“Why,” you may wonder, “would anyone ask what a bicycle is?” Well, it’s because this morning for no special reason I got to thinking that a bicycle may not be all that it used to [...]
Looking Back and Thinking Ahead Potpourri
I realize that lots of people like year-end list-making, but I’m more than a little ambivalent about it. Seems like there’s way too much of it—ten best movies, twenty best books, fifteen top TV shows, [...]
You Did What to the Horse?
It’s amazing how little it sometimes takes to trigger a series of way-back memories. As I was passing through the picturesque town of Canandiagua, NY, on a winter day recently, the snow-covered early-19th-century and Victorian-era [...]
Not Your Grandfather’s Wish Book
I don’t know about you, but I surrender. Well, make that a partial surrender. I’ve long griped about Christmas decorations going on sale in stores weeks before Thanksgiving, and I’m certainly not ready for the [...]
Passwords and Pocketknives
Lately, passwords have got me thinking about a character in my novel South of Little Rock. Some folks thought he was too old to do his job and he ought to just retire, find a good [...]
Learning from the Past
What can social movements of the past teach us about today’s socially charged climate? Within the past year, my novel South of Little Rock has received four regional and social-issue fiction awards for examining that [...]