What Amy Wolf has achieved, in her novel The Misses Bronte's Establishment, is to make, in the guise of fiction, a distinguished family of writers human. What the Brontes meant to me, before I read Amy's work, was Charlotte (Jane Eyre) and Emily (Wuthering Heights). They were remnants of an education grown ancient. I try …
Tag: Monte Dutton
The Golden Time
I'm holed up again, writing. The weekend was exciting -- a memorable high school game, Bristol night race, up late both nights writing about them, and then restless afterward -- but I'm back in the routine of work on a short story, write a blog, pay some bills ... ... And, on selected days, I …
Not Just Another Baseball Novel, and Not Just Another Sports Writer
I've read Philip Roth's The Great American Novel, about a ragtag baseball team during wartime. I've read fiction about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. I've read novels with a supernatural element. What I haven't read is a novel like Matt Caldwell's The Lost Tribe, which combines the themes above with a few more subplots thrown …
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The Inside Dope from Halford
This is kind of a writing exercise. I decided I'd exercise my dialogue muscles by writing a short story that tells the entire story in the form of conversation. In this case, most of it's on the air. "It's Springfield Dynamos baseball, live on Oldies Ninety-Seven from Auckland Mosaics Ballpark in Halford. I'm Lamar Bridgman, and …
‘The Road’ Seeks Redemption
The Long Road Home, by Roan Poulter, is the third of his Motorcycle Chronicles Series, and a matter of a young man, Jordan Carter, finding peace in a variety of ways. Jordan is the son of a literary icon, and the tale begins when news arrives of her violent death in Argentina. Anne Carter comes …
In Order to Write … One Must Read
It's hard to read the work of another writer without comparing it to one's own. Being in Amazon's KindleScout program has had the somewhat unexpected consequence of being joined, mainly via Facebook, with other writers whose novels have been published in the program. One effect has been pride. We help one another. We read one …
The Possibilities Are Endless
Olivia Vetrano's Neverland is about an intelligent young girl who, wracked by the scars of tragedy, retreats into an irresistible world of both fantasy and self-destruction. It is a world Hayley inexplicably finds comfortable, and neither a devoted boyfriend nor a best friend who knows her all too well seems to be capable of …
At Least See if It’s too Hot for You to Handle
Why should you read my novel, Crazy of Natural Causes? Maybe you follow me. Maybe you’ve read one or both of my other novels, The Audacity of Dope (2011) and The Intangibles (2013). Maybe you’ve read my non-fiction books. Maybe you’ve read my newspaper columns, blogs and stories over the past 35 years. Maybe you …
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Watch Out When the Ants Scatter on Jim Jackson’s Farm
James M. Jackson came in handy. I needed his novel Ant Farm. It leads to more. I can't wait to get around to them. Ant Farm reminds me of the mysteries of the late Dick Francis. Jim's Seamus McCree is an American. Francis mainly wrote about Englishmen. Ant Farm reminds me of a Francis mystery …
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I Didn’t Know Where I Was Going, but I’m Glad I Went
I'm envious. Writers are an envious tribe. I try not to succumb to envy, because my style is what has developed and evolved throughout my life. I bear the scars and achievements of my existence to this point. In a song, Guy Clark once quoted the rodeo cowboy Larry Mahan thusly: “Mistakes are only horses …
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Nightrider's Lament 