Art Research

At a time when people must work harder than ever to stand out from the crowd, the word creativity can seem vague and overused. But what exactly is creativity? Adrian McKerracher travels from Vancouver to Havana to Buenos Aires, leading listeners on a journey to discover poignant new insights into a life of letters.

From his bid to become Eudora Welty's lawn boy to the time George Plimpton offered to punch him in the nose, lineage has always been important to Rick Bass. Now at a turning point - in his midfifties, with his long marriage dissolved and his grown daughters out of the house - Bass strikes out on a journey of thanksgiving. His aim: to make a memorable meal for each of his mentors, to express his gratitude for the way they have shaped not only his writing but his life.

Best-selling author Pat Conroy acknowledges the books that have shaped him and celebrates the profound effect reading has had on his life. Pat Conroy, the beloved American storyteller, is a voracious reader. Starting as a childhood passion that bloomed into a life-long companion, reading has been Conroy’s portal to the world, both to the farthest corners of the globe and to the deepest chambers of the human soul. His interests range widely, from Milton to Tolkien, Philip Roth to Thucydides, encompassing poetry, history, philosophy, and any mesmerizing tale of his native South.

Behind every acclaimed work of literature is a trove of heartfelt decisions. The best authors put painstaking - sometimes obsessive - effort into each element of their stories, from plot and character development to dialogue and point of view. Veteran editor and teacher Richard Cohen draws on his vast reservoir of a lifetime's reading and his insight into what makes good prose soar.

A recorded visit to Elizabethan Treasures during the press view at the National Portrait Gallery London. Inspect miniature portraits by Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver of Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Frake, Henry Wriothesley and others, and the celebrated icon of Queen Elizabeth I.

Mario Vargas Llosa dirige a todos aquellos que tienen la ilusión de llegar a ser escritores unas magníficas reflexiones en forma epistolar acerca del arte de narrar. Cómo comenzar a cristalizar esa vocación en obras literarias, por dónde empezar esa aventura, de dónde salen las historias que cuentan las novelas... son algunas de las preguntas a las que el Premio Nobel de Literatura da respuesta en este libro, que se convierte así en una lección magistral del oficio de escribidor.

Do you want to learn how to craft great stories that will inspire, engage, and entertain? If you're looking for a guide that will teach you the secrets of storytelling, look no further. Crafting Great Stories by Gerald Gallagher will help you craft detailed, three-dimensional stories. It will help you discover how to craft a tight plot, construct believable characters, and write with a consistent voice. This book is not only for those who want to become writers. Whether you are a playwright, screenwriter, or short story writer, Crafting Great Stories will help.

How to Write Everything is the ultimate writer's handbook. It tells you about every aspect of writing, from having an idea to getting the idea out into the world and getting paid for it, too. It covers everything from journalism to screenwriting, from speeches to sketches, from sitcoms to novels. With thirty years' experience as an award-winning scriptwriter, journalist, author, and broadcaster, David Quantick is ideally suited, as a writer, to write this definitive writer's guide to writing...everything.

In the literary world, the debate around writing and commerce often begs us to take sides: either writers should be paid for everything they do or writers should just pay their dues and count themselves lucky to be published. You should never quit your day job, but your ultimate goal should be to quit your day job. It's an endless, confusing, and often controversial conversation that, despite our bare-it-all culture, still remains taboo.

Thanks to one reporter's skill, we can fix the exact moment on November 22, 1963 when the world stopped and held its breath: At 12:34 p.m. Central Time, UPI White House reporter Merriman Smith broke the news that shots had been fired at President Kennedy's motorcade. Most people think Walter Cronkite was the first to tell America about the assassination. But when Cronkite broke the news on TV, he read from one of Smith's dispatches.

There's No Crying in Newsrooms tells the stories of remarkable women who broke through barrier after barrier at media organizations around the country over the past four decades. They started out as editorial assistants, fact checkers, and news secretaries and ended up running multi-million-dollar news operations that determine a large part of what Americans read, view, and think about the world.

When was the last time you had writer's block? You wanted very badly to write, but you couldn't think of what to write about! This collection of writing prompts will get your creative juices flowing and having you fill up page after page in no time, at all! This collection of writing prompts is a powerful and useful reference to use whenever you need something to kick-start your writing! And best of all, you have no excuse to not get started right away!

Part memoir and part spirit guide, Wild Words is a book about the intersection of our creative soul with everything else, and how to make peace, make priorities, and ultimately, make progress by slowing down and embracing whatever season we’re in, right now.

Throughout a long career as a special and foreign correspondent for major Italian publications and the state-owned broadcaster RAI, Marco Lupis has been up close and personal with many of the people who have shaped the world as we know it. In this book, Lupis recalls the most important interviews of his career, not only with brave men and women who dedicated their lives to fighting injustice and abuse of power, but also with some of the biggest names of the modern era.

Sonnets & Sunspots tells the story of one of the most beloved popular science series of all time and the charismatic educator who became an icon to several generations of students. The audiobook is also a fascinating history of popular science programming in television and film, from its primitive beginnings to the 21st century. Along the way there are entertaining behind-the-scenes stories of each production and the personalities that were involved with them.

In the past century, average life expectancies have nearly doubled, and today, for the first time in human history, many people have a realistic chance of living to 80 or beyond. As life expectancy increases, Americans need accurate, scientifically grounded information so that they can take full responsibility for their own latter years. In The Art and Science of Aging Well, Mark E. Williams, MD, discusses the remarkable advances that medical science has made in the field of aging and the steps that people may take to enhance their lives as they age.

Discover the cosmic roots of Egyptian musical, vocal, and dancing rhythmic forms. Learn the fundamentals (theory and practice) of music in the typical Egyptian way: simple, coherent, and comprehensive. Review a detailed description of the major Egyptian musical instruments, playing techniques, functions, etc. Discover the Egyptian rhythmic practices in all aspects of their lives.

Category romance is a precise art. With such a small word count, writing the perfect category romance is a little like writing a haiku. But how do you write a book in 17 syllables? In Crafting Category Romance, two-time RITA™-nominated author of nearly 100 books Amy Lane describes the rules of engagement, traps to watch out for, and how to leverage common tropes to create conflict, craft a character, develop a plot, and leave readers with a happy ever after that's different every time - all in a tidy package.

Do you want to boost your sales, save time, and grow your business at a lightning speed? Good copywriting can do all that plus a whole lot more. And world-class copywriting can transform your performance out of all recognition. I’m going to show you how. Whether you’re aware of it or not, copywriting is one of the most essential elements of effective marketing. It’s the art and science of strategically delivering words that motivate people to take action.

On November 13th 2001, John Simpson and a BBC news crew walked into Kabul, and the liberation of the Afghan capital was broadcast to a waiting world. It was the end of a sustained campaign against the Taliban, a campaign that Simpson had covered from the beginning, despite appalling difficulties and, often, great danger. In this, his third riveting volume of autobiography, John Simpson focuses on how journalists set about finding the stories that make the headlines.