E.B. White on Writing
I love E.B. White. His essays, his fiction, and his update to Strunk’s Style Guide. He has a way with words that puts me to shame. Take this short paragraph on writing from the Elements of Style: Writing is, for most, laborious and slow. The mind travels faster than the pen; consequently, writing becomes a question of learning to make occasional wing shots, bringing down the bird of thought as it flashes by. A writer is a gunner, sometimes waiting in the blind for something to come in, sometimes roaming the countryside hoping to scare something up. Like other gunners, Read more…
Women in Movies
I think this video raises a good point: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLF6sAAMb4s?wmode=transparent] If you’re not in a place to watch it, it’s a test for movies about whether there is a “female presence.” Not that it’s feminist, or even portrays women well. Just as to whether it even portrays women at all. The test: 1) Does it have two or more women in it (with names). 2) Do they talk to each other? 3) About something other than a man. As the video points out, a surprising number of movies don’t meet these three, pretty simple points. Of course, some stories won’t Read more…
Yay! The Saints Go Dying is #18 on the Kindle’s “Police Procedural” Mysteries list.
It's working, it's working! Thank you to everyone who purchased the book! After less than 24 hours, The Saints Go Dying is #18 on the Bestselling Kindle "Police Procedural" Mysteries, right between two James Patterson novels. I'm not up to the straight Bestselling Mysteries list yet (Sue Grafton seems to have a lock there right now) but this is a start. If you haven't purchased the book, please do! Especially now that I know this little scheme of mine could work. Here's the key links: 1) download the Kindle reader (if you don't already have it) 2) purchase the book
“The Saints Go Dying” is in the top 2000 books downloaded on the Kindle today …
So close to hitting the mystery best-seller list! http://j.mp/dftHqE
The Saints Go Dying, by Erik Hanberg — out today!
In 2007 I started working on a novel called The Saints Go Dying, and I'm happy to say that I am releasing it today, exclusively as an e-book. The novel is a detective mystery with some really fun cat-and-mouse games between a detective and a killer. Self-publishing it as an e-book is something of a experiment, and I would love it if my readers would consider helping me out! The Plan My plan is that I can get enough people to buy the book today, Monday, April 5. By having a concentrated effort of a lot of people purchasing the book within Read more…
Wonder Boys
I'm a big fan of Wonder Boys. It came out in 2000 but got lost. The studio apparently thought enough of it that they decided to rerelease it again. It still got lost. Which is too bad, because it's a great movie. The only thing that seemed to stick was that Bob Dylan's song was really good (which it was). Good writer's inspiration, too. There's a feel to it that I really like and realize that I've often tried to emulate.
A tale of two novels
As I mentioned, I was inspired by some of the opportunities in publishing right now that I learned about at SXSW. But one of the reasons I was at those panels was because I’ve decided to really work on writing and publishing my work this year. I came to this decision for a couple reasons. The first: I love writing. Getting back into it reminds me of how much I’ve missed it. The second: I’ve written eight novels, and I’m working on a ninth. That’s a lot of writing for having never done anything with it. What if one of them could Read more…
The Winthrop revisited
So about 18 months ago Shelterforce magazine (the journal of the National Housing Institute, based out of New Jersey) commissioned me to write about the Winthrop. I was only too happy to do so, and jumped into the project, interviewing people all over Tacoma including residents of the Winthrop, the mayor, Prium CEO Ansara, Michael Mirra of the THA, etc. I also called on my own experience attending the early-morning meetings in 2006 when Quiqq was trying to make something happen. Unfortunately, it was bumped a few times. But it finally went live! You can read it here on their Read more…
21,000 words on the cutting room floor …
After a major edit of my novel, I dropped it down by about 21,000 words. That ends up to be just about 21% of the words. And the story didn’t change a bit. Like. At all. That’s a good sign I had a problem. I’m going to go through it again soon. This time for pacing, to make sure I didn’t take out anything important or rush anything too badly. It’ll probably grow again. But I feel good about the edits I made.
Ouch. Re-reading things you wrote years ago can be painful.
While editing a novel I finished back in 2002, I found this humdinger. I was surprised, though, to see that the door was already cracked open. And through that vertical aperture I heard a voice inside, and my stomach clenched. Vertical aperture? I want to wring the neck of that 23-year-old English major. It’s been years since I’ve pulled this novel out. I’ve always had a real soft spot for it and decided it was time to give it a fresh look. What I’ve discovered is that I’ve significantly overwritten the damn thing. Before I started work Friday night, this Read more…
^