From the best-selling author ofnbsp;nbsp;Rubyfruit Jungle andnbsp;nbsp;Bingo, here is a writers' manual as provocative,nbsp;nbsp;frank, and funny as her fiction. Unlike mostnbsp;nbsp;writers' guides, this one had as much to do with hownbsp;nbsp;writers live as with mastering the tools of theirnbsp;nbsp;trade. Rita Mae Brown begins with a very personalnbsp;nbsp;account of her own career, from her days as a youngnbsp;nbsp;poet who had written a novel no publisher wantednbsp;nbsp;to take a chance on, right up to her recentnbsp;nbsp;adventures as a Hollywood screenwriter. In a sassy stylenbsp;nbsp;that makes her outspoken advice as entertaining asnbsp;nbsp;it is useful, she provides straight talk aboutnbsp;nbsp;paying the rent while maintaining the energy tonbsp;nbsp;write; and dealing with agents, publishers, critics,nbsp;nbsp;and the publicity circus; about pursuingjnbsp;nbsp;ournalisim, academia, or screen-writing; and about rejectingnbsp;nbsp;the Hemingway myth of the hard-living,nbsp;nbsp;hard-drinking genius. In addition Brown, a former teacher ornbsp;nbsp;writing, offers a serious examination of thenbsp;nbsp;writer's tool--language, plotting, characters,nbsp;nbsp;symbolism--plus exercises to sharpen the ear for dialogue,nbsp;nbsp;and a fascinating, annoted reading list ofnbsp;nbsp;important works from the seventh century to the latenbsp;nbsp;twentieth.