RAZORED ZEN

Well, I’m officially silly. I’ve been striving for this recognition for quite some time, and although I was recognized for my silliness by ...

Just out is Dissecting Hannibal Lecter , a collection of essays on the work of Thomas Harris. It’s edited by Benjamin Szumskyj, with a for...

I’m working on a horror story at the moment, and I’m struggling. Oh, the plot is there. And the characters. I know what is happening and ...

Friends of mine, James Reasoner and his family, lost all their belongings yesterday in a wildfire that raced through their little piece of T...

Some of you might know that I'm an Assistant Editor for The Dark Man (TDM), the Journal of Robert E. Howard studies. Since I'm sti...

Feeling pretty swamped at the moment so I thought I would run the first in a series of pictures of my bookshelves and books. There are many...

I thought I might review a few books that have to do with writing. Hope you don’t mind some strong opinions. Ray Bradbury: Zen in the Ar...

Joe Ricks, a friend of mine and another faculty member at Xavier, and I were talking yesterday about a phenomenon he calls “Need for Cogniti...

CS Harris over on her blog has a lot more on the topic of brancing. CS (Candice) is also in my writing group and it was she who brought th...

My writing group talked last night about "branding" for authors. No, this isn't a roundup of recalcitrant writers to be marke...

Bobbie Fischer’s death started me thinking about the use of chess in fiction. One of my favorite anthologies of all time is Pawn to Infinit...

I must interrupt my regularly scheduled blogging to announce that Bobby Fischer has died at age 64 in Iceland, apparently of kidney failure,...

The January Illuminata is up with a longish, somewhat technical, piece from me called “A Grammar Primer.” (It’s the January 08 issue.) Th...

Well, there were five folks in the audience for my talk. One of them was Lana. Nevertheless, I thought it went pretty well. Everyone seem...

My post today is just a referral to Moonrat's incredible post on the issue of publishing "rights." Moonrat is an editor and ...

Since I’m getting ready for another presentation I thought I might post again on public speaking. I talked about it several times last year...

Being lazy and very busy, I steal my post today from the: ST. TAMMANY PARISH LIBRARY NEWS RELEASE. Below is quoted from their promotional ...

Back in traffic today. Back driving across the 24 mile Causeway Bridge with the sun just coming up pink over the lake. Back dealing with s...

Mostly an update today. I’ve been working on getting ready for school, and found out yesterday that a textbook I was going to use for a cla...

A book was delivered to my door today. That’s not an unusual occurrence. But this one I didn’t pay for. That’s a bit more unusual. Micha...

Sorry I didn't get around to anyone's blog yesterday. I spent most of the day on the couch watching football. Unfortunately, there...

Well I received a nice bit of recognition over on The Rising Blogger . My post "A Dream of Fire" was named "Post of the Day....

Yesterday I posted some rejections from my past. Today I have current news. Dreams and Nightmares accepted a poem from me called "B...

I was converting some old REHupa (Robert E. Howard United Press Association) files into new Word and found some commentary that brought back...

Sometimes in my dreams I’m myself or some variant of myself. And whatever happens to that character is happening to me. Sometimes, though,...

Lana and I took a midnight walk last night under the full moon at the Flatwoods Preserve. It was light enough to see colors up close, but a...

I hear it often from writers and editors. A genre has to evolve. I have to ask why? First, evolution is a poor analogy for literature. Th...

Both the Church Lady and Shauna Roberts have nominated me for A Roar for Powerful Words! and I am grateful and very much appreciative of t...

For those of you who have some familiarity with Heroic Fantasy (Sword & Sorcery and Sword & Planet), have you ever noticed how many ...

As a supporter of all things “Sword and Planet,” or “Interplanetary Romance,” if you prefer, I must refer you to the The Perils on Planet X ...

I just finished reading Mrs. Frisby and the rats of NIMH and greatly enjoyed it. The book ends with some of the rats having escaped into a...

I’ve been tagged by Danette to name five random things about myself. In keeping with my general policy, I will obey the commands of the t...

I just gave my final, final exam this morning at 8:00, and now the grading begins. Why am I taking the time to blog then some of you may wo...

Oh, those pesky vampires. Blood suckers extraordinaire. The first vampires in literature were evil. But over time vampires took on more an...

I was glancing out the front window a moment ago when I saw a tiny cloud of pale objects come floating to earth in our driveway. A few of t...

The "Green Thing" in the previous picture is a young pine tree, but I'm not sure of what subspecies. It really looks like a p...

I'm off school today. No grading to do right at the moment. Washing a load of clothes and cleaning up around the house a bit today, an...

One reason why I find it more difficult to write poetry these days has to do with my inner emotional state. The problem is that I’m basical...

I’ve been working with poetry for the last two days. When I’m away from it for a while I always forget how hard it is, how frustrating. It...

Sorry I haven’t posted much lately. I’m gearing up for final classes and final exams, and haven’t been feeling very well on top of that. M...