He got up and sat on the edge of the bedstead with his back to the window. “It’s better not to sleep at all,” he decided. There was a cold damp draught from the window, however; without getting up he drew the blanket over him and wrapped himself in it. He was not thinking of anything and did not want to think. But one image rose after another, incoherent scraps of thought without beginning or end passed through his mind. He sank into drowsiness. Perhaps the cold, or the dampness, or the dark, or the wind that howled under the window and tossed the trees roused a sort of persistent craving for the fantastic. He kept dwelling on images of flowers, he fancied a charming flower garden, a bright, warm, almost hot day, a holiday—Trinity day. A fine, sumptuous country cottage in the English taste overgrown with fragrant flowers, with flower beds going round the house; the porch, wreathed in climbers, was surrounded with beds of roses. A light, cool staircase, carpeted with rich rugs, was decorated with rare plants in china pots. He noticed particularly in the windows nosegays of tender, white, heavily fragrant narcissus bending over their bright, green, thick long stalks. He was reluctant to move away from them, but he went up the stairs and came into a large, high drawing-room and again everywhere—at the windows, the doors on to the balcony, and on the balcony itself—were flowers. The floors were strewn with freshly-cut fragrant hay, the windows were open, a fresh, cool, light air came into the room. The birds were chirruping under the window, and in the middle of the room, on a table covered with a white satin shroud, stood a coffin. The coffin was covered with white silk and edged with a thick white frill; wreaths of flowers surrounded it on all sides. Among the flowers lay a girl in a white muslin dress, with her arms crossed and pressed on her bosom, as though carved out of marble. But her loose fair hair was wet; there was a wreath of roses on her head. The stern and already rigid profile of her face looked as though chiselled of marble too, and the smile on her pale lips was full of an immense unchildish misery and sorrowful appeal. Svidrigaïlov knew that girl; there was no holy image, no burning candle beside the coffin; no sound of prayers: the girl had drowned herself. She was only fourteen, but her heart was broken. And she had destroyed herself, crushed by an insult that had appalled and amazed that childish soul, had smirched that angel purity with unmerited disgrace and torn from her a last scream of despair, unheeded and brutally disregarded, on a dark night in the cold and wet while the wind howled

About Me

I’m John Matthew Fox, founder of Bookfox, and I help authors write better fiction.

Authors who worked with me have been published by Random House, sold more than 100,000 copies, and received Kirkus Starred Reviews.

I talk about writing on my YouTube channel, where I’ve been able to inspire millions of authors to write, revise, and publish their books.

If you’d like to learn from me, consider joining Bookfox Lab, my mentorship and coaching program that will guide you through the process of writing your book.

MY TEAM

WRITERS

Bookfox mentors are New York Times bestselling authors, USA Today bestselling authors, and have won literary prizes for their books.

EDITORS

The writing coaches at Bookfox have held editorial positions at the leading literary journals in the country, such as New England Review, Conjunctions, and Threepenny Review.

SUCCESSFUL CLIENTS

All the mentors have excellent track records in helping authors successfully self publish or land traditional publishing contracts. Authors who have worked with them have won Writer’s Digest awards and the International Digital Awards.

Bookfox

Bookfox began in 2006, and contains nearly 1,000 articles about the craft of writing. But currently, most of the Bookfox writing advice happens on YouTube, where my channel has hundreds of videos to guide writers through writing their novel.

Over the years, Bookfox has earned many kind words and accolades from folks like these:

My Background

I hold an MFA from the University of Southern California and a Master’s from New York University, and for ten years, I taught writing at USC, Biola, and Chapman University. After leaving academia, I shifted into full-time editing and course creation—focusing on the craft questions that actually help writers level up.

My first book, published with Press 53, is called “I Will Shout Your Name. My second book is nonfiction: “The Linchpin Writer: Crafting Your Novel’s Key Moments.” My writing has also won the Third Coast Fiction Contest, the Shenandoah Fiction Award, and been published in the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times.

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