Pimping my friends' books

Hey, just noticed that my friend Dario Ciriello's memoir Aegean Dream is available for preorder from Panverse Publishing: http://panversepublishing.com/ad-excerpt

I haven't read the book yet, but I have had the privilege of hearing some of the story first-hand from Dario and his wife Linda. It's the story of how Dario and Linda decided to follow their dreams and move to a Greek island, and how they dealt with epic bureacracy, culture shock, and maintained a sense of humor and adventure through innumerable ups and downs. Should be a good read.

Notes from Clarion West 2002: Exposition

Today's clear-out of boxes in the garage yielded my notes from the Clarion West writers' workshop back in 2002. Here's some stuff I wrote down from our first class session with Paul Park about exposition:

Don't tell the reader information before they care.

It is often counterproductive to try to transfer exactly the author's impression into the reader's head. You need to let the reader do some of the work. The reader should have a clear impression, but not necessarily a specific one.

Choose detail that seems to suggest an entire narrative.

I also unearthed a large 8.5x11 photo of me wearing a Jar Jar Binks mask. Gotta get that scanned.