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.
Throwback Thursday: Honoring Roberto Clemente
Major League Baseball is paying tribute to the late Roberto Clemente, a great ballplayer and an even greater humanitarian. In a post about the late writer, W.P. Kinsella (author of “Field of Dreams”), I had included excerpts from one of his short stories, “Searching For January,” a tale of magical realism about Clemente. I am presenting it here once again.
Alligators In The Crawl Space: Bad Idea
The 2019 creature feature/disaster flick, CRAWL, is an anomaly. It did well at the box office, which is not that odd for the genre. But it also garnered its share of excellent reviews, compiling 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, and that doesn’t usually happen for creature features.
Throwback Thursday: A Journey Into The Sea Of Trees
If you’re a movie buff, you would probably jump at the chance to see a film starring Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey and Oscar nominees Naomi Watts and Ken Watanabe, three outstanding actors. Well, they all performed in the 2015 drama, THE SEA OF TREES, and I’ll bet that most of you didn’t see it.
Myths And Legends: Icelandic Trolls
When my bride and I returned from an amazing trip to Iceland over a decade ago, we brought home the studious troll you see pictured here. Icelanders love their trolls (and elves, too) and are happy to point some of them out to visitors—the ones that have been turned to stone, of course.
Throwback Thursday: A Film That Only A Writer Could Love?
With regard to the 2016 biographical drama, GENIUS, I could have added “Films About Editors” to my blog as a new series. But really, how many films have book editors, such as the legendary Maxwell Perkins, as the lead character? (Marvel presents, “Red Pencil Man”? Naaah…)
Report From The Quarantine Cave 4.0
Day 9,254 of the Coronavirus Pandemic (give or take)—did the Mayans get it wrong, or did we misread their calendar? Was it 2020, not 2012, that would mark the end of the world as we know it?
Throwback Thursday: The Year Of The Wolf
Who knows, maybe there were a few extra full moons in 1981. Whatever the case, Hollywood appeared to wax lycanthropic with three wolf-themed films, including today’s subject, THE HOWLING.
Revisited: Where Was #MeToo Back In The Day?
Something excellent happened for WOMEN last week. This post, which I presented a couple of years back, was relevant then, and I think it is even more so now.
Throwback Thursday: Films About Writers—Papa: Hemingway In Cuba
I first saw this 2016 film six months ago, during a limited release in the U.S. I’m talking real limited—hardly in any theaters, and in most cases for no longer than a week. But no way was I going to miss a film about one of our greatest—and most messed up—writers.
Report From The Quarantine Cave 3.0
Day 7,658 of the Coronavirus Pandemic—okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, though for many of us I’m sure it feels like that, am I right?
Latest Release
