Prose

What do you remember of 15th Century Italian history? Guelphs and Ghibellines ring a bell? The petty wars between Florence, Milan and Genoa? Yeah, me neither. Read more about GGK’s Italy

I never know what to say to children. So few of them have read Toynbee. Read more about Toynbee

Once Upon a New Year's Day

Acquiring habits:

Well, the first habit to acquire is the habit of writing. To follow Steven’s command at the outset of this journal and write it all – the real and the imaginary. Write descriptions, conversations, character sketches, imagination, ruminations. Find the means of expression. Perhaps my first and foremost resolution, then, is to become a writer.

### Read more about A Writer's Journal

How many times have you read “The Lord of the Rings?” David Marchese asked Stephen Colbert in a recent New York Times interview. Read more about Back to the Source

My son, Christopher, took me to see the movie, Tolkien, for Mothers’ Day. On the way home, we had a conversation about those premier fantasy writers of our time, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and George Raymond Richard Martin, and came to an agreement that although we have read and enjoyed both, GRRM will never be a JRRT. Not even close. Read more about JRRT vs GRRM

A long-forgotten reviewer characterized a novel I loved as “a 5th century China that never was but should have been.” Read more about Back to Africa

I’ve been writing a series of short stories, each of which is subtitled, “A Fairy Tale.” A couple of them do have bits of magical elements. Three of them are more or less down to earth. People in my writing group have asked me: In what way are these stories fairy tales?

I responded to one of them as follows, referencing my latest story that I call "Saturday Night in the Big City." Read more about What Makes a Short Story a Fairy Tale?

Another bit from THM (I'm calling his segments The Heintzelman Maneuver), my old writing buddy from the Blue Moon, gone now, but I still have a few of his papers that he gave me. I think he had a book in mind, celebrating the folks he knew from the bar. I do much the same thing in "A Dream of Houses." I didn't know T Ruth (before my time?), but I think I recognize "Molly." Read more about T Ruth

More Blue Moon characterizations from my friend Bill: Read more about Howard the Duck

I didn’t like Stella Gale when I first met her in Nancy Kent’s first novel, Stella Gale: A Rare Breed. She is brash and self-absorbed, repetitive, with a classic white trash vocabulary that does little to endear. I read a few pages, and then put it down. Read more about Stella Gale