Clinton, South Carolina, Monday, March 20, 2017, 10:56 a.m. Jesse Few lives in the suspended adolescence of the power life. Suddenly, all of his indiscretions come back to haunt him at once. So goes the irreverent narrative of Lying for a Living, Steve McCondichie’s debut novel. I traffic in such irreverence myself. Its smirk …
Tag: review
Mystery When It Was Cool
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, February 9, 2017, 11:24 a.m. All that I found questionable about Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep was how much it rains in Los Angeles. It was published in 1939. Perhaps it’s climate change. For a long time, I’ve wanted to read the masters of crime and mystery, principally Chandler and Dashiell …
Take Jada Ryker’s Novel and Run … with It
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, January 24, 2017, 11:45 a.m. When I started reading Jada Ryker’s Take the Body and Run, I thought it was a mess. I couldn’t keep up with all the characters. This was also the way I felt when I started reading Doctor Zhivago several decades ago. I stuck with Boris Pasternak’s …
Not About the Inauguration
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, January 20, 2017, 11:47 a.m. The new president is about to take office. In a moment, I’m going to listen to what he has to say. I’m not going to write about politics. It has left me weary. I hope for the best. Instead, I’m going to write about something frivolous. …
The Eve of Ruination
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, January 12, 2017, 11:50 a.m. I am in a state of paralysis. I haven’t ground completely to a halt. In half a day, I’ve written 305 words of fiction. They’re 305 decent words, so, like Bill Murray in Caddy Shack, I’ve got that going for me. I am depressed. Not clinically …
Moving Right Along
Local sports are dying down, or at least the willingness of others to hire me to write about them, for now. The football teams have entered and exited the playoffs. Rain has returned to the Desert Southeast, and smoke from the mountains is at last on the wane. All I know to do is keep …
I Need Insight More Than My Site
As you may have noticed – I hope someone, preferably hundreds, has noticed, but I can’t prove it – my other blog site, montedutton.com, is down. It’s been down for about a week. Three or four times, I’ve tried to fix it, but I haven’t had the time or inclination yet to sit on hold …
An Age in the Form of a Family
First of all, the title is perfect. Wild Whistling Blackbirds. The title of my upcoming western, Cowboys Came Home, came quickly, but, usually, a title doesn't come to me until I'm well into the first draft. Here, it's as if author Allen Kent came up with this splendid title, rooted in poetry, and built the …
An Unlikely Quest for Freedom
Another fine mess I've gotten myself in. I'm reading a series of delightful volumes on soul-searching travels by Roan Poulter in reverse order. Poulter's third novel in a series, The Long Road Home, was, like my third, Crazy of Natural Causes, a KindleScout selection. When I downloaded another, All Roads South, it didn't make …
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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Nightrider's Lament 