Posts by Peter Colt
Not Pumpkin Spice
I have to admit that I have become kind of a Substack junky. I obsessively check my stats and try figure out if it indicates a growing audience or some other trend. Hey, I like validation as much as the next guy. I was going to repost last night’s Substack here but this morning…
Read MoreThomas and Mercer
Chances are if you are reading this here, you follow my Substack or have had it sent to your inbox or plastered on your social media. It’s all part of my effort to promote my books out in the vastness of internet land. That means posting the same thing on many platforms at the…
Read MoreON THE ROOF’S EDGE
My grandmother used to say, “Actors Act and Writers Write”. It was usually in response to my pointing out a good actor in a bad role. I will confess that it took me years to fully understand what she meant. It has something to do with the compulsion that drives certain people. I suspect…
Read MoreTHE BLANK PAGE
No matter what you write. No matter what genre, style or project, essay, novel or poem, it always starts with the same thing. The blank page in front of you. It doesn’t matter if that page is a sheet of actual paper or on a computer screen. They are equally daunting. If you don’t…
Read MoreBlogger Shmogler
Why it’s easier to write an 80,000 word novel than a weekly 800 word blog. After my last post my friend Amy who’s known me since we were Freshmen at URI, said that she always felt like Blogging was like writing letters to friends. She should know, she’s done both and a lot better…
Read MoreOn Writing
I get asked a lot of questions about how one gets to be a writer. What should someone do if they want to be a writer. I’d like to say that there is a simple answer, do X or Y enough and you too can be a writer. I don’t have a pat answer…
Read MoreMy Local Paper
I moved to Rhode Island in 1986 from Nantucket. On Nantucket there were two papers that were king; The Inquirer Mirror (The Inky Mirror or just The Inky) and the Boston Globe. When I moved to Providence one thing became apparent, this was a one-paper town. That paper was and still is The Providence Journal…
Read MoreMY BOOKS MAKE PEOPLE HUNGRY
Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more MY BOOKS MAKE PEOPLE HUNGRY Writing food so you like my guy. Peter Colt Aug 8 READ IN APP Same risotto but with saffron instead of roasted red pepper. When my then girlfriend, now Long-Suffering Wife moved in with me twenty years ago there were some changes that I had…
Read MoreThe Process
I don’t know if I always knew I wanted to be a writer or if I figured it out along the way. I can’t sit here and proclaim that since I was five, I wanted to be a writer. When I was five, I wanted to be an astronaut, a cowboy, a soldier, a pilot,…
Read MoreTHE RUN
When I enlisted in the Army in 1991 at the tender age of 18 the world was a very different place. In 1991 I had a few other friends who also enlisted but for the most part it was a rarity. Most of my friends at the time didn’t understand why I would want to…
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