James Hynes has 5 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 5 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 366 ratings. The most-rated is Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques.
Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques
Summary
Whether you're huddled around the campfire, composing an email to a friend, or sitting down to write a novel, storytelling is fundamental to human nature. But as any writer can tell you, the blank page can be daunting. It's tough to know where to get started, what details to include in each scene, and how to move from the kernel of an idea to a completed manuscript. Writing great fiction isn't a gift reserved for the talented few. There is a craft to storytelling that can be learned, and studying writing techniques can be incredibly rewarding - both personally and professionally. Even if you don’t have ambitions of penning the next Moby-Dick, you'll find value in exploring all the elements of fiction. From evoking a scene to charting a plot to revising your drafts, Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques offers a master class in storytelling. Taught by award-winning novelist James Hynes, a former visiting professor at the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop, these 24 insightful lectures show you the ins and outs of the fiction writer's craft. Get tips for developing believable and memorable characters, explore how to craft plausible dialogue that serves the purposes of your narrative, compare the advantages of different points of view, and more. A wealth of exercises will inspire you to practice the many techniques you learn. Professor Hynes is an able guide, showing you what has worked for him and other novelists, and pointing out pitfalls to avoid. Writing Great Fiction is truly an exceptional course for anyone interested in storytelling. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2014 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2014 The Great Courses
My Favorite Universe
Summary
What forces molded the universe? Are those forces still at work, removing, changing, or adding heavenly bodies even as we gaze upward? Will humanity, and Earth itself, one day be gone? Are we alone? In an era when science journalism is perhaps more thorough and ambitious than ever before, fascinating explorations of questions like these seem available to us almost every day - provided we have a working understanding of the scientific theories on which they're based. Discover the answers to these and other startling questions about the cosmos with My Favorite Universe, a spirited and intellectually engaging journey through the cosmos and its history, from before the big bang to the likely ways in which Earth, and perhaps the entire universe, might end. In this lecture series, Professor Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist who directs the nation's most famous planetarium, makes that understanding available to anyone. Explore how black holes are formed, how asteroids move through space, why the odds seem overwhelmingly in favor of extraterrestrial life, and much more. With the foundation provided by this magnificent course, the realities of the universe will be revealed in stark - and often violent - beauty. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
©2003 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2003 The Great Courses
Kings of Infinite Space
Summary
James Hynes is the author of three New York Times Notable Books of the Year. That same publication praises Kings of Infinite Space as “unspeakably funny!” This offbeat novel satirizes an experience ubiquitous to modern times—office life. With a defeated sigh, ex-college professor Paul Trilby faces the downward spiral that is his existence. After his wife and three subsequent girlfriends dump him, and he loses just as many jobs, he’s sure he’s a pawn in some vast conspiracy. Worse still, he may be losing the only thing he has left—his mind.
©2004 James Hynes (P)2006 Recorded Books, LLC
Publish and Perish
Summary
This set of novellas from Austin, Texas resident James Hynes was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. As chilling as the best of Edgar Allan Poe and bursting with fiendish humor, Publish and Perish features three tales from the not-so-hallowed halls of academia. Hailed as a “delightful collection of the ghostly and the ghastly” by the Austin Chronicle, these stories are brought to wicked life by Adam Grupper.
©1997 James Hynes (P)2006 Recorded Books, LLC
Next
Summary
One of America’s most unique voices, James Hynes taps his dark humor for this startling novel. Kevin Quinn is a standard-variety American male: middle-aged, liberal-leaning, self-centered, emotionally damaged, generally determined to avoid both pain and responsibility. As his relationship with his girlfriend approaches a turning point, and his career seems increasingly pointless, he decides to secretly fly to a job interview in Austin, Texas. Aboard the plane, Kevin is simultaneously attracted to the young woman in the seat next to him and panicked by a new wave of terrorism in Europe and the UK. He lands safely with neuroses intact and full of hope that the job, the expansive city, and the girl from the plane might yet be his chance for reinvention. His next eight hours make up this novel, a tour-de-force of mordant humor, brilliant observation, and pause-resistant storytelling.
©2010 James Hynes (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC