1. Most importantly, The Walk Home And Other Tales of Suspense is now officially available for purchase! Get your copy today: (By the way, in case you were wondering, the above are *not* Amazon affiliate links, because maybe I'm over scrupulous, but doing an affiliate link for my own work feels tacky). 2. You know, … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Mostly Book Release Stuff
Thoughts
Thoughts on ‘The Secret of Chimneys’
Dame Agatha Christie was a highly prolific authoress. In addition to her cozy mysteries featuring M. Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, she also wrote plenty of other mysteries and a number of books that could be classified more as thrillers or spy fiction. These tend not to be regarded as her best work on … Continue reading Thoughts on ‘The Secret of Chimneys’
Ash Wednesday: The Importance of Being Miserable
I think a large reason why the world is in the state that it is in is because we Christians have lost the art of doing penance. Our predecessors, even those of a mere century ago, would have regarded us with utter contempt in this regard. I mean, we’re the kind of people who consider … Continue reading Ash Wednesday: The Importance of Being Miserable
To Build a Fire
I sometimes visit my sister, who lives in Maine. The cabin on their land has a wood stove (fireplaces aren’t used much in Maine, since they don’t radiate heat very well), so I’ve had a fair amount of experience making up fires. You start by arranging a pile of kindling: ‘fat wood’, sticks, pieces of … Continue reading To Build a Fire
Friday Flotsam: Disney, Kafka, and Lovecraft
1. The Wisdom of Walt Disney re-release went off with very few hitches. There was a close call where I thought none of the updates (including the discount) would be available by the release date, since, at least as far as I can tell, Amazon doesn’t provide the ability to precisely control when the book … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Disney, Kafka, and Lovecraft
On Bad Analogies
There was an article in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks back about original novel of Bambi, by Felix Salten. The gist of the article was regarding how different the book was from the film, and in particular how the book had a strong theme of the experience of minority groups (Salten was an … Continue reading On Bad Analogies
Words of the Saints: St. Augustine on Beauty
"Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air, amply spread around everywhere, question the beauty of the sky, question the serried ranks of the stars, question the sun making the day glorious with its bright beams, question the moon tempering the darkness of the following … Continue reading Words of the Saints: St. Augustine on Beauty
Thought of the Day: Unbelievable Premises
Audiences will accept even the most ridiculous and unbelievable premises for a story, provided the storyteller knows what he's doing. For instance, the premise of Rear Window begins with "There's a man who doesn't want to marry Grace Kelly..."
Friday Flotsam: Team Building and ‘Bumblebee’
1. Another ‘digging in’ week. Mostly spent prepping a few projects for release. More on those in the coming days. 2. Had a teambuilding exercise at work today, and I never come away from teambuilding exercises without a greater appreciation for solitary endeavor. The trouble is that, with most team projects or team-building activities, my … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Team Building and ‘Bumblebee’
Sympathy for George Lucas
There are a lot of mixed feelings towards George Lucas these days after three poor prequels and the ill-judged efforts at a ‘special edition’, among other things. It’s trendy to hate him. Personally, I don’t. I feel sorry for him. This is all speculation, but the way I see it, Lucas created something great, the … Continue reading Sympathy for George Lucas
Serpent's Den 