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Reviews for The Writing Class

Saturday, June 21, 2008

According to critics, I’ve written:

A Sizzling Summer Beach Read: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25280915/

A Killer Murder Mystery: http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1214037020320080.xml&coll=2

Not Your Usual Murder Mystery: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23889208-5003424,00.html

A Fall-off-your-chair-funny, Yet Gently Sad Murder Mystery: http://www.sdcitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/murder_and_other_bad_behavior/7015/

A Delicious Satire Savag[ing] Every Literary Pretension Imaginable: http://www.miamiherald.com/tropical_life/story/552534.html

An Engaging and Very Funny Novel about a Diverse Group of People Learning to Write: Canberra Times, 5/7/2008

A Clever Page-Turner: Australian Women’s Weekly, July, 2008

A Darkly Comic Murder Mystery: Sydney Daily Telegraph, 6/28/2008

A Readable and Entertaining Mystery but it’s also more than that. It explores, albeit lightly, the underbelly of the writing world:  http://www.smh.com.au/news/book-reviews/the-writing-class/2008/07/18/1216163140461.html

A Dark Comedy of the Absurd [and] Damn Fine Guide to Writing Fiction: (Publishers Weekly) http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Writing-Class/Jincy-Willett/e/9780312330668/?itm=2#TABS

A Murder Mystery Written by Someone Who Maybe Doesn’t Like, and Definitely Doesn’t Understand, Murder Mysteries: (Snarkus Kirkus Reviews)  http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Writing-Class/Jincy-Willett/e/9780312330668/?itm=2#TABS

 Mystery! Mayhem!: http://www.dailycandy.com/chicago/article/36539/All+the+Worlds+a+Page

A Marvelous Toy of a Book, Full of Wry Surprises and Sly Twists: Booklist Magazine (ALA), May 2008

A BookSense Pick: http://www.booksense.com/bspicks/June08.jsp

A Darkly Comic Mystery: http://www.sandiegomagazine.com/media/San-Diego-Magazine/June-2008/Calendar/

[with]  Zany Humor…Blended with Intelligence and Empathy for People Worth Knowing, at Least in a Book: http://www.projo.com/books/content/BOOK-WRITING-CLASS__06-22-08_CHA5VBE_v9.1109902.html

[following] the Same Advice that Innumerable Writing Teachers Give: Write What You Know: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20080622-9999-1a22willett.html

A Kooky and Spooky Whodunit: http://www.straight.com/article-151100/the-writing-class\

What’s Hot in the Media: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2008/07/08778

A Terrifically Engrossing Page-turner, a Comic Thriller that is Likely to be One of the Great Reads of the Summer of 2008: http://www.buffalonews.com:80/entertainment/booksliterature/story/386144.html

The Most Profound Contribution to Western Letters since the Gutenburg Bible: http://www.jincywillett.com/journal/

 

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Cultural Notes from All Over

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

From the North County Times Books Calendar for June 1:

 – At The Book Works, Flower Hill Promenade, 2670 Via de la Valle, Suite A230, Del Mar, (858) 755-3735:

Shawn Tomson will sign and discuss “Surfer’s Code: 12 Simple Lessons for Riding Through Life” at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Jincy Willett will discuss and sign “The Writing Class”at 7 p.m. June 23.

– At The Yellow Brick Road, 7200 Parkway Drive, Suite 118, La Mesa, (619) 463-4900:

The June B. Jones Stupid Smelly Bus Tour will visit at 9 a.m. June 9.

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Dennis Cass Explains it All For You

Thursday, May 15, 2008

And good for him, too.  A must-see for everyone who dreams of someday getting published.

Book Launch 2.0 on YouTube

 

 

 

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Onionesque Headlines

Monday, February 11, 2008

This fabulous List suggested by Tom Hartley.  All entries are his, unless otherwise attributed.  As always, feel free to jump in.

