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It's Christmas Eve in Eden, Florida, and Wylie 'Coyote' Melville, professional therapist and hobbyist forensic consultant, is called to the scene of a horrific crime at a quiet suburban address. Wylie has enough on his plate as it is, his father is slipping deeper into the clutches of Alzheimer's, his new kitten Django is wreaking havoc with the soft furnishings and a homeless man has taken up residence on his front lawn. But a local family has been found brutally slain in their own home, and Wylie's friend Detective Sergeant Carlos O'Brien wants him to use his rare ability to 'read minds', to see the clues. So he starts his own haphazard investigation, but with suspicions of mob involvement and the police strangely keen to shut down Wylie's amateur operation, he might be biting off more than he can chew. No Regrets, Coyote is a wild ride to the dark heart of the Florida underworld. For fans of Christopher Brookmyre, Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard, and introduces a brilliantly original detective with the crime scene skills of Sherlock Holmes and the personal life of Jeff 'the Dude' Lebowski.
An engaging and frank guide to writing the very short story, full of sound advice, exemplary models, and provocative exercises. The history of fiction has been dominated by the novel and the short story. But now a brave new genre has emerged: very brief fiction. FLASH! identifies the qualities that make for excellent flash fiction, demystifies the writing process, and guides writers by exercise and example through the world of the very short story. John Dufresne’s characteristic warmth, wit, and humor remind writers of the joy in the creative process, making this a perfect guide for any writer interested in trying a new form.
We had so much fun with our first anthology that we thought we’d do it again. Everything’s Broken, Too is our second publishing venture, and the stories inside were chosen from the submissions of past and present participants in our Friday Night Writers group. These are stories about what we’re afraid of, what we’re ashamed of, what we can’t forget about, and what we don’t want to know about ourselves. They are as compelling as they are unsettling: a boy on the verge of manhood, growing up in rural Alabama in the fifties, falls in love with a girl and with stories; a free-spirited entrepreneurial couple go to work for Hawaiian drug lords and find out they may have stepped into a ...
"This is the most practical, hard-nosed, generous, direct, and useful guide to writing fiction." —Brad Watson Finally, a truly creative—and hilarious—guide to creative writing, full of encouragement and sound advice. Provocative and reassuring, nurturing and wise, The Lie That Tells a Truth is essential to writers in general, fiction writers in particular, beginning writers, serious writers, and anyone facing a blank page. John Dufresne, teacher and the acclaimed author of Love Warps the Mind a Little and Deep in the Shade of Paradise, demystifies the writing process. Drawing upon the wisdom of literature's great craftsmen, Dufresne's lucid essays and diverse exercises initiate the rea...
A smart and funny guide to writing fiction, with engaging infographics that bring storytelling techniques to life. Whether you are daunted by a blinking cursor or frustrated trying to get the people in your head onto the page, writing stories can be intimidating. It takes passion, tenacity, patience, and a knowledge of?and faith in?the often-digressive writing process. A do-it-yourself manual for the apprentice fiction writer, Storyville! demystifies that process; its bold graphics take you inside the writer’s comfortingly chaotic mind and show you how stories are made. In Storyville!, seasoned guide John Dufresne?whose approach “will anchor the newbie and entertain the veteran” (San Francisco Chronicle)?provides practical insight into the building blocks of fiction, including how to make the reader see your characters, create a suspenseful plot, and revise, revise, revise. Storyville! is a combination handbook and notebook, with original prompts and exercises crafted with Dufresne’s singular dry wit and Evan Wondolowski’s playful and illuminating graphics on every page.
“If Raymond Chandler were reincarnated as a novelist in south Florida, he couldn’t nail it any better than John Dufresne.”—Carl Hiaasen John Dufresne has been hailed by the New York Times as “an original talent . . . [whose] humor is frightfully dark, but . . . dazzling.” I Don’t Like Where This Is Going continues the misadventures of therapist-on-the-run Wylie “Coyote” Melville. Wylie has witnessed a woman falling to her death outside the Luxor Hotel. Troubled by the ensuing cover-up, he becomes a man on a mission, enlisting the help of his old friend, an ace card player and master magician, to help find answers. The duo’s escapades range from poker tables to desert highways, from bordellos to child beauty pageants, resulting in a thoroughly satisfying and hilarious whodunit.
A collection by "a generous and lyric storyteller" (San Francisco Chronicle) known for his tragicomic voice and his unforgettable and lively characters. In John Dufresne's stories people are caught unawares by trouble and opportunity in the act of going about their daily lives. A romantic woman, involved with her married boss, is proposed to by a Bulgarian on a tourist visa in search of a green card and must choose between a wedding and a love affair. A doctor who has killed two women escorts a flamboyant woman home to tell her about his rage and her foolishness. Four young brothers wander into a man's backyard claiming to be foster children. They share lunch and search for the foster home that doesn't exist. After a man tells his wife that he's leaving her and his children for his new lover, he's found dead in the morning. It's up to our literary hero to solve the mystery—murder, he wrote. A cross between William Faulkner (Times-Picayune) and John Irving (Detroit Free Press), Dufresne once again masterfully charts the power of truth and lies and the magic hidden in the mundane.
A favorite novel by “a generous and lyric storyteller” (San Francisco Chronicle) known for his tragicomic voice and unforgettable characters. Billy Wayne is the sole survivor of his oddball line of marginal folk. When he acquires a priestly vocation it seems likely he will be the last Fontana, until hearing a young woman’s confession propels him into an impulsive marriage.
The colorful inhabitants of Shiver-de-Freeze, Louisiana (population 375) gather together to celebrate the wedding of Grisham Loudermilk and Ariane Thevenot.
In 1967, when Jo Ivester was ten years old, her father transplanted his young family from a suburb of Boston to a small town in the heart of the Mississippi cotton fields, where he became the medical director of a clinic that served the poor population for miles around. But ultimately it was not Ivester’s father but her mother—a stay-at-home mother of four who became a high school English teacher when the family moved to the South—who made the most enduring mark on the town. In The Outskirts of Hope, Ivester uses journals left by her mother, as well as writings of her own, to paint a vivid, moving, and inspiring portrait of her family’s experiences living and working in an all-black town during the height of the civil rights movement.