The English might not be the best cooks in the world, but they sure produce the best writers. Dickens. Tolkien. Austen. Rowling. Lewis. And now another: Philip Pullman. I’ve just finished listening to Pullman’s The Subtle Knife, Book Two of the His Dark Materials trilogy. If you’ve never heard much of Pullman, you will soon….
I’m leery of books on writing, especially if they’re written by an author I’ve never heard of. If someone is going to give me counsel, I want it to someone who knows what they’re talking about, someone with real-world experience, someone who’s broken out and had substantial success. Getting published, after all, isn’t easy. But…
I felt my first California earthquake on Saturday night just after 10:00 p.m. Lauren had dosed off on the couch, and I was up reading. The boys were asleep of course. It was a small one, only 3.0 on the Richter scale, and hit us with a single jolt, as if a truck had hit…
Just finished reading The Multiple Man. Bova is one of the greats in science fiction, and he measures up to his own name in this thriller. It’s hard to believe the novel was written back in 1976; it feels incredibly contemporary. The plot revolves around the President of the United State’s press secretary, who, with…
Lauren and I hardly ever go to the movies anymore; (a) it’s too expensive and (b) it means getting a babysitter, which costs even more money. (This year we’ve been twice, once to see War of the Worlds and then recently to see Serenity.) So if we do see a movie, it’s usually only after…
The winning Powerball numbers have just been announced: 1 21 43 44 49 29. Someone in Oregon—where the winning ticket was supposedly sold—is now worth $340 million, the biggest jackpot in lottery history. Congratualtions to him or her, right? Well, maybe not. As anyone who watches ABC’s LOST can tell you, winning the lottery jackpot…
