Do you feel it?
A friend recently sent me “Our Blue Dot” which is 90 seconds of Carl Sagan showing a photo of earth taken by Voyager 1 as it left our solar system. It is a nice piece.… Read More>>
Better Read Quickly
Bookstores and oceans both seem to have limitless horizons. I love brick and mortar bookstores because of all the accidents I have there. I go in looking for a mystery and come out with a… Read More>>
Would Your Teachers Lie To You?
My desk could look like that. After a few weeks of printing eight copies of about seven pages for my writers’ group to critique, I had a pile on my desk of critiqued paper. I… Read More>>
Be Careful What You Pray For
These are difficult times. What are you learning about yourself? What are you tolerating and why? How did you make the decision to stay or leave Twitter, or to take or not take the Covid-19… Read More>>
Who is better?
OK, I’m in one of my occasional Hemingway moods. He has a darkness, a foreboding in most of his work and we are in dark foreboding times. His comment here would be well applied… Read More>>
Hemingway on Writing
We are told by our writing teachers to “show don’t tell.” For example: “He sat nervously” tells us what is going on. (and uses a dreaded ly word!) By contrast: “He bit at this thumb… Read More>>
Are Your Characters Too Perfect?
Are your characters ever wrong? Everyone says you need conflict to move and engage the reader. Most of us create conflict through a bad guy or a bad situation. But if you really want… Read More>>
Are Your Characters Too Perfect?
Are your characters ever wrong? Everyone says you need conflict to move and engage the reader. Most of us create conflict through a bad guy or a bad situation. But if you really want… Read More>>
Less Can Be Better
Leonard Elmore was first known as a pulp western writer, but books and movies followed. (Hombre, Joe Kidd) He followed Hollywood when they abandoned westerns for crime fiction. You probably know Get Shorty, and Mr.… Read More>>