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 …
Tag: novels
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 …
Continue reading Not Just Another Baseball Novel, and Not Just Another Sports Writer
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 …
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 …
Continue reading At Least See if It’s too Hot for You to Handle
They Walk In but Never Out, and as Far as this Novel Is Concerned, Neither Will You
I felt as if Linda Sands was something of a kindred spirit while reading her offbeat crime novel, 3 Women Walk into a Bar. It's been out just a little longer than my novel, Crazy of Natural Causes, and most every character in Linda's story is crazy, or, at least, eccentric. Mine's not a …
Continue reading They Walk In but Never Out, and as Far as this Novel Is Concerned, Neither Will You
From Me to You on My Crazy Novel
Friends, countrymen and countrywomen, city folks, cowboys and Indians, readers frequent and infrequent, As you know, I've written another novel. It's good because, right out of Amazon (the retailer, not the river, but the two could be related by marriage), and into my portable devices, I read it. It took just slightly over one day, …
Bouncing Like a Rubber Ball
For as long as I can remember, I've been manic-depressive about my writing. It's not clinically manic-depressive. It's predictable and controllable. It's just that, while I'm writing, I generally think it's really good, and, then, the next time I read it, I consider it unsalvageable, and, on third read, I feel I have some balance. …
Do Me a Favor and Don’t Keep This a Secret
As the song goes, I ain't too proud to beg. My novel, Crazy of Natural Causes, will be released on Tuesday, July 21. As these words are written, that's several hours away. No matter how hard I try, I can't possibly reach enough people to make it a success by that means alone. I've got …
It’s Sooner Than Later Now
I'm tumbling down the stretch. On Tuesday, Crazy of Natural Causes becomes available for download at amazon.com. It has been available for advance order since July 14. I assume the advance price of $3.49 will be in place through Monday. I don’t know anything else. It’s up to Amazon. It’s my seller, and it’s also …
I’m Crazy for Tryin’ …
The day before yesterday, I drove over to Presbyterian College and shot some video footage of high school kids going through football drills. Why? Well, I do like watching football practice from a distance of, oh, forty years when I was out there sweating in the sun. I went to a football camp before my …
Nightrider's Lament 