by Jamie Chavez | Feb 16, 2013 | The Arts & Media
I sometimes write marketing copy for publishers—copy for the book jacket or the back of the book, of course, but also 150 words for the wholesale catalogue, 50 words for a print ad, 25 words for a retail direct-mail blurb, 10 for a web banner. I often tell writers to...
by Jamie Chavez | Oct 31, 2012 | Words & Language
By now you know I’m endlessly fascinated by words, words, words, particularly the way different groups and cultures use them. (I’m going to note right here that some of the words that follow are strong ones. It can’t be helped. You’ll live.) I particularly love idioms...
by Jamie Chavez | Mar 6, 2012 | The Book Biz
But they would be wrong. We’ve talked about quoting people—living and dead—and making sure we’ve done it correctly, but now let’s talk about what’s permissible to quote. We all have a song that changed life as we knew it, right? Profound, man. It came along at a time...
by Jamie Chavez | Jul 4, 2011 | Words & Language
Before it was a song, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was a poem (“The Defence of Fort McHenry”), although apparently Francis Scott Key did have a melody in mind when he wrote it (“The Anacreonic Song,” a popular drinking song with bawdy lyrics that had its origins in...
by Jamie Chavez | May 19, 2011 | Authors & Other Writers, The Writing Craft
My friend Joyce Magnin—the talented author of the Bright’s Pond series, among other things—has been blogging in the last several days on the writing life. I’ve loved, in particular, her thoughts on writing what you know: From the age of nine to fifty I had many...
