Tag Archives: Writing

Book Review: Somewhere Towards the End: A Memoir by Diana Athill

I decided to read this memoir because I am getting old. In a couple of years I’ll reach seventy. Although I can still walk miles a day and do my customary pull-ups, pushups, and power yoga when I exercise, my … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews, On Writing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders

This is a fun book to read. Award-winning writer George Saunders has spent decades teaching Russian short stories in his writing classes, and in this volume he chooses several of his favorite stories and expounds upon them at length. In … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews, On Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Value of Awards

This is a complex subject, but it has been occupying my mind a lot in the last couple of days, so I want to take a stab at it. Every year I read the finalists for a certain literary award … Continue reading

Posted in On Writing, Reading | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck by William Sounder

Before I start this review, I have to get something off my chest, because it rankles every time I see it. I can’t understand why the author of this biography titled it “A” life of John Steinbeck instead of “The” … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Writer’s Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager

From the descriptive material announcing this book, I thought it would be different than it is. I imagined each author elaborating on one book that changed their life. I supposed I would read in-depth evaluations of particular books that would … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

What My Blog Means to Me

Recently someone close to me suggested that I should revamp my website/blog. It was too cluttered, they said. It needed to be streamlined, more professional in appearance, and more intense in focus. I thought long and hard about the suggestions … Continue reading

Posted in On Writing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Senescent Nomad Seeks a Home

My new novel The Senescent Nomad Seeks a Home was published on December 25, 2020 (Merry Christmas) and is now available in both paperback and digital formats at the links below. It is a sequel to my novel The Senescent … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

What a Long Strange Year It’s Been

I had an internal debate about whether to write this essay because compared to other years nothing happened. That’s not exactly true, of course, but what happened was mainly restricted to the confines of our apartment, and my interactions were … Continue reading

Posted in On Writing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Avoiding Discouragement During the Pandemic

I am deep into writing a story that is sprouting into a novel, and so I hesitate before devoting my writing time to this instead of that. However, I rationalize the side trip by contemplating that if I help only … Continue reading

Posted in On Writing, Reading | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Difference Between an Author and a Writer

Before I embarked upon my detailed explanation I wanted to be sure that I had my terms right, so I looked them up in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. According to the primary definitions in this source, an author is “the … Continue reading

Posted in On Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments