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.
The Man-Eaters Of Tsavo
Over a century ago a British engineer, Col. John Patterson, wrote a book titled, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures. A considerable portion of the book details his experiences in dealing with attacks by two enormous, man-eating lions that terrorized the builders of the Uganda Railway in and around the Kenya village of Tsavo. Patterson’s courage in the face of imminent death—by some accounts, the lions killed upward of 130 people during their nine-month reign of terror—makes for a fascinating read.
Myths And Legends: The Modoc Tale Of Bat
The Modoc People, like all Native American tribes, have their own folklore—myths and legends handed down through time. In my historical novel, Stone Woman: Winema and the Modocs, I insert one of these legends at an emotionally charged moment in the (true) story. It is Good Friday, 1873; Winema and her husband, Frank, will serve as interpreters during a council between the Peace Commissioners and the Modoc war chief, Captain Jack, and his lieutenants. Most believe that the Modocs, tired of talking, will attack the Commissioners, putting Winema and Frank’s lives in danger.
Films About Writers: Time After Time
My previous posts in the “Films About Writers” series, Finding Forrester and Misery, featured fictional writers. In the 1979 movie, Time After Time, we have a real writer, H.G. Wells, put into a fictional story—with some interesting results. Wells—referred to as...
Spark It Up In The Everweed State
Dude, you gotta read this book! About a year ago I had the great pleasure of working on The Everweed State (subtitled E Cannabis Unum; how cool is that!) with author Rebecca Baumgartner, who had a good deal of help with research from her husband, Tracy. This entertaining—and timely—novel has now been published, and I couldn’t be any happier for this couple, among the nicest people with whom I’ve worked during my centuries of coaching and editing.
Guilty Pleasures: The Core
It is not for lack of box office that the 2003 sci-fi/disaster flick, The Core, is a guilty pleasure, because it supposedly made back its production budget, and then some. It was, however, a critical disaster, with crummy reviews panning everything from its plot “silliness” to its bad science. Regarding the latter, The Core was voted the worst science fiction film ever in a poll taken among a bunch of scientists.
My response: piss on ’em. I totally enjoy this film and will watch it every year or two until the Mother Ship arrives.
A New Website
I managed to nab the URL of mikesirota.com a long time ago, and ever since then it has connected people to my Mike Sirota Writing Services website. That time has come to an end, as I’ve officially retired from coaching writers, and evaluating/editing manuscripts. (Yay!)
Why now? Well, for starters, next year will be the last one in which I can still say I’m “in my sixties.”
Old Sci-Fi Film Still Shines
In a recent post about movie quotes I used the most familiar one from the 1951 classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Though I hadn’t seen the movie in a long time, I still remembered the alien catch-phrase from it: “Klaatu barada nikto.” So I decided the time had...
Let It Go
No, this post is not about a song from Frozen. (Great song, though.) I imagine you all know the old saying that begins, “If you love something, let it go.” Well, that’s exactly what I have just done with a historical novel, titled Stone Woman that—for me—has been a labor of love for thirty-plus years. Let me explain.
Write Well, Not Fast
Okay, this week I’m going to be a curmudgeon—something that I do quite well, actually. There are organizations, conferences, workshops—whatever—that stress sitting down with your laptops on fire and writing novels just as fast as you can. Write 5,000 words over a...
“…The Screaming Of The Lambs”
Fun time again with some memorable movie lines that span quite a few decades. Enjoy! “You still wake up sometimes, don’t you? You wake up in the dark and hear the screaming of the lambs.” Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) has many notable lines in the 1991 Academy...
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