Len Boswell's Blog
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May.25.2011
I was born during World War II and raised in its aftermath, which included playing dawn-to-dusk war games with U.S. Army surplus helmets, ammo boxes, and dummy grenades, as well as several bags of toy soldiers and tanks that Larry Dennison and I would position in the dirt battlefields we created in...
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May.23.2011
We recently adopted a 10-month old puppy who had been severely abused by his former owners, who not only had starved the poor dog to bag-of-bones thin, but also had broken his right hip, which required major surgery. By the time we adopted him, he was well on his way to mending and had filled out...
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May.19.2011
Would you accept leadership advice from a famous corporate executive or a top military leader?
I think you would probably say yes. But would you say yes if the executive or military leader was a squirrel?
A squirrel? You’ve got to be kidding!
No, but I can understand your skepticism. You have seen...
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May.12.2011
I could throw a dart at the collected short stories of Isaac Asimov and be perfectly happy reading whatever story it hit. But I think for most Asimov fans, myself included, the story to choose would be his 1942 short story “Runaround,” in which he laid down The Three Laws of Robotics, which are,...
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Apr.25.2011
Excerpt from The Leadership Secrets of Squirrels Plan ahead, but not too far ahead
“Never wander into a battle.”
—Old Skugg
Some humans think we are foolish to bury so many nuts; others admire us for planning ahead, for assuring that food will be there when we need it. The truth is, we do not plan...
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Apr.22.2011
The cardboard box is small, no wider than the width of my palm, and no taller, its lid a faded paisley print in blue, its edges yellowed from the passing years. Every time I look at it, which is not often—I keep it in a roll-top desk I rarely use—I think of my Aunt Louise.
She pulls up next to me...
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Apr.15.2011
Please forgive the shameless self-wooting, but I just learned that one of my short stories, "The Prince of Traps," received an Honorable Mention Award in the Writer's Digest Popular Fiction Contest 2011. If you'd like to check it out, it's on my profile page.
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Apr.15.2011
I sometimes make the mistake of writing “Redroom” instead of Red Room, and every time I do, I am immediately transported back in time to a job I held with an engineering firm back in the 1980s. I managed a print production shop of writers, editors, and illustrators. Our job was to put together...
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Apr.14.2011
Some Red Room topics are harder to write about than others. Identifying great parents is one of them. We’ve all viewed parents up close and personal, including not just our own, but our friends’ parents, our children’s parents (that would be me and my wife, of course, and we will have to recuse...
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Apr.07.2011
Sometimes vanity is a good thing. Just ask my friend Angela. One day some years back she was riding the subway to work. She was really excited that morning because she was going to be interviewing for a big promotion in another department. Her boss thought she was a lock for the promotion, but even...
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Mar.30.2011
The March 21 issue of Publishers Weekly includes a report of bestselling books for 2010. Not surprisingly, at the top of the hardcover fiction list is The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Stieg Larsson. In fact, Larsson’s books headed the fiction, mass market, trade paper, and e-book list of...
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Mar.25.2011
Ten days ago I sent out the first wave of queries to agents for my new novel, FLICKER, specifically the 50 agents who said that they (a) were interested in mysteries and (b) accepted e-mail queries. So far, 68% of the agents have remained silent, either because their policy is not to respond to...
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Mar.16.2011
Being tenacious, hanging on when everything and everyone tells you to stop, is an important personality trait for writers. Without tenacity, how would any of us survive the barrage of rejection slips that come our way with each new project?
Of course, when tenacity becomes pure pigheadedness, that’...
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Mar.15.2011
I’ve just started an agent search for my new novel, FLICKER, and of course, I find myself running the gauntlet of diverse agent requirements. Some want only a query letter, some want that plus a brief synopsis, others want all that, a brief bio, the first chapter or multiple chapters, and your...
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Mar.11.2011
Here’s a taste of squirrel from THE LEADERSHIP SECRETS OF SQUIRRELS, in which a squirrel executive and a squirrel general offer their secrets on becoming better leaders.Part Four10 Secrets at the Birdfeeder
“I don’t know which sight is more thrilling: an army arrayed against me or a...
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About Len
Born in a hospital that has since been torn down, grew up on a street that has since changed its name, in a house that has since changed its number. Everywhere around me my life seems to be erasing itself. Before the eraser finishes its work, however, I spend...