Book Review: Pep Talks, Warnings, and Screeds

Knight Ridder/Tribune

George Singleton hates people who talk about writing. He hates them so much, in fact, he wrote a whole book about it.

The author and recent Guggenheim Fellowship recipient is kicking off the fall reading series of the American Book Review on Thursday and will be discussing his latest book "Pep Talks, Warnings, and Screeds: Indispensable Wisdom and Cautionary Advice for Writers."

"It's tongue-in-cheek. The whole book is about how I hate people who just talk about writing. If you are a writer, you should be writing," Singleton, 51, said. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to be a writer, but you do have to be persistent and you do have to read."

It's obvious Singleton follows his own advice. During his career, he has written two novels, four short-story collections and he has published other short stories in magazines and journals that range from the American Literary Review to Esquire.com. His fiction and nonfiction have also been anthologized in multiple books.

Known for his Southern comedic style, Singleton said, he has perfected that style over the years, moving from a more slapstick approach, or what he calls "the Three Stooges on paper," to a more serious humor. Living in a small South Carolina town, Singleton sets most of his stories in the South, continuing a long tradition of colorful Southern writers.

"The South just seems to breed storytellers. I guess there just ain't nothing else to do except sit around and make up lies, which is what fiction is," he laughed.

Picked as one of 12 fiction writers for the Guggenheim Fellowship in April, beating out a whopping 3,000 applicants, Singleton is taking time off from his job teaching fiction at the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities to finish his new novel "Side Notes for a New Grudge."

So what is Singleton's best advice for aspiring writers?

"Get your butt in that chair and write. You don't get worse as a writer, you only get better," he said. "I hear people all the time say writing is hard. Well, boo-hoo. Manual labor is hard. Sitting in a chair at a desk isn't hard."

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