When Amtrak recently announced plans for its Residency for Writers program, Scott Sparling, like many writers, took notice—maybe even special notice, thinking he might just be, in some twisted poetic sense, an ideal candidate. After all, who better to capture inspiration between the rails than a writer who happens to have a lively freight-hopping past? …
Like a freight train rolling through a series of quirky small towns (he loves train metaphors), Scott Sparling's latest blog post has to pass through certain places to get where it's going, but you won't mind a pause or two in Vietnam Era Christmas Land how to get a phd or Uncomfortable Family Gatheringville on …
When I was first starting to write fiction, I read a piece by William Styron about the difficulties of beginning a story. What you needed most, he said, was a strong sense of place. Something that would ground you through all the uncertainties that were sure to follow. You might not know what, but you …
