Tag Archives: Fiction

“There is a great deal of art to creating something that seems artless.”

Posted on July 3, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

There is writing which resembles the mosaics of glass you see in stained-glass windows. Such windows are beautiful in themselves and let in the light in colored fragments, but you can’t expect to see through them. In the same way, … Continue reading →

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“Once upon a time there was a dragon,”

Posted on July 1, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

For fantasy is true, of course. It isn’t factual, but it is true. Children know that. Adults know it too, and that is precisely why many of them are afraid of fantasy. They know that its truth challenges, even threatens, … Continue reading →

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“I don’t know why I’m writing all this”

Posted on June 21, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

Author Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888, and  remains one of the most influential writers in the world of crime fiction thanks to his creation of Philip Marlowe, the hardboiled detective who stars in many of his stories: The Big … Continue reading →

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“Trimalchio in West Egg.”

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

It seems a bit incredible that F. Scott Fitzgerald originally titled the great American novel “Trimalchio in West Egg.”But in the end he called it “The Great Gatsby” and it remains one of the 20th century’s most read and beloved … Continue reading →

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One reader can make a difference

Posted on March 8, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, now in its fourth year, is an annual $25,000 cash prize given to a writer for a single work of imaginative fiction. The award recognizes writers Ursula spoke of in her 2014 … Continue reading →

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How we live now (almost)

Posted on February 13, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

It’s been more than a year since I read Paul Lynch’s Booker Prize winning novel Prophet Song, but I’ve been thinking more and more about it lately. Prophet Song takes place in an alternate Dublin. Members of the newly formed secret … Continue reading →

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The Trial

Posted on February 11, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the posthumous publication of Franz Kafka’s chilling novel of the nightmare world of authoritarian repression and merciless bureaucracy. I remember reading the book only after I saw Orson Welles’ chilling film production. Somehow … Continue reading →

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Rules for Writing

Posted on June 19, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Kurt Vonnegut’s eight rules of writing: Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root … Continue reading →

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Jane Austen : Revolutionary

Posted on March 5, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

I never thought that the English novelist Jane Austen was a revolutionary, but what do I know. In the video below, Evan Puschak explains, with examples, what free indirect speech is, why Austen employed it, and why it was so … Continue reading →

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Are these really the best books of 2023

Posted on December 29, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

Every year at this time we are inundated with “Best Books of the Year” lists. I’ll admit that I scroll through the lists in search of reading recommendations and guidance. So, here’s a long list of lists for our perusal … Continue reading →

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