Red Room Where the Writers Are

Ends and Beginnings

         One thing that is surprising,” Adam remarked as we drove back over the moors after tea, “at least many people find it so when they begin to investigate the geology of Scotland….”“What’s that?”“That it’s a land rich in gold.”I smiled through my weariness. The words had a familiar ring! “I’ve heard tell of ghillies who ...

Happy News

Friday, November 6, 2009 Happy News San Antonio news is rather different than Columbus news. For instance, rather than wearing suits and immovable coiffed hair (both men and women) as the new anchors do in Ohio, in Texas, news anchors often look as though they have yet to change clothes after getting home from the club at 3AM. I've also noticed, since living in Texas, that there are an ...

What Might Have Been

This early morning, I woke up thinking of something that happened 33 years ago, something that could have changed my life in the way that Elizabeth Smart's life and Jaycee Dugard's lives were changed.  Even at the time, I knew it, and even now, it wakes me up from a sound sleep.At about 10 pm one evening in Orinda, one of my good friends and I set off from a friend's party.  It had been a girl ...

This Too Shall Pass....

Do you have those moments when you have to remind yourself that you have faced worse challenges - and made it through?  Thus, this (challenge) too shall pass?I remember times in my past when it seemed hopeless, that all was lost. Looking back, I see where I stepped into that situation, suffered, and found my way through into a better world and new experiences. Sometimes, the situation didn't ...

When I was a child...

When I was a child, I went through many horrible things. I was a victim of incest.  I was four, when my one of my aunts, Judith who’s also biological mother’s youngest sister had an intercourse with me several times. My biological mother, Catherine and her family were calling me names and they use to view me as a person with special needs or a person with down syndrome. When my biological ...

Detail Days

November 7  DETAIL DAYS    Detail days seem like lost, soulless days.  I sort the piles of endless junk mail; catch up on bills, letters, laundry.  I don’t leave the house, but in some way I feel like I’m not in my home.  It’s like a day of pulling out all the needles, splinters and thorns that accumulate under my skin from rough weeks and road rash.  I steel myself to the pain of ...

My Favorite Bookstore

My favorite bookstore is the one in my head, the one I have always dreamed of starting.

The Week at Woodsong

Where did the week go?  I started with laundry from the weekend on Monday.  The first week in the month also holds both our regular board meeting of the Illinois Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association and also the local women’s club. The board meeting was supposed to be a very important planning session when we were joined by the national president and the national executive secretary, ...

Going Full Circle: Indianapolis and Houston and...

The Indianapolis Colts play the Houston Texans this week. This is a good omen for the Colts’ hopes to advance to 8-0, because they have flat out owned the Texans. This will also be the second time in five years that the Colts have faced the Texans while sporting a record of 7-0 with a chance to advance to 8-0, and the fourth time in the last five years Houston has faced an undefeated ...

Gotta have it

There's a B&N not far from me that I like, but it doesn't have it.  Borders never considered it. Seattle's University Books is a traditional college bookstore, a top one really, a place where you can still buy pencils with lead that doesn't break and peruse great bargain bins, but U-Books doesn't have it either.  I'm talking about funk.  Seattle used to be loaded with funky bookstores ...

Costco Republicans?

After this week's big losses for Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, one can't help but speculate about the impact the far right, bible belt conservatives will have on the landscape that is the Republican Party over the next eight years. Some see civil war already in the works with faux moderates being tackled by the nouveau neo-conservative movement.

The John Birch Society, which has been ...

Raking the Leaves of My Mind

The other morning I was staring out the window at all the leaves on the ground, marveling at how so much come from almost nothing. A bit of water, a bit of soil, a bit of sun, and something exists where nothing did before. I cherish those leaves. There’s no lawn here, just native grasses, so I don’t need to rake the leaves. I let them finish out their natural cycle of replenishing the soil ...

A Book and a Chat with "Harmony...

I have blogged about PAYA and the fantastic work that Harmony, Yan and Josh Berk have done to support YA literature in Pennsylvania. So it was with great pleasure that I had Harmony along with a couple of other dial in guest on my show today.PAYA, Bringing (More) YA to PA, is an initiative started by book bloggers Harmony and Yan with help from Tenner author and PA librarian, Josh Berk, in ...

GODDESS PELE

Born in Tahiti, Pele is the Hawaiin Goddess of fire, lightning, volcanoes, dance, and violence. Landing first at Ni'ihau, then Kauai, Pele moved down the chain of islands in order of their geological formation, eventually landing on the Big Island's Mauna Loa. As a word in the Hawaiian language her name, pele, means molten lava. She is not, therefore, a spirit who lives in the molten lava, she is ...

Writing for the Spelling Impaired and Grammatically...

I posted this some time ago. Today, I received an email of thanks because it helped someone. I thought it might be worth setting out again for any writer who might be spelling impaired or grammatically challenged. Plus, for dyslexic writers of all ages there is hope. You can improve your writing skills. Here are some of my tried and true writing tricks for challenged writers. - Start A List - ...

The FLORIDA History Shop

 I rise today to --- Actually I descend today to sing the praise of the book shop underground.It is The FLORIDA History Shop.It is exhaulted for --- For it is bright and light, although dwelling under the earth.For it is resplendent with alligator, fish, shell & many things of strange Florida, being the shop of the Museum of Florida History.For the books it offers tell of the ...

