Condolences, America.
The Latest Danny Williams Adventures in the Written Word, November 2024. Danny talks about fine- tuning Appalachian dialect in dialogue--and a lot more!
Meredith Sue Willis
MSW's Books
Check out MSW's latest appearances and publications here.
Latest Issue of Books for Readers #236
Reviews of books by Sabaa Tahir, Rebecca Roanhorse, Julian Barnes, Jane Austen, Brandon Taylor, Joshua Leifer, Pauletta Hansel, Carter Sickel, Stephen King, and reviews by Joe Chuman, Elaine Durbach, Eddy Pendarvis, Diane Simmons, Joel Weinberger, Danny Williams--and more!
Featured MSW Books for October & November 2024:
Soledad
in the Desert & The City Built of Starships
This page is about Meredith Sue Willis, general announcements she wants to share, her books, her teaching, and other projects. Her books include novels and short fiction for adults; stories for children; and nonfiction on writing and the writing process.
For a full list of her books, see the column on the right. Click here for information about MSW's upcoming appearances, teaching and workshops. There is also information for writers (Resources for Writers and A Journal of Practical Writing) along with reviews of all kinds of books and excellent things to watch, listen to, and read online. If you discover broken links or typographical errors, please email msw@meredithsuewillis.com.
Latest Reviews of MSW Books and Videos of MSW:
New 5 star review of Dwight's House and Other Stories
Hilton Obenzinger Reviews Love Palace
A Review of an MSW Novel Using as a Teaching tool for Writers
Libraries Today: Interview with
Meredith Sue Willis about her writing and Their HousesVideo of MSW on
"The Craft of Storytelling"
Latest Issue of Books for Readers with reviews of books by
Sabaa Tahir, Rebecca Roanhorse, Julian Barnes, Jane Austen, Brandon Taylor, Joshua Leifer, Pauletta Hansel, Carter Sickel, Stephen King, and reviews by Joe Chuman, Elaine Durbach, Eddy Pendarvis, Diane Simmons, Joel Weinberger, Danny Williams--and more!
Announcements
Cynthia Swanson on going from best-selling commercial author to self-publishing.
MSW's Books for Children
- Literary Hub has links to 25 Alice Munro stories to read online for free.
Books for Readers is soliciting reading suggestions and reviews of all kinds of books. I tend to review older books that I missed along the way and books from small and indie presses that deserve more attention. We desperately need alternatives to the handful of remaining (and way too powerful) Big Book Reviews. These publications, like all of us, have limited angles of vision. The antidote, IMHO, is lots of places sharing other world views and ideas. And YOU, dear reader, are invited to send me reviews (from little blurb length to substantial essays). Spread the word on what you're reading.
- Don't miss the latest installment of Danny Williams's Adventures in the Written Word. Editor and writer Danny Williams tells amusing tales about writing and editing--and passes on some serious hints for writers at the same time.
Especially for writers, but readers too: an article from Literary Hub by Ayeşgül Savaş on creating a clock for your story. She also recommends these books for their use of time: The Human Zoo by Sabina Murray; Intimacies by Katie Kitamura; and Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.
The Hamilton Stone Review # 50 came out this spring with a special section on poet Bob Hicok with poetry by Michael Hettich; J.R. Solonche; Claire Scott; Karen Weyant; Tony Beyer; John S. Eustis; Phillip Sterling; Julia Wendell; Carol V. Davis; Ace Boggess; Stephen Gibson; Tim Suermondt; Dana Yost; Troy Schoultz; Craig Kirchner; John Savoie; Sandy Vrana; and Sally Zakaria. Prose by Mary Ann Cain; Thomas Healy; Diane Lefer; Tim Millas; Niles Reddick; Timothy Reilly.
And--if you are curious about what I write, take a look at samples from my novels on this page. Please be patient--the page loads slowly.
Fatima Shaik's nonfiction Economy Hall is recommended by
The New York Times!!MSW made "This Week in West Virginia History!"
Trespassers
MSW's Novel of the 1968 Sit-ins
at Columbia University
"Trespassers, the final volume in Meredith Sue Willis's luminous Blair Morgan trilogy, brings its West Virginia-born heroine to the brink of adulthood and to the epicenter of her generations' rage...."
-- Carol Herman in The Washington Times
More about Trespassers
We Miss George Lies
George was one of the great gentlemen of West Virginia Letters. Learn more about him here.
