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.
Writing Serves To Soothe The Savage Beast: Part One
My self-assessment is that I’m one of the most passive guys on the planet. That’s why, when I go back and read one of the (many) violent, bloody scenes that I’ve written in my novels over the decades, I wonder, “Where the hell did that come from?”
Films About Writers: The Raven
Okay, I’ll stay on my Edgar Allan Poe kick for one more week. The 2012 film, The Raven, is not about Poe’s classic poem, but about Poe himself—more specifically, about Poe’s last days of life in 1849 Baltimore. Despite much speculation the actual cause of Poe’s death is unknown to this day. This film, starring John Cusack as Poe, offers a compelling “what if?”
“A Midnight Dreary” In The Raven Room
During a recent trip back east I stopped by the Poe Museum in Richmond and caught up with my old friend Edgar. I thoroughly enjoyed the visit to this fascinating tribute to a great writer and… Wait, what? Richmond, Virginia? Like many others I always associated Edgar Allan Poe with Baltimore, so why would a museum honoring him be located in a city more renowned for being the capital of the Confederacy?
Films About Books: The Princess Bride
Okay, who HASN’T seen the 1987 fairytale gem, The Princess Bride? Not ever seeing it would be INCONCEIVABLE! This film, an instant cult classic, is on countless Top Whatever lists in comedy and other genres.
A Jack Nicholson Snow Globe?
There are gifts, and then there are GIFTS. You know the kind: where the Giver is totally in tune with the Givee and knows what would be perfect. I received just such a gift a few years back from Lindsay Teunis, my oldest daughter. Don’t know where she found it, but I’m glad she did.
Native American Film Gems: Skins
Chris Eyre, director of the wonderful Smoke Signals, came up with another winner in his 2002 film, Skins, based on a novel by Adrian C. Louis. While this story contains its share of humor, it has a far more serious undertone than its predecessor.
A Sword & Planet…Mystery?
I am happy to report that Book Three in my “World After Death” series, Dark Seas of Maldrinium, has just been published. The story is a “revised-the-living-crap-out-of-it” version of a book that first came out in the late 1970s. It is also the first half of a strange tale that will be concluded later this year in the series’ final book, Slaves of Maldrinium.
The Incredible Shrinking Man—Me??!!
I scored my first driver’s license as a teen in New York City, shortly after they invented the automobile. It listed my height at 5’10”, and it still says that today. Tell the truth, I don’t think I was ever actually 5’10”, but at 5’9¾” I guess that was close enough.
Blacklisted Writer Dalton Trumbo Stuck To His Convictions
Some critics—predictably—knocked the 2015 biographical drama, Trumbo, for its “historical inaccuracies.” Still, this excellent film, starring Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo and Helen Mirren as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, served to open the eyes of many who might otherwise not have been aware of the dark period in the 1940s and ’50s known as the Hollywood Blacklist.
Films About Writers: Crimson Peak
In the 2015 Gothic thriller, Crimson Peak, director Guillermo del Toro has crafted an atmospheric period piece designed to scare the living crap out of viewers. Young, aspiring novelist Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) likes to write ghost stories, but I doubt if she planned on living one.
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