Tag Archives: Fiction Writing

They Eat Horses, Don't They? "The Revenant" v. "Backcountry": A Tale of Two Bears, With Nods to Peter Stark's "Astoria" and David Roberts's "A Newer World"

Posted on February 20, 2016 by williamjcobb

So I’ve been getting caught up on some of the Oscar-bait for this year, as in watching Matt Damon’s improbable space rescue in The Martian, and seeing The Revenant in a local theater, where I laughed and made too many … Continue reading →

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On Tolstoy's "War and Peace" and J.J. Abrams's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Or a Journey from the Sublime to the Ridiculous

Posted on January 22, 2016 by williamjcobb

So over the holidays I was holed up on a mountainside in Colorado reading Leo Tolstoy’s epic War and Peace (1869), which, at 1224 pages, is an undertaking. I felt compelled to read it as quickly as possible, lest the … Continue reading →

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The Rise of Internet Fiction: Blending Reality and Fiction—Not Just Ghosts in the Machine

Posted on November 5, 2015 by williamjcobb

So when the internet first became accessible to a wide range of people, it wasn’t just corporations and commercial institutions that flooded the World Wide Web with their websites, advertising products and making their information publicly available. One of the … Continue reading →

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On William Gay's "Little Sister Death": a Novel That Puts the P in Posthumous

Posted on November 3, 2015 by williamjcobb

So I should begin by the admission that I’m a diehard William Gay fan, and have been for years, ever since reading his first novel—The Long Home (1999), which was edited/published by none other than my own editor, Greg Michalson—though … Continue reading →

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On Flying Rivers and Ghost Forests: A Visit to Mesa Verde

Posted on October 13, 2015 by williamjcobb

So I spent last weekend at Mesa Verde National Park—a bit west of Durango, Colorado, in the famous Four Corners region of the American Southwest—grokking with the spirits of our Native American ancestors, hiking through ancestral puebloan cliff dwellings, and … Continue reading →

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Review of Patrick DeWitt's novel "Undermajordomo Minor" in the Dallas Morning News

Posted on September 14, 2015 by williamjcobb

So I know I should feel badly for neglecting my stepchild blog, for never coming to visit, for not giving enough love—”No sticky handfuls of chocolate for you, Kid!” But I plead a busy life, and slaving away (is it … Continue reading →

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Review of Kent Haruf's "Our Souls at Night" in the Dallas Morning News

Posted on June 8, 2015 by williamjcobb

So I’m a delayed/recalcitrant blogger at best, but I did review Kent Haruf’s final novel, Our Souls at Night, for the Dallas Morning News recently, and it can be found here. In my defense I can say I’m busy working … Continue reading →

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On Kent Haruf's "Our Souls at Night": The Last Waltz in Holt, Colorado

Posted on May 13, 2015 by williamjcobb

So I felt a mixture of sadness and readerly pleasure upon opening Kent Haruf’s final, posthumous novel, Our Souls at Night, to be published by Knopf this month. I first encountered Haruf’s fiction in 1999, when I was assigned his … Continue reading →

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"Necrophilia, Anyone?" On the Horror-Show That Is James Franco's Film Adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "Child of God"

Posted on December 7, 2014 by williamjcobb

So I’d heard that James Franco had made a film version of Cormac McCarthy’s powerful-and-disturbing novel Child of God (1974), and I casually wondered why I hadn’t heard anything about it. A year ago Franco also did a film version … Continue reading →

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On the Death of Kent Haruf: One of Our Finest Novelists, and a Friend

Posted on December 2, 2014 by williamjcobb

So on this snowy morning it’s a sad day to hear of the passing of Kent Haruf, author of Plainsong (1999), Eventide (2004), and Benediction (2013), among others. (For more details, see a piece in the Washington Post, here.) Although I … Continue reading →

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