What’s the point?
When you think about it, the majority of Romance tales are fables expressing a lesson. Most stories, by my observation, show the angst and problems that occur without clear communication.…
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Henry David Thoreau. Virtually everyone has heard of him and his book Walden. But how many have read it? And how many have read his influential treatise Civil Disobedience? I…
HISTORY versus OUR STORY
In an earlier post, I mentioned the frustration of discovering that the history on which an historical novel was based is incorrect. Imagine finding out that virtually everything you have…
WILLIAM MORRIS
News From Nowhere And Other Writings tells a whimsical tale of time travel from the 19th century to an unspecified future England in which people live without money, without government,…
Who are we?
"Better the lies that exalt us than the truths that demean us." That saying may be well known, and many may agree with it, but it would more accurately be…
Language in motion
In reading Jane Austen books from my To Be Read pile, it struck me that not only words commonly used have changed―such as her use of twelvemonth instead of year―but…
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A WORLD WITHOUT BOOKS
Books have gotten expensive both to buy and to make―along with paper, food, and everything else as inflation (which is a hidden tax imposed by greedy governments and businesses) rises…
Fiction is Fact and Fact is Fiction
These days, politicians and officials in various capacities, as well as self-proclaimed experts in many fields, claim the power of prophecy, foretelling events that not so miraculously unfold at the…
Quotable Quotes
I have sung the praises of Louis L'Amour before, but I have been thinking lately of the messages of independence and self-reliance woven into his tales. I quote here from…
LOOKING BACK
One of the issues that can plague an author is the discovery of historical inaccuracies that affect a book already written and published. It's bad enough to find that the…