2021 To Be A Big Year For My Writing
My cat, Curious, who keeps me company as I struggle to create. A welcome goodbye to 2020. We have just bid farewell to the worst year America has endured over my lifetime, and I was born during the second Truman Administration. 2020 ended with numerous new historical records we’d hope to never see: a raging, […]
Ten Good Bits of Advice for Fiction Writers
I am not big on self-help books or article on “how to write.” I am of the school holding that “the only rule is that there are no rules.” I’m with Hemingway; if the writer is honest and the story is well-told, it will come through to the reader. Raymond Chandler is not the same […]
WRITING ABOUT SUICIDE IN FICTION
America has been rocked by the sudden deaths by their own hands of two celebrities, Anthony Bourdin and Kate Spade. Neither seemed a likely candidate for suicide. Both were accomplished, talented professionals who appeared be enjoying life to its fullest. These tragedies came a little less than four years after that of Robin Williams, a […]
FREEDOM AND MEMORIAL DAY, 2018
I saw a friend’s Facebook post on eating a hot dog at the ballpark, and followed the ensuing discussion on the best way to consume this iconic American delicacy. The sausage industry has weighed in on this controversial issue: Click here to read the “experts’” advice on how to eat a hot dog. And let […]
CHINESE ARTISTS STAND UP TO THEIR GOVERNMENT
CHINESE ARTISTS STAND UP TO THEIR GOVERNMENT A few months ago I posted on what responses American artists might offer in reaction to a repressive political movement in our country. Even wrote a short story on the subject. (Perhaps I’ll even post it.) Looks like artists in China have risen to the occasion. Click the […]
INTERVIEW WITH SID FRISCHER, BANGKOK ARTIST AT LARGE
( c ) STEPHEN SHAIKEN 2018 I met Sid Frischer at the meditation group I attend Monday evenings, Little Bangkok Sangha. While Phra Pandit teaches Thai Buddhist meditation, or Theravada, Sid and […]