This Year, Justice And Mercy #1
After not getting to sleep until 3 am (thank you, neighbors, who love fireworks and guns), I woke up groggy this New Year morning, but with the word ‘mercy’ echoing through my mind. Why? Not sure, but it may have to do with a comet, a pig, and a mouse. (More later.) I’m trying to…
Read MoreBooks – “What Strange Paradise” by Omar El Akkad
** spoiler alert ** About that ending… El Akkad has won the Scotiabank Giller Prize this year for “What Strange Paradise.” I just finished reading it and found it wonderful, disturbing, frustrating, and thought-provoking all at once. This book will, I suspect, confuse a considerable number of readers. I say this because of the ending,…
Read MoreAs Civilizations Crumble and Disappear…
I woke up this morning (after spending a day drowsy from the spinal procedure I had yesterday), to find the GOP have won Virginia. This was a decisive win (thank you white women who voted over 64% in favor of the racist agenda) based largely on the dog whistle of the fictional CRT. Even here…
Read MoreSamhain and the Ghosts of Our Past/Present
I love this time of the year. The next few days — call them Halloween or Samhain or All Hallow’s Eve or Calan Gaeaf or Nights of the Dead — are also a time of remembrance of those who have gone through the veil to the Next World, and to honor them, to listen to the…
Read MoreBooks — Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hessian
I love books. No surprise there. And some of my favorite conversations are about books, and sharing the books I love with friends. So I thought I’d start sharing some of them here. I won’t be reviewing them (since I’m really not a qualified literary critic, and I feel one should be to properly review…
Read MoreHow To Write Literary Fiction
Recently Dundurn Press, the publisher of my latest novel, “Even So,” asked me to write a blog for their “Advice To Writers” feature and they suggested the subject “How to Write Literary Fiction.” Why? Because they love to ask the hard questions! I encourage you to go to Dundurn’s site, so you can see (and…
Read MoreA Writer Responds: The Supreme Challenge Of An Inaccurate Review.
A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting “Handsome” Colum McCann at a literary event. We were chatting, as writers often do, about reviews, mostly the bad ones. Some wit had written a dreadful review of one of Colum’s novels. Colum and the reviewer found themselves at the same soiree a few months…
Read MoreA Place In the World
Soon, my seventh novel, Even So will be born into the world. It’s almost here, or rather, it is here, insofar as my part of the labor is done, and it’s off in the capable hands of publishing midwives. This is always an anxious time, since the world proves itself crueler and less understanding with every…
Read MoreMael Brigde, Tending Brigid’s Flame
Today I’m delighted to offer you this guest blog by my friend, Mael Brigide. Mael is a writer, poet, thinker, devotee of the Irish goddess/saint Brigid. As those of you who come here regularly know, I am always interested in matters of faith, especially when they coincide with literature. Mael’s journey to a place of faith…
Read MoreAge – What a Strange Journey
Age. What a strange and profound journey, for those of us lucky to live so long. I’ve 65. I’m been post-menopause for a decade. Things change. A hip replacement (ballet dancer as a girl — not good for the hips, especially without a natural turnout). Probably another one in the near future. I actually hobble,…
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