With clarity, verve, and the sure instincts of a good teacher, bestselling author Madison Smartt Bell illuminates the process of narrative design. In essays and analyses of twelve stories by established writers and students, Bell emphasizes the primary importance of form as the backdrop against which all other elements of a story much work. Discussions of the unconscious mind and creativity reinforce other essentials of good writing.

A Scotland Yard searches for a ritualistic serial killer, an insomniac American hypnotherapist is enlisted to use his newly-found telekinetic powers to communicate with a young mute girl. Now a major motion picture titled "Hypnosis, " with Goran Visnjic of "ER, " set for a spring 2003 release.

Following the widely acclaimed All Souls' Rising and Master of the Crossroads, Madison Smartt Bell gives us the climactic final chapter in the life of Toussaint Louverture, the legendary leader of the only successful slave revolution in history.
In 1791, what would become known as the Haitian Revolution began as a rebellion of African slaves against their white masters in the French colony of Saint Domingue. By 1793 Toussaint had emerged as the leader of the revolt, proving himself to be as adept at politics as he was on the battlefield. By 1801 he had succeeded in stabilizing the...

Continuing his epic trilogy of the Haitian slave uprising, Madison Smartt Bell's Master of the Crossroads delivers a stunning portrayal of Toussaint Louverture, former slave, military genius and liberator of Haiti, and his struggle against the great European powers to free his people in the only successful slave revolution in history. At the outset, Toussaint is a second-tier general in the Spanish army, which is supporting the rebel slaves' fight against the French. But w hen Toussaint is betrayed by his former allies and the commanders of the Spanish army, he reunites his army with the...

At the end of the 1700s, French Saint Domingue was the richest and most brutal colony in the Western Hemisphere. A mere twelve years later, however, Haitian rebels had defeated the Spanish, British, and French and declared independence after the first and only successful slave revolt in history. Much of the success of the revolution must be credited to one man, Toussaint Louverture, a figure about whom surprisingly little is known. In this fascinating biography, Madison Smartt Bell, award-winning author of a trilogy of novels that investigate Haiti s history, combines a novelist s passion...

Chronicle of Southern history encapsulated by that of the famous writer's Tennessee family.

Two Southern soldiers, recently back from Vietnam, struggle to resume their lives amid dangerous and deep-rooted prejudice Thomas Laidlaw returns home from Vietnam with nothing much in mind but to tend his acreage, live apart, and get lost in the roots music he grew up with. Laidlaw's childhood friend Rodney Redmon is doubly burdened: Not only is he scarred from the war, he is also a black man living in a prejudiced area of Tennessee. Redmon's homecoming from the war included time in jail-the result of his being framed for real estate fraud by racist forces within the local establishment....

One fateful decision pushes a soldier from a life of stifling order to a life of freedom as doomed as it is thrilling Macrae, a nice kid from a small town in Tennessee, joins the army only because the boys he grew up with enlisted before him. But when military life doesn't suit the young dreamer, he goes AWOL, and his wanderlust leads him to New York and a partnership with a charismatic hustler named Charlie. Soon the toxic chemistry between the two makes trouble for both, and the stakes of their petty crimes increase. When the partners find themselves on the run and back in Tennessee, Macrae...