to relate to the characters and vicariously experience their trials and sorrows as well as their joys and celebrations. Stories help us tap into these archetypes of life and death that are part of us all. Baby boomers are going through this experience every day, but just knowing that other people are losing their mothers does not help them get through it themselves. In our western culture, dying is rarely talked about, and there is little to prepare us for that moment. When people die, we talk about who they were and what we want to remember about them. But we don't often share with one another what really happens when the death occurs. And those are the memories that linger. We asked our authors to write about something very intimate-the death of their mothers and thus the end of their lives with their mothers. This book takes a lens to the transition from life to death, to focus in on that event and how people said good-bye, whether they were at their mother's side or not. These are stories that need to be told-stories that will guide, warn, encourage, and inspire others when they must cross that threshold and say good-bye to their own mothers for the last time. It will also be a gift to those who have already lost their mothers, as these stories may provide solace and perspective. And for those who may be wondering about their own inevitable departure from their families, perhaps these essays could affect the attitude they adopt toward mortality and so make this difficult time more satisfying for them and their children.

Evoking the lyrical precision of Annie Dillard and the exquisite food writing of M.F.K. Fisher, Gabrielle Myers takes us on a Northern California idyll through her 2006 internship at the Tip Top Farm and Produce in Vacaville. Here, the beauty of the land - light streaming through fig branches, carnelian tomatoes exploding in front of rows of sweet peas - is tended by the mysterious frenetic Farmer and her interns, Baker and Chef. Their days are filled with back-breaking farm labor, but their nights are alive with the freshest, most creative meals imaginable. At night, Gabi lies in her yurt pondering her mother's suicide attempt, working on stories to tell herself to make it all right, while just up the hill another mind, busy as a hive, fights a storm of loss and sorrow that threatens to shatter Eden. And what of these stories do we tell ourselves? Myers asks. Sometimes, they can't be rewritten.

"This is the most insane fun I've ever had reading a book in my life. I called in sick so I could finish it."- T. Beckett Scotland, Film Producer, The Devil of Blue MountainYou might know Joshua Warren from his many non-fiction books, including the bestselling USE THE FORCE: A Jedi's Guide to the Laws of Attraction. Or, you might know him from his frequent appearances on The History Channel, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel and SyFy. You might even have wandered into his Asheville Mystery Museum in North Carolina. Wherever you first encountered his work, one thing is for sure, you'll never have a wilder, more hilarious, page-turning ride than with Warren's foray into fiction, THE GRINGO MANIAC MURDER SPREE. Some call this book a work of twisted humor. Others ban it as gratuitous violence. But no one can stop reading.The Gringo Maniac Murder Spree is the wicked, fast-paced, page-turning adventure of two delusional killers rampaging the enchanted island of Puerto Rico on a conspiracy-fueled quest . . .Savagely killing larger-than-life drug dealers . . . And saving the world by rescuing an alien being (the most intelligent being in the universe) held captive. Don't worry if that sounds overwhelming. It will all make perfect sense.This R-rated story is a colorful grab-bag of UFOs, aliens, spirits, MIB, cryptids, ESP, and a kaleidoscope of inter-dimensional phantasmagoria, capped with cold-blooded wit.Both weird, and mesmerizing, you must read it to believe it.