Women of Appalachia Speak
MSW and others reading at Women of Appalachia Project Women Speak at the Frank & Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center at Fairmont State 4-13-24. Left to right: Patsy Kisner, Kristi Stevens Walke, Jennifer Browne, Kari Gunter-Seymour, Rose Smith, Meredith Sue Willis, Bonnie Proudfoot, Susan Truxell Sauter, ,Nathalie Sypolt, Cat Pleska.
Review of Love Palace
Hilton Obenzinger says, "In Martha, Meredith Sue Willis has created a great hardboiled narrator. She’s been hurt and pissed off,mainly by her two “rotters,” her father and her ex-husband, and the world that’s dealt her a tough hand, and she finds relief through sex and constant instability, confiding in her therapist,
when she can afford her. She’s ready for change, and stumbles into the Love Palace, a church, a social center, and an organizing HQ for its elusive charismatic spiritual leader, and by happenstance she becomes its administrator. The Love Palace is among the last low-income housing buildings in the riverside New Jersey neighborhood being overrun by gentrification, and it becomes the focal point for a fight to save what’s left. The Love Palace is a catalyst, pulling together multiple lives and stories into a pulsating community. Martha ends up cajoled to marry a much younger man, scion of the rich couple who owns the Love Palace as a project of their church – or at least we think they own it. The Love Palace community fights eviction and demolition, and knowing who owns the building is crucial – and knowing the truth about the spiritual leader as well. The novel is filled with surprises and revelations as the mysteries peel away, and Martha grows increasingly capable of handling the madness of seduction, deceit, and betrayal. Love Palace, the novel, is a delight to read, and Martha is a tough character worth meeting again and again."
Buy it from Bookshop.org or any of the usual online hardcopy suspects. Also available as a Kindle book on Amazon, and for most e-reader formats at Smashwords.com.
"The Craft of Story Telling" video with Meredith Sue Willis
This video
is presented by Samantha at Frances House. Frances House
offers copyediting, proofreading, and research assistance
for fiction
authors who want their book to be at the top of
everyone’s list. Based
in Canada, serving authors from all
over the world, you may visit
Franceshouse.co for more
information and to connect with Samantha.
For Writers
- For marketing your books and for all indie-publishers, take a look at some free (and paid) tools at Kindlepreneur. Free QR codes among other things.
One hundred tips to improve your novel from Ryan Chapman at Literary Hub
Alison Louise Hubbard: How I Got My Book Published
- Samples of Meredith Sue Willis's books.
- Short Story by Meredith Sue Willis at Cold Mountain Review: "The Sweetest Man Who Ever Lived." Audio Recording of MSW reading "The Sweetest Man Who Ever Lived.
- The wonderful Persimmon Tree offers some thoughts about beginnings in fiction.
- Here are a couple of resources about short story writing. The one from writers.com offers several possible structures, including Freitag’s pyramid: https://writers.com/how-to-write-a-story-outline.
Some good sources for where to submit are the classifed section at NewPages.com as well as others online. I have a somewhat out-dated list on this website: https://www.meredithsuewillis.com/places%20that%20publish.html
- More Jane Friedman--here's her page on self-publishing: https://janefriedman.com/self-publish-your-book
- See Ben Shepherd's suggestions for online marketing. He sells services, but has lots of free ideas too.
- Notes on using "past habitual" passages in prose narrative: this is the unspecified past of "she always used to" and "every Sunday in summer we would." In fiction and other story telling, this is a natural drafting technique which often works best in finished stories when it comes into focus/leads to a very specific example of the habitual scene. "Every Sunday after church we would gather for a cold dinner. At least, we did until the fateful Sunday just before the war when Brother stood up and announce,..."
Free lectures from Authors Publish
Have a listen: West Virginia Writers... ...at https://www.wvstories.com/ -- audio recordings, materials for teachers and much more! Produced and hosted by Kate Long."
Dialogue punctuation: Reedsy's six "unbreakable" rules for dialogue punctuation.
"Review for Writers" Danny Williams on MSW's Love Palace
Various types of third person in fiction
Check out my collection of articles for writers
New Essays at A Journal of Practical Writing: George Lies on Switching from 3rd to 1st Person in Fiction. Eddy Pendarvis on Free Indirect Discourse
E-book Versions of MSW books
(To buy any of these books as e-books, click on the image. They are also available
at the Kindle Store and at the Nook Store as well as the
iBook store and other e-book stores.)
In Memoriam
Taxicab Willis-Weinberger Extraoredinary Budgerigar
March 2006-March 30,2020
E-mail List and Free subscription to Books for Readers and Writers
Irene Weinberger
Books.... an imprint of
Hamilton Stone Editions
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Meredith Sue Willis Author and Teacher is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
