J.K. Rowling Talks About the Fringe Benefits of Failure
The first Harry Potter book only had a 1000-copy run. J.K. Rowling spent a year hawking it while getting a teaching certificate. And then magic happened…
2011
Raymond Chandler Riffs on the Simple Art of Murder
In which I revisit Chandler’s classic 1944 Atlantic Monthly essay on genre writing.
How Bertha Benz Made the World’s First Road Trip—When There Were No Roads
The next time you see a Mercedes on the highway, think of Bertha Benz, the daring woman who, at age 39, saved her husband’s radical invention by making the world’s first road trip when no roads existed!
Eugenia Lovett West: The Brilliant Mystery Author Who Wrote Her First Novel at 56 and Her Second at 84!
A late-blooming writer who published her first novel at 56, but didn’t see her second one in print until age 84!
Fourteen Fascinating Legal Late Bloomers
What do John Cleese and Hoagy Carmichael have in common? Read about fourteen creative folks who detoured to law school first.
How The F-Bomb Changed David Seidler’s Destiny
For fifty years, Seidler wanted to tell the story of fellow stutterer King George VI. A cancer diagnosis finally motivated him to do it. He beat cancer and won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at age 74.