Red Room Where the Writers Are

Many Ways to Live to be 100...

here's a refreshing article about the work habits of published writers--all different(these are novelists, so a lot of them do research; but the various work styles apply to poets and writers of shorter fiction)  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703740004574513463106012106.html 

Short Circuit - win a copy of...

There will be much much  more on this over the next few weeks and months, but for right now, head over to Salt's blog to win a copy of Short Circuit -  the hot-off-the-press Guide to the Art of the Short Story, edited by my great friend and colleague, the wondrous and extremely hard-working Vanessa Gebbie. Short Circuit includes my essay on flash fiction and I am deeply honoured to be in the ...

Is CNN’s Lou Dobbs playing with fire?

I’m sure Lou Dobbs imagines himself a patriot. He seems compelled to defend the U.S. from “illegal” immigrants, an enemy that threatens his vision of America. Yet Dobbs’ near-daily harangues against Hispanic immigrants are stoking a smoldering fire that may one day consume the nation in a very real conflict.      One of Dobbs’ recurring themes is the so-called “reconquista.” ...

Fort Hood: Islamophobia Is the Wrong Response

 Dear Reader, What’s in a name? If Army Major Malik Nadal Hasan’s name were “Smith,” we’d be talking about him as a soldier who snapped under pressure, a lone gunman whose fear of deployment to Afghanistan sent him over the deep end -- as fear tends to do. Predictably, however, within minutes after we learned that the gunman in Thursday’s Fort Hood, Texas massacre was named ...

CHARLES "TREE" YOUNG foreword from THE USC...

FOREWORD By  CHARLES "TREE" YOUNG   Marv Goux and the University of Southern California recruited Charles "Tree" Young out of Fresno's Edison High School in 1969. He was a member of USC's famed 1970 team, which traveled to Birmingham, defeated all white Alabama, and thus helped to effectuate integration in the American South. He was a consensus All-American on USC's ...

Catching Up

 The in-house techno-wizard, Adele, has solved my computer problems and I am now able to read others' blogs here, as well as post my own without going through the always-reliable Huntington Sharpe, allowing him to direct his talents and energies elsewhere.  Anyway, here's the link to my latest piece at Broad Street Review ...

Morbid blog tour: Dean Estes...

Dean Estes is a longtime resident of San Francisco. He contributed a few stories, sidebars, and one illustration to Morbid Curiosity magazine. His topics have included the phenomenon of sleep paralysis and "night terrors" and an experience of small-town prejudice on the Fourth of July. His interests include contemporary political intrigue, scientific approaches to cooking, and vinyl ...

Best West Coast Bookstore? The Elliott Bay...

  Powell's Books in Portland has more space and titles; perhaps because they're in the Bay Area, Keplers of Menlo Park may get more stylish readers (this month including Joyce Carol Oates and Barbara Kingsolver); and more than once I've casually run into celebrities at Dutton's in Westwood.  But, from its incredible location on Pioneer Square in the heart of Seattle to the awninged ...

100 New Mexico Authors & Artists Hope...

This is the day, New Mexico. Support 100 local authors & artists at the Rio Rancho Holiday Books & Crafts Fair from 10 AM -4 PM. It's at the Inn at Rio Rancho. Here's more information: http://tinyurl.com/yz6o9zo. I'll be there with Struck, my paranormal thriller set in Albuquerque, a fictional pueblo, and the Anasazi ruins in Chaco Canyon. Come say hello. 

NEWLY FOUND KAFKA LETTER!

Dear Felix, Please - no walls of "no writing," nothing of the kind. I write to Max and thus to you, too, and Max writes to me, and you are sending me the Selbstwehr and thus are writing to me, too. I am very sorry that you are ... [the ellipsis is Kafka's] It is impossible for me to write the word, there are no traces of it in your articles and therefore not in your thinking either. The ...

Heartfelt Condolences to those at Fort Hood

Fort Hood is just down the road from us. I was stationed there as a brand new 2LT. It wasn't my favorite assignment. At the time, there wasn't a mall, no theater, only x-rated theaters, pawn shops and well, it wasn't a great place for a single brand new female officer. But you felt pretty safe. I was the 1st Cav Div Safety Officer and reporting deaths to the headquarters was one of my jobs. We ...

Ends and Beginnings

         One thing that is surprising,” Adam remarked as we drove back over the moors after tea, “at least many people find it so when they begin to investigate the geology of Scotland….”“What’s that?”“That it’s a land rich in gold.”I smiled through my weariness. The words had a familiar ring! “I’ve heard tell of ghillies who ...

What Might Have Been

This early morning, I woke up thinking of something that happened 33 years ago, something that could have changed my life in the way that Elizabeth Smart's life and Jaycee Dugard's lives were changed.  Even at the time, I knew it, and even now, it wakes me up from a sound sleep.At about 10 pm one evening in Orinda, one of my good friends and I set off from a friend's party.  It had been a girl ...

This Too Shall Pass....

Do you have those moments when you have to remind yourself that you have faced worse challenges - and made it through?  Thus, this (challenge) too shall pass?I remember times in my past when it seemed hopeless, that all was lost. Looking back, I see where I stepped into that situation, suffered, and found my way through into a better world and new experiences. Sometimes, the situation didn't ...

