General entries
• Riddled by spam. R&W Blog is getting riddled by spam comments, but we enjoy trying to figure some of them out. Dec. 7, 2008.
• Readers, you are needed. Want to do some beta-reading? Then email Steve Karmazenuk about his latest science fiction novel, The Darkness and the Stars. Nov. 30, 2008.
• Jim, Ray, Tony, meet Luke. Another pleasure to read — ‘To Remember and To Forget’ by Luke Darbyshire. Nov. 23, 2008.
• Once you get started . . . Welcome to the Brokeback Blog. I wish I knew how to quit it. Nov. 9, 2008.
• Poll tics. This upcoming presidential election is driving me crazy. Nov. 2, 2008.
• Cleaning up my desk. Actually, my desk already is clean — always has been — but here’s a few electronic files I’m cleaning out of my computer. Oct. 26, 2008.
• I’m taking a break, but the books stay. We post the final chapters of one of our favorite books today and say goodbye to accepting any new works for a while. Oct. 19, 2008.
• A dream comes closer. What a week — the bailout, Wall Street, Sarah Palin, the baseball playoffs, O.J. — but what I’ll remember is a kid coming out of a diner. Oct. 5, 2008.
• Rubbernecking again. I’ve spent this week glued to the television as the government and Wall Street try to avoid a financial disaster. You’d think I had something to lose. Not so. Sept. 28, 2008.
• Psychosis and perspective. Fifty years later, I still find Jack Kerouac a genius, but for different reasons. Sept. 21, 2008.
• We’re still here. Despite fears that the Earth would be swallowed by black holes or that the universe would be blinked out, we survived the Large Hadron Collider. So far. Sept. 14, 2008.
• Woe, be gone. Not much happening this week. Sort of woeful, really — shorter days, more depressing spam, a lot of bad TV. Well, there was that beautiful new short poem. And, oh yeah, my ‘heart attack.’ Sept. 7, 2008.
• Leisure suits me. My reading has become more leisurely and a home improvement project more productive. Aug. 31, 2008.
• No dull boy here. Cutting back our posting schedule from twice- to once-weekly has freed up a lot of time, and believe me, friends, I’m using it. Aug. 24, 2008.
• Say goodbye to Thursday blogs. We’re cutting our twice-weekly posting schedule back to Sundays only. Aug. 17, 2008.
• Say hello to Cassandra, Tim. Today we introduce Cassandra Thompson and the novel in which she is a main character, Steal Tomorrow, and reintroduce a blogroll colleague, Tim Hulings, and a sample of his short stories. Aug. 17, 2008.
• Dear diary*. Some varied thoughts about spam, guitar scales, chord progressions, blogging and our blogroll. Aug. 14, 2008.
• Goodbye, hello. This is a day of mixed feelings — sad because we post the final chapter of Gerard Jones’ book Ginny Good, but happy that we have a new chapter from Jeri Cafesin’s e-book-in-progress Disconnected. Aug. 10, 2008.
• Spirit of the ’60s. Oh, man, I’ve just had an experience that every acoustic guitarist dreams of — playing Woodstock. Aug. 7, 2008.
• More from the muses. The poets are sharing their muses with us again, and today, a Sunday, seems like an appropriate day to bring them out. Aug. 3, 2008.
• Then and now. It was a great 50-year high school reunion, and I’ve even forgiven my classmates for looking so damned good. July 31, 2008.
• Sons and daughters of Geryon. The daily stock market tickers on CNBC are the best crime show on TV. July 27, 2008.
• History is personal. I’ll be giving a welcoming address at my 50-year high school reunion, but it won’t be like the last one. July 24, 2008.
• What makes sense? I am dismayed that so many of us believe we can just keep burning carbon-based fuels the way we are. July 20, 2008.
• And in this corner . . . It was a weekend of crushers for my wife and me, one that ranged from humorous to horrendous. July 17, 2008.
• The Swellmobile. I am reunited with my elegant ride. July 13, 2008.
• Drifting at twilight. Questions that come to me in the sultry air of a July evening. July 10, 2008.
• What one animal thinks. I’m not particularly fond of chickens, but I think they deserve the same respect and kindness the rest of us animals do. July 6, 2008.
• Relative security. I love my Uncle — the one who believes in good government. July 3, 2008.
• Malaise revisited. Amid the summer heat, we’re already fretting about the cost of heating oil this winter. And it’s not like any of us didn’t see it coming. June 29, 2008.
• What th’ . . .? I was looking for two of my blogroll buddies the other day when the Internet threw me a couple of curveballs. June 26, 2008.
