While December is known as the Christmas season, it also marks the start of winter. After nearly three months of going from hot to cold and seeing the leaves change color and fall off the trees, we’re rewarded with snow. Most folks around where I live in Shawano find it hard to believe that Arizona…
Torquere woes indicate professional publishing not the safest option
Sometimes self-publishers, also known as indie publishers, get a bad name. Because we don’t have the backing of a company with scores of employees dedicated to molding the books into literary perfection—if there is such a thing—we’re sometimes seen as lazy amateurs looking to sell books without putting in all the work. This isn’t going…
Playing by the rules gets you penalized
You live your life playing by the rules, not mooching off the world or sticking it to innocent people, and are you rewarded for it? Not if you’re trying to buy a car. For the last six-and-a-half years, I’ve driven a 2004 Chrysler Sebring with hardly a problem. I’ve had to replace the battery and…
A ‘popular’ idea to elect presidents has merit
We’re on the eve of one of the biggest elections in recent memory. We’re also nearing the end of a long, nightmarish year where we, the American people, have been bombarded by the most negative political campaigns for the presidency that anyone can remember. We’ve got two main candidates that most voters wish they could…
Guidelines for the dead irritate the living
There are plenty of us who would love to live forever. Besides the uncertainty some of us have, based on our actions in life, about whether or not we’re going to heaven or hell, there’s also the reality that death has become such a rigid affair. As Exhibit A, I present to you a recent…
Watch the debate or stare down a hurricane? You decide
How many of us are dreading the impending arrival of tonight’s presidential debate and wishing we were down in Florida or Georgia dealing with the flooded aftermath of Hurricane Matthew instead? The 2016 presidential campaign has been a nonstop barrage of verbal attacks and assorted scandals that have made this the most distasteful one in…
Editing a book more time consuming sometimes than writing it
I know I’ve been very neglectful the last couple of weeks posting to the blog, but there really is a good reason. My new book was holding me hostage. It sounds crazy, I know, but until you’ve actually attempted to write a novel, you can’t appreciate how much time can be sucked up with an…
When the gas cap is smarter than the driver
It has been many years since I made a trip to Arizona. It has also been many years since I needed to rent a car. That was evident a couple of days ago when my gas tank was getting low, and I needed to fill up. I pulled the rented Kia Rio painted bright yellow,…
Despite the roundabouts and more homes, Chino Valley still hometown
Chino Valley. It is the place I called home for many years. I was born in Prescott, but when I think of my hometown, I think of Chino Valley. When my family first staked a claim in Chino Valley (no, we weren’t miners, but the metaphor works), there were only 1,000 or so people. Many…
Going back to school reveals that nothing stays the same
After high school, I spent several years taking classes at Yavapai College, a short distance from my hometown of Chino Valley, Ariz., hoping to eventually go to a university and getting a journalism degree. Life didn’t quite work out as planned, but I’m in the career I originally aspired to be in. It had been…
Mural survives bigotry but may fall in face of school closing
An interesting little debate hit the streets of Prescott in 2010, the year before I left Arizona. A mural on the side of an elementary school, the side pointing toward a main intersection, was causing a fuss because the dominant figure in the mural was a black boy. I never got the chance to see…
From the ashes of a corporate bookstore rises an independent Peregrine
Bookstores are not dead. Despite the advance of ordering anything and everything via the Internet, some bookstores have managed to not only survive the online invasion but thrive, as well. One of the things on my list for my vacation in Arizona was to check out the Peregrine Book Company, an independent bookstore in downtown…
