Swords, Specters, & Stuff
Welcome to My World
I started this blog in January 2012 for one simple reason: I love to write. I named it “Swords, Specters, & Stuff” because I especially love to write about writing, about books and movies in my favorite genres, about authors that mean a great deal to me. But there’s more to it than that, which is why I included “Stuff” in the title. It is “Stuff” that gives me carte blanche to write about anything, which is why you’ll see stories about special trips to Cooperstown, Sedona, and other places; about getting older; about baseball; about the otherworldly way in which I met my soul mate; about the loss of good friends, and so much more. Enjoy! And feel free to leave a comment.
Myths And Legends: Robert The Doll
Few folks know that Chucky had a real-life role model called Robert the Doll. Chucky, of course, is the murdering Good Guy doll—possessed via voodoo by the spirit of serial killer Charles Lee Ray—who “stars” in the Child’s Play franchise, at last count six...
Dusty Is Gone
A STAR STOPS SHINING I’m sure everyone knows by now that Philip Seymour Hoffman passed away last weekend at the heartbreakingly young age of forty-six. Still, I had to acknowledge his passing, as he has long been one of my favorites. He gave life and emotion to every...
Wolf Spirits In The Old ’Hood
I grew up in The Bronx, New York City’s northernmost borough, before leaving it for good in 1967 after graduating college. For the first fourteen years I lived in the South Bronx, until urban decay began to set in, sending my family to a nicer part of town. Through...
Read & Critique: Hazardous To Your Health?
From the early ’90s to the mid-2000s I facilitated numerous read & critique workshops in my home. At its height I led three of them every week, in addition to the gazillion other things I did to earn a living. As you can imagine, working closely with so many...
Myths And Legends: The Iowa Murder House
In June of 1912, barely two months after the sinking of the Titanic, an unspeakable tragedy in the most unlikely of places took over the headlines for a time. The heinous crime that occurred in Villisca, Iowa was neither myth nor legend; that came afterward—and it...
Fair Or Fowl: A Chicken Tale
This story is about the best day ever for a first-time published author: me. Naturally it took place a long, long time ago: 1978, to be exact. My sword & planet novel, The Prisoner of Reglathium (first in the five-book Dannus series), had just come out. I had an...
“I’m Still Here, Chief”
That line comes from my second-favorite movie of all time, Frequency. Released in 2000, this fantasy/baseball/serial killer/father & son relationship flick, starring Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel, has just about everything I could want in a story. But for my wife...
Ring In 2014 With A Killer Margarita
I’ve had the great pleasure of working with author Michele Scott for about a decade. Besides our work together we are great friends—she calls me her second dad, and having met her father prior to his passing, I consider that an honor. Michele was an unpublished,...
Guilty Pleasures: Lake Placid
Lest anyone think that this 1999 horror/comedy flick takes itself too seriously, they need only consider one of my favorite lines about halfway through. The hilarious Betty White plays old Delores Bickerman, who is spotted happily feeding one of her cows to a...
Opening Lines: Part Trois
I suppose I’m fascinated, if not obsessed, with the bad opening lines that have been submitted to the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest over the past thirty years. What the heck, they are so entertaining. Here are some more award-winning gems from the past. Enjoy! His...
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