When I was a child...

When I was a child, I went through many horrible things. I was a victim of incest.  I was four, when my one of my aunts, Judith who’s also biological mother’s youngest sister had an intercourse with me several times. My biological mother, Catherine and her family were calling me names and they use to view me as a person with special needs or a person with down syndrome. When my biological ...

My Favorite Bookstore

My favorite bookstore is the one in my head, the one I have always dreamed of starting.

Costco Republicans?

After this week's big losses for Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, one can't help but speculate about the impact the far right, bible belt conservatives will have on the landscape that is the Republican Party over the next eight years. Some see civil war already in the works with faux moderates being tackled by the nouveau neo-conservative movement.

The John Birch Society, which has been ...

Raking the Leaves of My Mind

The other morning I was staring out the window at all the leaves on the ground, marveling at how so much come from almost nothing. A bit of water, a bit of soil, a bit of sun, and something exists where nothing did before. I cherish those leaves. There’s no lawn here, just native grasses, so I don’t need to rake the leaves. I let them finish out their natural cycle of replenishing the soil ...

The FLORIDA History Shop

 I rise today to --- Actually I descend today to sing the praise of the book shop underground.It is The FLORIDA History Shop.It is exhaulted for --- For it is bright and light, although dwelling under the earth.For it is resplendent with alligator, fish, shell & many things of strange Florida, being the shop of the Museum of Florida History.For the books it offers tell of the ...

Read the Story Behind the Story: The...

Check out my post on The Rap Sheet on the back story of my new novel THE BIG WAKE-UP here.

One flu over Wall Street

My friend Farnsworth, a Wall Street stockbroker, called last night and said, ``How's the writing game going?'' `` So-so at best.'' I said. ``Same here,'' said Farnsworth. ``Well,'' I said, ``from the news, I see that at least you and much of Wall Street just got your swine flu shots, unlike the rest of us, including women and children.''  ``Yep, and naturally everyone's making a big deal out ...

What We Don't Get

What We Don’t Get               My fantasy goes something like this: I enter a poetry contest and win first prize. The famous Duke professor/ poet or the North Carolina Poet Laureate phones me personally to inform me of the good news. He says I wish I had written it myself! I call every person I have ever known, receive a check for a thousand dollars, and my poem appears in a ...

Reading at Tulipwood

I'm reading this Saturday, November 7, at Tulipwood, 1165 Hamilton St., Somerset, NJ, at 2:00 PM. My co-reader will be Charles H. Johnson. I'm very much looking forward to the reading as it's in the restored Victorian house you see above. What a beautiful venue!Above is the side view of the house which was built in 1892 and purchased by the Township of Franklin in 2003 for Historic Preservation. ...

Perfect matches for imperfect people

In the future, newborns will be implanted with forehead bar codes that can be scanned with iPhone apps to eventually reveal things like name, astrological sign, political disposition, cereal preference and current level of sexual arousal. And, dammit, guys like me will still struggle to get laid.  I’m so far removed from the horny dating scene that I should be restricted from ever commenting ...

Santa Maria della Salute

In 1630-31, the plague devastated Venice.  One third of the population -- 95,000 people -- died during the outbreak.   In October, 1630 as the plague had Venice on her knees, the Doge and the Senate vowed to make a holy processional each Saturday for fifteen weeks.  And he also promised to dedicate a church to the Virgin Mary as a plea for her help.  Soon thereafter the plague outbreak ...

Blogging Bookstores

 I live in Philadelphia, a wonderful city, vibrant and diverse, with a downtown that thrives after dark and on weekends, with residential neighborhoods that are cosmopolitan here and provincial there.  Arts and culture?  We have museums to rival those in D.C. or New York.  We have restaurants offering every imaginable cuisine.  We have a wonderful symphony orchestra and a magnificent ...

My Favorite Bookstore

I don’t know how I got up the nerve.  I guess it was that Borderlands Books was so comfortable, three small rooms filled floor to ceiling with books.  Fantasy and science fiction jammed the largest room.  The sunny front room was crammed with horror.  The entry room, which also housed the cash register, contained all the new hard covers the store had to offer, along with a wall lined with ...

Excerpt from ONE NIGHT, TWO TEAMS: ALABAMA...

“ONE NIGHT, TWO TEAMS: ALABAMA VS. USC AND THE GAME THAT CHANGED A NATION”   Marv Goux, among others, said that Sam Cunningham “did more for civil rights in three hours than Martin Luther King did in 20 years.” King himself, in his famous “let freedom ring” speech, had quoted from the great Civil War “Battle Hymn of the Republic”:   “MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE ...

National Bookstore Day: A Great Day for...

National Bookstore Day, November 7, 2009, has to be one of the best ideas anybody has come up with to help celebrate and preserve literary culture in our digitally-revolutionized age in a very long time. It gives me a perfect excuse to scrape up a few bucks and splurge on books other than those needed for research. But now that I think about it a bit more, it also should have been a good excuse ...

I am experiencing sudden raptures

I was quite taken aback by myself today. Ever since my books first came out, I've been so busy working on other projects that I haven't really had much time to sit back and take in what's been going on around me. The books have had great reviews, and I've been very happy about that, in the few seconds before falling asleep when I had a quiet moment to think about something other than my next ...