The Cobra and the Key

Availability:
Ebook in EPUB format. Available for immediate download after we receive your order

DRM:
Watermark

Publication Year:
2023

ISBN-13: 9781990071133

<p><b><i>Sam Shelstad&#8217;s brilliantly funny, slightly unhinged creative writing guide is </i>How Fiction Works<i> by James Wood meets </i>Pale Fire<i> by Vladimir Nabokov.</i></b></p><p>To the untrained eye, Sam Shelstad may look a lot like a Value Village cashier who shares an apartment with his Uncle Herman and has just emerged from a failed relationship with a woman forty years his senior whom he met at his mother&#8217;s book club. But Sam is a successful novelist&#8212;or will be soon, he&#8217;s certain. The manuscript of his debut novel, <i>The Emerald</i>, is currently on the desk of a celebrated indie publisher. While he waits to hear back, he&#8217;s hard at work on two ambitious writing projects. The first is the Molly novel, a fictional rendering of Sam&#8217;s newly defunct relationship. The second is a guide for aspiring fiction writers like yourself. The two have much to teach one another, and much to teach you.</p><p>Drawing on examples from the work of greats like George Orwell, Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alice Munro, Kazuo Ishiguro, Clarise Lispector, and Sam Shelstad, <i>The Cobra and the Key</i> takes the novice through aspects of character, detail, plot, style, point of view, dialogue, and meaning. Before long, you&#8217;ll be ready to print off your first draft and embark on revisions. Then it&#8217;s time to learn some of the tricks of the publishing biz. Having just been threatened with legal action by his soon-to-be publisher for stalking said publisher&#8217;s son via Instagram, Sam knows a thing or two about that too. Are you ready to get serious about your writing?</p>