The official book trailer for Sandcastle and Other Stories is ready to unveil. My father painted this New Jersey beach scene as part of his Boardwalk series, actually set in the 1930s. In many of the figurative work he loved to insert a family member. In this painting, my mother is there in the bottom righthand…
Jane Isaac invited me to write a Guest Post about my home in The San Juan Islands for her terrific blog and I accepted her invitation on the spot. Jane Isaac is a wonderful friend and author who has accomplished a writer’s life dream goal: she published her first novel and it is receiving…
I welcome my friend, and author, Eden Baylee to A Writer’s Life blog. On her own blog Eden shares her love of music and writing every week. Here, Eden reveals how music inspires her, both in and around her writing life. Does her muse choose a different beat? How is music important to her creative…
When I read a story or a novel and I enter its created world completely — with no outer distractions, and this mobile life we’re all living in tends to distract me even more — I cannot help but wonder at how the author pulled off the greatest trick. A terrific novel is…
I heard The Roots for the first time in the nineties, after they had a few albums out, and I love to travel back to that time by replaying their strong messages of struggle and perseverance. Their song Water is on permanent rotation. The Roots is not only a hip hop band; they weave jazz and…
Zippy and Kipling made 2011 a year to remember. I used to play Freeze Tag with the neighborhood kids and all four of my siblings. Tag someone. Run fast. They have to freeze; remain motionless. The other variation, Statues, evolved from Freeze Tag, where you’d hold onto someone’s wrists and spin around and around and…
Today is the release of John Lescroart’s new novel The Hunter. Russell Blake shares his comprehensive and fun talk with Lescroart, one of the most revered suspense writers in the business. They speak about the craft, what the daily writing life is like, dealing with the business side of the profession, and enlighten any…
The young man has never been afraid of hats before. In fact, he’s recently found himself admiring them. The hats on the heads of the men in this town have actually seemed to him quite marvelous. So it is strange that he should now be so frightened–so incredibly frightened–of this one. — from Ben Loory’s The…
A truly inspiring writer, humanitarian, and master politician died today. Vaclav Havel, a former dissident playwright, was the revered first president of Czechoslovakia (which later became the Czech Republic) after it overthrew Communist rule — 1989’s “Velvet Revolution”. After Slovakia split away, Havel served as President of the Czech Republic from 1993-2003. “May truth and…
Kipling really is in a soul-and-groove moment: sacked out! I want Kipling to settle down – so I play the song Settle Down. Does Kipling like Kimbra? I want to settle down I want to settle down Won’t you settle down with me? I want to settle down — from Kimbra’s Settle Down A discovery from New Zealand…