All the best stories start with “Once upon a time…” Once upon a time, I got a letter from the Department of Motor Vehicles. It seems my current driver’s license is due to expire in a couple of months–on my birthday, conveniently–so I had to get a new one. Being the sort of person that […]
Read MoreA friend of mine just died today. She was recently diagnosed with a Glioblastoma – a type of aggressive brain cancer. I now have three friends and acquaintances who have passed from this particular form of cancer in recent memory, when I can’t recall even having heard of it before the first one was diagnosed. […]
Read MoreLocal friends may have noticed that I haven’t been very upbeat recently. I went to the doctor last month. I’ve already had my annual check-up several months ago; this visit was relating to a specific issue that has cropped up in the last month or two. I’ve been trying to keep it under wraps, but […]
Read MoreI went to see the latest Jim Jarmusch film, “The Dead Don’t Die” recently. To be honest, zombies aren’t really my thing. However, I was highly impressed with Jarmusch’s moody, dream-like vampire film, “Only Lovers Left Alive,” and wanted to see what he could do with the mindless undead. I had been thoroughly captivated by […]
Read MoreLast autumn, I tried to sow a tiny patch of ground outside our condo with a few milkweed seeds. I was rewarded this spring by finding a bunch of milkweed plants growing in that patch of ground. They started sprouting before we left on our trip to Venice, and by the time we got back […]
Read MoreAfter we left Venice, we spent some time getting used to the ship. We found previously that the food in the buffet on this cruise line is adequate: highly edible, but nothing special. That conclusion was borne out again at the beginning of this trip, so we tried to eat most of our meals in […]
Read MoreI attended my first StokerCon over the weekend. StokerCon is the annual convention sponsored by the Horror Writers Association, and this year it was held in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Several fellow writers encouraged me to attend this year, so I decided to take the plunge. One thing that’s consistently made me crazy over these last […]
Read MoreNothing lasts forever. I just received word very recently that the publisher of an anthology I’m in will cease publication entirely, closing up shop for good. I hate to say it, but this news isn’t particularly surprising. The publisher has had a number of major personal issues crop up in his life over the last […]
Read MoreWarning: might contain spoilers. Like many people, I thoroughly enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. It was a fantastic journey through mythology and how the ideas humans worshipped grew and changed over centuries and millennia. When the television series of the book was announced, I was thrilled. I looked forward to meeting what the filmmakers and […]
Read MoreI recently came across a post somewhere — sadly, I’ve forgotten where it was and who wrote it — about valuing one’s own work. The context was self-published books, and while I don’t have a vast amount of experience with this, I do have some, and I’d like to share my experiences with you. The […]
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