Weekly Quotes

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>>

Story is the key. Jesus taught in parables. Aesop taught in fables. Many pastors start off with a story. Politicians try to justify their policies by telling a story that usually starts with, “I met… Read More>>

In the Army I once had a boss who said, “Do not come into my office with problems, come in with solutions.” I learned to bring him several so he had choices.  That’s half of… Read More>>

Tolkien loved ancient literature. He felt it had a texture that I feel he brought to his own work. His lectures on Beowulf were legendary at Oxford capturing the sense and flavor of the Nordic… Read More>>

Teddy Roosevelt was called “Teedy” as a child. He was sickly, scrawny, nearsighted, and pampered by a mostly female household. That was not the life for him and he wanted to change it. He believed… Read More>>

Where do you have your best ideas? In the car? Falling asleep? Watching or reading another author at work? I take notes on Sunday sermons and the margins are full of story notes.                 Do… Read More>>

Mark Twain was a journalist before he was a novelist.  He wrote short stories before he wrote novels.  It is fun read the first chapter of Tom Sawyer knowing he started it to be a… Read More>>

John Eldredge talks about how when Satan can’t get a believer to stop working for God, he buries that believer in busy work. Eldridge calls it a “dog pile.” The dog pile distracts us from… Read More>>

Roald Dahl’s very name evokes the magic of a free mind at work. But can Christians write about magic? One Christian publisher I ran across said, “No!” Hmmm…but what is more magical than the Holy… Read More>>

Steve Prefontaine was an NCAA champion and Olympic long distance runner. Told he was too small to play high school football, he turned to cross country and found his gift. He rode a scholarship to… Read More>>