I admire authors that keep showing up day after day. It’s often said that writing is lonely work. Perhaps the reason some struggle to write often, though, is because of the many distractions available to us all on a daily basis. I could be playing video games or watching TV right now instead of writing […]
I’ve read before that book collecting and book reading are two separate hobbies. The more I’ve pondered the statement, the more I’ve realized its truth. I am a collector of books for sure; I’m a reader of books also. I’ve spent the last two decades collecting them more quickly than I can read all of […]
Last Friday evening I attended a wonderful event on the campus of Southern Illinois University Carbondale. It was the release of the fall 2025 Grassroots Literary Magazine! Since 2022 I’ve been submitting and being accepted into this college literature magazine. I’m always honored to be a part of it along with the other writers and […]
Banned Books Week for the year of 2025 just ended. I’ve greatly enjoyed some books through the years that have been banned. Reading has been a tremendous love of mine for over 20 years. I am 41 and I’ve been a lover of literature since about age 19. “Fahrenheit 451” was one of the first […]
Happy Sunday! It is the beginning of a new week. My days off from work are usually Sundays and Mondays and I rejoice in my weekends. Today has been a good day so far and I believe tomorrow will also be a good time. Work can bring joy and so can the weekend away from […]
The last week has been full of fun happenings! It was such a great week that I thought it was deserving of its own blog post. I always try to listen for the good and great stuff in my life’s story. So here’s some of what’s happened recently. Last Wednesday I had a reading show […]
Twelve years ago I started this blog. WordPress joyfully reminded me today that it’s been twelve years. A little while back I reached the 200 blog mark. That was 200 times I sat down to write when I could’ve been doing anything else with my time. Honestly, I struggle to set aside time for this […]
Enthusiasm is an excellent traveling companion. I aim to live enthusiastically. What others see as little things or minor happenings might be large deals and major happenings to this fellow. An example is that three of my short fiction stories were published recently in a local university literary magazine. It meant so much to me […]
The author Fredrik Backman is on a book tour currently promoting his latest novel titled “My Friends.” On Friday evening a stop on his tour was the city of St. Louis. Now I’d known of this book tour for months. Actually my girlfriend and I got tickets to this event the day they went on […]
A thing I love about reading and writing is they both help slow things down. Our world is in a hurry often times. It takes time to read a 400 or 800 or 1,200 page novel. It also takes time to write a 4 or 8 or 12 page fiction story. I enjoy slowing down […]
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