O! Tannenbaum

So, who does it? If you put up a Christmas tree in your house, who gets the job of putting the lights on it? Growing up, it was always my father. Now, it’s mine. Every year I swear that this is the worst job I’ve ever done on the lights. Ever. Seriously, I think this […]

Feel Good Friday, a Pseudo-Blog Hop

When I got my MS back from an excellent reader, I scanned the pages looking for red ink, exhilarated and terrified at the same time. I tingled when I saw positives like “Great imagery!” “Hah, that’s great” or “I like how you…” I cringed at the negatives, but it was more reflexive than anything. In […]

Musical Monday: In Dreams

Something frequently listed on Absolute Write as a moment that ‘makes you want to throw the book against the wall’ is the dream sequence. You know, where Our Hero has a dream of such clarity and significance that he wakes up with a perfect understanding of his problem. “Rubbish!” says the reader – or, at […]

Happy Anniversary to Me!

Eight years ago, my family and I movedto our current abode here in the frequently-frozen hills of central New York. A couple-three weeks (as they say up here) after that we had a chimney sweep come in. We wanted to use the fireplace (it was March, and still cold), but had no idea how long […]

Movies to Books

As a kid, I didn’t realize that many – maybe even most – movies were adapted from books. The first time I really became aware of this was around the time I was ten, and saw the movie, Jaws. We saw it in the theaters. After seeing the action-packed, tension-filled production of Jaws on the […]

Thanksgiving Leftovers, and Some Fresh Meat

First, the leftover thoughts from last week: Why do dogs love turkey so much? We left the turkey on the stove on Saturday night, to be picked at. My dog parked herself in the kitchen and barked at it, one bark every 5 or 10 seconds, until we kicked her out of the room. Thanks […]

Women and Men

First, some music, just because I like the song, and we haven’t heard from They Might Be Giants in this space for a while (Short video, 1:47): In early October my wife and I had the pleasure of playing host/tour guide for a gentleman who was in from out of town. How this came about […]

Monday Fluff Post: Suspension of What?

A few weeks back, we had a conversation at the dinner table about…something, I don’t really remember what it was. Books, movies, maybe something else, I don’t really remember. What I do remember is I reached for a phrase, one that the writers among my readers are probably familiar with (and maybe everyone, I’m not […]

Back on Track?

Last week was a tough one. If you read – or, rather, viewed – Friday’s post, you get the idea of what I was up against. It was a trying week on several levels. First, my NaNoWriMo and my NaNoReviMo turned into NaNoNo-Mo. Hence, the brick wall. The WriMo was understandable. I had written two […]

This pretty much sums it up.