Read the Story Behind the Story: The...

Check out my post on The Rap Sheet on the back story of my new novel THE BIG WAKE-UP here.

One flu over Wall Street

My friend Farnsworth, a Wall Street stockbroker, called last night and said, ``How's the writing game going?'' `` So-so at best.'' I said. ``Same here,'' said Farnsworth. ``Well,'' I said, ``from the news, I see that at least you and much of Wall Street just got your swine flu shots, unlike the rest of us, including women and children.''  ``Yep, and naturally everyone's making a big deal out ...

Guilty Pleasures: The Mommy Vacation

  We do it to ourselves, you know. So convinced that our families can't run without our magical presence, we control, micromanage, enable, and ultimately martyr ourselves upon the altar of motherhood. But even saints and martyrs need a break now and then.A couple of weeks ago I booked a tiny third floor room in a Victorian bed and breakfast at the Jersey shore for one night only. I was giving ...

Erotic Fantasy On A City Bus-By Frances...

Vacous eyes staring across the way Becoming lost in my fantasies and lust Dreaming up scenarios to escape the day Escaping boredom on this city bus I focus on him slithering in his chair Feeling a desire and longing to touch Avoiding his glance,he is unaware of how I desire him,so very much Suddenly,the bus comes to a halt. Seemingly occupied,I miss my street I sprint to the exit,It's all my ...

Blood Atonement

Book The Media - Blood Atonement Title: Blood Atonement Author: Dan Waddell Paperback: 400 pages Publisher: Penguin (27 Aug 2009) Language English ISBN-10: 0141025662 ISBN-13: 978-0141025667 Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm Product DescriptionKatie Drake was an affluent single mother living in Queen’s Park – until someone cut her throat and tore out her tongue. Worse still, the killer ...

Favorite bookstore???

A favorite bookstore?  I don't know that I have a favorite bookstore.  One  favorite book, yes!  In fact, I blogged about that about a month or so ago, but not a particular, favorite bookstore.  I have found all sorts of bookstore to be treasures, and I love browsing them all.  I suppose I could say that my favorite will be the one I hope to own someday. I hope it will be like the bookstore ...

What We Don't Get

What We Don’t Get               My fantasy goes something like this: I enter a poetry contest and win first prize. The famous Duke professor/ poet or the North Carolina Poet Laureate phones me personally to inform me of the good news. He says I wish I had written it myself! I call every person I have ever known, receive a check for a thousand dollars, and my poem appears in a ...

The Five Biggest Questions Publishers Ask Before...

I know we’ve only just hit day number six, but it’s time to get into the real nitty-gritty of nonfiction writing: the business end of book publishing. (I warned you we would!)  If you’re going to write a nonfiction book, you must be sure you have a marketable product. (This is true of articles, too, but we're going to talk about books today.) While fiction writers also must be sure their ...

Reading at Tulipwood

I'm reading this Saturday, November 7, at Tulipwood, 1165 Hamilton St., Somerset, NJ, at 2:00 PM. My co-reader will be Charles H. Johnson. I'm very much looking forward to the reading as it's in the restored Victorian house you see above. What a beautiful venue!Above is the side view of the house which was built in 1892 and purchased by the Township of Franklin in 2003 for Historic Preservation. ...

Perfect matches for imperfect people

In the future, newborns will be implanted with forehead bar codes that can be scanned with iPhone apps to eventually reveal things like name, astrological sign, political disposition, cereal preference and current level of sexual arousal. And, dammit, guys like me will still struggle to get laid.  I’m so far removed from the horny dating scene that I should be restricted from ever commenting ...

Santa Maria della Salute

In 1630-31, the plague devastated Venice.  One third of the population -- 95,000 people -- died during the outbreak.   In October, 1630 as the plague had Venice on her knees, the Doge and the Senate vowed to make a holy processional each Saturday for fifteen weeks.  And he also promised to dedicate a church to the Virgin Mary as a plea for her help.  Soon thereafter the plague outbreak ...

Blogging Bookstores

 I live in Philadelphia, a wonderful city, vibrant and diverse, with a downtown that thrives after dark and on weekends, with residential neighborhoods that are cosmopolitan here and provincial there.  Arts and culture?  We have museums to rival those in D.C. or New York.  We have restaurants offering every imaginable cuisine.  We have a wonderful symphony orchestra and a magnificent ...

My Favorite Bookstore

I don’t know how I got up the nerve.  I guess it was that Borderlands Books was so comfortable, three small rooms filled floor to ceiling with books.  Fantasy and science fiction jammed the largest room.  The sunny front room was crammed with horror.  The entry room, which also housed the cash register, contained all the new hard covers the store had to offer, along with a wall lined with ...

Excerpt from ONE NIGHT, TWO TEAMS: ALABAMA...

“ONE NIGHT, TWO TEAMS: ALABAMA VS. USC AND THE GAME THAT CHANGED A NATION”   Marv Goux, among others, said that Sam Cunningham “did more for civil rights in three hours than Martin Luther King did in 20 years.” King himself, in his famous “let freedom ring” speech, had quoted from the great Civil War “Battle Hymn of the Republic”:   “MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE ...