The Doubting Writer Blog
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
Extra Time!
I’m a little toasted around the edges this morning, due to the bending of space and time that is otherwise known as ‘Daylight Saving Time ends.’ It’s funny, everyone always talks about how you get an extra hour of sleep,
Stranger Things 2: That’s a Relief!
Last week saw the much-hyped and long-awaited return of last year’s surprise Netflix hit, Stranger Things. A critical success that was also insanely popular, the show is a sci-fi thriller centered on three nerdy, on-the-cusp-of-adolescence boys who are searching for
The Lure of the Shiny
The good news? This isn’t a post about politics, or Harvey Weinstein, or anything really unpleasant. The bad news? I don’t know. Maybe it’s not bad news at all. In fact, there really isn’t much news at all. Saturday was
And Here We Are Again
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A man holds a position of great power and influence. He’s at the top of his field, the top of his company. He rubs shoulders with the rich and famous and influential.
Sorry to see you go, Tom
I don’t remember exactly when I first heard Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. I do remember back in junior high school, having an acquaintance who was fast on the way to becoming one of my closest friends talking Petty up
The Reading List, 2017 (Part III)
Amazing that we’re into October already, isn’t it? Here’s the list of books read and completed between July and now–have you read any of them? The Good Life (2006), Jay McInerney. Unintentional re-read. I did not like it nearly as
Goldenrod and cross-promotion
I’m going soft today. I’m been working up to something bigger,something more outraged, as the result of yet another maddening meme I saw on Facebook this weekend, but I’m not quite ready to go there and I don’t want to
An Interview with Nick Wilford
Good morning, all. Today is an auspicious day. Not only is it my wedding anniversary (yay!), it’s also the launch day for Nick Wilford’s newest novel, Black & White. Nick has been a long-time friend of the blog, and his
Swapped!
Some time in the middle of last week, while tooling around the Internet, I came across an interesting tidbit. Lord of the Flies was getting a remake. William Golding’s classic 1954 novel about schoolboys marooned on a Pacific island had
Weekend Update: Summer’s (near) end edition
Well, we’ve hit the penultimate weekend of ‘official’ summer and already we’re seeing the signs of the winding down of the season: one of the big baseball camps in the area is already empty, already moving in the bulldozers and
Celestial Events and other things
Semi-random postings for this ecliptic day. * As you may or may not know, I write a monthly column for one of our local papers. This month’s column is on eclipses. Take a read! * That column is not exactly
Short thoughts on Charlottesville
I had two uncles who served in the Navy in World War II. Another flew a P-38 with the 8th Air Force out of southern Italy. Three of my friends had fathers who helped liberate Europe. Two of them swept
From the Department of “NOW I’ve Seen Everything”
Okay, first off, I’m going to admit that this is a blatant ‘filler post’ that has nothing to do with writing. The fact is, once again I was unprepared this morning, then got home late, had a late dinner, so
Writing and…Cold Cuts?
Last week, we picked up some cold cuts at the deli counter at the supermarket. Ham. Turkey breast. A little Swiss cheese. Tasty stuff. The ham was perfect, thin sheets you could almost see through. The turkey, the same, at
“The Doctor is a–“
In 1974, Mel Brooks released Blazing Saddles, which is at once a brilliant and intelligent satire of racism and a typical, infantile Brooks film. In the movie, the Attorney General of some unknown state tries to force the residents of
Put a Bow on it
Yesterday (Sunday, the 16th), at pretty much high noon, I pushed back from the computer, the final chords of the Grateful Dead’s spirited-but-sloppy “Scarlet Begonias” first set closer from July 16, 1976 still ringing in my ears, and said, “Finished.”
Subscribe for Updates
For announcements, alerts and special offers, subscribe to our emails. Please note, you will have to confirm your subscription through an email to the address you provide.
Jeff O'Handley ©2025 - All Rights Reserved.