Category: Satire

Meet Amina Akhtar, Author of Kismet

Acclaimed author Amina Akhtar’s fiercely funny and twisty new thriller, Kismet, is a razor-sharp takedown of Sedona’s crystal-hugging wellness community. It’s also the thought-provoking story of Ronnie Khan: a young, self-effacing Pakistani-American woman who follows her seemingly perfect best friend,…

Dear COVID-19, I’ve Read Your Pandemic Novel

Thanks for sending me your manuscript—nearly finished, I hope! It’s certainly some kind of achievement to literally capture your audience inside this sprawling dystopia. Your stakes recall the four horsemen, even your scenes of grocery shopping contain conflict, and you’ve…

Nine Circles of Literary Agent Hell

Note: GrubStreet’s Muse and the Marketplace is cancelled this year due to Covid-19. I’ve screwed up so many Manuscript Mart meetings at GrubStreet’s Muse and the Marketplace conference, I’ve been through Hell. I have been disconsolate, heard Satan’s calumnies, been…

AN INTERVIEW WITH JON CLINCH, AUTHOR OF MARLEY

In Marley, Jon Clinch brings back to life the famous ghost, Jacob Marley, who appears before Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve. Wrapped in chains, he warns Scrooge of the dangers of not changing his cold-hearted ways. But why? How did Scrooge become…