Friends, I’ve got two books started and I haven’t decided which one to buckle down on next. I could, of course, really think about what makes more sense for continuity, consider marketing and ponder the milieu. However, doing so would require me to take time from valuable tasks like watching season two of Justified, stalking […]
This is an excerpt from “Price Fixing,” a novel I intend to pursue soon. If you’d like me to focus on this novel next, please vote here. Kindergarten – My first real, fully formed memory concerns a game of tag. I wasn’t even playing, I don’t think – perhaps someone had just tagged me out. Regardless, […]
Below is a sample of what’s coming. This particular excerpt comes from a novel I’ve planned. If you’d like me to work on this novel next, please vote here. A Warm Welcome I stood by the door and looked through the high temperature glass into the chamber. The man had been no more than 50 […]
Dear Reader, Have you ever come across a really good scene and wanted to know where the author got the idea? Have you ever gotten the sense that there’s a symbol or reference you’re missing? I certainly have, which is why I’ve always enjoyed footnotes in books and why I’ve included virtual footnotes in your […]
This is a short story from Chinese author Lu Xun, who happens to be one of my literary heroes. While not well known in the west, he is widely considered the father of modern Chinese literature. Perusing his body of work, it is easy to tell why. New Year’s Eve of the old calendar1 seems after […]
If you look over my home page, it says I’m the author of three books – The Blackguard (available in April), The Book of Joshua (available in October) and The Potency (available in July). This isn’t strictly true. There’s a fourth book called The Cult of Benedict Arnold that I began as a 19 year-old […]
The New York Yankees are very rich. They have the highest payroll among all North American sports teams, their revenues are likely in the neighborhood of half a billion dollars per year. They spend five times as much as playoff teams like the Oakland Athletics or Tampa Bay Rays and yet they aren’t very good. […]
As a writer, the thought of the publishing industry shrinking or dying used to really bother me. What writer doesn’t want to see their name on the spine of a Penguin Classics novel or, upon walking into a Barnes and Noble, see their own work featured by the front door? If the industry shrunk, I […]
This is part two in a two part series on writing. To visit the first, please click here. When I listen to struggling writers – writers who never finish the book, never get the article published, give up after 14 pages – they always seem to mention problems with inspiration. “I just don’t have any […]
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