F. Scott Fitzgerald – Michael A. Kahn

A Special Heaven for Authors: My Fantasy

Posted on March 22, 2020April 23, 2020 by Michael Kahn

I’ve been thinking about the afterlife lately. Not mine, though at age of 67 I know I am closer to my end than my beginning. But, to quote Marcus Aurelius, “It is not death a man should fear but he should fear never having to live.” So I try focus on the living part. But…

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Most Important Books of All Time? Let the Debate Begin!

Posted on February 26, 2019February 26, 2019 by Michael Kahn

Last summer I wrote a post about a cool web page that had created road maps for your favorite road-trip novels, from Jack Kerouac’s cross-country trip in On the Road to The Cruise of the Rolling Junk, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s description of the journey he took with his wife Zelda from Connecticut to Alabama in…

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What’s in a name? More than you imagine!

Posted on May 8, 2017June 27, 2018 by Michael Kahn

“Mike, I have a better idea for your book title.” I’ve heard that from my editor three times over the years. All three times she was right. But first, some background: While you can’t tell a book by its cover, you might consider reading a book by its title. Nevertheless, the history of literature reveals…

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Does Size Matter? An NSFW Episode in American Literature

Posted on March 22, 2017 by Michael Kahn

As you may have guessed, the topic of this post is a penis. No ordinary penis, either. Indeed, the scene opens like the beginning of a joke: two literary lions walk into a bar in Paris. One will soon confide to the other his concerns about his penis. Specifically, about its size. And the scene…

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Bringing Up the Rear: The Literary Mic Drop

Posted on February 23, 2017February 23, 2017 by Michael Kahn

Many years ago, my agent offered me the following advice: “The most important sentence of your novel is the first one. The second most important sentence is the last one.” There certainly have been vivid, memorable first lines, many of which we can quote by heart–from “Call me Ishmael” in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick to “It was a bright…

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God or Huck Finn: Who Should Tell Your Story?

Posted on September 15, 2016September 14, 2016 by Michael Kahn

An online discussion among several of my fellow Poisoned Pen Press authors got me thinking about the one decision every fiction author must make before typing CHAPTER 1 at the top of the page. That decision? Who will tell your story? “Huh,” a baffled reader may wonder, “doesn’t the author tell the story?” Only rarely….

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End Game: The Art of the Closer

Posted on January 16, 2013January 18, 2013 by Michael Kahn

This is my sequel to my prior post on the Poisoned Pen Press blog. That one was on great opening lines in novels. This one is on great closing lines, including my five favorites. Enjoy!

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