Will Berger knows opera. The author of four acclaimed books on the subject, his most recent is Puccini Without Excuses. And when he's not writing about this grand musical tradition, he's talking about it on the radio as a voice of New York's hallowed Metropolitan Opera. So how does Will connect with his audience about a subject that can be, well, a tad intimidating? We had a fascinating conversation with him about language in the world of the opera:  Continue reading...

Like many ex-journalists, I pride myself in being skeptical. But my Lou Grant exterior is sometimes defeated by my inner Pollyanna. When that happens, I enjoy reading a blog by Love Is the Killer App author Tim Sanders.

In an April 3 entry, Tim argues that simply being kind is one of the keys to success. "A 2002 study on customer service found that if you are likeable and competent," he writes, "you have a threefold increase in the likelihood of getting satisfactory service."

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How do you capture the sense of a cuisine in words? To find out we called the acclaimed chef Rick Bayless, the author of six books on Mexican cooking and host of the PBS show "Mexico -- One Plate at a Time." We had a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation with him about food, language, 1940s anthropologists, and his latest cookbook, Mexican Everyday:

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After a long hiatus, I caught up with my friend and expert writer Clark Morgan for another installment of "Bagel & Schmear" -- our occasional series of conversations about composition between bites and bad 80s music at our local Manhattan bagel shop. This time our talk turned to the paragraph, that unheralded workhorse of writing. Here's our discussion. - Editor  Continue reading...

A few weeks ago the novelist Laurel Dewey graciously shared with us her story about writing her debut suspense novel Protector. It's a book driven by a complex protagonist named Detective Jane Perry. We were curious to know how Laurel created her hero so we called her up for an insightful and fascinating conversation about character development:  Continue reading...

While standing in the checkout line at the grocery store the other day, I spotted the magazine Real Simple. It wasn't just the cutesy name that caught my attention. (How can the editors live with themselves, basing a magazine name on a grammatical error? But I digress...) The eye-catching cover line that grabbed me by the eyeballs was: What can you do in 15 minutes?  Continue reading...

Rosanne Cash has been writing songs for over three decades, most recently releasing the critically acclaimed album Black Cadillac in 2006. But she doesn't limit herself just to music. "My liveliest cottage industry now is writing for magazines," she says. And besides contributing essays to The New York Times, New York Magazine, Martha Stewart Living and other publications, Rosanne has also written a book of short stories and a children's book. We here at the Visual Thesaurus were thrilled to have a fascinating conversation with Rosanne about her work:  Continue reading...