The Artemis Caper
Greetings from Florida where Black Friday is still sprawling all around us and Thanksgiving is just a lingering bit of indigestion. I would like to tell you about an incredible experience from last week – Tuesday, November 15, to be precise: the first launch of NASA’s Artemis 1 rocket, the biggest rocket of all time, […]
“Termination Shock” by Neal Stephenson
As of late, I seem to be favoring big books: long, more current novels such as David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (more pedestrian than I had imagined), magnificent Metropolis by Monte Schulz, Richard Powers’ The Overstory (wow, wow, wow), David Wroblewski’s first novel The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (so engaging I read it twice), Confessions […]
One Hurricane After Another
Hurricane Nicole just went on its way from Florida, where I’m at my writing retreat working on a new book. I missed Ian a few weeks back, but this one was a doozy, waking my wife and me at 2:13AM as a 25-foot limb blew off a camphor tree in our backyard. Fortunately it mised […]
Tim O’Brien’s Enthralling Novel
In The Lake Of The Woods is a gripping tale unlike most novels you’ve read. First, “Lake of the Woods” is a real lake in northern Minnesota – the state known as the “land of 10,000 lakes.” Second, note the book title: “in” the lake. Remember this. Sometimes a book comes along and just knocks […]
October 29 Post
Friends, I’m being held captive in the dungeon of a decrepit castle by a pack of ghouls and goblins with no access to my computer, so no post this week. Thankfully, my voice-over-internet connection still allows me to send you this brief message. Have a treat-filled and scary Halloween! Jack
“Earth Abides” – The First Dystopian Novel?
We live today – literarily, literally – in a landscape of dystopian stories. Creative people with at least half a brain are writing stories and novels, making movies, podcasts, etc. etc. which decry the end of civilization as we know it. I’m not always sure what their point is, but more and more dystopian tales […]