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Advice to Writers: Paul Auster

Becoming a Writer is Not a “Career Decision” Becoming a writer is not a “career decision” like becoming a doctor or a policeman. You don't choose it so much as get chosen, and once you accept the fact that you're not fit for anything else, you have to be prepared to walk a long, hard road for the rest of your days. -PAUL AUSTER I really liked this quote, it has some facts, being a writer is not something that should be made into a career full of money and power. A person should be a writer because they want to tell stories and entertain people with the universes they make up. I love writing because I love writing stories and I want people to read them.

The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

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Fourteen-year-old Trixie Stone is in love for the first time. She's also the light of her father, Daniel's life -- a straight-A student; a pretty, popular freshman in high school; a girl who's always seen her father as a hero. That is, until her world is turned upside down with a single act of violence. Suddenly everything Trixie has believed about her family -- and herself -- seems to be a lie. Could the boyfriend who once made Trixie wild with happiness have been the one to end her childhood forever? She says that he is, and that is all it takes to make Daniel, a seemingly mild-mannered comic book artist with a secret tumultuous past he has hidden even from his family, venture to hell and back to protect his daughter. With The Tenth Circle, Jodi Picoult offers her most powerful chronicle yet as she explores the unbreakable bond between parent and child, and questions whether you can reinvent yourself in the course of a lifetime -- or if your mistakes are carried forever. ...

Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult

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Picoult now explores the complex choices of the heart for a young Amish woman -- the compelling journey of discovery for an urban lawyer who befriends and protects her. The small town of Paradise, Pennsylvania, is a jewel in Lancaster County -- known for its picture-postcard landscapes and bucolic lifestyle. But that peace is shattered by the discovery of a dead infant in the barn of an Amish farmer. A police investigation quickly leads to two startling disclosures: the newborn's mother is an unmarried Amish woman, eighteen-year-old Katie Fisher. And the infant did not die of natural causes. Although Katie denies the medical proof that she gave birth to the child, circumstantial evidence leads to her arrest for the murder of her baby. One hundred miles away, Philadelphia defense attorney Ellie Hathaway has achieved an enviable, high-profile career. But her latest court "victory" has set the sands shifting beneath her. Single at thirty-nine and unsatisfied with her relatio...

Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult

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When the marriage of Mariah White and her cheating husband, Colin, turns ugly and disintegrates, their seven-year-old daughter, Faith, is there to witness it all. In the aftermath of a rapid divorce, Mariah falls into a deep depression -- and suddenly Faith, a child with no religious background whatsoever, hears divine voices, starts reciting biblical passages, and develops stigmata. And when the miraculous healings begin, mother and daughter are thrust into the volatile center of controversy and into the heat of a custody battle -- trapped in a mad media circus that threatens what little stability the family has left I just enjoy Jodi's books so much, I'm now trying to read every single one I can get my hands on. I found this one to be very capturing. It's almost as if God had touched Faith's heart and was trying to help Faith see past other things that were a mess in her life. I found Mariah's husband Colin to be a douche. He cheats on his wife with his mistress i...

The Pact by Jodi Picoult

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For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other, sharing everything from Chinese food to chicken pox to carpool duty-- they've grown so close it seems they have always been a part of each other's lives. Parents and children alike have been best friends, so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more. They've been soul mates since they were born. So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet-- a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described. This was such a dramatic book. I did like the way the book was in present then flopped back to the times when Chris and Emily first met, and how they became with a...

Advice to Writers: Michael Michalko

Creativity is Paradoxical Creativity is paradoxical. To create, a person must have knowledge but forget the knowledge, must see unexpected connections in things but not have a mental disorder, must work hard but spend time doing nothing as information incubates, must create many ideas yet most of them are useless, must look at the same thing as everyone else, yet see something different, must desire success but embrace failure, must be persistent but not stubborn, and must listen to experts but know how to disregard them. -MICHAEL MICHALKO Creativity is the most important part of the novel. Some like to have their novels so close to realism while others just like being creative and making things up. I am one of those writers where I simply like to make things up. Writing a strong character is something that will make your novel different than others. It's important to make the characters unique so that the book can stand out from all the others on the book shelf. You need to think...

Sherlock Holmes

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I want to see this movie! So much action, so much adventure. I wanted to see Rachel McAdams in it. Here's the trailer.