• The beard. When my wife and I get together with some of our friends to read Shakespeare, I’ll be playing the beard. June 22, 2008.
• I was obsessing again . . . The problem: I have trouble keeping up with our blogroll. The solution: Add two more blogs to the roll. June 19, 2008.
• Another trip. Back from a trip to Indiana, we’re heading out again, but this time, one of our contributing authors, Gerard Jones, will be doing the driving. June 15, 2008.
• Little triumphs. I’m at a point in my life where even little victories are triumphs, and I am proud to report that this week has brought me three of them. June 12, 2008.
• Off the road again, period. It’s one thing when your own milestones fade into the past, another thing when your country’s do. June 8, 2008.
• Going and coming. A look back to our visit in Indiana and ahead to our return to comforts in New York. June 5, 2008.
• Hail fellows, well met. Our journey to Indiana is well met by relatives, friends, a stranger or two, even a tornado. June 1, 2008.
• On the road again. By the time you see this — if you ever do — I’ll be halfway to Indiana with a laptop computer on which I managed to post this entry. May 29, 2008.
• The colloquy. Welcome back, poet Ian Spitzig, to what has become — thanks to you and other writers — our colloquy about reading and writing. May 25, 2008.
• The words of music. An old song reminds me how important words are in music. May 22, 2008.
• A bad career move. Talk about your cautionary tales. Today we present a short story by a Florida writer based on his experience with six tons of marijuana and the federal penal system. May 18, 2008.
• The poetry hour. And now, children, at that time between the dark and the daylight, when the night is beginning to lower, and there’s a pause in the day’s occupations, we bring you . . . well, you can read the title. May 15, 2008.
• A long, hard wait. Getting published is frustrating, especially when there are so many fine writers out there — R.J. Keller, for example. May 11, 2008.
• Thoughts from my CPU. Is the universe shrinking? Yes, if you’re looking for a laptop computer. May 8, 2008.
• Shhhh. I went to another annual dinner that a local nursing home gives for its volunteers, and once again, no one suspected a thing. May 4, 2008.
• I’m a whoseewhatsis. Guess who’s a member of Who’s Who? Not me. I don’t have the $708.95 for a “piece of paper.” May 1, 2008.
• Tales from a cave. Meet one of our new friends — a hermit named James L. Fox. Well, he’s not really a hermit, but he lives in the Mojave Desert area of southern California, and he writes short stories that we are now bringing to you in our fiction section. April 27, 2008.
• We’re not overworked. Blogging can be a high-pressure activity, and some do it better than others. April 24, 2008.
• A prodigy returns. We’re tidying up around here — because Conrad is back. April 20, 2008.
• Toot, toot. A little self-congratulation is in order because, as of tomorrow, we’re 1. No, not No. 1, but one year old. April 17, 2008.
• Awash in words. Rolling in waves of words, verging on sensory overload, is not an unpleasant sensation. April 13, 2008.
• Back to works. After lollygagging around with literary agents, new friends and chit-chat, it’s time to get back to our new works. April 10, 2008.
• It’s a good rede. Why do some newspaper journalists still call their lead paragraph a ‘lede’? It’s a long story. Anyway, we think Gerard Jones’ nonfiction novel Ginny Good has a good one. April 6, 2008.
• It got in the paper! Getting a letter published in the New York Times makes me feel like a cub reporter again — for a little while, that is. April 3, 2008.
• Pitching to big-leaguers. Our mass emailing to 1,045 of the nation’s top literary agents was not a complete strikeout. March 27, 2008.
• Making book on a writer. It may seem like everybody’s written a book these days, but it isn’t true. Because it’s hard to write a book. March 23, 2008.
• Proof of more reading. The latest installments of our two serialized novels make me realize something I never expected in retirement: I’ve been busy. March 20, 2008.
• The art of reality. Why is it that people with great personal stories choose to write not memoirs but novels — like Joseph Cigan, a Chicago writer whose first novel, Sniper in the Mist, we are now serializing. March 16, 2008.
• A prolificity of two tales. We get doubly literate on you, dear reader, because now our fiction section is presenting installments of two new novels — count ‘em, two — Chapter 3 of Joseph Cigan’s Sniper in the Mist and, thanks to our author friend Steve Karmazenuk, Chapter 5 of The Unearthing, which he has released in its entirety for serialization on Readers and Writers Blog. March 14, 2008.
• Memories of the East. Joseph Cigan’s family escaped from Eastern Europe in the 1950s. That’