I am going to try and keep this short and to the point, so forgive my rant, but I am furious at the moment because Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Amazon have all pretty much shat over my name. By mere association, my work of twenty years has been chucked into the junk bin of... Continue Reading →
"The book was better" always gets thrown around when readers compare a movie to its novel counterpart. And I admit that, with few exceptions, the novel version is superior. The reasons for this are many. Transitioning a story from one medium to another is often like translating a pun into another language. What works in... Continue Reading →
I finally got around to reading one of this generation's most beloved and successful fantasy authors: Brandon Sanderson. Is the guy all he's cracked up to be, at least judging by his debut novel, Mistborn? While I found much of the book a bit too formulaic for my tastes—we are treated, yet again, to another... Continue Reading →
R.F. Kuang's The Poppy War starts as a typical coming-of-age fantasy about a girl from humble beginnings who discovers she has special powers. Despite a cliched beginning, the first chapter had me hooked, as it's probably the best bit of writing in the novel --- not surprising given the knock-them-dead-from-page-one nature of publishing today. The... Continue Reading →
Everything old is new again! Nostalgia sells, and like any good business, Hollywood is banking on your childhood like never before. Instead of the innovative storytelling we grew up with in the '80s, we are inundated with sequels, prequels, remakes, and reboots. Disney gave us new Star Wars, Amazon's Rings of Power brought us back... Continue Reading →
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (what a name!) centers around an apocalyptic, end-of-the-world scenario involving a super-flu that wipes out most of humanity. It's a more concise and grounded version of Stephen King's The Stand, and was of particular interest to me given our post-COVID world. Mandel weaves a complex narrative with multiple... Continue Reading →
After ninety years on this Earth, my father passed away in March of this year. Here, I share the remarkable life of Arthur Alimonos as he tells it, beginning in 1933 in the little-known village of Magoula, Greece. Having lost his father to tuberculosis at age five, Arthur struggled to survive in a family of... Continue Reading →
Ο μπαμπάς δεν είναι εδώ. Η μητέρα μου ήρθε με αυτή τη γραμμή καθώς φτάσαμε. Ο μπαμπάς δεν είναι εδώ, μπήκε καθώς περπατούσαμε στο διώροφο όπου ζούσε ακόμα με τον πατέρα μου πριν από μια εβδομάδα. Τον είδα στο φέρετρό του στην κηδεία, περιτριγυρισμένο από τις επιχρυσωμένες εικόνες των Ορθοδόξων Αγίων, αλλά καθώς πλησίαζα το άκαμπτο... Continue Reading →
Dad's not here. My mother came up with that line as we arrived. Dad's not here, she intoned as we walked into the duplex where she'd still lived with my father a week ago. I saw him in his casket at the funeral, surrounded by the gilded icons of the Orthodox Saints, but as I... Continue Reading →
The Art of Storytelling 
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