Inside the Writer's Mind propels readers into 30 very different stories, written for magazines, newspapers and the Internet. Among the stories Stephen G. Bloom dissects are profiles of accused murderers, a Little League umpire, a husband and wife who sign a suicide pact, a world-famous Brazilian plastic surgeon, and a notorious abortionist. Bloom writes about his job canning fruit cocktail, a disaster of a Caribbean cruise vacation, a lethal family of professional wrestlers, and an afternoon spent with Dr. Ruth.

"Writer's Mind: Crafting Fiction" tells you in an entertaining yet authoritative manner all about the creative writing process: from imagining storylines to writing a first draft to publication.

Following on the heels of Lisa Cron's breakout first book, Wired for Story, this writing guide reveals how to use cognitive storytelling strategies to build a scene-by-scene blueprint for a riveting story. It’s every novelist’s greatest fear: pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into writing hundreds of pages only to realize that their story has no sense of urgency, no internal logic, and so is a page one rewrite. The prevailing wisdom in the writing community is that there are just two ways around this problem: pantsing (winging it) and plotting (focusing on the external plot). Story coach Lisa Cron has spent her career discovering why these methods don’t work and coming up with a powerful alternative, based on the science behind what our brains are wired to crave in every story we read (and it’s not what you think). In Story Genius Cron takes you, step-by-step, through the creation of a novel from the first glimmer of an idea, to a complete multilayered blueprint—including fully realized scenes—that evolves into a first draft with the authority, richness, and command of a riveting sixth or seventh draft.

Join Ursula K. Le Guin as she explores a broad array of subjects, ranging from Tolstoy, Twain, and Tolkien to women's shoes, beauty, and family life. With her customary wit, intelligence, and literary craftsmanship, she offers a diverse and highly engaging set of readings. The Wave in the Mind includes some of Le Guin's finest literary criticism, rare autobiographical writings, performance art pieces, and, most centrally, her reflections on the arts of writing and reading.

Are you curious to understand more about what is going on inside your head? Do you want to help your clients become more successful and happy? Are you keen to up your coaching game by using neuroscience to help clients understand why they are stuck and what to do about it? Through a mix of up-to-date neuroscientific research and real coaching stories, this book will help you to: - Generate deeper questioning through a layer of different, helpful, brain-based language - Enable clients to unpick their stuck state by understanding the neuroscience behind it - Help clients to see they have multiple options through neuroplasticity - Liberate clients by dampening non-serving neural circuits - Provide an empirical basis for effective and lasting change

This book argues for the inclusion of Eastern-influenced contemplative education in writing studies as a means of exploring the active engagement writers maintain with their bodies throughout the composing process. It explores how this engagement can be navigated by integrating yoga and mediation into the instruction and practice of writing.

“An original, fascinating, and beautifully written reckoning . . . of that great human passion: to write.”—Kay Redfield Jamison, national bestselling author of An Unquiet Mind Why is it that some writers struggle for months to come up with the perfect sentence or phrase while others, hunched over a keyboard deep into the night, seem unable to stop writing? In The Midnight Disease, neurologist Alice W. Flaherty explores the mysteries of literary creativity: the drive to write, what sparks it, and what extinguishes it. She draws on intriguing examples from medical case studies and from the lives of writers, from Franz Kafka to Anne Lamott, from Sylvia Plath to Stephen King. Flaherty, who herself has grappled with episodes of compulsive writing and block, also offers a compelling personal account of her own experiences with these conditions. “[Flaherty] is the real thing . . . and her writing magically transforms her own tragedies into something strange and whimsical almost, almost funny.”—The Washington Post “This is interesting, heated stuff.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Brilliant . . . [a] precious jewel of a book . . . that sparkles with some fresh insight or intriguing fact on practically every page.”—Seattle Post-Intelligencer “Flaherty mixes memoir, meditation, compendium and scholarly reportage in an odd but absorbing look at the neurological basis of writing and its pathologies . . . Writers will delight in the way information and lore are interspersed.”—Publishers Weekly

Two Nit Boy stories in one book, Lift Off and Bug Off! "Nit Boy is a hilariously fun junior fiction novel for fans of silliness and a good giggle. With dashes of mystery and a fast-paced plot, this is a super fun read for kids." Kids' Book Review Meet Lewis Snow. He has the worst case of nits in world history. Everyone wants him to shave his head. But Lewis thinks of his nits as pets. He’s determined to keep his hair and his nits, whatever it takes. Ned lives on Lewis’s head. He’s the first-ever jumping nit. His dad wants Ned to help nits take over the world. But Ned likes it on Lewis’s head. Ned’s vegan and hates the taste of human blood. And you thought you had problems. Includes interactive quizzes and a bonus Tom Weekly short story! ____________________________________ Praise for Tristan Bancks: 'Reading Tristan Bancks is like jumping on a rollercoaster – fun, exciting and a bit dangerous, too. Where were books like this when I was a kid?' John Boyne, author of The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas 'A tense, hard-edged, no-holds-barred thriller.' Anthony Horowitz, author of the Alex Rider series 'A high stakes adventure that will keep you guessing and breathless until the very end.' Michael Gerard Bauer, author of Don't Call Me Ishmael Also by Tristan Bancks: Two Wolves The Fall Detention Cop and Robber Ginger Meggs Nit Boy Mac Slater 1: Coolhunter Mac Slater 2: Imaginator Tom Weekly 1: My Life and Other Stuff I Made Up Tom Weekly 2: My Life and Other Stuff That Went Wrong Tom Weekly 3: My Life and Other Massive Mistakes Tom Weekly 4: My Life and Other Exploding Chickens Tom Weekly 5: My Life and Other Weaponised Muffins Tom Weekly 6: My Life and Other Failed Experiments

George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times