America’s lived-experience crisis
A friend of mine posted a spectacular quote from Edward Abbey yesterday, and it reminded me of a peculiarly American problem: How do we distinguish between our individual selves and ourselves as participants in society? For those of you who've never read him, Abbey...
Another first draft, plus yada yada
It's the Tuesday after the Sunday when I typed "THE END" at the bottom of about 105,000 words of prose. This rough first-draft manuscript for Rhyfen advances the final installment in the series' second trilogy from what I now think of as "the hard part" and into what...
We’re starting something new
It's been a jitterbug summer/early fall production-wise here at The Manor. Janet's completed not just one, but a series of Moon Calendars for 2024, and we proofed the latest versions last week (there will be news on that coming from her soon, and I'll share it once...
Dysfunction, and other comfort foods
Yesterday's Washington Post offered a column headlined "Why I fired my therapists," with this payoff: Over the course of the past 14 years, I’ve left two therapists after they veered into latent, head-nodding advocacy — cheering me on, validating my complaints about...
Function over frills
When I started publishing the Darbas Cycle in 2021, I was the product of well-meaning advice and acknowledged ignorance. Advice like: "Offer your readers a prize for writing reviews!" Ignorance like: "Since I don't really know what I'm doing, I guess I'd better follow...
Life, death, memory, attachment
If you’ve read earlier books in the series, much of what you’ll encounter when you pick up City of the Dead will look familiar. For instance, you’ll already know that… Bal’a’Blos, the legendary underground library, is a real place that is also: 1. Populated by some...
Thanks a lot, 2022
So anyway, the best way for me to put 2022 in my personal context is this: I'd planned to publish two novels this year, but only got halfway there. Ta Nupa came out in April, and I'd hoped to have City of the Dead on sale before Solstice. That ain't happening --...
Writers in Beaufort
Things around The Manor have been so herky-jerky-disjointed in recent months that I've just skipped the last two windows for the email newsletter. It's not that I'm quitting the newsletter. It's that "news" is the premise of a newsletter, and there just isn't any on...
Re-watching Troy
The 2004 movie "Troy" is currently on Netflix, and I started re-watching it three or four nights ago, just a bit at a time. I remembered enjoying it when it came out, but my impressions of movies often change. How would it hold up? Remarkably well. But this as much a...
Ten Paths of the Mullaqat
Avoid attachment. Accept suffering. Release worry. Experience perfection. Choose simplicity. Observe with curiosity. Mind your own business. Learn from nature. Be kind. Share.
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