CREATIVE WRITING!

I mention John Gardner the most. I blog about him here. I recommend The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers (Amazon here) and On Becoming A Novelist (Amazon here). I've read and recommend The Sunlight Dialogues (Amazon here).

I also recommend On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King (Amazon here — "The adverb is not your friend." The Marginalian here). After that you are on your own with Mr. King and his many books. (I generally don't like him, but here I give him some good press). 

But the best creative writing book of the last 25 years is (drumroll, please) Booklife by Jeff VanderMeer — (Amazon) here. He subsequently wrote and had published a little something called Annihilation (Amazon) here and (The Atlantic) here. 

I've got all three! Image from here.