Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger. 249 pages. Sentinel. One of the distinct pleasures of teaching at a university is having immediate access to a library that holds a million books. Well, maybe not a million, but a bunch. More than I could ever read. And while waiting for … More Review: “Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates” by Kilmeade and Yaeger
The Last Apostle by Dennis Brooke. 366 pages. Made for Grace Publishing. I have to start off by saying that I waited for a day before I wrote this review, mainly because I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, when I read a guest blog by the author with his storyline, I … More Review: “The Last Apostle” by Dennis Brooke
Rewinder (Rewinder Series) by Brent Battles. 260 pages. 47North. It’s been a while since I’ve found a book that kept my interest so much that I read it from start to finish in essentially one sitting. This is one of them. What’s even better is that it’s a time travel book, a genre that offers … More Review: “Rewinder” by Brent Battles
I watched an interview with Octavia Spencer on Late Night with Steven Colbert a couple of nights ago. She plays the leader of the Amity faction in the new film Allegiant, the last segment in the Divergent series. Colbert asked her about her many acting roles over the years and the number of times she … More One of a Kind
“This is the place,” Irene said. She set down the basket heavily in front of me. “Are you sure?” I said, looking around us. The wide riverbed spread out in front of us, large round river stones scattered like so many baby skulls tossed around by some careless giant to bleach white in the hot Texas sun. … More “Crossing the River”
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King. Scribner Books. 288 pages. To be totally honest, this is the third time that I have read this book. But there’s a very good reason why I’ve chosen to use this as one of the textbooks in my Narrative Writing class, even though some of … More Review: “On Writing” by Stephen King
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“Well, I’m a steamroller, baby, I’m gonna roll all over you…” –James Taylor I tell people that I got the nickname “steamroller” when I was in my graduate studies, but the truth is that I gave myself the title after listening to Mr. Taylor sing his song time and again. The title fit though. I was … More Sometimes You Have To Be a Steamroller
“I hate writing, I love having written.” –Dorothy Parker It’s been crunch time for me, well, for probably most of the semester. For some odd reason the onslaught doesn’t seem to let up. And when real life responsibilities seem to get overwhelming, I start dreaming about writing. I long to be working on a novel, … More Being, Doing, or Having Done? What’s Your Writing Motivation?
One of the things that totally boggled the mind of my darling wife when we came to Texas 18 years ago was that professors (my new profession) weren’t given any instruction in teaching. In fact, in the years that I have been in front of the classroom, I can count on one hand the number … More So Easy, Anyone Can Do It.
