RAZORED ZEN

A friend of mine by the name of Jack Stocker has died. He passed away this morning after having a massive stroke on Monday. He was 85, and...

Sometimes I guess there’s no pleasing me. Back earlier in the year I posted about gratuitous violence and singled out the Edge Western Seri...

For quite a few years I’d been keeping an eye open for a book called Five-Yard Fuller , which I probably last read when I was around 10. I ...

Beginnings are exciting. Moving to a new home. Launching a new career. The first weeks or months of a new relationship. (In many ways, m...

I finally got around to watching Taken tonight and I really enjoyed it. I’d call it the feel good movie of the year. The story is about a...

Despite the brutal heat here in southern Louisiana in June, I’ve been getting out occasionally in the late evening for short walks. And it ...

G., over at Cedar’s Mountain has a review of the second Talera Novel, Wings Over Talera . He is apparently an extremely discerning fellow,...

My post today was triggered by something I read over at Writtenwyrd’s blog. Particularly, she posted Lawrence Watt-Evan's “Laws of Fan...

Are you ready for this? Tell me what you think. The writing book that I’m very slowly making my way through just gave me another gem. The ...

Well, sorry I didn’t get around to anyone’s blogs yesterday, and only to a few today. My writing discipline mostly fell apart on Saturday a...

I admire those who can work on multiple fiction projects at the same time. I’ve discovered, once again, that it’s virtually impossible for ...

Randy tagged me. Thank goodness because I wanted to play. It looks kind of fun. So here goes. ===== Four Movies You Can See Over and Ove...

“Before you enter the writing each day, you may want to take a long drink of water or a walk around the block. Do something to let you sink...

If you don't like the way I'm livin', You just leave this long-haired country boy alone. --Charlie Daniels “Mommy, why does that...

Well, I’ve finished the entire seven book Harry Potter series now. I’m sorry that it’s over. I have to give J. K. Rowling high marks, both...

Ever hear a piece of advice that sounds great at first hearing but starts to look pretty lame when you begin to dissect it? I found just su...

The American gothic movement is often said to have begun with the book Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown, which was published in 1798 and w...

I haven’t worn my boots much lately. And when I slipped them on yesterday my foot discovered what felt like a pile of dirt and pebbles in t...

“A sunfish, in one spangled moment Beating with Light the throttling air” Loren Eiseley “…man has gotten lost in a desert of terrible fr...

Well not every one of my posts these days will be experimental stuff. Tonight’s is an update on what I’ve been doing in the reading and wri...

The ceremony was brief. Darkness never looked so lovely. She swept down the aisle in her velvet gown with the twinkles of stars sewn into ...

The wind purrs through the trees. A crow caws at a distance. A cardinal darts for a feeder in the yard, its wings not quiet silent. On th...

It’s been said that creativity is not about seeing the world; it’s about seeing the world in a way no one else does. I first heard that say...

We’re backkkk! As you can see, I caught at least one monster bass! The pictured fish, of course, is the minnow that I used to catch the mo...

Well, we're leaving on Tuesday for vacation and won't be back until the end of next weekend. Since we'll be in the wilds I won...

“Heat beat down on my shoulders, my face cloth. My armor dragged at the riding sores underneath. Little sparkles danced behind my eyelids,...

I’ve mentioned before that I seldom have truly scary dreams. There are a lot of monsters in my dreams, vampires, devils, psychopathic kille...

Well, the good news is that I've turned in all my grades, except for 2 students who didn't show up for the final test and who I'...

Well, the first thing I’ve been doing to shake myself up a bit is read things I don’t normally read. To that end, I’ve finished the first t...

Do you ever feel the need to shake things up? To shake yourself up? I've been feeling a bit that way lately. It's not boredom. I...

I’m back for the weekend. I’ll be making the blog rounds today. Then the grading starts again on Monday. We’re nearing the end, though. ...

Some of you are faculty type folks, or have been, and know the kinds of things a college teacher does on a day to day basis, but even among ...

OK, I’ve been getting an education since I posted my “Ich bin ein Trekker” piece. I knew there was fan fiction out there, and that there wa...

I forgot to mention that the Book Roast is going on all this week. That means a chance to win free books, as well as have some fun answeri...

"Trekker!" That's Trekkie to some. Star Trek , with the original crew, remains one of the very few--perhaps only--TV show th...

I watched a couple of movies this weekend while off for Easter: Lakeview Terrace and Quarantine. Both were sadly flawed. Lakeview Terrace...

First, I'm sorry I haven't been around visiting blogs much this week. Besides feeling a bit down, I got the rough drafts from my wr...

Robert E. Howard fandom has lost two tireless supporters of late. And I’ve lost two friends. First, Steve Tompkins died March 23rd, althou...

I haven't talked about my Writing in Psychology class as much as I thought I might this spring, but I just gave my class an assignment t...

One book I picked up at garage sale day was The Colorado Kid by Stephen King. I can’t say I’m enjoying it much so far. I’m about 40 pages...