Odds and Sods from My Week Back Home
“Odds and sods” is a euphemism from the British lexicon, which in American parlance simply means bits and pieces. But it’s also the title of one of The Who‘s records, which in its original release wasn’t all that great but when reissed as a compilation included such hits as “Mary Anne With The Shaky Hands,” […]
The Last Bookshop in London
A Novel by Madeline Martin I belong to a reading group near my home away from home in Florida. It’s my first, and quite a delight to be able to share thoughts about books with other people. Most recently, we’ve been reading The Last Bookshop in London, subtitled “A Novel of World War Two” by […]
Le Mot Juste
Stories embody a love of words and ideas. Words are meaning. We use words to convey meaning, in the same was the Bible has God doing so: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The French have a term for the distinctive use of words: […]
John Gardner’s “Grendel”
Where, if anywhere, can we draw a line between good and evil? Where do the ideas for creating art come from? Anywhere and everywhere, I suppose. Sometimes I think they’re like a bullet out of the blue; other times they’re like a flock of birds or a swarm of bees, converging at a point in […]
A Tale of Two Trees
I. Trees and Poesy The tree is one of the most magnificent forms of life on planet earth. In just six couplets, eighty words, the British poet Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918) penned an ode to a tree to take your breath away with its simple beauty. I grew up in the mountain forests of western South […]
Website Design, revisited
I’ve recently been out and among a number of writers, all of whom want to sell more books. To each and all I ask, Do you have a website? Answers range from “I’m working on one” to “No.” We authors all need a website presence, but I contend it must be interesting, innovative and original, […]