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Rags to Riches, Religiously Speaking
Gerbert’s Book A friend at the time suggested I look up a certain historical figure – one who had a lasting impact on the history of the western world. So I did, surprised to find volumes of information about this man, he now pretty much lost to history. As a boy, Gerbert, this son of…
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Found History and the Complexities of Character
The Third Reich’s Last Eagle One day my dad, who served in the European theater of WWII, handed me a book. “What’s this?” I asked. “Just read it,” he said in his charming way. A man who had been a corporal under dad during the conflict had subsequently gained a commission, had risen to colonel,…
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One Last Shot Across the Bow
I know, I more or less signed off this blog – – and I will continue the odyssey through my writing/publishing career. But One Thing deserves to be said again today. This One Thing has its birth in a latest issue of Publishers Weekly magazine. Although I’ve terminated my publishing arm, I still have a…
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Baseball, Magic, and Insanity
Collateral Damage, and Stories I had a surplus of stories, and after Sam’s Place sold fairly well, I thought to ask Mike Aloisi if he’d like to see another batch. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? Admittedly, he didn’t sound too enthused at the prospect. He’d put out quite a bit of cash on Sam, but…
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My Old Alabama Family Stories
While I was writing those early novels to little acclaim and quite a bit of frustration, I was also writing short stories. I had in the back of my mind a collection of some sort. This was in the “early oughts” of the new century, and I had been a writer-in-residence at NC’s Peace College…
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Searching For The Truth
After my experiences with my first two books, you’d likely understand that I felt my writing skills were buried in my imagination, filed under “wishful thinking.” So I set out to seek the truth in that regard. Another piece of new writing would surely bare that. I decided a short story or essay wasn’t going…
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The Good and the Bad of a First Novel
Ever see those guys in Acapulco swan into a dive from the cliffs, disappearing in a bloop 135 feet below? Ever considered trying it yourself? That’s a bit like taking on writing a novel. Of course, you don’t know that until you’re 100 pages in and all balled up in character conflicts and subplots. That’s…
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Nothing Like Starting Over
I hesitate to write that I’m done. Age is creeping by at something more than a turtle’s pace, and I’ve long since seen youth disappear in my rear view mirror. I’m currently engaged in moving back to North Carolina and entering a retirement community. That’s the modern euphemism for what was once called an “old…
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Holding Onto What is Precious
This morning after a leisurely Sunday breakfast I settled into a podcast during which two men whose opinions I don’t always give two-thumbs-up to, but whom I find I have respect enough to consider, were talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They weren’t taking sides, nor am I in this writing, Their consensus was that from…