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As many of the readers of Dark River know, that book is the first of a series of five novels. The second, Burning Buddha, has been occupying me for well over a year now. And it is dreadfully behind the schedule I had set for myself. I originally planned to finish Burning Buddha in a year. Writing Dark River took me nine months of concerted effort, so a year seemed like a reasonable time frame…
Twenty years ago, I would have been spending today behind the wheel of a car wending its way across the Alleghenies, driving my wife and children to spend Christmas at my parents’ house. As day gave way to night, the kids would marvel over the appearance of houses dressed in their twinkling Christmas best, sudden oases of light in the dark mountains. They would ooh and ah and excitedly discuss the finer points of architectural…
Short answer: I dunno. When my editor and I sat down to figure out under which categories DARK RIVER should be listed, it was a confusing and frustrating conversation. The novel simply doesn’t settle gently into any single category. Is it fantasy? Well, yes, I suppose. Only there are no elves or orcs, no rings of fire or swords of destiny. Just people, who on the surface, are living their everyday lives in contemporary America.…
1. Always err on the side of compassion. 2. The only meaning to life is what we give it, and even that is an illusion. 3. Conflict is inevitable but winning is impossible. 4. Everything, from rocks to stars, speaks. Unless you listen, you will never know what is important. 5. Absence is as important as presence. The most beautiful symphony is only noise without the silence between the notes. 6. The universe is cyclical.…
“Jesus Christ, now what?” Terry Gray said to nobody, as the police cruiser crested the hill and nearly ran into an old man standing on the right tire track. Gray slammed on the brakes and put the car in park. Not like the old guy couldn’t have heard him, the damn ball joints had rattled their entire way up the dirt road. The old man just stood there, staring at Gray and the cruiser like…
Tanya Ito dropped her go bag next to the woman. She was lying on the ground on her side, a broken branch protruding from her right abdomen. Tanya’s flashlight flicked over the area. There was blood, though not much, on her shirt, none on the ground. Most of the bleeding was going to be internal, Tanya thought. Tanya had noticed the crash only by sheer luck. She was on her way back from harvesting some…
I recently finished my first novel, a part-time return to the career as a journalist and writer I left nearly 30 years ago. The past eight months have been some of the most incredible that I have experienced. Here’s what you want to know about it. What kind of novel is it? It’s a combination of mystery/suspense and fantasy, the two genres I’ve read and enjoyed most over the years. Written in the first person,…
Over the years, I’ve borne willingly the laughter of many people over my interest in Esperanto. Usually it is some variation of “Who speaks *that*?” spoken a little condescendingly, referring to either the type of person who speaks it or the number of people who speak it. I don’t know how many people speak Esperanto. Nobody does. A good guess? Two million. Will it ever be a dominant language on this planet? Doubtful. But that’s…
Yesterday I taught aikido class, and I found myself using language not frequently heard in a martial arts studio. As I was teaching the techniques, I was saying things like “welcome your attacker with open arms,” and “your attacker is your friend, here. Keep him close.” Aikido translates to “The Way of Harmony,” or “The Way of Peace,” but that, in turn, does not translate into “turn the other cheek,” as we in Western cultures…
All in all, it was a difficult week, from the remarkably painful Kavanaugh hearings to my participation in many discussions on the issues, and being surprised all over again by the thoughtlessness, hate, greed and bigotry of my fellow Americans. It was worse for some I know, who relived their own sexual abuse through the story of Dr. Blasey Ford, and were stunned, as we all were, by the complete callousness of those to whom…