The best teachers of writing are great novels.If you want to hear about writing from some of the great writers in another way, start with the Paris Review interviews.

And don't forget -- let's get Afterlife's online readership to 10,000 by Halloween night. If that happens, I've promised to write a new free serial in 2009 -- the fifth Harrow novel.  ( Read more... )

As a special treat, I've uploaded the full text of my novel, Afterlife, at my website. If you enjoy it, please be sure to pick up your signed, limited edition copy at Cemetery Dance Publications. Click here to go pick up your copy. Thank you.

Afterlife is a gothic thriller about Julie Hutchinson, a woman driven to the edge of sanity when a brutal ( Read more... )

Anyone here read this one -- or see the movie?

Friends on vacation decide to have a brief day's adventure -- away from the fun and sun of the beach -- and wander into the jungle to find a nearby archaeological dig where more fun might be had.

That's the basic set up of Scott Smith's novel and the script he drew from it, for The Ruins.

Something ( Read more... )

 March 4, 2008

Dear Reader,

From among the novels you've read -- that have also been published in the past five years -- what is your favorite first line?

Yes, you can go check. Please post it here in comments, with a reference to book and author. Thanks.

Why am I asking?

I think good first lines are crucial -- they involve us right away, or repel us. ( Read more... )

 Wednesday February 20, 2008

Dear Reader,

Strangely, today's post is all about electronics, in one way or another.

1. THE SATELLITE

Am I the only one with a slight anxiety about that satellite that's due to fall soon? Reports are, it'll be the size of a bus.  The last article I read on it talked about a missile being launched to break it up.

Somehow, ( Read more... )

 For those of you who enjoy reading ebooks, Tor is doing something special right now. Go check it out:

Click here to find out how to get some free digital books from Tor.

Best,

Douglas Clegg

p.s. If you want to read a full-length novel of mine in ebook form, or some novellas, you might go:

http://www.DouglasClegg.com/M.html -- get screensavers, free ( Read more... )

Saturday, February 9, 2008 ( Read more... )

Saturday, February 2, 2008
1:27 a.m.

Dear Reader,

I'm writing this as a Friday entry, but it's after midnight, so it shows up Saturday morning. Today, I wrote early in the day and now, late in the night.

I spent a lot of time with the woman I call "the tsarina" in the book -- Mrs. D(I keep changing the family's last name to try and get the right ( Read more... )

Wednesday, January 30, 2008 ( Read more... )

Tuesday, January 28, 2008 ( Read more... )