Category: Reviewing
The Sin of Complicity — FDR, Auschwitz, and the Lilliput Troupe
The world is so much clearer in hindsight. That’s why historians practice what’s called the “fifty-year rule”. The rule is a tacit acknowledgment that it is virtually impossible to judge history objectively until the consequences of historical events have played out and been realized. The downside to this however, is…
A Writer Considers Arthur C. Clarke’s Space Odyssey Series
One of the advantages of reviewing an older series of books is that unless your readers have been living under a rock, they already know the basic storyline: Dave Bowman and Frank Poole fly to Jupiter and HAL, their hyper-intelligent computer, tries to kill them. Pretty straight forward, or is…
The Last Pope of Antioch
Here’s something I hope you’ll like and will comment on, an excerpt from a novel I’m working on called The Last Pope of Antioch. Be sure to let me know what you think of it. Thanks! Part One: The Red Convertible 1 The red convertible flew down the dusty, empty…
Murder In A Dark Place
There’s a book on my Amazon wish list that I can’t wait to read. It’s A Serial Killer in Nazi Berlin: The Chilling True Story of the S-Bahn Murderer by Scott Andrew Selby. It’s not fiction and it’s not horror, but it inspires a thought that is appropriate to both….
I Need Your Opinion
I’m working on a new intro for my eBook, Any Tomorrow: The Calling. Would this make you want to know more about the story? Could the world end without you knowing? Could the dead surpass the living without you being aware? Could the desolation overtake the earth without you being…
Is Anybody Out There?
The worst thing a writer can say is, “Hey, what’s on TV tonight?” The second worst thing a writer can say is, “I’ll just be on the internet for a minute…” And there it goes, the best intentions for starting a new story, editing one of those fifty trunk novels,…
A Vision Of Hell In North Korea
Escape From Camp 14 is the fascinating, if at times disturbing, tale of Shin Dong-hyuk, the only known escapee born in one of North Korea’s concentration camps. Journalist Blaine Harden’s masterfully multi-dimensional and compelling tale weaves Shin’s experiences in the camp, his escape, and psychological adjustment to the world beyond…
A Review of “Fire Angels” by Joseph Richardson
A few weeks ago a friend passed me a copy of “Fire Angels”, a self-published novel by Joseph Richardson. Fire Angels is the story of David and Sara Cooper, and their son Noble, set in Walako, Florida during the period of 1915-1925. In this story Richardson attempts to weave a…
A Review Of Wednesday’s Child by Alan Zendell
On Amazon there are more than twenty novels entitled Wednesday’s Child . And this is one of them. Wednesday’s Child poses an interesting dilemma for Dylan Brice. He goes to sleep on Tuesday night, but wakes up on Thursday morning. He goes to sleep on Thursday night and wakes up…
Oh, the Horror! It is Horror!
Writing for me is a very intimate process. My stories well up first as images to form a vision. Sometimes they are intensely detailed and other times mere wisps of idea. My challenge is to translate the still fresh vision into words that can, hopefully, accurately portray it. This is…