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.
So Glad Shoeless Joe Came To Iowa
It began as a short story by Canadian author W.P. Kinsella in an anthology of baseball stories titled, Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa. Later on, Kinsella expanded the story into a novel called, simply, Shoeless Joe. Most all of us know it as Field of Dreams, the...
The Modocs: Reality And Myth
Of my four horror novels, three are steeped in Native American culture and mythology. More specifically, the Native Americans that I chose to write about are among California’s indigenous people. Why? First, there has been a book or two (or a gazillion) written about...
Guilty Pleasures: Krull
In a previous post I mentioned that the “guilt” in guilty pleasures comes from worrying about what others might think about one’s tastes, maybe seeing you as a real lowbrow, or an eccentric. In the case of the 1983 sword & planet movie, Krull, that actually...
A Dog Story With A Ghostly Ending
As a writer I don’t often use the old cliché, “Love at first sight.” But that’s what happened the first time I saw Barney. This runty German shepherd, about two months old at the time, sat by himself in a large cage inside an Indianapolis pet shop. There were other...
Scaring People: A Few More Thoughts
In an earlier post, “Horrors! Or How to Scare the ‘Yell’ Out of People,” I wrote about the effect of scaring readers and film watchers with subtle horror, rather than in-your-face buckets of blood, entrails, oozing brains, various and sundry dismembered body parts—you...
A Writers’ Retreat, And Other Stuff
Middleburg, VA is a historic town located a short distance from Washington, DC. (Are any towns in Virginia NOT historic?) It has been there over 220 years—and no, I was not there for its founding. Among its 600 or so residents are quite a few writers, which made...
Guilty Pleasures: Eight Legged Freaks
I just got back from a great writers’ retreat in Middleburg, VA, not too far from Washington, DC. I’ll write about it in my next post, as soon as I’ve had a chance to assimilate the weekend. Meantime, this old horror novelist wants to talk about guilty pleasures. The...
Unpleasant Dreams: The Curse Of Creativity
What’s the deal? A guy who writes horror, fantasy and other weird stuff thinking that creativity is a curse? To be honest—no, not the majority of the time. My brain is almost always swirling with new plots, unique characters, exotic settings and such, and for the most...
Nightmare In New Jersey
Next week, when I facilitate workshops at the Hunt Country Writers’ Retreat in Virginia, I will finally get to meet Ken Kraus for the first time. Ken is a New Jersey-based writer of speculative fiction, and while I’ve worked with him on and off for years as his editor...
Renowned Surgeon Finds Time To Write Thrillers
I’ve known Dr. Paul Bernstein ever since he and his wife, Judy, joined a read & critique group that I facilitated back in the ’90s. Both have since been published, their initial books receiving much critical acclaim. While some people think that surgeons often sit...
Latest Release
