I was once embarrassed to admit how much the game of Dungeons & Dragons has influenced my writing. Back in my day, serious writers would never admit to basing their fiction on anything so mundane, so pedestrian, so childish. Serious writers wore jackets with elbow patches, smoked pipes and cigars, and studied Russian and French... Continue Reading →
SEX!!! Everyone loves to think about it, and everyone is afraid to talk about it. So, as Salt-N-Pepa famously put it, "let's talk about sex babeee, let's talk about you and me, let's talk about sex." Sex has been a part of literature since the first cuneiform tablets were baked by the Sumerians, and yet... Continue Reading →
THE BOOK IS DONE!!! Break out the champagne, folks! Cue the fireworks, drop the confetti . . . After three and a half years, I have finally completed (a draft) of my fourth Aenya book, The Magiq of Aenya. OK, to be fair, this celebration comes with a few caveats. First and foremost, the book's... Continue Reading →
The Ilmar (plural) or Ilmarin (singular, descriptive) go by many names: savages, barbarians, wildlings. Given their total lack of clothing and their propensity for living in forests, hills, and river valleys, they are viewed by most other races as a lesser developed human subspecies closer to animals than a civilized people. This view is perpetuated... Continue Reading →
Is Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821—1881) the greatest author of all time? I think the answer to that may quite possibly be yes. It puts you in mind of some frail and sickly girl you sometimes note with pity, even a sort of compassionate love-and at others simply fail to notice at all, who suddenly, in an... Continue Reading →
Hey everyone, I am a bit under the weather today (a phrase coined by sailors forced below deck when falling ill and a term I learned after reading The Wager). So, given my weakened immune system, I am getting straight to the point here. My last review for 2025 is for Stephen King's The Langoliers.... Continue Reading →
Peter Pan made me cry. Ashamed as I am to admit it, JM Barrie's 120-year-old novella, a book intended for well-to-do British kids refusing to go to bed, made this jaded author---who scoffed at the overly saccharine storytelling in The Alchemist--- ball like someone who's never read a sappy story in his life. Mrs. Darling... Continue Reading →
I have this crazy idea. I want to get Stephen King, Carl Sagan, and Lord Dunsany (Edward Plunkett) in a room together ... At first glance, these writers could NOT be further apart in terms of tone and subject matter. One of the books I am reviewing for this post isn't even fiction. But as... Continue Reading →
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption proves why King is a master storyteller. This novella is a masterclass in storytelling technique, demonstrating flawless pacing, excellent use of dialogue, and natural character development. While King can be overly descriptive in his other works, he shows remarkable restraint here, stripping everything from the writing but the bare essentials.... Continue Reading →
I have been at this forever, it seems. I began my storytelling journey 44 years ago, after turning six --- and in 2010, fifteen years ago, I started this blog. My goal was to promote my work, encourage aspiring authors to succeed in this ever-changing literary landscape, and share with readers my love for books... Continue Reading →
The Art of Storytelling 
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