 9th Viewing of Return of the Jedi a Disappointment

Haydn Threatens to Glut the Symphony Market

Kierkegaard’s Latest Philosophical Musing Depresses No One

Mark Russell to Apologize to Nation for Not Writing a Song about Super Tuesday

Writer’s Strike Cripples Nigerian Banking Industry

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Tops NAAMBLA’s Best Books of 2007 List

Ghost of Norman Mailer Forgives Nobel Literature Prize Committee

Dennis Kucinich Finds New Lost Cause

Local Ron Paul Supporter Considers Possibility that Oswald Acted Alone

Blogger’s Latest Case for Impeachment His Most Devastating Yet

Nation Shows Signs of No Longer Giving a Shit about Fucked Up Blonde Girls

Chewbaca’s Wikipedia Entry Rife with Errors

Flava Flav Suspects Some of the Ladies Are Not Really Here for the
Flav; Money, Publicity Possible Real Motives

Some Designers Not Consoled by Heidi Klum’s Icy Farewell Kiss

Britney Spears Hopes the Lampshade on Her Head Will Amuse Onlookers

Whole World to Suffer Again for Richard Hilton Not Paying Enough
Attention to Daughter Paris

Hillary Clinton Tells Husband Making Fun of Obama’s Name Is Not Helping

In His Most Impassioned Dissent, Antonin Scalia Finally Drops the F-Bomb

McCain Campaign Song Frightens Children

Obama Campaign to Instil Vague Sense of Well-Being with New Slogan,
“The Hopefulness of Hope”

McCain Says Brahms-Wagner War May Last Another 100 Years

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Most Intriguing Opening Paragraphs of Real News Stories

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

SWEETWATER, Tenn. - A woman has been charged with possession of burglary tools after police said a crowbar slipped out of her pants as she was lurking around a church.  (AP, 1/28/08)

A RUSSIAN woman in St Petersburg killed her drunk husband with a folding sofa, it was reported yesterday. (AP, 7/10/08)
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The Writing Class–Here’s the cover

Monday, January 14, 2008

jacket cover for The Writing Class

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Word List from Copyeditor’s Stylesheet for The Writing Class (coming in June 2008)

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

(this being what copy editors, without whom writers would look pretty silly, have to worry about)

a while (2 wds as obj of prep)

a.k.a.

anymore (1 wd as adv)

awhile (as adv)

axe-wielding

backseat

backstory

basset hound

bioterrorist

bling

blond, fem., n. & adj.

blond, masc. or neut., n. & adj.

brand-new

buttload

buzz cut, n.

buzz-cut, adj.

cell phone

cheat sheet

computer-savvy

coulrophobic

crappitude

curricula vitarum

d.o.b., d.o.d.

diacritics

diphthongs

doofus

eftsoons

e-mail

encomium

exactamento

FedEx

Frisbee

gigue

glance-through, n.

Googling

half hour

half-filled

high school (adj.)

huzzahs

Hylocereus undatus

Internet

JPEG

kibbitzers

leukemia

likable

looky-loo

lying doggo

mal de mer

mixups

mnemonic

namby-pamby

night-blooming cereus

nonce

nonfiction

nonreaders

nor’easter

online

over-praising

p.o.v.

pied piper

pinup

plastique

plenteous

Post-it

pre-registration

printouts

screwups

sea-rolls

setups

shape-shifter

shih tzu

shoot-out

simpleminded

sixties

souffle

spaceship

sure-footed

t.o.d.

tae kwon do

tantivying

tech-savvy

tomblike

trisyllabic

voice mail

wannabes

Web site

whiteboard

wineglasses

Xanax

Xeroxing

x-rayed

youse

zip-tab

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Name That List (and no fair Googling)

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The spur of cheese.

The mustard-pot of penance.

The cobbled shoe of humility.

The furred cat of the Solicitors and Attorneys.

The Teeth-chatter or Gum-didder of Lubberly Lusks.

The Ape’s Paternoster.

The Fat Belly of the Presidents.

The Merciless Cormorant, by Hoxinidno the Jew.

