All the Lasting Things. It's a wonderful title that could mean a lot in various contexts. To me, it means that the characters created by David Hopson are capable of progress, but not change. Ultimately, they are all imprisoned by their pasts. Broadening their horizons is possible, but freedom from them is not. Benji is …
A Flashback to Those Glamorous Days of Air Travel
I don't dream that much -- that's while sleeping, mind you -- but I've been doing more of it lately. There's no deep-down analysis. It seems as if the 11 o'clock news seldom passes without at least one short feature on the nightmare of airport security. I used to fly 50,000-80,000 miles a year. …
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The Rush of Water
At the moment, I'm watching many people younger than I oversimplifying the life of Muhammad Ali. TV is often awash in glaring generalities. I'm also having a devil of a time with this blog. Lately I'm stuck in a blogging rut. I use blogs as warm-ups for more challenging activities, oh, like, maybe the conclusion …
She Said, ‘Mama, Got a Note Here from the Harper Valley PTA’
Tuesday was another walking contradiction, particularly since I didn't do much walking. I'd been paying attention to really important matters on Monday -- a rained-out stock car race about which the Bleacher Report pays me to write, college baseball regionals, general early-week angst -- and the grass needed cutting, and I'd spent Tuesday morning writing about …
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Something About Nothing
It's gone, gone, gone. Gone, gone, gone. Crying won't bring it back. I have paraphrased. Lefty Frizzell was singing about a woman. My loss was just seven minutes long. It was a blog I worked on for seven minutes, but it was moving rapidly when the keyboard went dead, and the screen turned Petty blue, …
The Pain of It Will Ease a Bit When You Find a Book with True Grit
I'm writing a western. I thought it might be useful to read one. My choice was darn near perfect. In 2010, when the Coen Brothers released a remake of True Grit, they insisted it wasn’t one. It was made independently from the original novel by Charles Portis. I found this odd when I watched the …
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I’d Try This Style if I Could Swing It
Sometimes reading a book leaves me green with envy. Such is the case with Matthew Norman's We're All Damaged. I believe we are. Two novels ago – three once I get Cowboys Come Home finished -- I started writing Crazy of Natural Causes as a farce. Then I immersed myself in the outrageous football coach, …
News-Free Love
I haven't written enough short stories recently. This one could wind up as the beginning of a novel. Fortunately, by nature, Jordie Smithson was annoyingly early. He always allowed for disaster. A traffic jam on the way to the airport, for instance. On this Monday, the traffic jam was on the way to the office. …
Back to the Bunkhouse
This morning I've been reacquainting myself with a manuscript. I lost a race with Cowboys Come Home. I wanted to finish its first draft before my fourth novel, Forgive Us Our Trespasses, was published. It was released in Kindle edition on March 29. I was still a couple or three chapters shy. Then came the …
Nice Timing for The Year of Trump
Allen Kent, in The Wager, has fashioned a yarn based on a bet gone awry. Two giants of the mass media bet they are powerful enough to get a man of their choice elected president. Predictably, one is a liberal, the other conservative. The clash of egos lurks in the background as events unfold. A …
Nightrider's Lament 