title: Writing with the Master: How One of the Worlds Bestselling Authors Fixed My Book and Changed My Life
author:  Tony Vanderwarker 
description: Perhaps every budding writer fantasizes about having a successful veteran author looking over his or her shoulder, offering warnings to help avoid the pitfalls of composing and submitting a first novel. Imagine, for instance, penning a crime thriller while John Grisham offers you advice on building suspense. For Vanderwarker, a former ad-agency owner who cashed in to focus on writing, this proved to be no idle fantasy; Grisham actually did help him pen his debut novel, the soon-to-be-released Sleeping Dogs. Since both were already friends and neighbors in Charlottesville, Virginia, some form of mentoring was perhaps inevitable, but Vanderwarker wisely waited until Grisham offered. Although this short but captivating story of their collaboration sometimes feels like a rushed, albeit unique, accompaniment to the novel, its brimming with invaluable literary lessons and amusing anecdotes, such as Vanderwarkers wry descriptions of the ego bruising he endured from Grishams blunt criticism and prodding to construct a whopping seven outlines for his novel before he actually began writing it. Must reading for both aspiring thriller authors and die-hard Grisham fans. --Carl Hays
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “[All] the novellas are superior works, and employ historical turning-points
  ignored elsewhere.Worlds That Weren’tis well worth the attention of science
  fiction and historical fiction readers.” —*Strange Horizons
  
  
  
  
  
  “The Daimon” by New York Times Bestselling Author Harry Turtledove, Winner of
  the Hugo, Sidewise, and John Esthen Cook Awards and Nebula Award Nominee  
  
  
  “A thought-provoking novella.”*
  
  
  
  
  
  “Shikari in Galveston” by National Bestselling Author S. M. Stirling, Sidewise
  Award Nominee  
  
  
  “The most original turning-point in the anthology. Stirling succeeds in
  delivering action-packed adventure and hairsbreadth escapes.”*
  
  
  
  
  
  “The Logistics of Carthage” by Mary Gentle, Winner of the Sidewise and BSFA
  Awards  
  
  
  “The strongest and most ambitious work inWorlds That Weren’t.”*
  
  
  
  
  
  “The Last Ride of German Freddie” by New York Times Bestselling Author Walter
  Jon Williams, Winner of the Nebula and Sidewise Awards and Hugo and World
  Fantas