Digital Gold

Patton at the Battle of the Bulge, by Leo Barron Like almost everyone, I’ve seen the movie. And I’ve heard the tale of Patton turning his Third Army ninety degrees in the coldest December on record, herding them 100 miles northward in a little over two days to relieve an airborne group holding the town of Bastogne. The town was at the time a key piece of geography for the German advance toward…

Christopher Nolan’s version of The Odyssey is out now and I’m looking forward to seeing it. But it also has me thinking about stories – how they’ve always been composed and used to tell us about happenstances, conflicts, ideas, etc. In all previous eras it’s not been easy to collect news and information unless you make enough money to keep it coming. And so we’ve always adapted, found ways. The…

Despite my previous posts concerning the predictability of movie scripts, there are, as in all of life, exceptions. One such is the movie adaptation of David Guterson’s fine novel, East of the Mountains. I’ve not always been a fan of Guterson’s novels. Some are sublime, deserving a place in the American literary canon. But for reasons I’ve never been able to fathom, some seem to this…

House reno and associated chores are caught up, at least for the moment, so here’s another movie trope: Some movies shrink the world to a certain isolated culture to have us see the world writ large. A bunch of people caught on a desert isle, for instance. Do they establish an ad hoc democracy among themselves? Or does some alpha personality become the moment’s dictator? A couple of examples…

Scriptwriters for movies are always on the clock – or at least once they’ve been given a somewhat general idea of what the movie is to be about. So why not follow the path of least resistance, right? For starters, let’s look at how the stories of submerged minorities the world over handled. But a couple of points before beginning: Hollywood has always been sympathetic to these plights. Movies in…

I’ve never written one of these, although I’d like to. But I do keep my eye on what the scriptwriters are trying to do while I let them entertain me. I’m one of those who will read books and watch movies multiple times – all part of my writing obsession. I know, most people don’t embrace books and movies the way I do, but I’m not ashamed to read and watch them multiple times. The literary and…

For those intrigued and interested by this book, it’s finally out! Here’s one place where you can buy it:

Twenty Thoughts If you missed the early post on this book, or if you need a bit more information about its contents, this: How does forgiveness fit into your life? Do you constantly hold a grudge – and about super-small things? When those unforgiving thoughts enter your mind, do you ignore them or push them away? In the end, it’s all habit, you know. In keeping with forgiveness, there’s…

Those who follow this blog and my rather curmudgeonly view of the current era’s literary efforts will probably be surprised at this short book coming from behind my fevered brow, the book out in mid-April at all the usual book-buying joints. But to explain a bit. We live in trying times. Times in which too many, it seems, have forgotten at least some of the human habits that keep us tied to one…

What We Can Know, by Ian McEwan Here’s the story: In 2014, eminent poet Francis Blundy has written a poetic corona (a rather precisely extreme poetry form) for wife Vivien, and he launches it by reading it to her and an intimate group of friends and colleagues. The corona disappears and is apparently talked about in literary circles long afterward. In 2119, following quite a few significant…

Why Does E=Mc2? (and what should we care?), by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw I took to this book to see what these two modern physicists (and Albert Einstein) had to say about time. C in the famed formula is the speed of light: 186,000 miles/second, or the metric equivalent. Surely, I thought, since this value is considered a constant, I’d get the straight skinny on time from it. As it turns out,…

Author Adam Begley, in his Atlantic magazine, February 2026, edition article, Sense of an Ending‘s lead sentence, quotes E.M. Forster thusly: “Yes–oh, dear, yes–the novel tells a story. I wish that it was not so.” The novel as a literary art form was perhaps three hundred years old when Forster wrote this, which tends to point up the resilience of story in the novel and all other prose devices.…

The Ground Between Us is now available here and from any on-line source and from any brick-and-mortar bookstore near you. The price has been kept as low as possible in both formats to make obtaining a copy as easy and painless as possible. Enjoy this fine book soon!!

Sorry for the delay, but the holiday season hit my work broadside, and it took a while to work out the kinks. But it’s ready to roll off the presses now. Apologies for the delay to anyone who saw this as their next read or as a seasonal present.

Insomnia, by Robbie Robertson I may find this book hard to comment on – you know, from an appropriate distance. My mid-twenties were influenced deeply by Robbie’s group, The Band, and while they didn’t remain in the pubic eye as long as they should have, I understand perfectly why not. These guys were together for sixteen years, eight playing dives, empty saloons, and clubs where the audience…

It’s the Christmas season and print book schedules are way behind. A bit more about the book’s history. I wrote it originally some 20 years ago. It involves the Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) between England and France. I had advice on the Chunnel construction and – ahem – how to “deconstruct” it from some wonderfully helpful international tunneling engineers. In 2003 I was a writer-in-residence at…

NOTICE!! There was a pagination problem with this book that I didn’t become aware of until I received a hard proof copy yesterday. Too, there was an error from Ingram’s regarding availability date. I’m currently resolving the pagination problem. If you’re interested in this book, please don’t purchase until I’ve posted here that the problem has been resolved. If you’ve already purchased THE…