Going to sea, or at least paddling around on Jordan Lake, has long been a good problem-solver for me.  As I've often written about here, a major turning point in my writing occurred on board the Queen Elizabeth 2 about 15 years ago.  It led to the revision and quick sale of my long-in-progress novel […] Read More

Cruising out of New York Harbor is a stirring moment: a good breeze blowing, Frank Sinatra singing "New York, New York," helicopters and planes in the air, ships coming and going, small boats darting, in one glimpse the shoreline skylines of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, then the big green Statue of Liberty in bronzing sunset […] Read More

[youtube /heb8rlubYeM] I'm setting out in a few days to cross the water on the Queen Mary 2, an adventure very exciting and not at all bold.   I'm expecting the easiest imaginable travel, the deep blue swells of the North Atlantic rolling slowly past down below my deck chair.  I sailed like this once before many years […] Read More

Two people have asked Amazon for refunds for their cheap digital copies of my novel Revelation. Damn! And it's words like that that are likely the reason. This book has a minister for a main character and a church steeple on the cover.  It probably gives some readers the idea that the story is going […] Read More

Just learned of Faithful America and hit Like, and I'm delighted to find this force for good:  (The slogan is:  "We are all in this together.  Our faith compels us to act.  End poverty.  Restore community. Uphold the common good.")  Of course, my first move on finding the website was to comment there on the […] Read More

When she was younger, she was "too prissy to be athletic."  Ernestine Shepherd started body-building at 71.  At 75, she's still at it and she's teaching others at her Methodist church.  "This is my ministry," she says on a BBC tape, (drawn to my attention by Alias Reader on Goodreads.com.)  Now Ms. Shepherd leads classes  at church […] Read More

First I saw that my novel Revelation was listed as #1 on Amazon.  I didn't take this too seriously because it's three-quarters the way through its one-day free Kindle copy give-away.  (Reader, you can get your own free copy until around midnight Pacific time today Sunday June 10, if I understand correctly.) Then I noted […] Read More

The air is full of tributes today to witer Ray Bradbury who died at 91.  He deserves them.  He was an exceptionally-alive guy.  In fact I ran across one protest on Facebook from a writer who said that Bradbury had just Friended her.  So apparently he was active and up-to-date to the end. I met him […] Read More

  From the Submissions guidelines page of an admirable small press called Tyrant Books:   "Submissions are so fucking closed you have no idea." Read More

Browsing a blog by literary agent Dana Newman, I found this unnerving picture and caption:  "My daughter rappelling down a slot canyon in Utah, during a trip her 7th grade class took with the National Outdoor Leadership School last week. She’s so much braver than me!" (I think mother and daughter are both seriously gutsy.) Read More