Announcement… Another Fine Mess 21 Oct 201821 Oct 2018 My flash fiction piece, "The Invalid," has been published online in Short Édition, and is entered in one of their contests, so read it and maybe also vote for it,…
Author post Literacy Lit 21 Sep 201822 Sep 2018 I work part-time as an Adult Literacy Coordinator at the Echo Park branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, and one of the programs I started is a "literacy book…
Author post… American Fugue: Hemingway’s “Big Two-Hearted River” 30 Jul 20182 Aug 2018 Some scholarly-minded sorts have made a parlor game of trying to identify actual landmarks in Hemingway's masterful short story, "Big Two-Hearted River." They complain that the burnt town named as…
Author post To Lie for Truth’s Sake: the Novelist’s Conundrum 20 Apr 201820 Apr 2018 The job of a fiction writer is to lie. Still, if it were only to lie, you could dedicate yourself to advertising or politics instead, and accept troubled sleep as…
Announcement… Teaser: “My Turn to Die” 28 Feb 201828 Feb 2018 I have finished the third draft of my next novel, titled My Turn to Die, and am grinding through the process of offering to agents while deciding whether I'd really…
Author post Clause and Effect 11 Dec 201711 Dec 2017 Do you love subordinate clauses? I know I do. And how about assonance and alliteration, rhythm and rhyme? Let's face it: they can be as tasty as chocolate. But would…
Author post Get Thee to an Editor 15 Oct 201719 Nov 2017 There are four rules to follow if you want to self-publish a novel and not embarrass yourself, the publishing industry, and the English language. They are: 1) Write slowly. Write…
Announcement… To the Finish Line! 4 Sep 20174 Sep 2017 That's Frank's rat rod in the picture above. Of course he doesn't actually race it, but it's as close as I could get to a racing image without indulging in…
Author post Outside the Lines 31 Aug 20172 Sep 2017 It's popular these days to advise folks that they ought to "color outside the lines," though submitting to that counsel often leads to feeble displays of chaos. Sometimes, though, carefully…
Announcement… Speech and Scribbles 24 Aug 201725 Aug 2017 No one is really sure yet where language comes from, whether it originates in the brain, or somewhere beyond, in the dim electric dancings of the universe. Surely if we…
