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.
Kill The Indian…Save The Man
Does that title offend the living crap out of you? It did me, believe it. I didn’t make it up; it is attributed to a United States Army officer in the late nineteenth century. More on that shortly. The line would become the buzz phrase for many non-reservation Native...
Freedom’s Hand: Behind The Story
I wrote an early draft of my recently published thriller, Freedom’s Hand, many years ago—out of anger. So why an emotion like that as a catalyst for writing a novel? Let me explain. My parents were Eastern European Jews who immigrated here in the early twentieth...
Freedom’s Hand: Hell Revisited
Just like the name of my blog—and one of my websites—professes, most people know me as a writer in genres such as sword & sorcery, sword & planet, horror, paranormal, fantasy, and science fiction. That is why my newly released novel, Freedom’s Hand, may come...
Spiders, Bats, And Sharks: Critter Nirvana
My dear bride is not into my kind of bad movies, so I usually watch them when she’s out. When she’s home, we watch mutually agreeable flicks. But this week she had work to do on her trusty laptop that required concentration, and she thus spake the words that I love to...
Writerly Energy
Writing is, for the most part, a solitary avocation. I know that when I write my books I’m confined to my guy cave for endless hours at a time each day. So on those rare occasions when writers let themselves out into the real world and fill up a room or two at some...
Do Writers Connect With Their Characters?
The answer to that is a great big YES. At least I do. I’ve been thinking about that a lot in recent months for a specific reason. Let me explain. I just reissued one of my long-ago adventure fantasy novels, The Beasts of Zammar, the fourth book in the Ro-lan series....
The Title Of My New Book Is…“Untitled”
What? No, not me. Before I ever write word one of a new novel I must have a title. More on that in a moment. During my quarter-century or so as a writing coach and editor I’ve had many fiction—and even non-fiction—manuscripts come to me without titles…books that the...
Guilty Pleasures: An American Werewolf In London
Pardon the adverbs, but this 1981 film could be considered “humorously gross” or “grossly humorous.” Either way, An American Werewolf In London has more than enough gore and laughs to entertain during its 90+ minutes of run time. And now I find out, via research, that...
The Haunted Mesa
Holy cow, a semi-retired guy isn’t supposed to be this busy…is he? I’ll soon be evaluating a manuscript for a Buddhist monk (a novel!), and doing a re-read of a 176,000-word epic fantasy novel. I’m writing a new ending for my fourth and final Ro-lan novel (more on...
It’s No Mystery: This Movie Is Funny
In retrospect, I could have written about Mystery, Alaska as one of my many Guilty Pleasures. The thing is, I never thought of this outrageous 1999 comedy, with a cast of solid actors and a load of memorable lines, as a film that I had to feel guilty about throwing in...
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