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I don’t intend this article to present a formal definition of art. I want to encourage your consideration of the subject and invite your feedback. Example: through the first half of the 19th century in the United States, public opinion was turning against slavery. If one had to pick the greatest influence on the American […]

Why: He writes historical fiction at it’s finest. An author can’t write a great book without a great subject. In his Imperium series, Robert Harris chose one of the most important historical figures of all time: Cicero. The old adage is that those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. Cicero’s story […]

Why? His drama comes from life experience in high pressure politics. Fredrick Forsyth was a pilot for the British Air Force, a spy in cold war Germany, and a reporter during the famine in Biafra in the 1960s. As a writer, those experiences are as good as gold. His most famous work, Day of the […]

Why? Modern master of suspense. Sympathetic view of small town people. Steven King has written over 65 novels and has been adapted for the big screen 83 times. He is one of the most important novelists in the last half of the 20th century and into the 2000s. King is so much more than horror. […]

Why? Possibly the greatest woman short story writer of all time. Flannery O’Conner was native to the state of Georgia. She died at age 39. She wrote only two novels and 32 short stories. Yet she made an impact as deep as the bed of the Savanah River. Some characterize her style as “Southern Gothic,” […]

Why? The best source for psychological scares. Bloch was a pulp era superstar who wrote in many genres until he settled into horror. His most famous novel is Psycho, which Alfred Hitchcock turned into the celebrated movie. Bloch’s best work, however is in his short stories. His scares come from his understanding of people. The […]

Why? Rich characterization of real people. Drama built through relationships. We, the people of the 21st century, are lucky. There is so much wonderful literature behind us. You could read ten hours a day for your entire life time and still die with a gigantic pile of books you didn’t have time to get to. […]

Why? His respect for people, history, and locale. Louis L’amour was born in North Dakota in 1908. His father was a respected Veterinarian to a sparsely populated farm community. Then came a banking collapse and the family traveled south so that the father and sons could find work as ranchers, cattle skinners, lumber mill workers, […]

Why? You will love his characters because they react believably to high suspense. How do you go from a story about a small town in Texas (The Last Picture Show) to the sprawling epic of Lonesome Dove? Because McMurtry sells his characters. He puts you in their heads on cattle drives or playing pool in […]

Why? Optimism, high energy, succinct but compelling character descriptions. Hubbard wrote two dozen novels and hundreds of short stories. The bulk of this output came in just a seven year span in the 1930s. Sometimes it seem that the only place for optimism in fiction is middle grade books (8-12 yrs), romance, and westerns from […]