So, You Want to be a Writer?

Here's a great opportunity to begin a conversation with Preston L. Allen, author of All or Nothing (Akashic Books 2007). Preston will field your questions with his characteristic wit and tangent. All you have to do is read these books and become a regular visitor to this blog: http://allornothingthenovel.blogspot.com/

A. Manette Ansay: Blue Water

A. Manette Ansay: Vinegar Hill

Alice Munro: Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship

Alice Sebold: The Lovely Bones

Alice Walker: The Color Purple

Angie Cruz: Let It Rain Coffee

Anne Rice: Interview With the Vampire

Bernays Painter: What If?

Carol Taylor: Wanderlust

Carolyn Ferrell: Don't Erase Me

Chris Abani: Song for Night

Christopher Moore: Lamb

Colin Channer: Iron Balloons

Dedra Johnson: Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow

Dennis Lehane: Mystic River

Felicia Luna Lemus: Like Son

Geoffrey Philp: Uncle Obadiah and the Alien

Gonzalo Barr: Last Flight of Jose Luis Balboa

Gordon Parks: The Learning Tree

Hallema: Mass Deception

Ivonne Lamazares: The Sugar Island

James W. Hall: Gone Wild

Jarret Keene: Las Vegas Noir

JK Rowling: Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows

John Cheever: The Stories of John Cheever

John Dufresne: Lie That Tells a Truth

John Dufresne: Johnny Too Bad

John Rechy: City of Night

Junot Diaz: Drown

Kwame Dawes: She's Gone

Laura Valeri: The Kinds of Things Saints Do

Leonard Nash: You Can't Get There From Here and Other Stories

Les Standiford: Miami Noir

Les Standiford: Meet You in Hell

Lewis Nordan: Music of the Swamp

Lynne Barrett: Secret Names of Women

Martha Frankel: Hats and Eyeglasses

Michael Craig: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King

Pat MacEnulty: From May to December

Philip Roth: Human Stain

Preston L. Allen: Come With Me Sheba

Preston L. Allen: Hoochie Mama

Preston L. Allen: All or Nothing

Preston L. Allen: Churchboys and Other Sinners

Richard Wright: Native Son

Sapphire: Push

Simon Winchester: The Professor and the Madman

Stephen King: On Writing

Stephen King: Different Seasons

T Cooper: Lipshitz Six

Uzodinma Iweala: Beasts of No Nation

Vicki Hendricks: Cruel Poetry

William Goldman: Boys and Girls Together

William Zinnser: On Writing Well

Yann Martel: Life of Pi

No question is out of bounds. E-mail him at PrestonTheWriterAllen@gmail.com, and be prepared to laugh and learn. Preston also posts a growing list of some pretty great and often unusual books that you should read if you want to be a writer.

Preston L. Allen, who was born on Roatan (Honduras), is the author of the novels Hoochie Mama, Bounce, Come with Me, Sheba, and the short story collection Churchboys and Other Sinners. His stories have also appeared in several of the Brown Sugar series. Preston is the winner of the Sonja H. Stone Prize in Literature and a recipient of a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in Fiction. He lives in Miami, Florida.

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