Narrative Unraveling Gifts

"Are these 'raw' facts or 'spun' facts?"

Victor Hugo

News: Deaths! Deaths! Deaths!

'Assuming their porridge was poured at the same time, how could it then be too hot, too cold and just right?'

"Max! Oh, my God! There's like a billion moving ideas in there!"

It was my story. A murder mystery. A who-done-it-and-got-away-with-it-until-he-wrote-about-it.

"Dad, can we have a bedtime narrative?"

Man commiting suicide finds the treasure at the bottom of the sea.

"I'm after the history section."

Man writing at laptop says: 'It's a UK road movie ??" to give it more scale, I'm making the characters three inches tall.'

Temporary and Permanent Writer's Block

My Aunt's Left Hook Expels Uriah From The Chaise

"It all happened so fast. 'Notable Book of the Year' to the remainder shelves to HERE in just six months!"

"It's a narrative I didn't intend."

"It's a coming-of-middle-age story."

The Truth

"And Jasper, dear Jasper, with his soulful eyes and great sagging jowl, would be stretched upon the floor, his tail a-thump when he heard his master's footsteps." Penny loved Daphne Du Maurier's 'Rebecca'.

"That's Eleanor. She's a fact checker."

History Department: 'I used to be a revisionist myself, you know!'

Ilyasah Shabazz

“I’ve got an idea for a story: Gus and Ethel live on Long Island, on the North Shore. He works sixteen hours a day writing fiction. Ethel never goes out, never does anything except fix Gus sandwiches and in the end she becomes a nympho-lesbo-killer-whore. Here’s your sandwich”

"What do you suppose Ken Burns will have to say about all this in 30 years?"

Reading room

"Wait a minute. Where am I going? I'm a writer."

'Too many cliches? Now hold your horses!'

Danae's Prescient Auto-Biography: '...My prescient autobiography is a publisher's dream...no need for fact-checking!'

'Read any good book reviews lately?'

"I've found my voice, Penny. It's deep, wise, and compassionate."

Inspiration

Getting Published

Portrait of Sigmund Freud

He dies at the end. There, I've spoiled every story ever written. Whether it's a person, a quest, ennui, a dream, a struggle, hope, despair, innocence, cynicism, a romance, a friendship, or an estrangement

"Welcome to the neighbourhood. I hope you like savory pies."

"We love your manuscript! It's exactly the sort of big, sprawling epic we've been looking for!"

The movie was over. But not for Bob.