More than ten words on Dan Yack I found these words in a book entitled Dan Yack, by Blaise Cendrars. The novel was published in 1927 and has been around the house for years. It is 144 pages and I picked it up for it's length. I wanted a quick read over the weekend. It... Continue Reading →
I smiled, comparing myself with other men, comparing my active goodwill with the lazy cruelty of their neglect... The excerpt above comes from "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." I read the book several years ago. For the record, I liked it as more detective, who done it book, as opposed to... Continue Reading →
Ten More Leave-ins for the mind Write your novels, prose and poetry like you don't them back. Leave your writing in the present, and your books in the future. It's the feeling put into the words that count, not the word count. When writing try not to chase, nor attempt to... Continue Reading →
I try to start to work I just wanted to get up on this Saturday morning and do some writing. The specific writing was my pre-Starbucks coffee house comedic novel, Altonstreet and Philpatrick. I had spent all Memorial Day refining my YA basketball fishing novella, Ironjaws. This was mainly grunt work. But damn if... Continue Reading →
Allie The alarm rings. 4:45 a.m. I wake up way too early for another morning and more writing. I stagger downstairs and head to the coffee maker. Once in the kitchen, Allie, my motivation coordinator, hands me today's coffee already poured into my favorite pre-warmed mug. She tells me what I want to know: today's... Continue Reading →
Is this fiction? "Is this fiction?" But he wasn't asking me. The young man checking me out at Von's on the campus of Purdue University had asked his colleague if my purchase, Don Quixote, was fiction. With the category clarified, he returned to face me with an apology along the lines that he... Continue Reading →
I bailed out on my writer's group prompt last Friday. It was a long workday on a Friday and that was before the two-hour skull session, which concluded with a 30-minute prompt. I will be revisiting the writer's group a good deal in future blogs. For now, I wanted to send a gratitude to A... Continue Reading →
10 more "leaves ins" to apply to the mind, not the hair Writing is a harmless way of expressing something inside is that has to come out. All you are ever going to be is the person you are today. In empty handed stillness, the mind can... Continue Reading →
"Don't translate, answer." Those were the instruction from my Russian professor in college. He wanted his students to answer his questions posed in Russian as responses, not having taken the extra step to translate from Russian to English to Russian to answer. I have something similar in mind with the thoughts I'm listing below. They... Continue Reading →
Have you got a second? A few days ago, I was texting my brother. My daughter was watching me and commented, only partially joking, that she was "horrified" at how slowly I texted. Yesterday, I finished writing my novella, Ironjaws. Please don't tell my daughter this, but I started it 34 years ago. It... Continue Reading →
