Hesitation for fear of failure is a horrible way to die.             OK, OK, not submitting that piece or attending that conference will not kill you physically, but you will feel sick to death inside.… Read More>>

Edgar Allan Poe caught my attention in middle school with The Raven and The Pit and the Pendulum.  His work certainly touched on the mad but, except for his drinking, was Poe really mad or… Read More>>

We are in a time of radical change. Morality took a hit in the 60’s and it has all been downhill since then.  The current changes, however, have started leaving common sense and even science… Read More>>

“Go, my book, and help destroy the world as it is.” Russell Banks, Continental Drift (1985) Do not be surprised to find a resurgence of interest in Russell Banks’ work. His early work blends well… Read More>>

Writers’ groups can be an invaluable tool. I am particularly fond of mine because it has few people like me, many different world views, and is willing to point out writing that DOES and DOESN’T… Read More>>

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>>

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>>

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>>

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>>

That’s only part of the quote. Here’s the rest. It applies to today’s Covid-infected, government closed up, “woke” world.  “…And then, just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we… Read More>>