Holiday hijinks abound in this very merry Christmas story about three siblings who can't resist sneaking a peek under the tree before it's time, for fans of How to Catch Santa and 5 More Sleeps. Everyone knows there's no peeking at presents before Christmas morning. But what if there's a very, very good reason to take a look? It's Christmas Eve and the three kids in this story are trying their best to go to sleep, but something keeps waking them...

"...Hass investigates the ancient roots of the poetic impulse, taking a wide-ranging look at the most intense experiences of human thought and feeling in language" -- Book jacket. "Robert Hass--former poet laureate, winner of the National Book Award, and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize--illuminates the formal impulses that underlie great poetry in this accessible volume of essays drawn from a series of lectures he delivered at the renowned Iowa Writers'...

"In his essential writing guide, This Year You Write Your Novel, Walter Mosley supplied aspiring writers with the basic tools and practical advice needed to write a novel in a single year. In this complementary follow up, Mosley guides the reader through the fundamental building blocks of fiction to deliver a master class on the writer's craft. In a series of conversational and instructive chapters, Mosley breaks down the art of fiction to its most...

Long before there were creative-writing workshops and degrees, how did aspiring writers learn to write? By reading the work of their predecessors and contemporaries, says Francine Prose. In Reading Like a Writer, Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters. She reads the work of the very best writers-Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Austen, Dickens, Woolf, Chekhov-and discovers why their work...

"Short stories and personal essays have never been hotter--or more crucial for a successful writing career. Earning bylines in magazines and literary journals is a terrific way to get noticed and earn future opportunities in both short- and long-form writing. Writing & Selling Short Stories & Personal Essays capitalizes on the popularity of these genres by instructing on the two key steps to publishing short works: crafting excellent pieces and successfully...