Feature Photo by JJ Jordan on Unsplash A little over two months ago, I announced that my next work would be a new version of “Hidden Desires”, a novel I published early in my writing career. I made the announcement under the mistaken belief that I could tweak and adjust in short order, intending to reissue the improved version in the first week of the new year (in my younger, formative years, I was judged immature and naive, traits that still seem…
Hey folks! I know I’m a little late on this one, but I have some good news for you. If you haven’t listened to The Mistress of Longbourn on audio yet, it’s being offered now for 75% off until the New Year! Just follow the link and enjoy! https://www.audiobooks.com/promotions/promotedBook/595034/mistress-of-longbourn?refId=111992
Image by Joshua Woroniecki from Pixabay In a previous post, I discussed the history of the printed word and the boon Mr. Gutenberg’s invention was to mankind. Today’s article is about computers and how they’ve changed the world. Did you know that the abacus is considered the first example of a computer? There is evidence of its existence and use in Mesopotamia as early as 2700 BC., where they used it to assist in calculations for their sexagesimal numbering system, which was based…
November has arrived. Summer is a distant memory and Halloween is blessedly in the rear view mirror. So what comes next? If your house is anything like mine when I was a child, the arrival of November meant the start of the Christmas baking season for our mother. I fondly recall the heavenly aroma of fresh baked bread, the wonderful smell of cinnamon as the rolls turned golden brown in the oven, and the sight of pies cooling on the…
I’ve seen lots of movies about AI run amuck. The Terminator was an early one, and those movies were good for about the first three, then there was The Matrix, where the first was good while the rest (haven’t seen the fourth) were pretty much abominations. I tend to like dystopian, disaster, thriller movies, as they tell stories about the human spirit and people rising to the challenge, even if the scripts are not often the best and some of…
As tempting as it is to compose a maudlin, sorrowful essay, I am instead celebrating my mother’s life. She passed away on Sunday morning, one month to the day before her 97th birthday. I loved my mother deeply. She was a kind, thoughtful woman who I think deserves to be lauded for putting up with me, her oldest and always rebellious son. She and my father did their best to raise me to be a righteous, Christian man. Unfortunately, until…
There was a variety of fodder for today’s post (I recently went on a trip with my friends, I am having some foot issues, and so on), but I thought I would just briefly address the recent sinking of the Titan submersible. As some of you probably already know, the Titanic, which was hailed as an unsinkable ship, was named after the Titans of Greek mythology. However, the novella Futility, which was written by Morgan Robertson before the Titanic was created,…
Writing is not an easy business. As with anything, it takes practice and dedication to improving one’s skill, and while I can not speak for other authors, I am always finding something new I’m doing wrong, things that I can do better, or habits in my writing that I try to avoid. Creative writing can be a completely different beast altogether. While a certain measure of research goes into any writing, much of creative writing comes from within. One thing…
I don’t have much today, other than a blow by blow description of the trouble I have run into preparing my home for the installation of new windows next week. It is doubtful that is of interest to anybody except for me. What I have instead is an early excerpt from my latest WIP, If Not for the Entail. The story revolves around the fate of Elizabeth and her family following the unanticipated passing of Mr. Bennet, and a despicable villain’s…
Though my brother spoke of the coming of spring, I have not seen anything of it yet. We are still cold and we are getting enough snow to bury us until June, as this photo from my front window will attest. As I spoke at some length about this in my last post, I will not bore you any further. But you can likely tell by my choice of image that I am eager to leave the winter behind and…