Category: Writing
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Titles for World Book Day
Re-posting these titles I wish I could find on Amazon, with a few more. Happy reading, writing, and whatever else it is you do with your books. The Novel Is Dead—A Murder Mystery The Novel Is Dead. Long Live the Novel: An Arthurian Legend The Attorney for the Attorney Representing the Client’s Attorney—A…
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A List of People Who Also Should Be Armed
Amid all the fury and debate over whether or not to arm high school teachers in order to prevent the next deadly shooting spree, several relevant employment categories are being overlooked. A review of other recent abuses of heavy firepower in public places suggests the United States can only protect itself from itself by requiring itchy…
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Books Not Presently Up at Amazon
OtheRs We Must Arm & Why—ESSAYS ON FEAR-MONGERING FROM THE NRA The Attorney for the Attorney Representing the Client’s Attorney—A Legal Thriller Balzac’s Listicle of SCOTUS Decisions on Penal Reform Nantucket: Beyond the Limericks Dirty Rhymes, Inappropriate Puns, & Other Reasons Dad Shouldn’t Drink So Much Dr. Pepper Treats Sgt. Pepper’s Chest Wound: a tender…
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Review–Memoir from Paraguay
Latest review posted at Peace Corps Worldwide, home for Peace Corps-affiliated writers who publish stories from around the world. Mark Salvatore writes simple, declarative sentences. His Peace Corps memoir, Shade of the Paraiso, is stripped to fact and detail, observation and truth. Even its replication of time — passing slowly at first, building inexorably over months,…
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Levity with Brevity
My copy of Flash Nonfiction Funny cometh! I hope the wait’s as brief as the material—rib-tickling bites of 750 words or less compiled by editors Tom Hazuka and Dinty W. Moore (yes). As the book makes its way to my doorstep, I’m looking at the anthology’s 71 contributors (including myself) and the first name to…
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Debut Fiction Review–Love Is the Punch Line
Kathleen Jones’ debut novel should be appearing tomorrow. It’s a spinning yo-yo of ups and downs in hysterical pursuit of middle-aged romance. Advance review: Outside observers might wonder what middle-aged romantics Josh Steinberg and Holly Brannigan see in each other, beyond the mirror image of their mutual loneliness. In Kathleen Jones’s debut novel, Love Is…
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Introducing: Cowboy Herold
Sharing his thoughts on a fresh draft of my novel in progress, the contract illustrator proclaims: This whole thing is, like, so hilarious! Best of all, the 4th grader can barely utter consecutive syllables without breaking into fits of hysterics as he tries to describe the characters. His cheeks stretch too wide for speech at…
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Opening Day
MLB opens today. With the game on my mind, I revisit how a small deformity of mine became an asset in fiction for the narrator—an all star pitcher—of my first published story. My thumb, badly slashed on New Years Eve by the broken neck of a champagne bottle, never healed properly. After surgery to reconnect…
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How We Write
Writing is physical. Writing is athletic. Writing requires the same discipline of a dedicated athlete in pursuit of peak performance. I note this, not to be repetitive, but as a corollary to my series on Little League and the trajectory of sports in life for me. These things are one and the same: the first…
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The Little League Coach
The calendar tells us that it’s spring. But last Monday, the night before the season’s first Little League practice, snow squalls filled the sky. Over the weekend the manager gathered us on a beautiful day for pizza and whiffle ball. Then our second practice got scrubbed for snow, a Nor’easter that eventually dumped half a…
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