The Author Guy Blog by Larry B. Gildersleeve

 26th January 2024

Hello out there,

Welcome back. When I first began writing fiction ten years ago, a dream deferred for almost fifty years, I intended to follow in the footsteps of Eric Segal and Robert James Waller, authors of “Love Story” and “Bridges of Madison County” respectively. 

As measured against the traditional model for a novel in terms of word count, these were remarkably sparse. But so are these books I highly recommend that can easily be read in one sitting: John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men;” Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea;” “The Go-Giver” by Bob Burg and John David Mann; “Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer” by Fredrik Backman; “The Prophet” by Kahil Gibran; “Star Bright” by Andrew Greeley.

It might take two sittings, but these four are remarkable: ”Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom and “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch, and from my childhood, “Where the Red Fern Grows” by Wilson Rawls and “Old Yeller” by Fred Gipson.

The late Robert B. Parker was a prolific bestselling author in the mystery/thriller genre, and I’m a huge fan because his books, like mine, are dialogue-driven. But my favorite of all of his books was the sentimental “Love and Glory,” a short novel released in 1983 as one of his earliest works.

Here’s what I believe. For both the avid and the casual reader, the shorter the book, the greater the chance it will be read and enjoyed again and again. If you doubt my thinking, I encourage you to give it a try.

Until next week … Vaya con Dios.

Larry B. Gildersleeve