 
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Bring out your dead: My radio play

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

TRIVIAL PURSUIT
(or Requiem for the Hornblooms)
A Radio Play in Three Acts
By
Jincy Willett
SIX CHARACTERS:
Fred & Ethel (couple in their sixties or seventies)
Buck & Penny,
Randy & Alice (young academics)

Act One

(sounds of cutlery on china, people eating)

Ethel: Pork balls?
Buck: Oh, I couldn’t.
Ethel: Potato puffs?
Randy, Alice: Really, no.
Ethel: Who wants more pork balls? Speak up, kids. Lets don’t be shy.
Buck, Penny: Oh, no, honestly, I’m full, etc.
Fred: Ethel goes hog wild for company.
Ethel: Oh, Fred.
Alice: What do you call this casserole, Mrs. Mertz?
Randy: (urgent whisper) Murgatroyd!
Ethel: (laughing) Everybody makes that mistake! Don’t they, honey? But Alice, you mustn’t be so formal.
Fred: Ain’t neighborly.
Ethel: Fred and me are experts on making new friends in a hurry, and you don’t do that by standing on ceremony. You don’t do that by sticking to Mrs. This and Mr. That.
Fred: Politeness kills.
Alice: Oh, of course you’re right. Ethel.
Ethel: Vegetable rummage!
Alice: I beg your pardon?
Ethel: The name of my casserole. I call it Vegetable Rummage. Men love it.
Randy: So. You two move around a lot, I take it.
Fred: Yes, Randy. We’ve lived just about everywhere in the contiguous forty-eight.
Ethel: Except the Northwest.
Fred: Made our homes in twenty-seven states.
Ethel: And Kingston, Ontario!
Randy: What do you do, Fred?
Fred: Strictly U-Haul. Professional movers are crooks. Plus they smash hell out of your knickknacks.
Randy: Sorry. I meant, what do you do for a living?
Fred: I’m retired, Randy.
(long pause)
Penny: Well! Do you think you’ll maybe stay here a while? Put down roots, as they say?
Ethel: Its a lovely area. So nice and quiet, just the way we like it. And weve never lived among university people before. I expect we’ll get a lot of culture off you kids.
Fred: No. What about those two in Biloxi? Ernie and Corinne Something. Horn. Horner.
Ethel: Oh, he just taught high school. He wasn’t a real professor.
Fred: Hornington? What the hell was it? Hornberry?
Ethel: It’ll come to me. They were sweet though. Redheads.
Fred: Fine neighbors.
Ethel: Lots of fun.
Fred: Hell, yes. We had fun with those two. Hornbloom? Shoot, that’s gonna drive me nuts.
Ethel: Well, while you’re doing that, you can help me clear the table. Penny, Alice, you just stay right where you are. Fred’ll help me in the kitchen. You kids just pass the bottle around and digest your meal.
(sounds of clearing up)
Buck: Sure was a fine meal, Ethel.
Others: (concurring sounds)
Ethel: We’ll be back in two shakes.
(sound of receding footsteps)
Fred: (from a distance) Hornbottle.
Ethel: (from a distance) Hornbostel!
Fred: (from a distance) Hornbostel!
(sound of closing door)
Buck: (lowered voice) We’re in hell. Get it? We’re all dead, only we don’t know it yet, and we’ve gone to hell. (Continued)

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What does this mean?

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Readers are invited to explain selected sentences from current news stories.  You can be creative if you want, but I wouldn’t mind a straightforward explanation.  Also feel free to suggest other puzzlers.  (No politics, please: the focus is language.)

From WRCB-TV in Chattanooga:

 …”We have the three climbers..all are mobile..no one is ambulatory.”

 Four guesses from Justkristin:

“We have found three [of the missing mountain] climbers” . “all [three] are able to move” . “no one requires an ambulance”
OR
“We have found three [of the missing mountain] climbers” . “All [three] can move” . “[but] no one can [actually] walk”
OR
“We have three vines…all of them are able to move about of their own will…none of us are able to walk anymore.”
OR
“We have three people with us who eagerly grasp any opportunity to move up in the world…all of them have cell phones…they all stay put in their office or cubicle chairs and never walk about.”

My own guess:

“We have three climbers…all can be moved [i.e., in a stretcher or something]…not one can move on his own.”

 From Garrett Nichols:

We have three children who are beginning to climb out of their cribs … all love their Winnie the Pooh mobiles … not one of them has yet earned their ambulance certification.

 From Christopher Allen:

German-influenced translation:  We’ve got all three of them! They can furnish, but they aren’t yet outpatients.

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