Can I make a confession?  I have never suffered from “writer’s block”.  For all the fiction, non-fiction, intelligence reporting, and documentation I have written, I have never been intimidated by the blank page or empty display screen. However, in the spirit of full disclosure, I have struggled with format, with…

Okay, so what’s the best way for a writer to pass the time when he’s recovering from a second heart surgery, research of course!  And watching the X-Files on Netflix. My current line of inquiry has to deal with the relationship between Theosophists and Nazi Occultism.  The stuff I’ve found–both…

So I had surgery a few days ago and my wife heard me in the kitchen. “What are you doing?” she asked. “I was walking to get some exercise and noticed the paper towel holder was empty,” I said, “so I was replacing them.” “You’re not supposed to be doing…

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…

I’ve been looking for a new outlet for my longer, full length stories so I thought I’d give wattpad.com a try. If you haven’t been there, wattpad bills itself as a world of unlimited stories. For the reader, wattpad is a place to discover new authors and read some really…

I ran across an article on-line yesterday about a man in Davie, Florida, near Miami, who was pulled through a wood chipper. Not one of the small ones, mind you, but the big industrial kind the professional tree trimmers use. Although it was just one man and local incident, the…

I have a mental exercise I do as I’m driving down the interstate, rather than simply enduring that all too familiar, all too painful, commute. As I drive I look around me―at the landscape, at the other cars and trucks, at the people, especially the people―and I wonder, as they…

Although she regularly reads my blog, my wife, Malette, isn’t comfortable with the horror/fantasy genre.  She likes other things.  One of her favorite writers is Johanna Lindsey.  And that’s okay, different strokes for different folks, as they say. But there are times I’m envious of Leo Tolstoy whose wife, Sofia,…

Okay, so it may sound like I’m back peddling, but comments by Catana to yesterday’s post gave me reasons to reconsider my plan for a whole series of books from my original novel.  She provided links to a couple of blogs that suggested that the ideal length for a novel…