The Doubting Writer Blog
Slow starts
True confession time: My wife and I haven’t been current with a TV show since about the time Seinfeld went off the air twenty years ago. Up until then, the Magpie (and then the Catbird) was small enough to go
Airing it Out
One of the things I was very fortunate to do whilst on my blogging break was take an actual vacation, not just a vacation from the blog. My wife and I went to Las Vegas for a week, and stayed
And back again.
Hello, all! It’s hard to believe it’s been over a month since I decided to take my break. I hope things have been well for all of you. They’ve been pretty good for me on the overall, though April in
Time for…
Yesterday morning, I spent a couple of hours drafting a couple of ideas for a post to run today. They weren’t quite complete posts, though, because they never are. Even when I really, really work at pre-writing a post, when
Reading List, 2018 (Part I)
Howdy, folks. Can’t believe we’re already in the fourth month of 2018–time is flying! So, here’s the list of what I’ve read so far: The Education of Dixie Dupree (2016), Donna Everhart. I feel like I know Donna from around
Fire forged
In one of my manuscripts, an unlikely hero steps up in a critical moment and saves his small town from sliding into chaos. Initially, he shrugs it off, telling another character, “Someone had to do something.” Later, in a moment
Random Thoughts
It’s been a tough week, capped off by the long drive to get the Catbird back to school from spring break. Here are some random thoughts: *Defenestrate is a great word, but, boy is it hard to work into everyday
Another day…
…another winter weather advisory. Roughly a third of the snow that has fallen on my corner of the world has come down since March 1, according to the National Weather Service. It feels like this has been the case for
In search of judgment
The greatest gift for every writer is judgment–Obari Gumba Back in December, Agent Carrie and I had our annual strategy session, where we set the course for the upcoming year. One of the things Carrie wanted me to do, once
Hello, Square One
Oh, hello, Square One, I…wasn’t expecting to see you here. How are you? It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Four years? Really, that long? Time flies, huh? Sorry I haven’t kept in touch, you know how it is. Well. I’d
We’ve been here before
Recommended reading if you haven’t already run across it on Facebook or elsewhere: Fuck you, I like guns. I may have said this before, after some other school shooting, or a mass murder in a gay nightclub, or a massacre
One of the big problems with this country, summed up in a single sentence
According to a story on CNN’s website this weekend, during a 2006 meeting with employees angered over a new rule that would force them to share tips with their supervisors, casino mogul Steve Wynn said this in response to a
Musical Monday: Jackie Wilson said what?
It’s a Monday, there’s something like eight inches of snow on the ground (despite the forecast that told us we’d have half that, at most), and I’m kind of tired and achy, hoping it’s not something coming on. So, we’ll
Thoughts on Sleeping Beauties, Part I
A couple of weeks back, I wrote about the Netflix series, Godless, a good show on many levels but one that fell far short on living up to the promise of its preview, which looked to be a lot more
Thoughts on ‘Summit Fever’
Last week over at Writer Unboxed, Annie Neugebauer wrote about the perils of ‘Summit Fever,’ a condition in which mountaineers allow the desire to reach their goal–the top of the mountain–to supercede good judgement in getting there (and back down
Godless: Opportunity Missed
A couple of months ago, The Wife made me and The Magpie watch a trailer for a new Netflix show that was soon to be airing. Pretend for a moment you have neither heard about nor seen trailer or the
Weekend Update: (Temporary) End of the Cold edition
Greetings, all. Woke up this day to a welcome sight: the mercury in our outdoor thermometer was above zero, which it hasn’t been before sunrise in close to a week. Not that you can feel it, mind you; took the
New Year and Old Business (Reading List, Part IV)
Well, good morning, and welcome to 2018, I hope it’s a good one for you. Thank you to all of you who come by and spend a few minutes every week with me, and especially those of you who regularly
Another lightweight post
“Gonna take two weeks, gonna have a vacation”–Summertime Blues, Eddie Cochran, Jerry Capehart Last night, in the final hour or so before I went to bed, I was writing today’s post in my head, a non-review review of Sleeping Beauties,
Weekend Update: Post-travel edition
This past weekend saw us travel for a funeral. On our return trip, we got hung up in the snow that came up the coast, which added an extra two hours–and an untold level of stress–to the drive. The weather
The struggle to keep current
In the Netflix comedy series, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Ellie Kemper plays Kimmy, a 29-year-old woman who spent literally half of her life imprisoned in an underground bunker with three other women, and the doomsday cultist who kidnapped her when she
Back to normal…for now
We have a saying around my office to describe those draggy, low-energy days that happen from time to time: “Feels like the day after a board meeting.” That’s because our board meetings take place in the evening, they run typically
Semi-random thoughts in advance of Thanksgiving
I’m in vacation mode, so if my thoughts are more scattered than normal, you’ll know why! Having found myself needing to use approximately 8 days of vacation time before the end of the year, I decided to take the first
Delayed Reaction
On the afternoon of Sunday, May 4, 1974 the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers squared off for game six of the Stanley Cup Final. For the Bruins, a win was needed to send the series back to Boston for
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