Why not jot down the top ten bucket-list trips I would fancy? For now they are fantasy, that is deliberately wild. But thus all the more dreamy. Can you guess the common thread? 1. TRANS-SIBERSKI-EXPRESS The first would take a good two months, to do it real chill from […]
A poignant question, and I seem to have but an hour to ponder the thought. Thus I invite you to take your index finger and run it along the cracks of your vanity mirror, get it out of your matrix. This one’s on the penny side to-day. Ride. Is […]
Big-breasted women, five steins a hand, and charming men in green, short-short overalls stuffed each other’s mouths with bratwurst and beer till they couldn’t rock no more. Bavaria. Its capital: München. Things played out a little differently there for the boys and me, who had gotten used to the exaggerations […]
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White rests on my bookshelf like a couple at the beach. Eyes closed, enjoying the sun, a tan, the sounds of the literary world tossed at sea, though thoroughly relaxing. We have all, in our mission for clarity and acuteness, turned to […]
This blogger knows he is about to walk through a room cluttered with cliches (ex, “Art for art’s sake,” “Business is an art,” “Selling out,” “Get ya money”), but stepping past each one, eyeing them a second, so as to reach the clear corner of the room, to breathe. […]
A story is a story, but a narrative is the story plus how you tell it. Genette’s essay titled Narrative Discourse inspires all sorts of thoughts. Mostly, he has me thinking about time. He analyses mood and voice too, but what really makes me shiver is time. For example, […]
“Rick was a bro, a gentleman seen few and far between, of a caliber unknown to the race of man, the headless baton twirler in a parade called Life, a backpacker extraordinaire, a counter-demon and Lord of the Pismire. Rick Callaghan.” (The Summer Abroad, Part III, Chapter 8.) Thus […]
4.0 out of 5 stars A conversation with the divine Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2019 Some of us are too busy rubbing our thumbs against a phone screen, or sticking our nose between the pages of good books. (Hey, I’m one of them, one of us […]
Have you ever wondered what makes a great piece of literature? Theorist Viktor Shlovsky believed that what a good story was was this, one that sticks around, plays with us, remains. However, to achieve that “long-lasting effect” in a work of art takes a specific set of devices. Like poetic […]
(Athena disguised as Mentor, helping the prince.) “Telemachus, no more shyness, this is not the time! We sailed the seas for this, for news of your father — where does he lie buried? what fate did he meet? So go right up to Nestor, breaker of horses. We’ll make him […]
4.0 out of 5 stars A telling tale Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2019 Of family, war, racism, mystery. Essentially, a novel. Close to real life, this story follows the lives of a Jewish family in romantic Naples, as the consequences of an unfolding WWII pummel every […]
It came to my attention that I should focus on deepening my characters. As it goes, things should actually happen in a story. Funny, because I have known for a while that my personages spend a lot of time thinking. What’s wrong with thinking. That some people don’t want to […]
“I would like to be able to look Maitreyi in the eyes…” — Bengal Nights, 1933 For a powerful narrative set in postcolonial India, told by two powerful minds, one pair stands to be compared and contrasted. These are Mircea Eliade’s 1933 Bengal Nights and Maitreyi Devi’s 1974 It […]
A good chorus can be happy, tragic, annoying but catchy. Like the one that goes: And I don’t want the world to see me / ’cause I don’t think that they’d understand. But I know that you will, you will understand. So I’ll show you, I’ll show you […]
Year: 2019. Setting: Houston. This city wet, gray, and sunny, makes room as I write and write. A groove, to test readability, performs miracles. Why simple, when the poetic rests elsewhere in teacups. Meanwhile mate, pronounced mahteh, cools besides my hot computer. Can’t write about what happens, what is […]
It occurs to me that, were I to exaggerate, I have never needed to write. My writing comes from a place of want. I want to write. The struggle is, in this case, when one wants to write, that the quality of the work comes into question. Wanting, one invests […]
Lavender fields brushed the side of the island of Hvar. It made us feel calm, those handful of nights in paradise. Argentina had been knocked out of the Cup. Threatened were the vibes. But dinner would that night turn things around. I couldn’t even tell you who won the […]
Why not get into the holiday spirit with some lines? These I wrote while traveling this past summer. They feel warm to me, silly, carefree, and yearning. Skim them, or sit on a word for a long time. They are here to keep you company. Personally I like the last […]
After interminable edits, formatting marathons, and emails during breaks between class to lay down the marketing bricks of this project, it is done. Everything that is not writing is finished. Anything that is left to be, will be left to be. The novel, ladies and gentlemen, is out now. You […]
3.0 out of 5 stars A moving wartime narrative, written from the heart Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2018 This mitten, this red mitten! I too hold it close to my chest, as Nels does throughout the novel. How can we let go? We must. Please, allow […]